Page 147 of Reveal

CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR

Vaughn

“You’re a goddamn warrior is what you are.” Ryker’s smile is soft, his eyes still guarded as he turns me around and pulls me between his thighs so that my back is against his front.

The city’s lights are alive around us as we soak in his bathtub.

“A part of me is jealous that you got to take him out and I didn’t. I was having a pretty shitty day until then and could have used him to get my aggression out.”

“Mmm.” I lean my head back on his shoulder and close my eyes. “This has to be the oddest conversation ever had between a couple.”

“I told you we were far from the norm.” I can hear the smile in his voice when he says it.

“Very far.” I enjoy the feel of him and the total irony of how we are now versus how we spent our day. Almost as if it never happened. But I know. I’ll remember. And by the way his arms are wrapped around me, he does too.

“It was the shittiest of shitty days. Don’t you think?”

“Let’s see. You selling your business. A crazy senator. The deranged counselor. A meeting with the FBI to clear you of everything.” He shakes his head with a chuckle.

“Now we just need to find out what dirt Carter threatened me with, and we should be good.”

“It doesn’t matter what he had on you,” Ryker says, his lips pressed against the back of my head. “Your immunity deal has you protected from him saying anything.”

“I’d still like to know what he thought he—”

“It’s all taken care of.”

“What?” I startle and try to turn to look at him, but he just keeps me in place. “What do you—”

“There was some misfiled paperwork down at the Greenwich courthouse that Stuart found. Warrants for theft, I think.”

“It wasn’t—Sam took—”

“No explanations needed, Vaughn.” He presses a kiss to my bare shoulder. “None. It took a little finagling, but I was able to petition the prosecuting attorney to get the warrants dismissed. It’s nothing you need to worry about now.”

I close my eyes momentarily and wonder if this is what relief feels like. All my ghosts are gone. All my past protected against so I can have a future. And while a part of me wants to question Ryker on why he didn’t tell me any of this in the first place, I almost don’t care.

It’s done.

It’s over with.

It’s time to have and live a life for me now.

“Oh.” It’s all I can manage to say as the day hits me.

“Definitely the shittiest of shitty days,” he reiterates.

“But now we’re here,” I murmur.

“There’s nowhere else I’d rather be.”

“Lucy’s going to be heartbroken when Joey’s no longer at the facility,” I murmur, my mind on her.

“At least she’ll be with you soon. She won’t need him anyway.” He presses a kiss to the back of my head, his words a reminder that Lucy will officially be mine soon.

“The only non-shitty part of the day,” I murmur as my heart swells.

“Yes. Besides this, right now, of course.”