Epilogue

One Month Later

Audrey sat across the street from where her shop used to be, watching the cleanup crew she’d hired sift through the debris left behind after the fire. Her insurance company had been good to her, but the red tape and hoops she’d had to jump through had delayed the clear-out. That, and the required environmental impact investigation. She’d finally received the greenlight to move on, as well as the check to do so.

While she watched the workers do their jobs, her mind cast back, as it often did, to that last time she’d seen Cam in the hospital. He’d survived surgery; the wound hadn’t been life threatening, though his blood loss had been. She’d waited to hear if he’d made it, covering her face with her hands when the nurse came out to tell her his prognosis.

She’d sat through the night, making sure he was stable. His guards, MPs, took pity on her and let her peek at him through the window. He’d lain so still, with only the rhythmic beeping of the machines telling her he was alive. If only she could have sat by him, touched him, told him how sorry she was.

She’d stepped away from the window and into the arms of police, who’d wanted to question her and who were already interrogating Zack. She never got to say goodbye to Cam. She’d been questioned for hours. She knew the drill. Terrorist plots had to be vetted with excruciating care. Luckily her prior military record helped in verifying her innocence.

General McNamara must have vouched for their story, also, because she was eventually released. Whether Zack had been or not was anyone’s guess. She had no way of contacting him. It wasn’t like you could simply dial up a former spook.

When she was able to call the hospital and check on Cam, she was told he’d been transferred to the nearest base hospital. She’d broken down and cried. He was truly out of her reach. She scoured news articles, searching for information on him, but found nothing.

News reports about the attack on General McNamara only said that “officials were addressing the issue and restructuring,” whatever the hell that meant. Military doublespeak at its best. Same old, same old. The lack of information screamed cover-up to her, but she’d lost the will to fight. Cam was out of her life.

Only after he was gone did she admit she loved him. What had started as a suspicion burst into full-blown, can’t-live-without-you love. Unfortunately, she had to live without him, because he’d been returned to his former environment, and she had no idea if he was incarcerated, awaiting a court martial, or recuperating to return to CID. The silence was frustrating. Oh why, oh why, hadn’t she just said those three little words to him before he was whisked away? She beat herself up nightly with that question.

Those words came easily, now. The saying “absence makes the heart grow fonder” hit close to the mark. She wanted Cam with her. Forever. She argued with herself that perhaps the short time they’d been together had been intense and, now that it was over, she missed the adrenaline rush, but she knew that wasn’t it. She missed him.

He set all her systems to go. She loved how he included her in planning, treating her as an equal. The Army did that, as a whole, but it was better to feel that outside of an organization. To be asked an opinion and have her answer be considered.

She enjoyed Cam’s sense of humor. He didn’t use it too often—that was something he could improve on, because it was razor-sharp. She also appreciated the way he could figure out a problem and come up with a solution. She was good at that and admired other people with the same skill.

Lastly, she loved how he made her feel. Sexy. Fearless. Pretty. Just a few of the descriptions she’d always strove for but had never thought she’d accomplished. Until he came along. He’d admired her cooking, her fighting abilities, and her intuition when it came to terrorists. And he’d loved the way she looked.

Audrey was a realist. She wasn’t a drop-dead, gorgeous woman. She had the required curves, but she was lanky where most women were softly rounded. Her hair was long, but it was an average brown. Her eyes were her best feature, in her opinion, being an unusual jade green color. She was nothing to write poetry about, yet he’d feasted on her whenever they’d come together. Thoughts of his “feasting” brought a blush to her face even now. His reaction to her made her want to purr.

And now she hadn’t heard from him in a month. Was he in the stockade? Was he court-martialed and stripped of his rank, too ashamed to look her up? A little early for that to have been decided, but when the Army was ready to roll, it rolled fast. And she wasn’t a part of that family anymore.

A shadow appeared to her right, and she looked up. Elena. A welcome distraction to her downward spiral.

“I come bearing gifts of caffeine,” she said, handing one to-go cup to Audrey before smoothing her skirt under her and sitting.

“How did you know where I was?” Audrey cautiously took a sip of the hot brew.

“You’ve been here every day, girl.” She crossed her legs. “When do they finally start doing something productive?” She indicated the shop with her chin.

“This is productive, Leni. They have to clean up before they can rebuild. If I want to rebuild.” There, the words were out. The thought that had been pestering her for days was finally out in the open. Should she rebuild, or move home to Boise, spend some time with her family?

Since Cam, she’d begun to realize that going it alone had lost its appeal. Maybe, just maybe, she was ready to rejoin her parents and brothers and accept help. Cam had shown her that doing so didn’t make her weak. If she never saw or heard from him again, at least he’d taught her that much. Her heart got heavier just thinking that thought.

“You have to rebuild! Are you crazy? You’re great at what you do. How would you keep busy if you don’t have the shop? You’re not going to reenlist, are you?” The horrified look on Elena’s face was priceless. She’d never felt the call to serve her country like Audrey had. Audrey smiled and shook her head.

“No, that phase of my life is over. I’m thinking about going home, at least for a while. You’ve found a new job—”

“Which I’d quit in a heartbeat for you.”

“I know that. But I haven’t been back in ages, and I’m getting tired of going it alone. I know, I know, I’m not alone, I have you, but you know what I mean.”

“What about coming home with me?”

Both Audrey’s and Elena’s heads swiveled in the direction of the new voice. Standing off to the side of the bench nearest Audrey, in full dress uniform, stood Cam Harris. He was take-your-breath-away handsome, so tall and straight, the military way.

Audrey stared. Was he really here? She glanced at Elena. Her friend was gaping at him, too. Okay, so he wasn’t a hallucination, invented by her strong desire to see him after all this time. He actually was here, all six glorious feet of him.

She couldn’t read his expression. The sun was behind him. His cover shaded his face. Movement beside her told her Elena was beating a hasty retreat, mumbling, “I’ll just be getting along now.” Audrey bit her lip and continued to stare at him.

“Are you going to answer my question?” His voice was husky. She swallowed, rose to her feet, and moved to stand in front of him.

“You’re here. In uniform.” It was really him.

“Would you rather I wasn’t? Personally, I’d prefer a lot less clothes.” He was smiling, right up into those beautiful brown eyes. It was all the encouragement she needed. She launched herself at him, throwing her arms around his neck, wrapping her legs around his hips, and hiding her face in the crook of his neck.

“You came back, you’re not in the stockade, you’re not dishonorably discharged!” He’d caught her with barely a grunt, his arms enfolding her. His mouth found hers, devouring her lips. She kissed him sloppily in return, before kissing him all over his face.

At last he reared his head back to look into her eyes. “Tears? For me? I never thought I’d be the cause of your tears.”

She hadn’t known she was crying. “I’ve worried so much about you. You never called.”

“My phone burned in the cabin, remember? I wasn’t exactly free to go get a new one. And when I was, I decided I couldn’t leave this to a text or a call.”

She slid down his body but remained in the circle of his arms, swiping away the tears of joy from her face. If she hadn’t known how she felt about him before, she did now. He was her everything.

“And what is ‘this,’ exactly?” She traced his lips with one finger. He kissed the tip softly.

“I’m back on the job. General McNamara was instrumental in that. He wants me to continue my everyday work, but also to report to him on any unusual behaviors of soldiers. He feels the threat of the GUWP is real.”

“So, it’s not over.” Her insides clenched at the thought. At any given moment, someone, somewhere might be recruited into the organization, and all the shit would start over. They wouldn’t be safe, democracy wouldn’t be safe, until the head of the snake was cut off.

“No, it’s not. For one thing, that USB was never found. The general and I think it’s instrumental to solving this attack, and especially the threat to the military. So, because of all that, I need someone I can trust at my side, someone on the outside with listening ears and watching eyes.” His hands slid up her waist, coming to rest directly below her breasts. She began to tingle all over. “Do you know anyone like that?”

She cocked her head and said slyly, “Zack?”

He gave her a wicked grin, pulling her against him and lowering his head until their lips were an inch apart. “Zack can go to hell. I want you, Audrey Jenkins, at my side every step of the way.”

“And I want you, Cameron Harris. I love you,” she whispered, the words feeling right as they left her mouth. Just like it felt right to stand in the circle of his embrace at last. She looped her arms around his neck, looking into his smiling face, so close to her own.

“I love you, too,” he said, his words mingling with her satisfied sigh as he closed the distance between them and sealed the accord with a long and demanding kiss that promised many, many more to come.

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