Total pages in book: 114
Estimated words: 109368 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 547(@200wpm)___ 437(@250wpm)___ 365(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 109368 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 547(@200wpm)___ 437(@250wpm)___ 365(@300wpm)
Until Silver appeared, the rifle at her side, her face slack with pale shock. “Told you I was a crack shot,” she whispered.
Relief and pride and adrenaline crashed through me as I bridged the distance between us. She released the rifle to fall into me, wrapping her arms around me as tightly as I embraced her.
“Thank fuck, thank fuck, thank fuck,” I murmured, my hands moving over her, to feel her, to reassure myself she was alive and unhurt.
“I … I killed him.”
I pressed a hard kiss to the top of her head. “I know. But he would have killed us.”
“I know. I heard everything he said.”
“I’m sorry.” I bent my head to murmur in her ear, “I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t.” Silver pulled away to look up at me. “It’s not my fault Halston Cole is a psychopath, and it’s not your fault Ian Kingston lost his mind when he lost his wife. Okay? We didn’t do this.”
I kissed her, probably too hard, too bruising. But for once, I couldn’t control my emotions as I pressed kisses to her mouth, her cheeks, her forehead.
“We’re okay,” she comforted me. “We’re going to be okay.”
They were on us before either of us realized.
Because real professionals were like fucking ninjas.
“Hands in the air,” a deep, Scottish accented male voice called out.
I raised my hands, looking up and around to see they had us surrounded. “We’re good.” I called out the code word. “Silver!”
The sound of weapons being lowered had me reaching for Silver again. The team moved toward us. The man who’d spoken identified himself. “Captain Reynolds, Special Forces.” He shook my hand and nodded at Silver. “I was going to say you were lucky our unit had stopped at the barracks off Skye on our way home from an operation … but it seems you didn’t need us after all.”
I suspected Reynolds was E Squadron, a secret unit of the Special Forces, mostly because they were the unit who reported not only to the Ministry of Defense but to MI6.
“I appreciate you coming all the same.”
Reynolds nodded. “Is everyone all right?”
“Two injuries.” I gestured to Ian’s body. “One fatality.”
He took it in stride as someone who dealt with death on a daily basis. “Where are the others?”
I told him and his team moved out to secure the two men.
Silver began to shake violently against me. “I need to get my woman inside and warm. She’s going into shock.”
“I-I’m f-fine …” Her teeth chittered together.
Reynolds and I shared a look. “I’ll escort you inside while my team secures the property.” He guarded us as we rounded the house. I could hear the buzz of voices reporting to him in his earpiece as his team searched. “I heard you retired six years ago. Seems you haven’t lost your touch.”
My grip on Silver tightened as I guided her onto the porch. “I only took out one man. Silver here took out Ian and the other.”
The captain nodded. “Impressive.”
I wasn’t sure Silver would agree.
Guilt wracked me despite her earlier words, but the urge to push her away, to protect us both from feeling too much, didn’t reemerge like I’d worried it might.
No. I was so deep in this with her now, it would take my death or the end of the fucking world to tear her away from me.
Maybe not even that.
I pressed another kiss to her temple as I led her inside.
It seemed we were in this strange thing called life together now.
Until the very end.
Epilogue
TIERNEY
Leth Sholas at Christmastime was spellbinding. Yes, it was cold and wet and windy, but that didn’t stop all the Christmas lights on Main Street from creating magic across the harbor. The way the water reflected the lights was so beautiful, I could have walked along the harbor all night long.
For the first time in weeks, it felt like we’d made it out of the storm.
I watched London stroll around the finished kitchen in the B and B, touching everything, opening cupboards, pulling out the equipment she’d asked for and then neatly placing them back.
Cammie, Quinn, and Ramsay stood out of the way with me, Akiva at my side too.
London suddenly glanced over at us, her cheeks flushing ever so slightly. “Being watched like you guys are spectators isn’t creepy or weird at all.”
A soft laugh escaped me. “Sorry.”
But I wasn’t.
My best friend wasn’t quite herself yet, but every day she grew closer and closer to the London I used to know. I didn’t think she’d ever be that person again. How could she after what she’d been through? Yet I felt her relax more and more as she began to feel safe here.
And at home.
The B and B was complete. We were ready to start welcoming our first guests in the new year. To my utter delighted surprise, Ramsay was moving into the B and B with me. He was, of course, keeping his place on Stòr, not just because it was his workshop but so we had privacy whenever we wanted. My eventual goal was to have someone else move in and manage the place so I could move onto Stòr permanently. So we could start a family.