Page 103 of Bourbon and Proof

I smile at Del. “Del, mind taking a walk for me?” I ask, just as Grant comes in.

“What’s going on?” he asks, looking around the small hospital room.

Faye nods, knowing what I need to share. A plan that she’s been helping to make happen, long before my focus had shifted to marrying and keeping Hadley safe.

Del gives me a pointed look as he laughs to himself. “You know, some might get the impression that I take orders from you, Ace.” He glances at Hadley and then again at Faye, who’s sitting with her arms crossed. “I don’t, for the record,” Del says as he clasps my shoulder. “I’ll keep an eye out.”

We all watch the detective exit, silence taking over the room before Griz speaks. “Atticus?—”

“There were nine,” I cut him off as I take a seat. “It was a nightmare trying to figure out who was an actual threat and who just needed to be paid back what Wheeler had taken from them. But in total, we figured out nine, including Wheeler, who would rather see the dead stay buried.

Griz locks eyes with me, but I keep talking because he needs to hear all of this. “Two were already dead—the King brothers.” I shift my attention to Faye, who has a past with the Kingbrothers, then look to Hadley when I continue. “A list of men from a Fourth of July dinner party about a decade ago helped narrow down the rest. A coming together of Wheeler’s closest business dealings that were guaranteed to go south, eventually.” It was a lucky assumption to keep that list of people after all this time. “Two criminals who defected from the Russian Bratva, a bloodstock agent, Governor Hawkins and his brother, the fire chief, and a cattle rancher who liked wearing rodeo buckles that weren’t his.

“And then Wheeler, of course. He was the largest threat if he still remained alive.” I keep my eyes on my wife’s. “Then you started getting threats.” Shaking my head, I sniff out a laugh. “You refused to say anything and made all of them sweat.”

Griz wraps his good arm around her and squeezes, mumbling, “Brave and thick-headed. That’s our girl.”

“Those threats changed my motivation,” I confess to them, as if it isn’t obvious. “The only two I hadn’t considered a threat were the fire chief and the governor. They weren’t supposed to be part of the plan. Until the governor decided he should still expect the financial backing that Wheeler had promised.” I shake my head. “Asshole,” I say under my breath. Swallowing roughly, I lean back, head pressing against the wall. “But that was irrelevant, because the plan had always been to remove Wheeler. If he went to prison and was still alive, then there wouldn’t be a way to guarantee her safety,” I say, lifting my chin to Griz. “Or Hadley’s.”

Hadley grits her teeth, eyes closing as she whispers, “The damage my father caused… I’m so sorry…”

“Knock it off, Hadley Jean,” Griz says. “You’re done apologizing for anything your father did. None of that was ever on you.”

Griz’s brow furrows, trying to work it out. “I understand that. I understand what it means and the lengths a man will go to keep the woman he loves safe.”

“I know you do. Been doing that for a while now, haven’t you?”

Grant shifts his attention to me, putting his coffee down and leaning forward. And Faye leans against the wall, arms crossed with a knowing smirk on her face.

“You’ve been making plans to join her, haven’t you?” I ask Griz, eyebrows lifting.

“What the fuck?” Grant interrupts. “Who’s he talking about, Griz?”

But I keep going. “You needed to tighten things up here as best as you could first.” I watch my grandfather try to keep a brave face.

Hadley looks at me, and then at Griz, trying to read between the lines of what isn’t being plainly said.

Griz crosses his arms and shakes his head with a huff. “Dammit, Atticus.”

“Such a romantic, Griz,” Faye adds.

“I found an old postcard in the mess that you like to call your office downstairs. It was from a town in Montana that when I asked Julian if he could look into it, he said it didn’t exist, but he found it anyway.”

Griz smirks beneath his mustache, almost like he was proud of me, albeit pissed off at me for finding it.

“The town wasn’t on any map,” I say, glancing down at my phone buzzing in my hand. “Then a little over a year ago, when Faye went missing for a couple of weeks with her sister Maggie, who never came back, I knew my hunch wasn’t wrong. Those girls were given a chance to see their mother. Shelby Calloway was in hiding because of Wheeler. She trained for Finch & King for too long not to know what they’d been doing, and that put atarget on her back. You ensured her safety and haven’t forgotten about her for one day since.”

“He hasn’t. But I’m betting neither did she,” Faye adds.

Grant stares at both of us, and then shakes his head with a disbelieving laugh. “What the hell? The both of you.”

I drag my fingers through my hair. “I’ve been trying to make it right, tying up loose ends. As soon as you started making arrangements about work, I knew you were planning on leaving. And that fucking marriage stipulation only sealed the deal at confirming my suspicions.” My phone buzzes again, twice more in succession. “That meant that anything or anyone who might make it unsafe so that Shelby could come back here, and so that you would stay, needed to be handled.”

Hadley gets up from next to Griz and rushes to me. She ignores the rest of the room and wraps one arm around my neck as my arms circle her waist. Brushing her hand along my brow and down my jaw, she says, “I love you.”

I look down at her sweet smile and blink back the tears that have been brimming in my eyes.

“I’m right here.” She lifts onto her toes to give me a soft kiss, and I lean down to rest my forehead on hers. When I take a breath and focus back on my grandfather, my phone buzzes again.

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