He’d been playing me all along.
But this wasn’t me being naïve or a fool.
Like I’d told my gramma, I could risk it. Couldn’t lay down bets on their safety.
I’d do anything for my babies.
And I knew right then going with him was doing them no favors.
I ripped my arm away, as hard as I could, summoning all the strength I could find. “Fuck you.”
This was going to end.
Right then.
“You don’t own me. You don’t control me. I will never belong to you. I will fight you to the end.”
“If that’s what it has to come to,” he sneered before he launched himself at me.
Fear raced, and I scrambled to get away, flailing my arms as I tried to make it back to the door.
I’d barely made it one step when he tackled me to the ground.
It knocked the air from my lungs. I wheezed in pain. Reed got to his feet, pinning my arms behind me and dragging me to standing. “You’re going to pay for this, Grace. You really think you could leave me? A Dearborne? Make me look like a fool? I’d think again.”
Reed jerked me toward the walkway, then we both became disoriented when we were blinded by the bright lights in our eyes.
“Freeze,” an officer yelled as my entire body went weak with relief. “Let her go, and get on the ground with your hands behind your back.”
“Do you know who I am?” Reed sneered, jerking me back harder.
“Let her go.”
“Fuck you.”
Another trample of feet surprised us from the side, and our bodies were being propelled forward by the officer who tackled Reed from behind.
His arms released me, and I was crawling away, sobbing in relief as I heard the tussle behind me, the words riding into the night air like a shout of mercy.
“Reed Dearborne . . . you’re under arrest . . . “
Keep writing your story. Hold them close. Love them hard.
I thought I could actually hear Ian whispering it in my ear, his hand on my face. And I knew with every fiber of my being that the only reason we were going to be able to do it was because of him.
I didn’t know what he’d done.
But I knew he’d given me this.
My shattered saint.
Forty-Three
Ian
“Drop the gun. Get down on your knees.” Mack’s voice powered through the room, the shot he’d fired still ringing in my ear. Boots pounded into the room, and a group of officers surrounded us, lining up on either side of Mack where my best friend had his gun pointed at Lawrence Bennet.
My father.
The man who’d had my mother killed.
I was still on the ground, trying to fucking breathe through the bomb Lawrence had dropped onto my world.
Imploding.
Desolating.
Nothing left.
I’d always known her death was my fault. I’d just never understood the magnitude of the circumstances.
She had died for me. Been killed over me.
Because she’d loved me.
Forever and ever.
And I’d played right into Bennet’s hand, signed my life away to the man who’d spent the last twenty years shaping me into a monster exactly like him.
I choked over the realization.
The gutting, ravaging devastation.
Bennet laughed, taunting, “Do you have any clue who I am?”
“Scum?” Mack tossed out with a shrug. Then he turned his attention on me. “You okay, man?”
No.
Not even close.
But I managed to push to my feet, hand going to my face that was dripping with blood from a cut on my lip.
Wished it was his.
Wished it was a pool of it.
Overflowing the room.
I’m so sorry. God, I’m so sorry.
Forever and Ever.
Kisses are for who you love most.
I was seized by grief. Every inch. Every cell.
One of the officers moved around Mack and knelt over Bennet, reading him his rights as he put him in cuffs.
I didn’t even hesitate, didn’t slow. I went to the printer and gathered the pictures and the documents.
Lawrence started roaring like a beast from where he was pinned facedown to the ground.
He needed to be six feet under it.
“Don’t do it, Ian. I’m your father. Your family. You owe me. I made you. Don’t you fucking dare.”
My face twisted in disdain. “You aren’t my family. Not ever. You are every single thing I’m ashamed to be. And be clear, I owe only one person anything. Actually, make that four.”
Four perfect, perfect faces that deserved to live.
To be free.
Their lives joy.
Filled with grace.
“That should be everything you need.” I handed the stack to Mack.
He stuffed his gun into the back of his pants, almost grinning when I handed him the evidence that would put Lawrence and Reed away forever.
But he wasn’t smiling so big when he realized every single one of those documents also implicated me.
I was just as guilty.
My signature was on a ton of forged documents, my hands soiled, the proof clear in all the evidence I’d handed him.
“Shit, Ian,” he wheezed. “Fuck, what is this?”
I could see the outright war play out on his face, his mind scrambling to come up with a different solution when there was none to be found.
I lifted my chin before he could do something stupid like put himself on the line.
“They’re worth it,” I said.
There wasn’t even a tremor to my voice.
No wavering.
No question.
They were worth it.
“Are you sure?” Grief came out with his words.
I nodded tight. “I’ve never been so sure of anything in my life.”
Mack gulped hard when he moved to where I was standing by the desk, and I turned around and put my arms behind my back.
His voice was choked, barely heard. “You have the right to remain silent . . . “
He continued through the words as he wrapped the steel around my wrists.
Cinched them tight.
Tugged me upright.
From behind, his voice was at my ear, “I’m so fucking sorry, man, I’m so fucking sorry.”
“They’re worth it,” I whispered again.
My mother’s face flashed through my mind.
She was worth it.
In all these years, I’d never known it, Jace had never known. Maybe she’d been fighting for us all along.
Mack squeezed my shoulder. “I’m so damned proud of you.”
But I had none.
No pride.
Every goal, every aspiration had been wiped out.
Obliterated.
Loving Grace Dearborne had cost me everything.
And losing my freedom for hers was a small, small price to pay.
Forty-Four
Grace
Emotion ripped through the cold air.
Wild and frenzied and free.
I ran.
Straight out ran.
I didn’t slow until I dropped to my knees. I didn’t even care that they had to be bloodied from hitting the sidewalk.
Because Mallory was throwing herself in my arms. “Mommy.”
Her little arms wrapped tightly around my neck.
Sobs wracked from my soul.
Flooding.
Pouring out.
This uncontainable love.
I pressed my face into her hair.
Warmth and light.
Awe and joy.
So much joy.
I was weeping with it, unable to see when I stood, taking Mallory with me, clutching her while I ducked down to get Sophie out of her seat.
Movements frantic as I undid the straps of the car seat, hands shaking and shaking.
She was chanting, “Mommy home, Mommy home!” Clapping like it was just another day.
Little did she know this was the first day of the beginning of our new lives.
I couldn’t stop the tears as I gathered her close, my face in her hair, breathing her in, too.
My little handful that I wanted to forever have in the palms of my hands.
“It’s okay, Mommy. You don’t need to cry. Everything is okay. We’re home, and we get to stay forever and forever,” Mallory whispered, her voice hitching with her excitement, holding herself up high while I pulled Sophie out of the backseat of Mack’s car.
“Mal Pal.” It was the only thing I could get out around the clot of emotion locking up my throat.