Her left cheek was swelling and turning an ugly shade of purple, and there was a cut at the side of her scalp, near her hairline.
If Felix James wasn’t already a dead man, and there’d been a way to make it happen, Van would have killed the son of a bitch a thousand times over. But, as it turned out, the bastard was already burning in Hell.
“Van?” Kam’s sweet voice came to him in a whisper.
Tears pricked the corners of his eyes from the sudden rush of relief. “Yeah, baby. It’s me.”
“Is it…over?”
“It’s over.”
But there was still one more thing he needed to do.
Van leaned in, pressed his lips oh-so-carefully to the uninjured corner of her swollen lips, and then he said, “I love you.”
He didn’t care that it was fast. Hell, he and Jenny were married within months after having just met.
Maybe that was just him. When Van knew, he knew. Andwhile he may always feel guilt over what happened to his first wife and unborn son, he was finally able to accept that their deaths didn’t automatically sentence him to a life of solitude and misery.
He’d been given another chance. At love. Happiness. Even possibly a family, if that’s what she wanted.
And as he worked to get Kam free from that godforsaken chair, Van knew deep within his soul that this woman was his.
Forever.
EPILOGUE
Nine months later…
“I,Donovan Matthew Braddock, take you, Kaamisha, to be my lawfully wedded wife. To have and to hold, in comfort or despair. I promise to forsake all others and to always be true to you. I will love you, honor you, cherish, and protect you. And I will do all of these things until the very end of my days.”
Van stared down at the woman who was about to become his wife. By fate’s design, she wasn’t his first, but he knew Kam would be his forever.
She was his, and he was hers. There was no taking it back, because now it was as official as these sorts of things could be. After all, the gorgeous woman in white had said as much a short moment ago when she’d spoken her own precious, handwritten vows.
Following Lucky’s command—because the crazy man had gone and gotten himself ordained from some pay-as-you-go internet site—Van and Kam exchanged the simple gold bands they’d chosen as a symbol of their never-ending love.
A few more words were spoken, but he wasn’t sure what his teammate said. He was too busy getting lost in the eyes that were his future.
After everything went down with Webb and McDowell that day on the farm, they’d all taken some much-needed time to recover. For Kam, that recovery was as much physical as it had been emotional. For Van, Chase, Lucky, and Archer, it meant finally being able to put the past behind them so they could truly move on.
Logan, however, had taken the bombshell revelation the hardest. Webb hadn’t just been a mentor or the man his SEAL team often took orders from when given a new mission.
The man had been like a father to him after his own dad’s death. He’d been Logan’s family, and for those first few weeks after everything came out, it had been almost like the poor guy had lost his father all over again.
Things were good now, though. For Logan. For them all. The country was still reeling from the news that their second-in-command was a lying, scheming, cold-blooded killer, driven by a need for power and his own unhinged greed.
As for McDowell and Webb, they were both sitting in solitary awaiting their separate trials to face charges for what was being called the political scandal of the century.
Van wasn’t worried about his country. They’d been through worse, and they always came out on top. Right now, in this moment, the only thing on his mind was his future. And of course, his gorgeous wife.
Well, hisalmostwife. There was just one more thing to do before it became official…
“So by the power given to me by God and those guys on the internet…” Lucky grinned. “I now pronounce you husband and wife.” The man’s crystal blue eyes slid his way with a playful gleam. “Okay, big guy. You did it. Now give your bride a big, wet kiss.”
Normally Van would be tempted to punch the smartass smack dab in the middle of his perfect teeth. But today was different. He was different. And the only thought rolling through his mind in that moment was…
Don’t mind if I do.
