“Two injuries.” I gestured to Ian’s body. “One fatality.”
He took it in stride as someone who dealt with death on a daily basis. “Where are the others?”
I told him and his team moved out to secure the two men.
Silver began to shake violently against me. “I need to get my woman inside and warm. She’s going into shock.”
“I-I’m f-fine …” Her teeth chittered together.
Reynolds and I shared a look. “I’ll escort you inside while my team secures the property.” He guarded us as we rounded the house. I could hear the buzz of voices reporting to him in his earpiece as his team searched. “I heard you retired six years ago. Seems you haven’t lost your touch.”
My grip on Silver tightened as I guided her onto the porch. “I only took out one man. Silver here took out Ian and the other.”
The captain nodded. “Impressive.”
I wasn’t sure Silver would agree.
Guilt wracked me despite her earlier words, but the urge to push her away, to protect us both from feeling too much, didn’t reemerge like I’d worried it might.
No. I was so deep in this with her now, it would take my death or the end of the fucking world to tear her away from me.
Maybe not even that.
I pressed another kiss to her temple as I led her inside.
It seemed we were in this strange thing called life together now.
Until the very end.
Epilogue
TIERNEY
Leth Sholas at Christmastime was spellbinding. Yes, it was cold and wet and windy, but that didn’t stop all the Christmas lights on Main Street from creating magic across the harbor. The way the water reflected the lights was so beautiful, I could have walked along the harbor all night long.
For the first time in weeks, it felt like we’d made it out of the storm.
I watched London stroll around the finished kitchen in the B and B, touching everything, opening cupboards, pulling out the equipment she’d asked for and then neatly placing them back.
Cammie, Quinn, and Ramsay stood out of the way with me, Akiva at my side too.
London suddenly glanced over at us, her cheeks flushing ever so slightly. “Being watched like you guys are spectators isn’t creepy or weird at all.”
A soft laugh escaped me. “Sorry.”
But I wasn’t.
My best friend wasn’t quite herself yet, but every day she grew closer and closer to the London I used to know. I didn’t think she’d ever be that person again. How could she after what she’d been through? Yet I felt her relax more and more as she began to feel safe here.
And at home.
The B and B was complete. We were ready to start welcoming our first guests in the new year. To my utter delighted surprise, Ramsay was moving into the B and B with me. He was, of course, keeping his place on Stòr, not just because it was his workshop but so we had privacy whenever we wanted. My eventual goal was to have someone else move in and manage the place so I could move onto Stòr permanently. So we could start a family.
Despite what had happened there, it hadn’t made me afraid of the place. In fact, I felt like Ramsay’s island had protected us. And I’d protected us.
It cost me more than any one person should have to pay, but I couldn’t feel anything but right in what I’d done to protect Ramsay.
I couldn’t lose him.
