A week had passed since that horrific day, and I counted every blessing I had. Amber was safe, I was safe, and so were my teammates. I’d thanked Renz dozens of times until he finally told me to knock it off—in his words, he was only doing his job. I knew better.
We’d made a deal with Marie—Michael would be buried with dignity and the attention any city official deserved, and the story would be that burglars had broken into their mansion and shot him. At a later date and under the guise of spending time in Europe, Marie would serve time in a woman’s prison for covering up five deaths caused by her husband. How much time she would serve, I didn’t know, and I had no say in that. Nobody was a winner in that case, and as much as it bothered me that the mayor was buried with pomp and circumstance as an upstanding city official, I wasn’t the one making the deals. Life would go on, we’d continue to do our job to the best of our ability, and I could only hope that honest, hard-working people got a fair shake during their years on earth. It was the best I or anybody else in my profession could do.
I’d warned Renz that if he thought I was bad about thanking him, Amber was far worse. She wouldn’t leave him alone until she gave him a proper thank-you for saving her life. He was responsible for her now, according to the ancient proverb, whether he liked it or not. I teased him about that.
The day after the shooting at the mayor’s mansion, Renz explained to me how he’d ended up being the one who got to us first. It was only because he had been in the home before and knew how the rooms were laid out on the first floor. He and the SWAT team had gotten in through the cellar window after scaling the side wall with the team’s climbing equipment. Renz cut away from the group and found his way up the stairs through the wine cellar. He knew the library was straight ahead, and when he heard my voice, he followed it—and with the grace of God, got to us just in time.
“So what will make Amber happy?” he asked after watching part of the mayor’s funeral on TV during our lunch hour. I had no desire to attend the service.
I smiled. “Well, since you don’t really know much about Amber’s cooking skills other than the doughnuts she made to rival the delicious ones at Gold Nugget Café in Central City, she wants you over for dinner.”
“That’s it? That’s an easy task.”
“Not really since there will be plenty of them you’ll have to attend. For the first one, you have to create the menu yourself, a four-course meal, and it has to be whatever your heart desires.”
Renz frowned. “But I’m a simple guy and don’t even know what’s included in a four-course meal.”
“An hors d’oeuvre, appetizer, the main course, and dessert. Easy peasy, but it has to be your favorite food.”
“I’m Spanish. I like burritos and tamales.”
“Okay, no problem. Amber can make any kind of food on earth, and I promise it’ll be delicious. Grab that napkin, and I’ll help you with the rest.” I squeezed Renz’s arm with forever gratitude. “Oh, and just so you know, for dessert, I’m a big fan of sweet cream-cheese-filled sopaipilla bars.”
He smiled. “Duly noted.”
THE END
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Thanks for reading Blood Reckoning, the third book in the FBI Agent Jade Monroe Live or Die Series. I hope you enjoyed it!
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