Page 53 of Deadly Forever

James tugged her closer and wrapped his arms around her, burying his face in her hair. “Loving you is the best part of my life.”

“You’re so schmaltzy this morning,” Mandy said, swiping at the tears. “How come?”

“I don’t know,” James admitted, opting for honesty. “Maybe it’s the big wedding that’s coming up … or maybe it’s watching you with Darcy because you have such a big heart … or maybe it’s the shift in our lives now that you’re not at the courthouse and we can finally do things exactly how we want to do them. Maybe it’s a mixture of all three. I’m not sure.

“The only thing I’m sure about is that I love you more than anything,” he continued. “I will never love anything more than I love you. I will always love you just as much as I love you now – or maybe even more – no matter what. I can make those promises without worry because I know they’re true.”

Mandy stared at him a moment, dumbfounded. “I don’t know how I got so lucky. The fact that you love me still feels like some sort of ridiculous miracle.”

“You’re the miracle, baby,” James countered. “You’ll always be my miracle.”

Mandy let loose with a wistful sigh as she pressed her lips to his chin. “Okay, we can do it again. You have to do all of the work, though.”

James barked out a laugh, delighted. “I’m happy just to hold you, wife. I’m not ruling out doing all of the work later, though.”

“Deal.”

“THIS HAD better be good.”

James held Mandy’s hand as they strolled into the security office several hours later. They were both flushed from their morning activities – it turns out they shared the workload – and James was looking forward to a day in bed when he got the call from Grady that they’d matched Kaspar’s fingerprints. Grady insisted he come to the office so they could talk so James brought Mandy as a reminder that he had other things he’d rather be doing.

“Oh, you two look all aglow with love,” Grady teased, smirking when he saw Maverick’s eyes widen. The computer hacker sat at the desk and shook his head when he caught sight of Mandy’s legs highlighted to perfection in her short cutoffs.

“I want to be aglow with her,” Maverick said. “She’s freaking hot.”

James made a face. “I know she’s hot. She’s not hot for you, though. She’s hot for me.”

“That’s why he married me,” Mandy teased. “He likes that I’m hot.”

“That’s only one of the reasons I married you, baby,” James countered, sliding his arms around her waist and tugging her to his lap as he settled in one of the chairs across from his desk. “What’s going on?”

“We got a hit on the fingerprints,” Jake supplied, wandering into the room with a file in his hand. He looked equally well-rested and happy, but James opted not to comment on it since he didn’t want to risk punching Jake for being filthy with his sister so close to the wedding.

“That’s what Grady said.” James ran his fingers through Mandy’s soft hair. “It must be big if you guys insisted on bringing me here when I had other plans for my day.”

“You have those plans every day,” Grady countered. “You can return to those plans in a few hours. Er, well, maybe. I figured you would want to know and we need to come up with a plan.”

“Oh, well, I can’t wait to hear this,” James said, turning serious. “Who is Kaspar really?”

“His name is Doug Fisher,” Maverick replied. “He’s a registered sex offender from the west side of the state.”

James stilled, his mind working overtime. “How is that possible?” he asked after a beat. “Doesn’t the school run fingerprints when hiring people? I thought that was a state rule or something. Even if it’s not, though, we’re talking about one of the ritziest high schools in the state. They have to run background checks.”

“I can’t answer that question,” Maverick said. “The school did run a cursory background check on Kaspar and he obviously passed. There are fingerprint files in his record at the school, but they are not the same fingerprints you snagged last night.”

“And we’re sure we ran the correct prints, right?” James pressed. “I mean … we could’ve accidentally run the bartender’s prints instead. He put his hands on the glass, too.”

“There were three sets of prints on the glass,” Maverick explained. “I ruled out your wife straight away. She has no record, in case you’re wondering. I was a little disappointed with what a good girl she’s been.”

James scowled. “She’s my bad girl plenty of the time,” he said. “What about the other two sets of prints?”

“The second set belongs to the bartender,” Maverick answered. “He has a record, but it’s for petty stuff. Nothing major.”

“And the third set belongs to Doug Fisher,” James concluded. “I don’t suppose you have a photograph of him so we can be sure, do you?”

“I have his mug shot.”

“That will work.”