“We can hope. I put in leave for the next month just to see if my absence helps Roman’s cause, and I’m hoping that we can get something good soon. I don’t like having this kind of crazy right in our back yard.”
Jared nods and looks at the framed photos of Josh and Alex standing on Pop’s desk, his frown deepening dangerously.
“I second that. This shit will not come near my nephews. I say we just start going rogue and follow the shit to the root. To hell with Williams and her Justice League mentality. These assholes don’t deserve prison.”
While I agree and would normally just let Jace and Jared have at this type of filth, I can’t risk losing the other players and a lead on the guy leaking intel from my old SEALs unit.
Those guys are my family, too, and if someone is putting them in jeopardy, I can’t let that slide.
“I want to know who the leak in the colonel’s unit is first, and then you can have at those SOBs with my pleasure.”
“So what now?”
“We wait, bro, and let things play out till they either make a mistake or hang themselves with the rope we provide.”
I leave them grumbling in disgust and unsatisfied with my verdict to seek out my girl. I find her in bed upstairs smelling fresh from her shower and drinking a hot chocolate Ma liberally laced with brandy and marshmallows.
“Babe. Too much of that stuff and you’ll be knocked out.”
“I’m already almost out and I only had four little sips.” She laughs, setting the steaming mug down on the nightstand with a sigh.
“Are you okay?”
“No. I’m pissed and I feel guilty about this because I’m the one who accepted the assignment in the first place. I should have let it go and just let someone else take it on, but I’m too arrogant and cocky, so now everyone is being forced to stay at home and my brothers and I are more than likely to get our asses killed before this is over. Oh, and to top it all off, I lied to my family and hid not only Bolton Conrad, but his mother, too. They’re both supposed to be dead, by the way.”
I’m rambling in frustration and I see Clari’s eyes narrow before she gets to her knees and crawls closer to me where I’m sitting at the edge of the bed.
“Say that again.”
“Bolton and Lynn are both alive and locked away in their worst form of hell. They know about Bolton but not that I moved him somewhere worse, and Lynn, well only Jared, Jace, and Roman know that I kept her alive and put her away in a dark little cell in the nuthouse I wouldn’t leave my dog in. So yeah.”
She sits back and considers me silently before tilting her head.
“Why?”
“Bolton…I wanted him to suffer for what he did to Ellie and Wyatt. I knew that no matter how many happy years pass for them, neither will ever forget it because Wyatt feels guilty about it and Ellie is just too scarred by it to ever truly be healed.”
Clair smiles and shakes her head.
“I’d do the same if given the chance, and I hope he is suffering every day for what he did. Lynn?”
I swallow and look away with a guilty shrug.
“She knows more than what she told Ellie the night she took her, and I’d rather keep her alive and try to pump her for information on the other Lanes than let her die and be free of the trouble she’s caused with her hate. See, I’m too arrogant. I—”
“You’re not. You’re just the guy who loves everyone enough to carry the burden of guilt they can’t carry themselves. Let it all go, Miah, and try to live for the moment. This was always going to happen, so stop blaming yourself and just give yourself a break. You’ll get it all together in the end. I have absolutely no doubt. Now stop worrying and come to bed. You look tied, and I’m a little too tipsy to be of any use to either of us right now.”
“God, I love you, Clari Elms, and I want to marry you when you’re ready.”
Her smile is so brilliant that it lights up my heart and makes all the ugliness disappear for this one moment in time.
“You’re so romantic, Miah Lane, and I would love to marry you…in a year or two. Now shut up and kiss me. I feel myself sobering up and I may be of some use, after all.
Epilogue
Lynn
None of them know what I know. None of them are even aware of the things that I set in motion all those years ago when they took my son from me and tried to give that murdering little tart everything that should have been my Bolton’s by right.
But I’ve planned it all very well and don’t even care anymore that I won’t be there to see the destruction of my sanctimonious brother and his family.
They will all pay for killing my boy, every last one of them.