Page 101 of Bourbon and Lies

“All of that bourbon,” I whisper out.

“Look at me,” he says, pulling my attention away from the almost mesmerizing sight. “None of that means a goddamn thing. You’re okay. We’re okay. That’s all that matters to me.”

“. . . but your family. All that time and?—”

His warm hands on my face have me unraveling, as he peels away the sweat-drenched wet pieces of hair sticking to my lips. “You are my family. And you’re safe now. I have you.”

He rests his forehead against mine.

“I don’t know, cowboy. It kind of feels like I’ve got you right now with the way you’re leaning on me.”

He smiles. “Yeah, I suppose you do.” Combing his fingers along the side of my head, he tucks a piece of hair back behind my ear. “You’re so fucking brave.”

My chin wobbles and my nose tingles again at hearing him say that to me.

“And I love you, my brave girl,” he says, pressing his forehead to mine. “I’ve fallen so hard for you. And I thought—” He pauses and takes a deep breath before he finds the words to finish. “I thought it was going to happen again. That I wasn’t going to be able to get to you in time. And that I”—he kisses me as tears track down his cheeks—“was going to lose you. Honey, I can’t lose you. Please stay with me. I want this. Us.” He blows out another shaky breath. “More than I’ve wanted anything else in my life.”

My chest tightens with longing as I run my fingers along the back of his hairline. If men could purr, this would be Grant’s special spot. I fist the front of his shirt to make sure he hears me. “You said I was yours. So unless you were just handing me a line, that’s exactly what I am. It feels that simple for me. I choose to be yours the same way you’ve chosen to be mine. I’m not going anywhere, cowboy.” I give him a teary-eyed smile.

The firm press of his lips feels like we’re sealing a new set of vows in the wake of a chaotic nightmare. He smiles against my lips, his hand placed firmly on my chest just above my heart.

Behind him, the fire keeps burning, and as I watch it, I want to believe that it burns away the fears from our pasts we’ve let control our lives. The idea has what’s left of the knots in my stomach slowly untangling. The things that had both of us in a chokehold. A monster and a curse. Seeing the flames dance over that building, feeling his arms so tightly wrapped around me, and his lips brushing against my skin, it’s clear: this is the end of that.

“I don’t thinkhewould have made it out of there alive.” Nothing could have survived that blast.

Grant looks out over my shoulder at the flames. “Neither do I.”

“Julep did a number on him, but it was the rattlesnake that?—”

The EMTs arrive, breaking us apart enough to start assessing the wounds on Grant. I start to tell them I’m fine, when he says, “Look her over anyway.” His head whips back, registering what I had said before that. “Whoa, whoa, whoa. Rattlesnake?”

I nod. “It must have bitten him three, maybe four times. It was the only way I was able to get Julep and run.” I look over at her, and she’s just watching us.My protector. She saved my life. And with that threat gone, there will be no reason for us to leave. Relief showers over me at that realization.

He ignores the EMT who had been asking him if he can walk, and instead, wraps his hand around the back of my neck and pulls me in, fast and abrupt, as his mouth fuses to mine, whispering against me, “My wife.”

I nip at his lower lip. “Almost.”

Chapter 43

Laney

It tookfour days for the fire to burn out. Five counties and an immeasurable number of firefighters battling to keep it contained. It never reached the other rickhouses on that stretch of the Foxx property, which was a miracle in and of itself. The fire burned so hot that the only remains of the monster I slayed and the nightmare I survived were his teeth and bone fragments.

He’d been erased. I searched for sadness in that, but it never came. Two nights of my life that I knew would never fully leave me, but it was done. I found comfort in that, at least. I remember asking my dad once if he was okay. It was after a case he had to travel for—it was one that had him missing opening day that year. When he came back, I knew it had been a hard one.

“Are you okay, Dad?”

He gave me that tight-lipped dad smile. The one where it felt more like a preamble to something I wasn’t going to like hearing than one that had happiness behind it. We were at the diner on 22nd Street, and he hadn’t finished his chocolateshake. He’d always finished his shake before our burgers arrived. I was done with my burger, and he still hadn’t taken more than a sip. I knew that whatever it was that he had to do while he was away, some of it came home with him.

“Just a hard case, kiddo.”

“Had to stop a monster?”

“This time, yeah. I had to stop a monster.”

I leaned back in the booth, full from my disco fries and strawberry shake. I knew the possibilities at that point of what he could have meant. I also knew that if he had to hurt someone, it was to keep other people safe. “I think you’re brave, Dad. You have to be brave to stop monsters.”

He finished his chocolate shake after that.

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