The Finish (The Eliminator Series Book 12)

by Mike Ryan

“What?”

  “I don’t know. I guess for so long I’ve focused on the bad things and what I’ve lost.”

  “Well, you did lose everything. It’s understandable.”

  “But I really haven’t focused on the good. On what I had. And what I have.”

  “Which is?”

  “I had the best kids I could have asked for. We had great times. And I had the love of a special woman. The love of a lifetime.” He looked deep into Tiffany’s eyes. “And now I’ve got it again. With someone else who’s just as special. I’m lucky that I get to experience that twice.” He leaned his head down and kissed her on the lips.

  “I just hope you’ll eventually be as happy with me as you once were with her.”

  Jacobs smiled and kissed her again. “I already am.”

  They looked up, finally seeing a glimpse of the sun, which was now shining down on them. They both looked up and smiled, feeling like that was some type of sign from Valerie. Jacobs put his arm around his girlfriend’s shoulder as they started walking back through the cemetery.

  He looked back at his dog. “C’mon, Gunner.”

  Gunner got up and ran over to them.

  “I think we should take some time off,” Jacobs said.

  “Oh?” Tiffany said. “And do what?”

  “I dunno. Let’s just take a vacation somewhere. Ever since we met, we’ve been ducking bullets, escaping tragedies, and fighting bad guys. I think we should take a few weeks, just for us. Kind of get reacquainted, without having to worry about anything else.”

  Tiffany smiled. “I like that idea. Did you have somewhere special in mind?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe somewhere warm and beachy. Florida, California, Hawaii, someplace like that.”

  “I think that sounds terrific.”

  Once they got back to the car, they stood near the passenger door and put their arms around each other.

  “I feel like I’ve waited so long for this day,” Tiffany said. “It feels… so free. Like we don’t have any more troubles.”

  “We don’t.”

  She looked up at him. “Are you sure?”

  “I’m through with this life. Now all that matters is you and me.” Gunner was sitting next to them and barked. They both looked down and laughed at him. “Yeah, and you too, bud.”

  She put her hands on his face and planted another kiss on him. “I love you.”

  Jacobs kissed her back. “I love you too. Are you sure I’m not gonna be too much of a reclamation project for you?”

  Tiffany shook her head. “Nope. You’re just what I’ve wanted. And I am not letting you go.”

  Jacobs put his arms around her waist, bringing her in tight. “And I’m not letting you go either. We’re stuck to each other now.” He gave her another kiss. “Forever.”

  Author Notes

  Wow. The end of the series. If you’ve made this far, I want to thank you for reading along for this entire journey. I really appreciate your support. I never take it for granted. In regards to the series, I wanted to give you my thoughts and feelings about it now that we’ve wrapped it up, and give you some insights into my process for it.

  This last book, The Finish, was the hardest book of the series for me to write. I don’t know if it’s because it really was the most difficult, or maybe subconsciously I really didn’t want to say goodbye to the characters, but there were several times when I had to walk away from it for a few days.

  Of course, that could be because I totally changed my process when writing this book. In almost every book I write, I write in a straight line. From beginning to end, start to finish. I usually don’t deviate from that. For The Finish, though, I wrote the first chapter, then I wrote the last chapter, because I knew how I wanted it to end. Everything in between was the tough part.

  Speaking of the ending, I think I wrote a pretty satisfying conclusion for the series. At least I hope you all feel the same. I did go back and forth about Jacobs being the one to kill Mallette. I did give some serious thought to it actually being Thrower as being the one to end things. In my initial vision of that fatal scene between them, I actually had Mallette and Jacobs facing off, with Jacobs down, or injured, with Mallette in front of him, ready to finish him off. Then Thrower would come up behind Mallette and take him out, saving the day.

  My thinking in that strategy was that Jacobs had risen to be the better man. He didn’t need to be the one to end things, even with all of the horrible things that Mallette had done to him. But when I wrote that scene, I just naturally gravitated to the way things eventually played out. Maybe in my mind I thought that Jacobs really deserved to be the one to end it, even though he really didn’t take much pleasure out of Mallette being dead.

  Now that I’m talking about the series, it’s interesting how things play out, and how different they wind up being than when you first envision them. I am not a writer who plots and outlines. I’ve tried it, but it didn’t really work for me. But I still usually have a sense of where I want to go. Now, sometimes the characters and the story don't agree and they go off in their own direction anyway.

  It’s especially true in terms of characters. I never really plan how big or small a character is or might become. I try to let it play out naturally. The only one that is obviously planned is the main character, in this case Brett Jacobs. I don’t really have any preconceived notions about how big a role they will play.

  This is evident in the case of Gunner, who when I initially thought of the series, was not even in my thought process. He just naturally showed up, and I couldn’t get rid of him after that. It just seemed to flow so smoothly that he’d become Jacobs’ right hand. Now in retrospect, I couldn’t imagine the series without him, and I’m not sure Jacobs would have even made it through the series without him. I think he’s so integral to the series, and to Jacobs, that he just naturally became such an important character. I’m not even sure why I included him in that one scene where he first appeared. But it wasn’t with the intention of him becoming the major player he turned out to be. However, I’m certainly glad I did!

  Another character like this is Eddie Franks. When I first wrote the character, I had no idea how important he would become. I first thought he’d be there for a couple scenes, and that would be it. But I just couldn’t get rid of the guy. You never knew what would come out of his mouth, and some of it didn’t make any sense, but he and Jacobs wound up striking up this friendship that Jacobs desperately needed. And, with a lot of the series being pretty dark, at least in view of everything that happened to Jacobs, I really thought that Franks brought some needed levity to just about everything.

  Speaking of Franks, I did have thoughts about killing the character off, I think it was somewhere in books nine or ten. And I really thought hard about it. It almost happened. But in the end, I just decided not to go through with it. No specific reason for it. I just decided against it.

  Tiffany was also a weird case, in that I never intended for her to stick around for the rest of the series when I first wrote her. Initially, I thought her and Jacobs would go on a few dates, but then they’d go their separate ways, whether it was Jacobs getting pulled back into a darker place, or her not wanting to get into that type of life, but she just kept hanging around and coming back.

  I did reference several times in the series, mostly before Tiffany came along, that Jacobs was growing weary, and was probably willing, if not expecting to not make it out of this fight alive. He couldn’t pull himself out of the hole he was in without his family. But when Tiffany came along, I thought it was good for him, and he would finally have something to look forward to, assuming he could finish off Mallette.

  Nate Thrower. The bodyguard. This is another guy who somehow crept his way into the series. When I first thought of this character, he was originally supposed to be a nameless, faceless guy. We’d never really see him, or talk to him, or really even know he was there in any way. Jacobs would give this guy a nod outside the restaurant, and that’s pre
tty much the only thing we’d ever see from him, except to know that he was there watching. But I just felt it’d be pretty interesting to start seeing things from his perspective, and he became such a huge part of the last few books, that I really couldn’t see Jacobs finishing things without him. Plus, Tiffany probably would’ve been dead without him, too. And I really love his character. He’s big, and tough, and can fight, but he’s not beaten down like Jacobs is, and has a pretty good outlook on things.

  I do have thoughts about starting a new series involving Nate Thrower, this time with him as the main character. It would probably involve him moving around, going from city to city, or country to country, lending his services out to people who need them. I’ve been giving it some thought. I’ve had a few people indicate they’d like him having a series, but please let me know if you’d like to see him having his own series, as well.

  Buchanan was a character that I originally thought would play a bigger role throughout the series than he wind up doing. The first two books his role was rather significant, but after the first few, it just didn’t seem like he was necessary for a bigger role. I didn’t really want to have Jacobs leaning on a police contact for things if I could help it. And I thought that Jacobs really wanted to distance himself from his past, so I really couldn’t justify Buchanan having a larger role, though in a few books I felt like I tried bringing him back in. But it just didn’t seem necessary to be any larger than popping up every now and then.

  For the big villain, I always knew that Mallette was going to make an appearance out of jail again. From the first book where it really starts with him going to prison, I always knew that the final book was going to be him getting out of jail, however that happened. He got released a book earlier than I originally planned, but this was one of those things that I always really felt strongly about happening. The final book was always going to end up with Jacobs and Mallette meeting up again, face to face. Somehow, that was going to happen.

  I really thought about ending the series with The Return, book eleven. When they have that showdown at the end of the book, with Mallette taking out Butch, I really thought about ending things there, since all the main players were basically there, except for Ames. But then I thought that it would be too many things going on, and I really wanted Mallette to have his own space. I thought he deserved to be the focal point of the last book instead of going down with a bunch of wannabes. At least that’s how he views his competition.

  That’s most of the main players in the series. When I first started writing these, as with any series, I really didn’t know how long it would go on for. As with all my books, fan and reader interest pretty much drives the decision on whether they go on for a while. At least to a certain degree. As long as I feel there’s still reader interest, and I still have a passion for the books and characters, I’ll keep writing them. For The Eliminator Series, though, I felt that the story had naturally come to a conclusion. For me, there was nothing left to tell after this. The reader interest was still there, and I hadn’t lost interest, but I really didn’t know what else I would write about after this without it getting repetitive.

  As with the other series I write, I wrote the first three books, then hoped there would be enough interest to keep going. Luckily there was. I thought maybe we’d do six or eight books, then call it a night. But the interest was still there, and there was still more story to tell, so we made it to twelve. And I think that’s a pretty good place to be. Hopefully, you’ve enjoyed this ride as much as I have.

  If you want to talk about the books, or any of my work, the best place to interact with me is on Facebook. I answer every comment on there (as long as it’s nice).

  Thanks for being here, and staying with me to the end of this thing. I hope I delivered for you.

  Also by Mike Ryan

  Thank you for reading The Eliminator Series. If you’re looking for your next read, please check out the following titles:

  Other Books:

  The Silencer Series

  The Extractor Series

  The Cain Series

  The Cari Porter Series

  The Ghost Series

  The Brandon Hall Series

  A Dangerous Man

  The Last Job

  The Crew

  About the Author

  Mike Ryan is a USA Today Bestselling Author. He lives in Pennsylvania with his wife, and four children. He’s the author of the bestselling Silencer Series, as well as many others. Visit his website at www.mikeryanbooks.com to find out more about his books, and sign up for his newsletter. You can also interact with Mike via Facebook, and Instagram.