Page 148 of The Moments You Were Mine
PRESENT DAY
HIM: When is everyone leaving?
HER: What’s got you so growly, Husband?
HIM: You promised I could tie you to the bed. It’s been hard to concentrate on anything else since then.
Fallon’s house was packed to thebrim yet again as dinner wrapped up. Our families, the ranch’s staff, and our friends had been in and out all day. The mood had been celebratory. Evil had been banished. Love had won. But it still had come at a cost. A price had been paid in lives and trust and nightmares that would haunt us.
My new goal was to make so many good memories that the dark ones would be lost in the shadows.
Watching Fallon smile with her family and seeing her light shining brightly once more was a start to the happily ever after I wanted more than anything. How had I denied myself these moments tucked up next to her for so long? Not simply as her friend but as her lover, her bae, her husband. All I wanted to do was shower her with love and kisses.
I wanted everyone gone so I could do just that.
Theo’s giggle drew my gaze from the text I’d just sent her. He was teasing my dad about something he’d drawn. The kid was an artist. I’d have to find a way to encourage those skills…no,we’dfigure it out. Fallon and I together.
That thought twisted happily in my chest.
Fallon and I had each tried to shoulder our lives alone for toolong. But there was a beauty to shouldering it with another person, in sharing both life’s burdens and joys.
“Time for bed, bud,” I said. Theo groaned, but didn’t put up a fight.
“Let me help you move the cot into my room,” Fallon said, starting to rise, but Lauren stopped her.
“Keep him in my room. I’m only here for a day or two before I go back to the rehabilitation center to finish my therapy. I’ll stay at the hotel.”
“Mom—”
“I’m sure, Fallon. Don’t argue with me on this one thing.”
Fallon and I exchanged a look, and she shrugged. So I had Theo say his goodnights and helped him get ready for bed. He fell asleep before I even finished a book again, and I sat looking down at him for a long moment, wishing Will was here to see how much he’d already changed in just a month. How much he flourished tonight under the attention of a room full of adults.
Emotions were weighing heavy on me—love and regret and hope—as I came out of the bedroom to find everyone but our parents had left. In the place of friends and staff was the sheriff, and Fallon was watching him with a wary look on her face that made her seem paler than she’d been all day.
I strode over to the couch and slid in beside her, pulling her hand into mine just as he started talking.
“I wanted to give you all a final update before I headed home for the night. Lorenzo Puzo called the Las Vegas PD and pointed them in the direction of a cousin he thought might have helped Ike,” Wylee said. “Bruno Manziniti has done demolition work for Lorenzo in the past and was one of Ike’s best friends growing up. They caught Bruno on video leaving your hangar in Vegas the night before last. While he was being interrogated, a warrant was executed on his house, and they found two more bombs and timing devices similar to the one used here at the cabin and on the Cessna. We’re still unclear how Celia was able to get Fallon’s fingerprints on some of it.” When both Rafe and I made annoyed noises of disapproval, Wylee cleared his throat and continued, “But we all agree that it doesn’t matter at this time.”
“I’d like to do something for the families of the men who died at the airport,” Fallon said. “They were trying to help us,right? When the plane crashed. He killed them because they ran out of the tower?”
I heard the agony in her voice, the frustration that someone else had been hurt in this war that had been waged against her family. I hadn’t checked the plane myself before we’d taken off from Vegas. That was on me. I’d failed. My head had not been on the mission. My love for her and my desire to find Ike had me rushing off instead of assessing all the possibilities.
It wasn’t the only time I’d lost focus. If Sweeney and Cranky hadn’t been here to help remind me of my training when I’d arrived at the ranch, I might have done something stupid. I might have gotten myself or Fallon hurt rushing in without a plan. While Sweeney and I had followed the beads Fallon had left behind, he’d talked sense into me. He’d centered me on the mission.
Get in, get the job done, and get out.
But those moments over the last two days proved I was doing the right thing by resigning my commission. I’d never be able to focus on the job when I had Fallon and Theo waiting for me here. I’d always be wondering and worrying about what was happening with them. My head would be on returning home instead of on the job.
“We’re not sure exactly the order of events at the airport, and we’ll never know for sure, as Ike is not alive for us to question him,” Wylee said, sending me a dark look. But I didn’t give a shit. I’d done what I had to do, and I’d do it again. If I had any regrets, it was not making him hurt before I’d killed him. But it hadn’t been worth the risk. It was cleaner and easier to end him before anyone else got hurt.
“We’ll pay for the funerals and put together a trust fund for their families,” Rafe offered, regret in his voice before it hardened again. “What’s happening with Ace Turner?”
“Detective Harris scooped him up just as he was packing his car to leave. They had a look at his phone, and the last message was from Celia, telling him Ike had Fallon. Our best bet is that he was on his way here. He’ll go back to jail for aiding and abetting and won’t be out any time soon.”
“And JJ?” I asked, his name burning my tongue.
“He seemed legitimately surprised Ace was involved in anyof it. He hadn’t seen Celia in months. JJ will do time for the charges already stacked up against him, but we can’t tie him to any of this.”
