They were a half hour away from the Silver Star when Miles received a phone call. He glanced at the screen and saw it was from the house phone at the ranch. He put it on Speaker. “Hello?”
“Miles?” Kellyanne’s voice was high-pitched and strained. “Miles, a man broke into the house. Paul and Mom are hurt, and Dad—”
“I’m fine,” his father grunted in the distance.
Josh’s jaw clenched. “We’re on our way back. We’ll be there in twenty minutes.”
He was worried about Paul and his parents being injured, but the fear in Kellyanne’s voice had him shaking and he couldn’t help noticing the name she hadn’t mentioned. “Where’s Melissa?”
Kellyanne broke into a sob and Miles’s heart sank. “He took her! He took her, Miles, and we couldn’t stop him.” She broke down and ended the call.
Miles glanced at Dylan already soundly sleeping in the back seat. He’d finally brought him back to Melissa and now she was gone, too. Would this nightmare never end?
Josh turned on his lights and sirens and floored the accelerator. Miles phoned Lanie and Griffin to update them, and they kept up with Josh as they headed back to the ranch, making good time and arriving soon after the ambulance and Cecile. She met them as they parked and gave a rundown as Lanie and Griffin fell in behind them. But Miles didn’t need a summary to understand what had happened here. The big, gaping hole in the front of the house said enough.
“It looks like Paul was standing in front of the window when an SUV crashed through it. He’s suffered multiple injuries, including a broken leg, and has already been transported to the hospital. Your father received a gash on his head, but the paramedics were able to close it. He’s refusing to go to the hospital, as is your mother, who had a blow to the head that left her unconscious for a few minutes. Kellyanne was shaken up, but suffered no serious injuries. She’s the one who called for the ambulance.”
Miles stood and stared at the house, which was a shambles, and at his family, who were all in pain. Anger burst through him that Adam, someone he’d considered his friend, had created such havoc. And now Adam had Melissa and was going to hand her over to a killer.
He turned to Lanie and Griffin and struggled to keep his composure. “We need to find Adam.”
Lanie agreed. “I’ve been thinking about that since we left Dallas. I tried to access the GPS on his cell phone and his car, but both have been disabled. No surprise there. He’s too smart to leave them on when he knows we’re looking for him. However, when I was in his apartment, I found papers listing a cell phone that isn’t his number. I’m thinking if it’s a secondary phone he uses for his betting, he may not have thought to turn off the GPS on it since he wouldn’t expect us to know about it to trace it. I may be able to access it and track his location.”
Griffin nodded. “Get started on that.”
Lanie pulled her laptop from her shoulder bag and set it up using the hood of the truck as a desk.
Miles pulled Dylan out of his car seat and carried him into the house. His parents and Kellyanne were sitting at the kitchen table and when she saw Dylan, Kellyanne hurried over and pulled him from Miles’s arms. “I’m so glad you found him.”
“Would you take him upstairs and put him to bed? He’s had a long day.” She agreed and hurried up the stairs.
Miles kneeled beside his parents. His mother was pressing an ice pack against the back of her head and his dad was sporting a large, bloody bandage. “We tried to stop him,” his dad told him. “We tried to stop him.”
He hugged them both, then suggested they go to the hospital. “Someone needs to be with Paul. Keep us updated.”
They finally agreed, but as his mother stood, she hugged him again. “What are you going to do?”
He wanted to reassure her that everything was going to be fine. That he was going to find Melissa and bring her home and everything would be great, but he couldn’t. He was scared. She was out there somewhere and he had no idea how to even begin to find her. “I’ve got my team with me,” he said, motioning to his brothers and Lanie and Griffin outside.
His mom must have seen his hesitation because she touched his face. “You can do this, Miles. You will find her and you’ll bring her back to the Silver Star, where she and Dylan belong.”
He hugged his mother tightly, then sent them on to the hospital. He wasn’t worried about leaving Kellyanne and Dylan here at the house. Besides the police presence investigating the scene, the danger to Dylan was over. No one was coming after him any longer. Adam had the person he wanted.
He walked back out to the car to check on Lanie’s progress with renewed energy. He wasn’t going to let Adam win. He was going to find Melissa and bring her home where she belonged—with him.
Adam gripped the steering wheel with one hand as he drove, keeping the gun trained on Melissa. She knew her best chance was to play it cool and look for an opportunity to escape before they got to wherever they were heading. But she couldn’t, not until he took her to Dylan. Plus, she couldn’t get past the fact that this man had betrayed Miles and an entire agency he’d taken an oath to. She couldn’t make herself keep quiet about it. If she was going to die, she was also going to demand answers.
“Why are you doing this? What have I ever done to you?”
His voice was flat, emotionless, as he responded to her. “You haven’t done anything to me. This isn’t personal. I have no choice.”
“You’re the leak in the marshals service. You’re the one who’s been giving my location to Kirby and Shearer. And the attacks against me. That was all you?”
“Kirby was in hiding, so he and Shearer tasked me with taking care of you. I couldn’t get too close either, or Miles might have spotted me, so I put the word out to the local teens. Some of them got a little out of hand.”
“One of them nearly killed my son by placing him into a corral with spooked horses.”
He shot her a regretful look. “I’m sorry about that. They got a little too aggressive trying to create chaos in order to grab you, but you jumped into the pen.”
She touched the cast on her arm. She’d survived that incident but she might not survive this. “I thought you were being nice to me when you gave me back my necklace, but you were really tracking me the entire time.”
“You don’t understand. I have no choice. If I don’t hand you over to them, they’ll kill me.”
“And what about my son? Where is my son?” She lost her cool as she kept screaming the question. This man and his accomplices had taken Dylan and now they had her, too. The screaming startled him so much that he lost control of the car and swerved. He swore, then shoved her backward in her seat.
“Don’t do that again.” His tone was hard and firm, but she wasn’t afraid of him. If it meant getting her son back, she would do whatever it took.
“I want to know where my son is.”
“I don’t know where your son is. I didn’t have anything to do with his abduction.” She didn’t see any signs of deception in him, but someone had taken Dylan.
“Then Shearer took him. I know he did.”
“Shearer doesn’t need to be kidnapping kids to get whatever he wants.”
She leaned back in her seat and realized for the first time that he wasn’t a part of the kidnapping of Dylan. Then where was her child?
Oh, God, please let them find him.
He would be safe with Miles if they did. She believed the Averys would take care of him—because she doubted she would be returning to him. This man was about to hand her over to a killer—the same killer who’d murdered her mother and had plans to do the same to her.
“Don’t worry,” Adam stated. “If he’s out there, Miles will find him and take care of your son. He’s a good guy.”
“He’s a good man who you stabbed in the back. He was almost killed in some of those attacks against me, you know. How could you betray your friends this way? Betray the people you’d sworn to protect?”
“Look, you don’t know my life. I’ve gotten in over my head with some bad people. I had no choice but to comply. They wanted information. I gave it to them. They wanted you...”
“And you’ll give me to them. Never mind that they’ll kill me. At least, your debts to them will be paid.” She couldn’t control the contempt she felt for this man, or the way it manifested in her tone.
“What am I supposed to do? Just let them kill me? I don’t want to die.”
“Neither do I,” she said, but she suspected that was exactly what was going to happen.
His cell phone rang and he glanced at the screen in the cradle on the dash. “It’s Miles. They’re probably looking for you by now.” He glanced at her. “If I pick up, they won’t be able to track the call, you know.”
She gulped as she realized he was going to answer it and saw the truth in his face. He was giving her a chance to say goodbye.
He wiggled the gun to remind her he had it before he answered. “Hello.”
Instead of Miles, she heard a woman’s voice through the speaker. “Adam, what are you doing?”
“Hey, Lanie. What’s up?”
“What’s up? You just kidnapped Melissa, didn’t you?”
“I really can’t talk about that right now.”
“You don’t have to do this. I know what they have on you. The gambling debts. That’s why you’re doing this, isn’t it?”
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I never meant to hurt anyone. I never meant for this to happen. I had no idea who was holding my markers.”
“Come back to the ranch. Bring Melissa back here safely. We can figure this out. We can place you in protective custody.”
Melissa watched him and saw real regret in his face. He wanted to do what Lanie had asked, wanted to turn around and make this all right. And for a moment, she hoped that this woman’s words had gotten to him.
But then he laughed. “You don’t really believe I would be safe, do you?”
“I’ll handle the protection myself. No one else would know.”
He shook his head. “I used to wonder what would make all those people we’ve protected decide to turn on their friends. I always wondered what kind of person did that. Now, I guess I know. They were just looking out for themselves. Same as me.”
“I guess that’s true, but you don’t have to do it.”
Someone grabbed the phone, then Miles’s voice came on the line. “Adam, where is Melissa?”
Adam gave her a look. “She’s here. She can hear you.” He nodded, giving her permission to speak.
“Miles, it’s me. I’m here.”
“Are you all right? Has he hurt you?”
Hearing his voice was like a balm to her soul and she started to cry. “I’m okay...so far.” She heard the frustration and angst in his voice and longed to reassure him, but she didn’t know how. She was in serious trouble. “The good news is that I don’t think he had anything to do with kidnapping Dylan.”
“Dylan is fine. We found him.”
Relief flooded through her at those words. To know her son was okay made all of this a little more bearable. But tears pressed against her eyes at the realization that she would never get the chance to hug him again or tell him she loved him. “I’m sorry,” she told Miles. “I shouldn’t have lashed out at you the way I did. It wasn’t your fault and I knew it wasn’t. I was just so angry and upset.”
“I know. Don’t lose hope because I’m not going to lose you, Melissa. We’re not going to lose you. Dylan and I need you. Where are you?”
Adam grabbed the phone and ended the call. She cried out in anguish. He’d said they needed her. He needed her. She was done fighting it—she wanted to be with Miles. She wanted to be in his arms, where she felt safe and loved, and she wanted him to be a father for Dylan. Nothing else mattered.
Adam rolled down the window and tossed out the phone. “If I know my team, they’ll keep trying to call and doing whatever they can to attempt to track us.” With that action, she felt her last hope of being located evaporate. At least she’d gotten to hear Miles’s voice. At least she’d gotten to learn that her son was safe. Adam had been right about one thing. Miles would take care of Dylan. The entire family would be there for him and he would grow up with a family who doted on him. She could at least take comfort in knowing that Dylan would finally have the life she’d always wanted for him.
Adam turned onto a dirt road, then pulled up next to an unoccupied parked car. He opened the door, grabbed her arm and pulled her out. They walked to the car and he used a set of keys to open the trunk. He took out duct tape and grabbed her wrists, wrapping the tape around them.
Fear rustled through her. This was it. He was readying her to hand her over to a killer. “Please, you don’t have to do this. You heard Miles and that woman. They can help you. They can protect you.”
He ripped off another piece of tape and shook his head. “I’m sorry.” He slapped the tape over her mouth then shoved her into the trunk. She couldn’t speak but her eyes kept pleading with him not to do this right up until the moment he slammed the trunk shut and darkness enveloped her.
He’d tied her up like a Christmas turkey ready to be handed over for slaughter. All that was left was the hand-off and there was nothing she could do to stop him.
She was going to die.
Melissa had no idea how long of a drive it would be, but after several moments of self-pity, she’d decided she was not going quietly. If she was going to die, she was going to fight back the same way she was certain her mother had. These people would not make her child an orphan so easily.
Still, she knew that her chances of survival were low. She couldn’t survive this without help and she knew Miles might not make it to her in time. Her only hope, the only solace she had left, was in Jesus. She would probably be seeing Him soon and she was scared, so scared, not of dying because she knew Heaven and her mom were waiting for her, but for what she was leaving behind. Dylan...and Miles. She wished for more time, for different circumstances between them. If only she’d met him years ago before this nightmare had started. But there was little point in looking back and wondering what might have been. She couldn’t change anything that happened—not the horrible parts, like losing her mother, or the wonderful parts, like meeting Miles. If she had to die, she would cherish the time they’d spent together, remember the feeling of being in his arms, the warmth of his embrace and the spark of his kiss. She wanted more. God knew she wanted more, but that was never going to happen. She was going to die without Miles ever knowing how much she loved him.
God, please take care of both Miles and Dylan. They’re going to need You and each other to get through their grief.
The car stopped and she heard Adam getting out. She frantically pulled at the binds on her hands as footsteps neared the trunk. This was it. Her last moments. Horror and anguish pelted through her as footsteps approached the car.
Her time had run out.
Miles was glad Lanie was remaining calm and collected as she drove because hearing Melissa’s voice had shaken him to the core. Sure, he’d gotten Dylan back, but he couldn’t lose her now. Anger burned inside him—anger that his friend would do something like this to him, to any witness, but especially to the woman Miles had fallen in love with.
“I owe you an apology,” Lanie said, wiping away a tear that made Miles realize she, too, was struggling to hold her emotions in check. “I’ve suspected something was going on with Adam for a while. He’s gotten so moody and he disappears for hours at a time. I was too quick to dismiss it as nothing serious.”
He’d overlooked the signs, too. “In our profession, it’s easy to claim work as an excuse for seeming anxious or run-down.”
“And he did. I should have listened to my gut. It was telling me something was wrong. Maybe I could have helped him before he got in this deep.”
“This is not your fault, Lanie. Adam made his own choices.”
“Isn’t that what I always tell myself about our witnesses? They made their own choices. I always thought maybe they deserved what they got. But it seems like they made the choices and it’s their families that have to pay the price.”
He grimaced. “Now Melissa is having to pay the price for Adam’s choices.”
“It’s not fair,” she declared.
He looked at her. “Life’s not fair. If it was, we would be out of a job.” It was something they’d said to one another often when the weight of their work and all they had to witness got too much. But it was true. If real justice existed in this world, the bad guys would be punished for their actions and no one else would have to suffer. But sin meant that this world was often unjust and unfair. Only Jesus made everything right again. He held on to that. God was watching over Melissa and he was praying fervently for her, as he knew his family was, too. But was it enough? Would God honor those prayers? He knew sometimes the answer was no. God allowed bad things to happen because He’d given us free will. Right then, Melissa was paying the price for Adam’s free-will choices.
Lanie continued to track the secondary cell phone. She’d purposefully called Adam on his primary phone, so as not to alert him they knew about the secret phone, which was still giving them directions to his location. He’d turned off the highway close to where an old feed-supply store used to be. The building had been abandoned since Miles was a kid. The perfect place to hide out or make a prisoner exchange.
Lanie pulled up behind a cluster of trees and they got out. Josh and Griffin and their respective teams were following behind. Lanie pointed to a silver sedan parked in front of the building, along with several SUVs.
“That’s Adam’s car.”
Miles recognized it, too. It wasn’t the SUV he’d used to smash through Miles’s family home. He must have abandoned that vehicle and switched to his own.
Lanie kneeled down. “I’ll try to get close and scope out who is inside, then we’ll work out a plan.”
She checked her weapon and stood, but Miles quickly grabbed her arm and pulled her back down as the door to the feed store opened and Adam emerged from the building.
“He’s coming out.”
Adam walked to his car, opened the trunk and pulled something out. Miles gasped when he saw Melissa being dragged from the trunk. It took everything inside him not to run to them right then and pound Adam into the ground for stuffing her into that trunk. Lanie touched his arm and he glanced at her, reading the meaning in her expression. He would have the opportunity to make Adam pay for his actions. He just had to hold on.
The door to the building opened again and several men walked out, including Richard Kirby, along with two men who looked to be his protection detail. So he had definitely been in town, although Miles suspected Adam had been the one behind recruiting kids for the attacks. It was more his style. Kirby would have just killed Melissa without all the fuss and drama. And he doubted a professional hitman actually needed a security detail. Either way, Miles was certain these men tied back to Shearer in some way.
Adam dragged a bound-and-gagged Melissa toward the group. He shoved her to her knees in front of Kirby. “There she is. Now, I want those assurances that my debt is paid.”
Melissa’s eyes were full of terror and Lanie had to touch his arm again to calm him. “Not yet,” she whispered. He nodded his understanding, but it took every ounce of willpower he had to keep from reacting.
Kirby kneeled and stared at Melissa. He seemed to be studying her. Then he stood and pulled out his cell phone. “You did good.” He pressed a button on the phone, then placed it to his ear. “It’s her, boss. The woman who can identify me. Your guy in the marshals office finally came through for us.” He paused for several moments, then nodded. “I understand.” He ended the call, then slipped the phone back into his pocket. “Mr. Shearer thanks you for your assistance. He’ll call you when he needs you again.”
“No!” Adam stiffened and pulled out his gun, pointing it at them. “I was promised that if I took care of her, my debts would be cleared. I’m through. I’m done being ordered around by you or Max Shearer or anyone else.”
Kirby rolled his eyes. His tone was sharp and biting when he responded to Adam’s demands. “You are done when we tell you you’re done. Not before.” He made a motion and one of the muscle men grabbed Adam and shoved him to the ground next to Melissa.
Kirby reached into his pocket and pulled out his own gun. Miles’s heart sank. He was going to kill her right then and there. It was time for them to act before it was too late.
Lanie raised her weapon and motioned for her team to move in. “US Marshals. Nobody move!” she yelled as the team sprang into action and surrounded the group.
Miles ran toward them, his gun trained on Kirby. “Put the gun down! Put it down!”
But all three men reached for their guns and began firing. Kirby turned his weapon toward Miles and fired. Miles returned fire and a shootout ensued. Melissa screamed beneath the tape covering her mouth and sprawled out on the ground. He prayed she stayed down and wasn’t hit.
He shot Kirby several times—shots meant to disable, not to kill—before the man went down. He fell to the ground, but managed to raise his hands in surrender. “Okay, okay. I give up. You win.”
The other two men were already on the ground and the deputies ran to surround them.
Miles hurried toward Melissa, but before he could reach her, Adam grabbed her and picked up a gun, pointing it at Melissa’s head as he dragged her toward the building.
“Don’t come another step, Miles, or I’ll kill her.”
Miles fought to remain calm despite the way his heart hammered against his chest. He couldn’t let Adam see his desperation and rage. He had to remain calm if he didn’t want this matter to escalate.
“You don’t want to hurt her, Adam.”
“I don’t want to, but I will.” He backed up. “Now you’re going to tell your people that we’re getting into my car and driving away. Once I’m out of danger, I’ll drop her off somewhere. I won’t hurt her. I promise.”
Miles trained his gun right between Adam’s eyes. It wouldn’t be an easy shot to make and there was a real risk that he might hit Melissa instead, but there was no other shot he could take. Adam knew what he was doing. He was using her as a shield very effectively. It would have to be a head shot and that was dangerous to Melissa, too.
Adam grinned at him the same way he had a hundred other times. He knew what Miles was thinking, always believed he could predict the way Miles’s brain worked. “You won’t risk it, Miles. Face it, you’re not that good of a shot. I’ve been on the shooting range with you, remember.” He pressed the gun into her face. “You won’t risk taking it, not with this one. You won’t risk hurting her.”
He was right, but that didn’t mean he’d won. Miles wasn’t alone. He had a team of people that included his brothers and Lanie. Adam wouldn’t leave here with Melissa. Even if Miles couldn’t get a shot off, the people with him wouldn’t fail him. It was the reason he’d come here to the sanctuary of his home, where he knew for certain his brothers would have his back.
Adam laughed. “I’m not the only one who broke the rules, you know, Miles. You did, too. We’re not supposed to get emotionally involved with the witnesses, but I think you did, didn’t you?”
Adam was trying to bait him, to force him to lose his focus, but that wasn’t going to happen. Still, he couldn’t refute his former friend’s words. “You’re right, Adam. I did break the rules. I fell in love.”
“See! You’re not so perfect, Miles.”
“I never said I was perfect, but I’m not the one with a gun to a witness’s head.”
Adam stepped backward, heading closer to the car. He dragged Melissa with him. Miles briefly took his eyes off Adam long enough to see the fear in her expression. He tried to silently reassure her that everything was going to be okay. But was it? He didn’t know. Adam had the upper hand when he had Melissa as his hostage and he’d already crossed more lines than Miles would have believed he was capable of. His friend was gone, and only an enemy stood in front of him. Adam had already taken away Miles’s sense of family at the marshals service and his confidence in his team. Miles wasn’t going to allow Adam to take this from him, too. He wouldn’t allow him to take Melissa. Not when she was this close to him. He couldn’t lose her now, not now.
God, please guide my actions.
“Adam, please don’t do this. We can work this out. Just let her go and you can walk out of here.”
“Now why don’t I believe you?” Adam asked.
He knew Melissa was his only leverage and he wasn’t walking away—or driving away—unless it was in handcuffs.
“I’ve never lied to you.”
“That’s not true,” Adam demanded. “You lied when you said you were coming home to take care of your father. He wasn’t sick. You didn’t trust us. Why should we trust you?”
“My job was to protect the witness from a leak in the agency—from you. I did my job.”
“I thought we trusted one another. Guess that was another lie.”
He didn’t flinch. “It’s the job, Adam. If you can’t handle it then you should have moved on.”
“You know what this job does to you, Miles? It makes you realize that no one can really be trusted.”
He didn’t want to hear excuses. There wasn’t one. “Let her go.” But Adam wasn’t listening. He was trying to work out a way to survive.
Miles was going to have no choice but to shoot him.
“Adam, stop this,” Lanie demanded from behind Miles. She, too, had her gun trained on Adam. “You know how this is going to end. Don’t force our hand.” She lowered her gun, then put it away and took a step toward Adam, but not far enough so that she was in the line of fire. Miles realized what she was doing. She was distracting Adam, trying to throw off his concentration so that even if he didn’t surrender, at least he might loosen his grip on Melissa.
Miles had missed his partner and was glad she had his back.
Miles locked eyes with Melissa while Lanie had Adam preoccupied. He needed her to fight and tried to silently send her that message. She needed to fight off Adam the same way she’d fought to survive all this time. Who else could have escaped an assassin’s aim and a mob boss’s wrath?
She nodded her understanding and started to struggle against Adam, squirming and jerking until she finally loosened his hold enough to slip through and fall down.
Before Adam could react, Miles shot, hitting Adam in the neck and sending him to the ground.
Melissa crawled away, while Lanie hurried over to Adam to check for a pulse. She looked at Miles and shook her head, indicating she didn’t find one. “He’s dead.”
Miles put away his gun and hurried to Melissa, pulling the tape from her mouth. He helped her to her feet and cut the tape from her hands. Once free, she threw her arms around him and he pulled her close. “I thought I’d lost you,” he said as a wave of relief knocked the wind out of him. Tears streaked her face and he wiped them away with his finger before he kissed her. “I love you, and I don’t want to lose you.”
She leaned into him. “I love you, too, Miles, and I don’t ever want to lose you, either.”
He kissed her long and hard, but refused to release her, even to walk to the car. “Let’s go home,” he whispered.
Christmas Eve turned out to be another mild and sunny day and Melissa agreed to let Lawson and Bree—who’d returned home early from their trip to learn about all that had happened—and Kellyanne put Dylan on one of the horses. Lawson reassured her that he’d made certain the mare was calm and that they would all be right there with Dylan as he rode around the corral.
She smiled at her son’s laughter and felt sad again that she’d soon have to leave this place. They’d found refuge here...and so much more. She didn’t want to go.
She turned and saw Miles still on the porch, phone to his ear. He was talking to his supervisor about her case. She had been glad to learn that the ranch hands Miles’s brothers were mentoring hadn’t been involved in any of the attacks against her, but several local college kids had been charged for doing Adam’s dirty work and targeting her and Dylan. After being arrested, Kirby had immediately begun bargaining for a deal. He was willing to plead guilty and testify against Shearer. And, according to Miles, the US Attorney’s Office was ready to make that trade. Kirby’s guilty plea meant that Melissa wouldn’t have to testify against him, which also meant there was a chance she wouldn’t have to remain in witness protection.
The thought of returning to the home she’d shared with her mother saddened her. Nothing was left for her there. Everything she wanted was right here with Miles. He’d told her he loved her and she’d said the same to him, but what did that mean for them now? It was easy to love him, but could she ever truly trust a man who could never share all of his life with her?
She’d been so sure that the answer to that question was no—but when she’d been held captive, she’d realized what truly mattered to her...and her answer changed. If that man was Miles, she could. She trusted him in a way that transcended everything else. When she’d been trapped in that trunk, she’d had no choice but to believe that God would protect her despite how distant He’d felt, and throughout this ordeal, He’d been with her, watching over her and guiding her to Miles. She trusted Him even without being privy to every detail of His plan because she knew He was a good and loving God.
She knew that about Miles, too—knew she could trust him implicitly with her life and with Dylan’s. And if he had to keep things secret from her because of his job, she trusted him enough to understand and accept that.
He ended the call and slid his cell phone into his pocket as he headed toward the corral. She loved the way he walked and talked and kept an eye on her even while pretending not to. He leaned against the fence and waved to Dylan, who squealed with delight when Kellyanne walked the horse past them.
“That was Griffin. He says they’ve determined the threat against you has been neutralized. They don’t believe anyone is coming after you anymore. Shearer’s network has been dismantled and you won’t have to testify.”
“So they’re cutting us loose.”
He nodded. “I agree with them. I’ve looked over the case and I don’t think there’s anyone left that wants to do harm to you or Dylan. There’s no reason for it anymore. Kirby has taken a plea and he’ll testify against Shearer, and the men in his circle are doing the same.” He turned and look at her. “You’re free, Melissa.”
She sucked in a breath at the word free. She wasn’t sure she even knew what it meant anymore. It had been so long since she’d felt true freedom. For too long, she’d been stuck in a rut, feeling trapped and caged. But she could go anywhere she wanted to go now and be anyone she wanted. She could finally give Dylan the life she’d always dreamed he would have.
She turned to Miles, then leaned in for a kiss. “I don’t want to go anywhere, Miles. You’ve shown me what true freedom looks like, freedom in love and trust. How could I ever walk away from that?” She reached for his hand and wove her fingers through his. “I love you, Miles Avery, and I don’t want to ever leave you.”
His face broke into a smile and he pulled her close. “I was hoping you would say that. I’ll turn in my notice to Griffin to transfer out of WITSEC this afternoon. I can’t promise I won’t travel in my new position with the US Marshals Service, but at least there won’t be any secrets between us.”
She shook her head. She hadn’t expected him to give up his job. “I don’t want you to leave WITSEC. That’s not what I want.”
“I don’t care about it. I care about you. I love you.”
“If you weren’t in WITSEC, I know Dylan and I wouldn’t be here today. You went above and beyond to keep us safe. I don’t think we would have made it if we’d had another marshal. It’s important for you to stay in WITSEC.”
“I don’t want to keep anything from you, Melissa. I want to be able to share anything and everything with you. I don’t want there to ever be any secrets between us. I want you to trust me.”
“I do trust you, Miles. If I’ve learned anything through this entire ordeal, it’s that, even though I couldn’t see God’s plan, He was working for me all along. It’s the same with you. I trust you, Miles, absolutely and completely. What Shearer and Kirby and even Adam Stringer meant for evil, God used to bring me to you. I trust Him. And I know that any secrets you keep from me won’t be because you don’t love me. I’ll love you no matter what. And I want to be your wife and make a family with you.”
He took her hands and held them. “Are you sure?”
She’d never been more certain of anything in her life and she told him so.
“In that case, will you make me the happiest man alive and marry me, Melissa?”
“Yes, I will marry you, Miles Avery.”
He let out a whoop and lifted her up, spinning her around as happiness bubbled up through her.
Dylan squealed again and Kellyanne cheered. Then Melissa and Miles turned to see Kellyanne, Dylan, Bree and Lawson watching them, smiles plastered on their faces.
“Does this mean you really are going to be my sister?” Kellyanne called, and Melissa smiled and leaned into Miles.
“It does.”
She closed her eyes and silently thanked God for finally bringing her all he’d ever wanted—a husband, a home and a family that loved her and Dylan.
Be sure to read the first book in Virginia Vaughan’s Cowboy Lawmen miniseries, Texas Twin Abduction, available now from Love Inspired!
Keep reading for an excerpt from Cave of Secrets by Shannon Redmon.