Though it hurt to do so, Kacey fully agreed when Devon and Kyle both insisted that they leave Steve Ashland’s boat in the cove where Kyle had spent the night.
It was early enough that they made it back up to Devon’s place before seven. He was due to go into work at ten. No more was said on the boat during the trip back.
She’d checked her brother’s side, saw that the wound was superficial and already partly healed. As were her ankles. Funny how skin healed even when hearts were broken.
She needed to hear about that knife wound. About all of it.
Including whoever this Sanders was.
But with the sun up, and Kyle with her, she was taking no chances on them being seen. She’d insisted Kyle lie down, keeping his back to a side of the boat.
She sat on the floor between the two seats.
Glancing at Devon more often than she’d have liked. Needing to read him. To hear what he was thinking.
Frustrated that they couldn’t talk openly.
Not until they knew what was going on.
If Kyle was into illegal activity, she wasn’t going to have Devon implicated. No way he was going to be charged with harboring a criminal.
At the same time, her heart was pounding in leaps and bounds. Could it really be ending? She’d get the truth. The three of them would figure out who to trust, how to proceed.
Whatever Kyle had been about to confess to, he obviously had evidence on someone else. Enough to get him a deal?
Witness protection would be better than jail. Or death.
It could mean she’d never see her twin again. His disappearance would devastate their mother. Could trigger a worsening of her disease...
Kyle started talking the second they were inside Devon’s cabin. Her brother didn’t look around, didn’t check to see that she had her own bedroom. He just dropped into a kitchen chair, looking more exhausted, more hopeless, more defeated than she’d ever seen him. And words came pouring out.
“Eli Sanders is the CEO at my mill and a couple of others.” His mill. Kyle had lost his job. Wouldn’t have any way of knowing she and Devon both knew that. “I’ve only met him a few times, but he was the one who interviewed me for my latest promotion. The one who chose me to be production manager. So when I discovered that someone was using logs with the middles sawed out to ship contraband, I went straight to him.”
Kacey’s chest thundered. Her nerves shattered.
Devon pulled out a chair, dropping down perpendicular to her brother. Leaned forward, an arm on the table.
“What kind of contraband?”
“I only saw adult films. But I did my own investigating before I went to Sanders. I needed to know the scale of the problem, who could be involved at my mill, our contacts at the destination points. I figured these were all things I could find out while no one knew anyone was onto them...”
“Which could implicate you...” The words came with Devon’s voice. But sounded nothing like him. Completely intent, his attention appeared riveted on her brother.
“Right,” Kyle said, his gaze also astute as he talked to Devon, with an occasional glance in her direction.
“I found three distribution points. One in Iowa. One in Alabama. And one in Virginia.”
Devon sat up straight. His back leaning on nothing. “I need you to stop talking for the moment,” he said. He’d turned completely away from Kacey. “My name is not Devon Miller. I’m Tommy Grainger, an undercover detective with the Henderson, Nevada, police, and you’ve just crossed into information that could be what I’ve been seeking. As you aren’t under arrest, you’re free to go. If you’re willing to continue this conversation, I need to get my partner here. And to record everything you have to say.”
Kacey lost track of Kyle. Of her brother’s reaction or response. All she could hear was ringing in her ears. As her body was consumed with shock.
And the greatest heartache she’d ever known.
Devon Miller didn’t exist? She’d fallen in love with a fake? Had trusted him with her life? Her brother’s life?
Had given him her heart and he hadn’t even given her his name.
He’d been her strength. She’d been his undercover informant?
Excusing herself, Kacey made it to the bathroom. Slid down to the floor by the toilet. And lost her breakfast along with her heart.
He thought he heard her retching. Couldn’t be sure. Tommy couldn’t stop to find out. Every instinct he had told him Kyle Ashland was ready to hand them not just a link in the chain, but the whole damned thing. Getting Rachel on the phone, he told her he needed Bonnie at his place as soon as possible.
He offered Kyle something to drink. To eat.
The man went to see to his sister. What was said, he didn’t know. Knew it wasn’t his place to care. His mind was on the case. It had to be.
So many young lives...
He shook with the anticipation of preventing more death. Of completing the job he’d started. Setting up the video equipment that would record the upcoming interview, he was aware of Kyle’s return. Again, he offered the man something to eat or drink.
Kyle, looking wearier than ever, shook his head. Wasn’t looking at Tommy at all.
“I begged her to give me back the knife,” he said, his head in his hands. “I’d stopped by my mom’s to fix a leaky faucet and they were there when I came out. Letting me know what I was risking if...”
Throat tight, Tommy Grainer held up a hand. “Hold it just a few more minutes,” he said, adjusting the small tripod he’d brought out for his phone. Heard water running in the bathroom.
“She’s stronger than any woman I’ve ever known, but she’s not cut out for this,” Kyle said, as though explaining his sister to a man who didn’t know her. “She said you gave her a bedroom that locked from the inside, showed me the gun...we owe you our lives...”
Tommy’s jaw clenched. He swallowed. And found his air when he heard Bonnie’s car pull up.
“Detective Bonnie Donaldson, from the Phoenix police, meet Kyle Ashland,” he said as soon as his partner walked in.
He heard the bathroom door open.
Saw the way Bonnie’s eyes widened, as Kacey entered the room, taking the seat at the table closest to her brother.
His houseguest would be out of camera range, was the only thought Tommy allowed himself. He wouldn’t need to see her image when he went over and over the tapes. Or, if all went well, watched them in court.
His seasoned partner said nothing, just took the seat next to Tommy, who hit record.
And got the job done.
Kacey unlocked the door to her home, stumbled to the couch, and started to cry. Kyle, who’d stopped to thank Detective Donaldson one more time for driving them home, came straight over to her, the second he followed her in.
Hugging her. Rubbing the top of her head as their father might have done. Awkwardly. Telling her it was over.
She knew better. For her it would never be over.
But the moment wasn’t about her.
Memories faded with time.
She’d get over it.
And Kyle...he truly was the hometown hero. And had been through far more than she’d ever have been able to take.
Through his diligent, quiet investigating, he’d found evidence of nearly a decade’s worth of contraband being shipped in the middle of sawed-out logs, from his sawmill to the destinations in Iowa, Alabama and Virginia. He’d thought the manager of the mill had been responsible. He’d seen, and filmed, the man overseeing the placement of cargo into a shipment of logs.
Come to find out, the man was only a middleman. Getting paid a hefty sum for watching packages get loaded and shipped out and keeping his mouth shut.
Sanders had been the one running the operation. When Kyle had first gone to him, a couple of weeks before, the CEO had offered Kyle a ridiculous amount of money to look the other way. And when Kyle had refused, saying he didn’t want to get rich that way, the man had started with threats. First Kyle’s job. Then seeing that Kyle couldn’t get decent work anywhere close to his family. Sanders had let Kyle know that Sanders had friends in the Boulder police, and the next night, Kyle had been stopped for an offensive taillight that hadn’t been broken until the officer broke it. And finally, the night that Kacey had witnessed, Sanders had shown up in town, at their mother’s home, with two of his henchmen and threatened Kyle.
One of the men with the CEO had stabbed Kyle. Telling him it was only the beginning.
That’s why Kyle had begged Kacey not to turn in the knife. He didn’t want Sanders to retaliate. He’d panicked, had to go after the three. He would say he’d take the money, and figured along the way he’d find a way to expose Sanders. He’d ditched the knife in case he got stopped with it in his car, didn’t want any ties to it. Unaware that Kacey had seen the encounter, he’d planned to go back before dawn and secure the knife until he could figure out what to do.
He hadn’t caught up to the three men that night.
But had managed, by talking to a close friend at the mill, to find out more about Sanders. About some of his contacts. Apparently, Kyle wasn’t the only who’d been threatened into complying with the shipments. And he’d found out that the marina where Devon and Rachel had been working had been one of the three hubs on the river that supplied the three sawmills with contraband. From lethal heroin to handbags and jewelry.
Kyle had found proof that the other two sawmills Sanders owned were running similar operations before he’d been fired.
One of Detective Grainger’s and Donaldson’s next challenges would be to conduct interviews and investigate police departments until they could find the officers Sanders owned.
Or, Kacey figured, until someone offered Sanders a deal to expose those under him. The ones who’d done the actual dirty work.
She’d come through the ordeal with her life.
She’d lost her ability to believe the best of people during the scuffle.
It might return.
Or maybe she’d learned a valuable life lesson. You couldn’t believe in the best of people unless you wanted to get run over.
Either way, it was time to stand up, brush herself off and move forward.
Because she was alive.
Tommy’s world was consumed with conducting interviews, following up on leads, and traveling. Arizona to Nevada, to Utah, to Iowa, Alabama, Virginia and back to Nevada. He, along with his partners, slowly found the evidence federal prosecutors were going to need to prosecute Eli Sanders, and many of those who worked for him.
He’d personally spoken to the two men who’d followed him. One, the fiend who’d tied Kacey’s feet, and been told to watch the boat, but who’d gotten drunk instead, only to find her missing. He’d seen Kyle’s truck leave the area and had followed it.
The other, a friend of Belen’s who’d been watching Rachel, wanting to know everyone she associated with before going to his bosses with her offer.
Eli Sanders had found a way to beat a lot of the charges Tommy wanted to stick to him. Sanders thought he was clear of the kidnapping of Kacey Ashland, and the subsequent near death she’d suffered. According to him, he’d merely walked up behind her as she’d left the police station where he’d just had lunch with a friend, telling her to watch her step. He’d gone his own way and had no idea that two other men had stepped in and forced her into a van. The other two had confirmed Sanders’ testimony.
It would be Kacey’s word against Sanders.
Tommy had almost punched the guy when Sanders said as much. The CEO had an alibi for the rest of that evening. He’d caught a charter plane back to Utah.
And he’d gone on a fishing trip in Colorado, too. Only flying out one night when his friends were in the boat for an overnight catch. He’d been back in their cabin when the guys had come out of their rooms at noon. Not that Tommy had found evidence yet to prove that.
But he knew it. He’d been told under the condition of anonymity so that Tommy would find the evidence.
Sanders was smart. Thought he had it all worked out.
Tommy wasn’t resting until he had enough to put Sanders away for life.
So far, he hadn’t found the evidence he needed to hold over the guy. To get him to cry like a baby and ask for leniency. For a deal.
That was when Tommy planned to line the table in front of Sanders with pictures of teenagers who’d died from his drugs.
They’d arrested Belen Alexopoulos, and the Arizona middlemen who’d not only killed Antonio and Jerome Hardy, but who’d accepted shipments from an older couple, posing as grandparents, from Devon’s marina, and taken them up to the sawmills. It would all fall in place.
Someone would take the deal and roll on the rest.
Tommy needed it to be Sanders. The guy had been personally responsible for Kacey’s abduction. For making her suffer through a nightmare that would haunt her forever. The guy was going to pay.
By the law.
Always by the law.
Overall, Tommy figured life was good. The commendations and congratulations rolling in didn’t puff him up as he’d thought they would. Even an offer to lead the narcotics detective squad for the LVPD didn’t faze him much. His parents were the ones who’d suffered the most from injustices in their past. His dad, being murdered, and made to look like a dirty cop. His mother, having to live with the aftermath.
And on that front, Sierra’s Web hadn’t yet found hard evidence to exonerate Hilton Grainger. Tommy had begun to accept that they never would.
Life didn’t always play fair.
But Tommy and his team, thanks to Kyle Ashland, had saved lives.
Had helped Kacey Ashland get hers back.
And that had to be enough.
Kyle received more than a year’s worth of pay in a severance agreement. With all the money he’d saved, living alone and frugally, over the past ten years, he’d be independently wealthy for a while. He was talking about going to college to get his teaching degree, but also to pursue a dual major in athletics. He wanted to coach football someday. Had already applied to both degree programs at the University of Las Vegas, an hour and a half away.
In the meantime, he was moving in with their mom and Lizzie, planning to fix the place up so they weren’t moving from one leaky faucet to the next. He’d start work as soon as he could convince their mother that he was allowed to spend his own money on her home.
Kacey figured he was coming to her for help in that venture when her twin called a couple of weeks after they’d returned home to say he needed to talk to her.
He wanted her to meet him down at their dock.
While she hadn’t been out on the water since her return, she saw how her brother was killing two birds with one stone. Getting her cooperation in working on their mother, and getting Kacey back to the river she loved, too.
She wasn’t opposed to a ride on his boat.
Hadn’t figured he’d have their father’s craft geared up to go. The boat had appeared at the dock the day after they’d returned to Bullhead City. Kyle had never told her how it came to be there. He’d just let her know it had arrived.
She could have asked for details.
She hadn’t wanted them.
Still, climbing aboard the old vessel gave her heart a nasty twist. Visions of the last time she’d seen it floated before her mind’s eye. She kicked them out. Most of her waking hours were spent not thinking about any of the days she’d spent with a fake persona. She battled constantly with her heart and mind to redirect herself every time he appeared. And there she was, on the boat that had ultimately ended it all.
Kyle’s nightmare.
Her own run for her life.
And her belief in love at first sight. Or true love at all.
She’d fallen for a man who didn’t exist. How in the hell could she ever trust her heart after that?
A couple of miles downriver, when Kyle had done no more than exchange small talk with her, asking her about running times, her newly implemented workouts at the gym, and other normal summer activities, Kacey was ready to head back.
“How far you planning to go?” she asked, standing by her brother at the wheel. Out on the water, all she could see was Devon. All she could hear was his voice.
“I need to talk to you about that,” Kyle said, maintaining position in the middle of the river, and a speed that precluded anything but holding on.
She had a life jacket onboard. Hadn’t actually worn it in years.
“I’ve had some interviews with Tommy Grainger,” he said. And she shut down. Sat down. Far enough away that she couldn’t hear him.
Kyle was worried about her. She knew. A twin thing.
But no way was she going to talk about a man she didn’t know as though he was any part of her struggle to readjust to normal life.
Being kidnapped, on the run, almost killed...it would get to anyone. She’d talked to a therapist about those three things.
When the motor slowed, and she heard the anchor splash overboard, Kacey scoured for things she could tell Kyle that would satisfy him enough to leave her alone.
The secret in her heart would never be spoken.
“He told me about his father,” Kyle said, coming over to sit in the seat next to her. “He’s had me talk to a couple of people from Sierra’s Web, putting together pieces of the case, and he mentioned that he originally hired them to help him clear his father’s name.”
So that part had been true.
“Did he also tell you that he’s paying for that with lottery winnings?” she asked sarcastically. And didn’t realize until her brother said, “He mentioned a life insurance policy from his mother,” that she’d been half hoping that Devon’s story had all been true.
Just under an assumed name.
His mother’s life insurance. Not a lottery win. Bitterness filled her up and she let it. At least for the time being. Sure beat crying.
“His father was a Las Vegas cop.”
She’d already found that out.
And... Devon being a cop...she remembered the night he’d told her he could never be in a long-term relationship. He was like his dad...
“The thing is, Kace, I think I can help him prove that his father was set up. Just like I was.”
Her heart missed a beat. She glanced over at Kyle. Saw the earnest need in her brother’s gaze. And couldn’t be bitter about that. “Then do it. Please.” If he thought she’d be hurt because he was helping the man who’d played her...
Kyle didn’t know that part.
“I want to. But I’m not going to unless you go with me.”
“What?” Frowning she did another check. Was her twin losing it?
“There’s more between you two than you’re telling me. Something happened at his cabin. It changed you...”
“I was kidnapped, Kyle! Left to die...”
She broke off as Kyle shook his head. “I know you, Kace. This is more than some kind of PTSD. You trusted the man with your life. And I also saw female underwear twisted in the end of his sheet as I walked by his room...”
“You did not. I packed up both pairs of my underwear when I left...” Too late, she stopped. Felt foolish. In so very many ways. A simple, “well, they weren’t mine,” would have been so much better.
“He hurt you.” Kyle’s words were filled with knowing. Not question. “I just need to know if he forced anything...”
“No!” The word came out strongly. She followed it up with, “Absolutely not.”
Kyle’s nod, his serious look, was telling. As though he’d already been certain of the answer.
“You’re playing me,” she accused then. Men. They were all alike.
“In my own sloppy way, I’m hoping I’m getting you to see the truth. But whether I am or not, I have to tell you, Tommy Grainger is a man possessed.”
“Of course he is. All he cares about is solving his case. Makes sense, with his father having died with his name smeared in the mud. A Las Vegas cop. Who’d been set up.” That part, the dying with the name smeared part, of Devon’s story had been true. In a very weak, middle-of-the-night moment, she’d looked up Tommy Grainger. Read about a few of his cases that had made news. And had devoured everything there was to find about Hilton Grainger, too.
“He’s solved the case. He and his partner had already found the dealer who’d lead them to the group selling the lethal heroin to Sanders. My information led them to the supply chain. It’s not that. He’s hell-bent on making Sanders go down for your kidnapping. Sanders has an alibi for that night. From what I hear, Tommy’s obsessed with finding some piece of evidence to prove that the man told you to just keep walking like you said he did.”
She frowned. “What does Sanders say he said?”
“That he told you to watch your step. And that he walked off and never saw the two men who took you. He swears they were acting of their own accord.”
Looking her brother in the eye, she said, “He told me to just keep walking, Kyle. I’m one hundred percent certain of that.”
Kyle’s nod was almost nonchalant. “Grainger is, too.”
“Sanders was at the marina, too, Kyle. In the bar...”
“He’s denying that it was him, at this point, but the truth’s coming out. And that information just proves that he had dealings with two of his underlings and that’s already a done deal. They’ve already tied him to them. And we’ve gotten way off point. I’m not helping Grainger with this thing with his dad unless you go with me to talk to him.”
“Why not? That makes no sense.”
With a shrug, Kyle said, “I’m just not.”
Her brother wasn’t kidding. He also wasn’t telling her something. “How certain are you that you have something that might help him prove his father was innocent?”
“One hundred percent.” He gave her words back to her. “That I might be able to help.”
“How could you not do it then? Kyle...”
He shook his head. Cutting off her words. He wasn’t budging. Just like when he wouldn’t tell her what was going on with the knife.
He’d done that for her.
And her response came clearly. “We owe Detective Grainger our lives, Kyle. So yes, I’ll go with you to deliver your information.” She’d be fine. It was the right thing to do. And whatever Kyle’s reasoning, she trusted her brother. “When do you plan to do this?”
“Right now.” Kyle moved back to the wheel as he spoke, pushed up the throttle and sped downriver.
“Kyle, we don’t even know where he is.” She raised her voice to be heard.
“I do,” Kyle hollered back. “Detective Donaldson says he’s still based at his cabin. And is working from there today...” Her twin’s words flew off on the wind.
The memories they invoked within Kacey wouldn’t let go of her.
Tommy’s phone let him know something had breached his property. Gun in hand, he moved to the laundry closet for the best view of the screens. He’d rattled a lot of cages over the past weeks. Had left some unhappy families in his wake.
A teenager set on retribution for taking his dad away...someone on Sanders’ payroll he hadn’t yet reeled in. It all came with the job. Calm, unfazed, his gaze went from screen to screen.
Got to the dock, and his heart started to pound. He would never forget that boat.
Nor, he feared, would he get the woman out of his system.
Not in a dozen lifetimes.
What were they doing there?
If someone had threatened them...cops giving them trouble...he’d...
He met them halfway up to the cabin. Would just as soon take care of business out there. Getting Kacey’s scent...her presence...out of the cabin was already proving to be a challenge.
He didn’t need to make it any worse.
Kyle said hello first.
Tommy shook hands with the other man. Respecting him. But could only give a second before his attention had moved to taking in every inch of Kacey’s face.
The woman met his gaze. With the eyes of a stranger.
He got it. Needed it to be that way.
Breathed a little easier, while reality settled over the energy raging within him.
“Can we talk inside?” Kyle’s question interrupted Tommy’s attempted return to peace. Kyle had been almost solely responsible for solving Tommy’s case. He could hardly deny the man’s request.
But he noticed that Kacey lagged behind her brother.
Almost as though she didn’t want to be inside the cabin any more than he wanted her there. Good to know. Would help during those times when Kacey’s optimism and endurance, her strength and vulnerability seemed to take over his home.
No matter how many times he sprayed cans of disinfectant.
Inside, he showed them to the kitchen table. It was more businesslike.
Odd how Kacey’s gaze stayed right there. On the table. And the wall across from the seat she’d pulled out. One she hadn’t sat in during her days with him. The rest of the cabin could just as well not have been there for all the attention she failed to give it.
“How are you doing?” He hadn’t meant to ask aloud.
“Fine.” Her nod told him nothing.
Kyle opened his phone, as though the two of them weren’t there. Leaving Tommy in an awkward as hell position he did not appreciate. Nor did he know what to with it.
So he glanced at Kacey. Looking to her for guidance.
She was staring at the wall.
“Tommy, you had a thing with my sister.” Kyle’s words weren’t sinister. But they weren’t filled with joy, either. The man still held his phone but was most definitely giving Tommy the eye.
A glance at Kacey told him that she was giving it right back to Kyle. Her twin just didn’t seem to be noticing.
Returning his gaze back to Kyle he said, “I did.” Loud and clear.
“While you were pretending to be someone else.” Yep. That was him.
He heard Kacey’s sharp intake of breath. Oddly, recognized it from a couple of other times that came to him clearly. When she’d heard Sanders’ voice in the bar.
And when he’d told her Kyle had reported her missing.
“I was.”
“You were using her.”
Instantly angry, Tommy didn’t even let Kacey appear in his peripheral vision. Keeping his gaze solely on her twin.
“Absolutely not.”
“How would you describe who you were when you were personally involved with her?” Tommy had never underestimated a man as much as he had Kacey Ashland’s twin. Kyle Ashland had been in the wrong profession all his life. He needed to be an interrogator.
“What the hell is this?” Tommy asked, not proud of how he was letting the other man’s words get to him.
And even less happy that Kacey was hearing it all.
“Just trying to sort out the truth,” Kyle said. “I...”
“Need to shut up,” Kacey said, standing. “Devon... Tommy...whoever the hell you are, I apologize for my brother. He seems to have lost his mind. He told me that he has information that might help you exonerate your father, but he wasn’t going to give it to you unless I came along. Kyle, either put up or I’m leaving.”
Tommy’s heart burst. Right there. All over his table. The cabin floor. The pain, and something much bigger, was so intense he half expected to see it oozing in some kind of color out of his body.
“You want to help me clear my father’s name.” He was speaking only to her. Holding her gaze. Because she was letting him.
Holding his.
“You gave us back our lives.” Her words came out sounding weak. The emotion in her eyes...he recognized it. Had a feeling he was never going to be himself again without it.
Maybe not even with it.
He was changing, right there before his own eyes. He couldn’t stop it.
Wasn’t sure he wanted to.
“I...um...just sent you your proof,” Kyle said, standing, putting his phone in his back pocket, and heading toward the door. “Kace...if you need a ride home, call me. Tommy, I better not get that call.”
The door shut behind Kyle and Tommy still sat there. Staring at it.
Kacey hadn’t moved, either.
Just stood there.
And it hit Tommy. “You didn’t go after him. Leave with him.” She could have. He looked up at her, standing a couple of feet away.
She didn’t speak. Just stood there, her eyes looking half-stony. Her chin trembling.
“I’m never going to be good in the trust department,” he told her.
“I know.” She still stood there. As though undecided whether to walk out the door or sit down. “I’m not so good in that department myself anymore.”
A direct hit. He deserved it.
“You came back.” It was all he had to fight with. And he suddenly felt as though he was in the battle of a lifetime. He was aware of his phone on the table. The supposed gift of a lifetime Kyle Ashland had just said he’d sent to him. Which didn’t even compute. At the moment, he had no interest in that mystery.
He was waiting for Kacey. Was she staying? Leaving?
What did she want from him?
Could he ever hope to have enough to give to keep knowing her?
She deserved so much more.
“You’re trustworthy, Devon.” She stopped. “Tommy.” She sounded as though she might be gritting her teeth.
“I like Devon,” he told her. “When it’s just us. Like a nickname.”
“I’m not going to pretend.”
“Devon knew how to give you something Tommy would never have dared let loose,” he said, and suddenly, he knew. Standing, the constriction around his chest loosening, he went to her. “The name was a cover, Kace,” he said, running the back of his fingers lightly over her cheek. Trembling when she didn’t turn her face away. “What we shared...was all completely real for me.”
He’d been honest with her. Tommy honest. He’d told her he didn’t have forever to offer any woman.
“You didn’t trust me.”
“Not completely. Not in my head, anyway. And I was honest with you about that.”
She nodded. “I know.” Then, lifting her hand, ran a finger over his lower lip. Watching what she was doing. “I think that’s when I fell in love.”
That lip she was rubbing, instead of delivering instant rejection, broke into a grin. “I think I’m kinda glad to hear that.”
“Kinda?”
“I’m not any kind of expert on these types of situations, mind you, but based on how you own every breath of air in this cabin, and I can’t seem to move back to Tommy’s house in Henderson even though I really need to be in the office every day... I might have fallen pretty hard, too.”
“I need more than might.”
That was it then. He’d known.
“I’m not going to profess a feeling I might tarnish.”
“I’m the one taking the risk. Believing it,” she said, standing up to him.
“I’m not going to take a chance that I’ll break your heart.”
“You a coward, Tommy Grainger? Because I never took Devon Miller for one. And to your point,” she continued before he could respond to the challenge. “You’ve already broken my heart once. I survived. I’m still standing.”
He’d met his match.
There was just no point in denying the obvious.
The evidence was all right there.
“I love you, Kacey Ashland.”
“I love you, too, Tommy Devon Grainger.” Her expression grew dark. Or, at least, serious. “I’m not expecting anything but you, as you are. And a chance. Because without you...life doesn’t feel right anymore.”
“I’m not sure I’ll be successful at any of this.”
She nodded. Studied him. And then smiled.
A naughty look. “I think I’d like to see how good Tommy Grainger is in bed. You up for that?” she asked, pressing her hips against his rock-hard penis.
He kissed her then. Hungrily. Taking every bit of her air. Giving her his. So they didn’t have to talk anymore.
He wasn’t great at personal conversation.
But loving her... Tommy knew he could do it. After two weeks of life without her—a hell he was never going to forget—he had no doubt that he’d do whatever it took to be the partner Kacey needed. Just as he knew she’d be there for him. They’d already lived through the hardest stuff life had to give. Faced death more than once.
And had come through for each other.
Every time.
Life wasn’t easy. Human love wasn’t perfect.
But it was the source of every ounce of strength he was ever going to need. Right there. In Kacey. With Kacey.
In every new family member—hers and theirs—that came to him.
And in knowing that the world was filled with people like Kyle Ashland, a man who was trustworthy to the core.
It wasn’t about being perfect. It was about getting up when you were knocked down, brushing off, and trying some more.
It was about not giving up.
Taking the next step.
That he could do.