"He makes you happy?" he asked her.
She didn't need to ask whom he was talking about. "The happiest."
Will nodded and shut the door, leaving her alone in her room.
* * * *
Sully returned a couple of hours later, leading Brady by the hand. They'd been down at the creek fishing, and Brady's knees were covered with mud, his cheeks pink from the cold. Brady started to climb onto Maggie's bed, but Sully swooped him up into his arms.
"Just a minute, there, buddy. You're all dirty."
"I know, but we have to ask her the question," he whispered. Only Brady wasn't very good at whispering, and Sully cringed, knowing Maggie would never let his words go.
"What question?" Maggie asked, her gaze narrowing playfully.
"That was supposed to be tonight," Sully replied. "After dinner."
"Just do it now! I don't want to wait! I want us to be a family now!" he said in his loud whisper.
Maggie's gasp echoed in the room, and Sully almost rolled his eyes, except that it was so precious and amazing that this little boy had taken to him so quickly. Four days they'd spent together, and you'd think they'd been best buds for Brady's entire life.
"Fine. We'll do it now!"
Sully set Brady down on his feet, and Brady approached Maggie's bed, getting on one knee. From his pocket, Sully took the ring he'd been carrying around since he'd brought Maggie home from the hospital, and got down on one knee next to Brady.
Maggie sat up, her hands going up to her face.
"Maggie, Brady and I would like to know if you'd marry me and make us a family?" Sully asked.
Tears streamed down her face as she nodded her head up and down.
"Yes," she finally said, holding her arms out so he'd hug her. He did, slipping the ring on her finger when he pulled away, and kissing her long and hard.
"Ew, gross," Brady said and jumped up on the bed, dirty knees and all.
Sully wasn't done yet, though. He took out a small bear that had a t-shirt on its little body. The shirt said Daddy Bear.
Brady was sitting next to his momma now, and Sully knelt back down on his knees in front of him.
"Brady, I know we don't know each other very well, but the last few days with you have been the best of my life. I love your momma a lot, and I want us to be a family."
"I know! That's why you're gonna ma-wy her." His inability to pronounce his Rs was the cutest thing ever.
"Right, but I'd like us to be a family with a momma and a daddy. So I was wondering if you'd let me be your daddy?" Sully asked.
Maggie was crying so hard now that she'd stopped trying to wipe the tears away, instead letting them flow freely down her cheeks.
"You don't have to answer now," Sully said when Brady's nose scrunched up again. "You can take some time to think about it and get back to me later. But I'd really love it if you'd let me be your daddy and love you as my son."
"Does that mean I can call you daddy instead of Sully?" Brady asked.
"It sure does."
"And does that mean I get to be a part of your castle?"
Sully's nose was the one scrunching now. He didn't understand where the kid was going with this.
"You know, Sully's Castle. Does that mean I get to live in your castle?" Brady asked.
Sully threw his head back with laughter. "Castle is my name. And if I’m your dad, it can be your name, too. Brady Castle."
Brady thought about it for a minute. "I like that. Brady Castle."
"Does that mean you're saying yes?" Sully asked.
"Yes!" Brady said, and he launched himself into Sully's arms so hard that he fell back on his butt.
When evening came, Sully put Brady to bed, answering all of the hundred and four questions the boy had about the wedding and being a family. After he was tucked in, Sully took a bottle of wine and two glasses down to Maggie's room. When he got there, she was out of bed, her hair was combed, and she had changed into a camisole and soft pajama pants.
"I'm still too sore for real clothes," she said, almost as if she were embarrassed.
"You look beautiful," he said, setting the wine bottle down on the dresser and taking her into his arms. "I brought wine. I figured one glass wouldn't hurt you."
She reached up on her toes and kissed him. "I've pretty much weaned myself off the hard stuff anyway."
He let her go and poured a glass of wine for each of them. He gave her one glass and lifted the other.
"To the loves of my life, Maggie and Brady," Sully said, raising his glass in a toast.
Maggie smiled, her pink hair like a cotton candy halo around her head, and her big blue eyes shining with love and promise. She clinked her glass against his.
"To our hero."
Epilogue
Five years later
"Get down from there, Jackson!" Maggie nestled baby Georgia more tightly in her arms while trying to get Jackson, who was only three, out of the tree he'd climbed into.
"I'll get him, mom," Brady, now nine, called out. He ran to the tree, climbing up gracefully and guiding his little brother down.
Strong arms wrapped around her as someone nuzzled her neck. "Mmm, you smell good," Sully said into her ear.
"That feels good," she said, sighing into him.
"What time is Georgia's nap again?" he purred.
Maggie giggled. "In about half an hour." She whirled around playfully, slapping at his chest. "But there's no time for that. The rest of the family will be here in an hour."
She and Sully loved having the team over as much as possible. Usually once a month, they'd all get together at someone's house, and grill out or make pasta and just spend time together. They'd all realized that life could be taken away from them in a moment, and none of them were taking it for granted.
"Seems to me like that leaves us thirty minutes of play time," Sully said.
"I still have to cut the vegetables and toss the salad. You need to make sure the grill is all fired up. The chicken has been marinating since yesterday afternoon, so everything else is ready to go."
"So, ten minutes of play time," he said, pulling her up against his hard chest. Marriage had not harmed Sully's fit figure at all. Fortunately, Maggie's petite size, and her constant running after Jackson and nursing Georgia, had done wonders for her own weight loss goals. Maggie didn't think she'd ever been more fit in her life.
"Ten minutes isn't very long," she protested.
"Ten minutes is plenty long enough for what I have planned. I promise you"—he leaned in close, nipping at her ear—"I'll leave you completely satisfied."
Chills ran over her skin, and she shivered. Suddenly, the only thing that mattered was getting naked with her husband.
"Meet me in our room in ten," she said to Sully and pushed him towards the house. They'd bought an older home right on a small private lake, in an amazing neighborhood in Virginia, about thirty-five miles south of D.C.. It wasn't anything fancy, but it was perfect for them.
After the fire had burned down the warehouse, Sully and the guys had made the decision to focus on smaller security assignments. They were all starting families at the time, and they'd all made enough money to live comfortably without the high-profile cases. Sully only worked about three days a week and spent the other four adoring his family.
Maggie still worked for the firm, but she was able to do so from home. Sully had rented a small office in the heart of D.C., but she only went in about once a month. Her life was her family these days, and she wouldn't change a thing.
"Boys! I’m going inside for a little while. Brady, do you mind keeping an eye on your brother?"
"I've got him," Brady said with a smile on his face. He was the best kid. He'd been through so much, but life with Sully as his dad had made all the difference in his life. They loved each other so much, and Sully never treated Brady any differently from the way he treated his own biological children. He always called Brady his first-born son.
It melted Maggie's heart.
She
walked up the stairs as quickly as she could to Georgia's nursery. The girl loved to eat and sleep, and, at eight weeks old, that was still about all she was doing—although she had graced her daddy with a smile once or twice. Maggie didn't have the heart to tell him that she'd already been doing that for her for two weeks.
Maggie sat down in the rocker and adjusted her shirt to feed Georgia. Fortunately, she was tired enough that after six or seven minutes, she'd snacked enough to fall asleep. Maggie laid her in the crib and almost yelped when Sully's arms snaked around her waist.
"I told you to wait in our room," she whispered.
He looked over her shoulder at their daughter.
"I couldn't wait," he said. His mouth found hers, and he kissed her with so much passion and desire that it was almost like that first time. Only it was better. Marriage had only intensified their love for each other. It had made them hungrier. And each stolen moment they had just fueled the fire for their next encounter.
Sully scooped her up and carried her to their bedroom down the hall. He kicked the door closed behind them and locked it. Maggie giggled. They'd learned the hard way to lock the door any time they wanted privacy. Good thing Jackson was still too young to put two and two together.
Sully dropped her on the bed and then stepped back, pulling his shirt over his head with one hand. Maggie thought back to the first time they'd made love. She'd been in awe of his body then, and she was still mesmerized. She licked her lips as Sully pushed his pants and boxers down to his ankles.
"Like what you see, Mrs. Castle?" he asked, arching one eyebrow.
"Mm-hmm," she purred.
"Good," he said and leaned over her, pushing her back against the pillows. His hands dropped to the hem of her shirt and pulled it over her head. He made quick work of her bra and didn't even bother pulling down the short, flouncy skirt she was wearing.
His hands started up her thighs, to push her skirt up to her hips, and then stilled. "Please tell me you don't have any panties on under this," he said, his eyes closed almost in a silent prayer.
She giggled, then leaned in close to his ear. "I don't have any panties on," she whispered.
Sully growled, continuing his perusal of her undergarments—or lack thereof.
"You are one naughty girl," he said, a grin splitting his face.
"Let's see just how naughty I can be."
* * * *
Twenty minutes later, Sully was cleaning the grill as Maggie cut vegetables in the house. So sue him. He’d had his hot wife in his bed. Who wouldn't want ten extra minutes with her?
A car door slammed, and Sully looked at his phone to see who was pulling up. Working for a security firm had its advantages—such as a top-of-the-line security system that allowed him to see everything that was going on at his house when he was away, right there on his phone. Zach was a genius.
Ethan looked up at the camera and gave him a single finger salute. And not his pointer. Sully chuckled to himself as Ethan's brood piled out of their van. He had four kids. Isabel had given birth to Sadie, their daughter, just a couple of months after the showdown at the farmhouse. A year later, she’d gotten pregnant with Molly, their second daughter. A year after that, with Emily, their third daughter. And three weeks ago, Isabel had given birth to their fourth daughter, Claire.
Sully joked with Ethan that he wasn't man enough to produce boys. Ethan always ribbed back that he was the only one man enough to father four daughters. He was probably right.
Moments later, Ethan opened the French doors to the back deck, a beer in hand.
"How's it going?" he asked.
"Better than I deserve," Sully asked, and he meant it. He didn't know what he had done to deserve the life he'd been given, but he couldn't be any happier.
"Well, that's the truest thing I've ever heard," Ethan said, laughing and taking a swig of his beer.
More car doors opened and closed, and Sully checked his phone again. Lucas and Scarlett and their three kids were piling out of their car.
Lucas and Scarlett had three boys, Miles, Max, and Mitchell. Why in the world they’d decided to alliterate their names, Sully would never know. He could never get the right name out for the right kid. He didn't know how Scarlett did it.
Sully and Maggie also always invited Emery, Scarlett's sister, but lately she was always tied up with coaching. After finishing college, Emery had run professionally for a year before being recruited to coach for a college in western Virginia. She loved it, and Scarlett said that she'd started dating the men's cross country coach from the same college, which was probably the reason they seldom saw her anymore.
Right behind them, Ella and Zach arrived. They had a girl, Lannah, named after Ella's mother Alannah Flores, and a son named Guillermo, after Ella's father, whom they just called Billy for simplicity. “Guillermo” was a bit of a mouthful.
Christy Knox and her new husband, Stephen Ranger, pulled up shortly after Ella and Zach. Stephen worked for Castle Investigations. He'd been there with Marcus when the women had arrived at the safe house after the warehouse attack, and had stayed with Christy at her safe house once the guys had arrived for security detail. It hadn't exactly been love at first sight. According to Christy, she and Stephen had driven each other crazy. They were complete opposites, but eventually love had won out.
Christy had testified against Andrew Haney six months after that fateful night at the farmhouse. Her testimony had been instrumental in putting him away for life, as well as three of Avila's gang members.
Castaneda's trial had been a couple of months before that, and he'd been sentenced to ten years in prison since they weren't able to link him directly with the murder of the marshals. His involvement with Kingston, though, had been enough to put him away for a few years at least.
Avila had served only five years and was up for parole. His testimony, along with Christy's, had made the case against Haney solid. He would most likely be getting out soon, but rumor had it that Avila was ready to retire and had no desire to take up his old stomping grounds.
The president had won reelection and had used the next four years to uncover those who'd been loyal to The General, going on to have them prosecuted and removed from office. He'd virtually cleaned out the swamp of D.C., and the country felt stronger than ever.
The final car to pull up was Gabriel's Carlotta. He jumped out of the sports car and rounded it, opening the door for his very pregnant wife. Cate slid out of the seat and tried as gracefully as possible to stand. She was due any day now. Sully smiled to himself. He’d never thought he'd see the day that Gabriel Sanchez was brought to his knees by a woman.
When Gabriel reached the back deck, the guys clapped him on the back, asking if that baby had come yet.
"You’d better not let Cate hear you ask that. She almost took my head off the other day when I made that joke. She's scary, man," Gabriel teased.
The ladies gossiped in the kitchen while the guys waited for the meat to cook on the grill, drinking beer and exchanging insults. Sully looked around and smiled.
This was the life. He was happy. His family was happy. They'd all come from terrible circumstances, experiencing more in a few short years than most people had to endure in a lifetime. But they'd come through. Hard work, determination, and love—they had all found the recipe for a happy life.
When the meat was done, Maggie and the rest of the ladies brought the food to the table. They ate, drank, and laughed until the sun set over the lake. Sully draped his arm over Maggie's shoulders as she fed their daughter, and he looked on in amazement and awe. Glancing around at the faces of his brothers, their wives, and his sister, he stood and held up his glass.
"To us!" he toasted.
"To us!" they all shouted. Georgia jumped slightly in her mother's arms but went right back to nursing.
They were sitting, talking and laughing well into the evening hours, when Cate jumped up out of her seat.
"Whoa!" she shouted, her arm wrapped tightly around her enor
mous belly.
"What? What is it?" Gabriel asked, panic etched on his face as he jumped up beside her.
Cate looked down at her wet pants and the water on the deck. Nice. Sully would have to clean that up tomorrow.
"My water just broke!" she cried.
Gabriel ran towards the back doors, then back to Cate, then back to the doors again.
"Chill out, Gabriel. She's going to be fine. Just get her to the hospital," Sully said.
"It's forty minutes away," he said, panic on his face.
"And I guarantee that she's only a couple of centimeters dilated," Lucas said calmly.
"She was two centimeters on Monday! That was five days ago," Gabriel said.
"Ok, well, maybe a couple of more. You still have time. Go get the car ready. We'll help her outside." Lucas, the only person with any medical training of the group, was probably the only one Gabriel would listen to. Never mind the fact that every other woman present, except for Christy, who said she was too old and too set in her ways for children, had already been through this process several times.
Gabriel relented and went to get the car. Maggie stood up and embraced Cate.
"You ok?" she asked, excitement etching her voice.
Cate and Gabriel had wanted children, but it hadn't come as easily for them. They'd been trying since shortly after their marriage, and the whole team had been ecstatic when they'd made their announcement.
"I think I’m far better off than Gabriel. Poor guy," she said, a smile on her face.
Sully gave her a quick hug. "Take care of him. He may seem tough—" he started, but when Cate's face contorted in pain as a contraction took over her body, he stepped away, patting her lightly on the shoulder. "Never mind."
Maggie chuckled as she helped Cate walk out the front door and get into the car.
"Call us and let us know when Jet arrives," Maggie called out to Gabriel. They'd found out they were having a little boy a few months ago.
"I will," Gabriel said, the panic on his face briefly turning to joy. Then Cate screamed out in pain, and the terror returned. Gabriel jumped in the car and sped out of the drive like a bat out of hell.
Castle Investigations Box Set Page 123
