Page 129 of Shadow

“What about your family?”

He grew silent for a minute, then he shook his head. “I won’t stop them from coming if they hear about it and want to. But I’m not going to reach out.”

He looked at his watch, then nudged her off his lap. “Come on, baby girl. We’ve got a plane to catch.”

“Seriously? We’re leaving now?”

He winked and pulled her toward the door. “I arranged everything on the drive over. Peter is picking us up from the airfield, Niki is handling things with your contractor, and Jack is dropping the cat off at your house.”

“Our house,” she corrected as they entered the kitchen to say goodbye to Tyson and Sabrina.

“Our house,” he murmured. “I like the sound of that. Let’s go home.”

Chapter 34

Six months later

Ripleyleanedagainstthebar at Club Exposure and loosened his bow tie as he watched his bride making the rounds to greet their guests. Sabrina and Tyson flew in from London, and Lance and Marissa traveled from Chicago. Erin and Samuel were finally visiting the club for the first time even though they lived in town. He was excited to have his entire family in one place. Even Alley and her husband and Dom Sony were there.

The wedding ceremony had been large, and they’d just arrived at Exposure from the public reception for their own private play party.

Carrie Mercer sidled up to him and laid her head against his arm. “Congratulations, Ripley. I’m so happy for you two.”

He kissed the top of her head and winked at her. “Thanks. It feels good to finally be married to her.”

“Did you see the news this morning?”

Ripley turned to face her as he tucked his bow tie in his pocket. “The news about Mario? Or that the new CIA director is investigating Brian Doran and his associates for Fiona’s murder?”

Carrie grinned. “Actually, I was talking about Upwood’s appeal. It got denied and we didn’t even have to go to court.”

Ripley nodded. “I heard.”

“Did you know Mario was being investigated? All those videos they found on his computer. He’s lucky there wasn’t any of Liv or you would have killed him.”

Ripley smirked. He’d wanted to. But he satisfied himself with deleting the videos of Olivia and leaving the others. Once Lance identified the women in the videos, they had been notified and several opted to file complaints. Now it looked like Mario was going to prison for a long time.

“Yeah, he’s lucky,” he finally said. Though Ripley suspected a man like Mario would not fare well in prison.

“You should go have some fun with your wife,” Carrie said when Peter approached and took her by the hand.

Ripley grinned. “Good idea, Mrs. Mercer. Thank you for everything you did for me to make today possible.”

Carrie smiled up at her husband, then looked back at him. “Thanks for everything you did to make me and Peter possible.”

When the couple walked away and headed for a play station in the middle of the dungeon, Ripley started toward his new wife. She was in the process of tying a hip harness on herself while Marissa observed from the edge of the frame.

“Hey Marissa. Thanks for being here, it means a lot to us.”

The woman smiled. “It means a lot that you invited us.”

Nodding to Olivia, she said, “She’s getting great at self-suspension. Isn’t it fun to watch?”

Olivia looped the running ends of her rope through a suspension ring at the top of the frame and hoisted herself up into a sitting position and tied it off.

“Hell yeah, it’s fun to watch. She’s been practicing since we got home from London,” Ripley murmured, unable to take his eyes off her.

Then she flipped herself into an inverted suspension with her head pointed to the ground. She grinned at him and said, “Daddy, come here, I want to see something.”

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