Page 26 of Vision of Truth

“And that’s where we end that conversation.” Gus shot Easton a look of disgust. “You have my complete blessing, but keep that personal relationship shit to yourself,” Gus said, turning to Isaac.

“Hey,” Isaac held up his hands. “Easton brought it up, not me. Has anyone received an update on Dawson or Nilsson?” he asked, quickly maneuvering the conversation away from him and Julie.

“Dawson’s still in critical care. They had to operate.” Easton paused and raked his hands through his dark hair. A wave of affection stole over him. His brother’s hair took on that mussed look it always had when they were kids. Now that he was a federal agent with his own cybercrime task force, he rarely saw Easton with a hair out of place. “It was successful, but one leg was so badly damaged, they had to amputate.”

They were all quiet for several minutes, processing the weight of Dawson’s loss and the difficult road to recovery.

“We’ll have his back.” Gus said as he looked out at the ocean. “Your teammate, Dawson, Nilsson, Vesey, Sabrina, they’re all family now, too.”

“Jules talked to Sabrina on FaceTime this morning.” Isaac smiled, remembering the squeal of pure joy when the little girl picked up the call and saw Julie. Then there was the look on Vesey’s face. A man who knew how close he’d come to losing his only child. The bureau was still reeling from the betrayal of one of its directors, Dale Mancuso. The man had done far worse than taking kickbacks and leaking information to a crime organization.

Easton shook his head. “Straight out of a box office thriller. An FBI director blackmailing an agent, threatening his presumed dead wife’s life every time he refused to do his bidding.”

Everyone had been told that Vesey’s wife had died in an accident, but all along, she was right under their noses, held hostage in Dale Mancuso’s home. He’d orchestrated the whole thing and used Vesey’s love for his wife to get him to do his bidding.

“Staging a fiery car accident so everyone thought Vesey’s wife had burned up in the crash, but instead keeping her hostage to manipulate his agent.” Gus expelled a long breath.

“That must have been one hell of a reunion. Was Vesey’s wife hurt?” Isaac turned to Easton. Out of all of them he had the most inside information.

“Aside from the trauma of being taken from her daughter and husband and detained, it certainly could’ve been worse. There were beatings throughout the year when Vesey pushed back for the sake of his daughter and wouldn’t comply, but she got lucky.” Easton rolled his shoulders.

“Mancuso will be in prison for the rest of his life. Greco is behind bars, too. His cousin was more than happy to roll over on him. Provided enough intel to put him behind bars for multiple life sentences.” Gus looked down at the beach, and Isaac and Easton followed his gaze to where Sasha, Kinley, and Jules were settling beneath one of the resort’s striped umbrellas on lounge chairs.

Julie’s strength and her determination to move on with her life and put this ordeal in the past was awe inspiring. She had on a bright yellow bikini and large sunglasses that dominated her face. Her head was high despite the bruising that covered nearly her entire body.

“How about we enjoy the island and our girls,” Easton said. “We have two days until we have to catch a flight home.”

They all stood, chair legs scraping against the deck. Maybe they only had two days left on the island, but Isaac wasn’t disappointed to be leaving. He had his whole life with Julie ahead of him, and that was a paradise all its own.

The End

---