“Fucking KORT,” Liam hisses, and a melody of sighs follows.
It’s as though this snippet of time is precisely what Ty was trying to convey the first night in my hotel room.“It would mean no more blueberry fields and rain, Little Moon.”
No matter where we are, we’re caged.
“Fuck that,” Ivy spits out. “KORT isn’t us.Thisis us. That organization doesn’t get to rob our peace. My father served and still maintained who he was. He still lived the way he wanted.”
“That’s right, Little Storm,” Wells coos before switching to his commanding voice. “One day at a time. And The Table has shifted in our favor without Balzano. Axel’s seat gives us the majority. We’ve had a rough patch, but …”
“Freedom is being together,” I finish, not knowing whether that’s where he was headed. But it’s met with a chant of confirmations.
If that wasn’t enough, the sky opens up to shower us with validation that this is indeed our brush with freedom—our family in the midst of blueberries and rain.
We all hop to our feet, shrieks and squeals and laughter from the souls who have embraced all I am—unchaining my pain and my purpose.
So, as the downpour pelts us, rivulets cascading over my skin like a whisper from beyond, the sobs I’ve choked down for seventeen years rush out. But they aren’t streams of sorrow. They’re revitalizing. Liberating.
Happy tears.
Gathering the blankets and soggy animal crackers, they all bolt for the carts, but I’m frozen, rooted to this soil. Desperate to soak it in, to let it all penetrate—the hurt, the hope, the holding on to the uncomfortable emotions balling up at the base of my throat. Something tells me they’re full of truth I don’t want to leap out of just yet.
Ty lunges for me, whisking me into his arms, which is unsurprising. But he isn’t the only one. I don’t know if he filled the rest of them in when he decided to plant these bushes, but either way, they know to embrace me.
In the middle of a storm—flooding the fields of my youth, my dreams, my future—my family smothers me in so much love that I bravely breathe in the wishes my mother held for me.
With a gulping swallow, I peer at my husband. “The flourish after the burn.”
His glossy cognacs meet mine, and for the first time in a long while, I glimpse more garden than grave in them.
Pecks and kisses land on my wet hair and cheeks. Ty’s initial warning about joining this family wasn’t completely off base. I get it—how uncertain every day of this life is.
And yet who has this? The utter confidence that no matterwhat comes our way, we’ll face it together. I’m the lucky girl who’s had it twice.
TY
Tucking my soaking wet wife into the golf cart, I climb in beside her while Wells claims the seat on her other side, and everyone else piles into the other cart.
“Riding back with us, Chief?”
“Yeah,” he says, palming Rena’s head because he didn’t have to know all the details to see how shaken she was back there—in the best of ways. “I need to inform you about something.”
“Okay.” I steer us toward the house as the sideways rain slaps into us, my voice rising to outshine the thunder. “I’ve actually got something I want to ask you about too.”
“Go ahead,” he encourages.
“The AI tracking system—is she in it?” I’ve been wondering about this for a while, but it was lower on my priority list during the trial. The thing is, should we ever need to flee, that poses a major obstacle.
Rena perks up, but doesn’t interject anything.
“No,” he returns, slinging his arm over the back of the seat. “I persuaded Axel against it because after you called, I knew you’d be claiming her. I told him we had some strong leads on her location and that we should wait because once she was in the system, she’d always be in there. He felt the threat of that, especially since we’d been discussing Balzano. Anyway, it’s all clear.”
A huge sigh of relief escapes me. “Thanks, Wells. I’ve been stressed about it.” I veer us up toward the cart parking, gliding over the bumps of the swampy terrain. “What about you?”
“I know this is your honeymoon time,” he starts, his tone full of apprehension, “but I need you first thing in the morning, probably before five.”
“I’ll release him,” Rena chimes, burrowing into my side. “I don’t wake up for several hours after that anyway.”
He chuckles. “Thanks. That should work out perfectly because I like to annoy the shit out of the guys before the sun comes up.”
