by Elle James
Jack stepped forward, holding Anne’s hand in his. “As much as we loved being a part of the military, of serving our country—” he looked around at the others “—we’ve loved being a part of Declan’s Defenders.” He frowned. “But maybe I’m speaking for myself, not the others.”
“Snow’s right,” Cole said. “I didn’t know how I would fit back into society after leaving the military. Who would ever need a man who knew how to fire a military rifle or a grenade launcher, or could drop a man at four hundred yards?” Cole shook his head. “I don’t know about the others, but I was lost.”
Mustang, Declan, Jack, Gus and Mack all nodded.
“If it weren’t for Charlie, we might not still be together.”
“Or we might have been statistics, like so many other guys who get off active duty and can’t find their way home.”
Silence settled over the men and women gathered at the Halverson estate.
CJ knew the statistics. Every day, twenty-two veterans took their lives. She couldn’t imagine any of Declan’s Defenders sinking to that level of desperation. They all seemed so confident and...happy. She pressed one hand to her belly, slid the other around Cole’s waist and asked the question she wasn’t sure she wanted to know the answer to. “So, what’s it to be? Are you going to gather your team and report back to active duty?”
Declan pulled Grace up against his side. “What do you want me to do?”
Grace smiled up at him. “I want you to do what makes you happy.”
“You’d follow me around the world?”
She nodded. “The baby and I will follow you wherever you go. We’re part of your team now.”
Declan kissed her and looked across the patio at his boss. “Charlie, if you still feel you need me, I’d be proud to serve on Declan’s Defenders.”
Charlie nodded. “Declan’s Defenders has proved to be a viable and necessary organization. I’d be honored to have any and all of you continue to provide the service you’ve done so far.”
Declan turned to his team. “If you feel the call to return to the corps, you need to do what is best for you. I’m staying.”
Gus stepped forward. “So am I.”
Mustang joined Gus. “Me, too.”
Jack stepped up beside Declan. “I’m staying.”
Mack slipped an arm around Riley. “I’m invested in the people here and the life we’ve begun. I’m staying.”
Everyone turned to the last Defender. Cole.
“You’re my brothers,” Cole said. “Where you go, I go.” He lifted his chin toward their benefactor. “And Charlie, Arnold and Jonah are family. I feel we found our way home when we came to work for you.”
“Exactly,” Declan agreed.
“But don’t worry,” Cole said. “We won’t be moving back in with you anytime soon. Seems you need to keep rooms open for the strays you manage to attract.” He glanced down at CJ.
Her heart swelled with the love she’d found in this man. She knew she could live without him—she’d done it before—but he completed her like no one had done in her past.
“I love you, Cole McCastlain. And I love the life we’re creating.” She leaned up on her toes and pressed her lips to his.
Roger Arnold cleared his throat again. “Charlotte has another announcement to make, if you would be so good as to give her your attention once more.” He smiled and nodded to Charlie.
Charlie’s cheeks flushed with color. The woman looked young again and excited. “I have a job opening for a new butler.”
CJ frowned. “Roger, you’re not leaving us, are you?”
He shook his head but pressed his lips together and waited for Charlie to continue.
“No, Roger is not leaving us.” She reached out a hand to him.
He took it and stepped up beside her, his shoulders thrown back, his head held high. “What Charlotte is saying is that she’s agreed to become my wife.”
Charlie’s smile spread across her face. “I know it’s only been ten months since my dear, sweet husband passed. Deep in my heart, I know he would approve of my decision. You see, Roger and John had been friends for a very long time. I think if I had met Roger first, I might have married him. But then, I loved John with all of my heart and I wouldn’t have traded any day with him for the world.
“Roger came to me when I needed him most. After John was murdered. I don’t know what I would have done without his support. But it’s more than that.” She turned to Roger, her eyes gleaming. “I love him as much, if not more than I loved John. Life has proven to be short. I’m not wasting another minute of it alone when I can be with the man I love.” She turned to face them and held up her left hand. “Looks like we’re going to have a few weddings in our near future.”
CJ was the first to hug Charlie and Roger, her eyes filling with tears as she wished them all the happiness their hearts desired. Then she stepped back into Cole’s arms and felt as if her world had come full circle.
She’d lost her family at a young age and wandered through life trying to fit in. Now she had a man who loved her, a group of friends who would give their lives to save hers and a baby on the way.
After all the years of loneliness, her world was full of love. Trinity had stolen her childhood, but she’d found her way home to Cole and his team.
Cole stood behind her, his arms around her, a hand spanning her belly. They had a life ahead of them and a child to love.
CJ leaned back against Cole and looked at him over her shoulder. “I love you, Cole.”
“I love you, too, Cara Jo. You’re everything I could have ever wanted and more.” He kissed her temple. “And you’re giving me the best gift of all.”
“The baby?”
“Well, that, too. But I meant your love. I will treasure it, you and our children forever.”
* * *
Keep reading for an excerpt from Conflicting Evidence by Lena Diaz.
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Conflicting Evidence
by Lena Diaz
Chapter One
Fresh shoe prints in the dirt outside the abandoned Sterling homestead confirmed that Deputy US Marshal Colin McKenzie’s hunch was likely right—the arsonist who’d nearly destroyed Colin’s life a decade ago was back. And once again, Colin was going to put Brian Sterling right where he belonged—in prison.
But he had to catch him first.
He drew his Glock 22 and scanned the thick woods that surrounded this remote mountain property half an hour southwest of Gatlinburg, Tennessee. Late-afternoon sun slanted across the one-story craftsman-style house, casting shadows along the sagging porch. The once proud structure sported peeling yellowed paint that had started out white, railings missing most of their spindles and a cracked picture window that he remembered had an amazing view of the Smoky Mountains.
Back when the Sterling siblings and the McKenzie brothers had gone to Gatlinburg–Pittman High School together, a split three-rail fence had marked the line where a manicured lawn ended and wilderness began. Now, half the posts were tipping like drunks desperately trying to catch their balance. The rest littered the ground, having surrendered to the high winds and violent storms that often blew through the area. This decaying family home was a sad reminder of what the Sterlings had lost, all because of the selfish son who’d destroyed everyone’s plans for the future.
Including Colin’s.
He tightened his grip on his gun and crouched down to make himself less of a target as he crept from the gravel driveway to the house. Most of the windows didn’t have curtains or even blinds anymore, giving him a decent view
of the rooms. They were surprisingly neat and tidy. Maybe the Sterlings paid someone to come up from town every few months to clean the place. Too bad they weren’t paying equal attention to the outside.
After a full circuit around the structure, he was confident his nemesis wasn’t inside waiting to take a shot at him. A tour of the cobweb-filled shed and the sadly empty horse barn out back confirmed that no one had been in them for quite some time, probably years.
Cursing the summer heat, he wiped a bead of sweat from his forehead and returned to the front yard. All the while, he kept his pistol trained on the trees that surrounded the property. Was Brian out there right now, watching him? Or had someone else left that shoe print?
It wasn’t like a hiker would accidentally stumble across this place. The Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the Appalachian Trail were several rugged miles east. And the steep winding road up here only led to the Sterling homestead and one other house, Colin’s, two miles farther up the mountain. But Brian didn’t know that. Colin had purchased the land and built his home several years after the Sterlings left Gatlinburg for Memphis.
From what Colin had heard, the move cost Brian’s father over half his client list. Had he been able to rehabilitate his once successful financial-advisor career in Memphis? Did his wife find a church community that she enjoyed as much as the one here? Was their daughter happy? Had she managed to forget everyone here she’d once loved, or who’d once loved her?
Colin tightened his grip on his pistol.
He didn’t have the answers to any of those questions. All he knew for sure was that the family had sacrificed everything to move six hours away so they could be closer to FCI, the Federal Correctional Institution, where Brian was serving his fifteen-year sentence.
Until he’d decided to give himself a get-out-of-jail-early card less than twenty-four hours ago.
Colin hadn’t seriously expected that the escaped convict would risk the long drive to Gatlinburg with his face plastered all over the news. But Brian wasn’t known for being a deep thinker. He wasn’t known for thinking much about his actions at all, or their impact on others. At nineteen he’d nearly burned two people alive. Now, at twenty-nine, while escaping a prison transport van that was taking him to the courthouse, he’d murdered a police officer. He’d made a wife a widow, a young son fatherless and put a target on his back for the entire Tennessee law-enforcement community.
Without noticing any movement near the tree line, and hearing only the sound of his own boots crunching on dry weeds and gravel, Colin eased back to his pickup. A few minutes later, he concealed his truck behind a stand of basswood trees about thirty feet from the roadway. Hoofing it from there, he selected a heavily canopied oak that would offer a clear view of the house while providing him with shade and concealment. After settling onto a thick branch a third of the way up the tree, he leaned back against the trunk and stretched out his long legs in front of him. Now, all he had to do was wait.
Copyright © 2020 by Lena Diaz
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ISBN: 9781488067167
Disruptive Force
Copyright © 2020 by Mary Jernigan
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
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