The espresso machine hissed. Benny barked at something outside. Hannah chatted with Wren at a table in the corner. Kevin laughed in the back room, bright and unafraid.
Normal. Beautiful. All theirs.
April had spent ten years running from Las Vegas. Ten years afraid. Ten years thinking luck was something you found at a poker table, something you could only hope for but never control.
She'd been wrong.
Luck wasn't in the cards. It wasn't in a purse or a crypto wallet or any amount of money.
Luck was this. Standing in a coffee shop she helped build with her loving parents and sister. Her sister and friends helping her plan her wedding. The man she loved holding her whileher son laughed in the next room. The future spread out before them, wide and bright and full of possibilities.
April Taylor was the luckiest woman alive.
And this time, she wasn't running away from it.
THIRTY-TWO
Ben “Moose”Massey
Ben walkedinto the Watchdog reception area and found Jodie at the front desk.
"Hey, Ben! What brings you here?" she asked with a bright smile.
"Just here to take Shane out to lunch. I owe him."
"Oh, if you're going out for burgers, bring me back some fries?" She batted her eyes at him.
Ben felt himself start to blush. It didn't matter what woman it was. Didn't matter if she was serious or kidding. Didn't matter how long he'd known her. He lacked the confidence his brothers had around women.
"Sure," Ben said. "I'd be happy to."
"Great! I think Shane's in his office. If not, he's out with Alex and the dogs. Go on back."
Ben nodded. "Thanks, Jodie."
He started down the hall. The offices could be a bit of a warren, and he wasn't exactly sure where Shane's office was, buthe'd find him. If not, he could ask. The place was full of people he knew. Most of them friends. Some just acquaintances.
And one very special lady.
Charlie King.
Just thinking her name did something wonderful to his belly. And, he had to admit, a place just south of his belly.
Charlie wasn't just the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen—though she absolutely was that, with her intense eyes that could pin a man at fifty yards and that smile that made his knees weak on the rare occasions she aimed it his way. But it was more than that. She wastalented. Brilliant, really. She could clear a room faster than most of his Ranger buddies and moved with a lethal grace that was somehow both terrifying and mesmerizing to watch.
She was someone he'd want at his back in a gunfight without hesitation. Hell, she’djusthad his back in a gunfight at Echo Ridge Ski Lodge.
When bullets were flying and the world had gone to hell, Charlie had been steady as a rock, professional and deadly and absolutely fearless. Watching her intelligent face as she took in the plan Gina laid out. Seeing her in action during the firefight—grace and power and bravery. She had to be the bravest woman he'd ever met?—
A sudden, unexpected sound stopped him.
Wait—is that Charlie…screaming?
Ben took off at a run down the hall. Where was she? What was going on? Something had to be seriously wrong. He’d never heard her scream.
He turned the corner.
And there she was, standing in the middle of a cubicle maze.
