“I appreciate all you and Clint have done. You’ve eased her mind, and that means a great deal to me.” Mac nodded and then began to walk toward the women.
Ramón watched as Marcia reached into her purse, pulled out paper and pen, and wrote something down. She handed that to Consuela—likely her cell phone number—and then hugged her one more time.
Then Mac approached them and resumed his position as Consuela’s protector.
Marcia returned to him, and Ramón opened his arms and held her close. He didn’t offer her words because he understood all she needed right then, he was giving her. Clint came out of the house and stood beside them.
“I was coming to check to see if Consuela was gone or not.”
Marcia sighed then turned in Ramón’s arms so she could watch as Mac saw the young woman buckled into the front seat of his truck.
They stood together, quietly, and watched as he drove off.
“Thank you for waiting to get started until she left,” Marcia said. “I wish I could kiss you right now, Sir.”
Clint flashed her a huge grin. “Don’t worry about it, subbie. We all agreed that, out in the wider world, it would appear that Ramón is your boyfriend.”
“Now that is a very high-school kind of word.” Marcia said.
“Would you prefer husband?” Ramón looked down at her. “I know it’s a hell of a place for us to propose. And I know we were going to wait for a more romantic moment.” Ramón directed that second sentence to Clint. “But all things considered, I think this is the right time and the right place. I love you more than I ever believed I could. So, what do you say, Miss Crane? Will you accept our ring on your finger and our collar around your neck?”
“Marry us, please, darlin’. I love you more than I have words to tell you.”
“I love you both, very, very much. Nothing would make me happier than to wear your ring and your collar—the sooner, the better.” She apparently didn’t care if anyone saw her or not. She stretched up and kissed Ramón, and then she kissed Clint.
“I promise to do better when we’re alone, later, Clint.”
“And I promise to bind you and send you to your happy place when we are, subbie.”
“Thank you, Sir.” Marcia’s brow furrowed as she looked over at the modest, unassuming house. “After today, I could certainly use that.”
* * * *
“To the Estévez-Parrishes.” Christopher Lyons held his glass of champagne aloft in a toast. “May your lives together be all that is good and loving and right.”
“Hear, hear!” Several guests at the private dinner party echoed the sentiment of the toast, and then together, they all sipped their bubbly.
Well, all but her friend Daisy. Her best friend had ginger ale in her glass, a fact known to only the six of them. The Lyons clan would be expanding by one member in about six months. They were waiting to make an announcement until they were well into the second trimester. So far, Daisy was glowing, and her Doms were emotional wrecks as they tried every way possible to wrap the mother of their soon-to-be-baby in cotton batting.
Marcia had never been happier. Earlier, downstairs in the club, Clint and Ramón had placed a collar on her neck. All the members of the Lyon’s Den had been in attendance and had cheered. Then they’d come up to the Lyonses’ apartment, where she and Ramón had been married by a justice of the peace.
She was touched that Christopher, Rory, and Daisy hosted their reception and surprised by the number of guests who attended.
Mac and Consuela were there, as were the doctors, Jessop and Jillian. She would forever be grateful for the tender care Robert Jessop had given her when she’d first come to this place. She enjoyed Jillian’s company and was looking forward to getting to know her fellow submissive better.
Clint then introduced her to Adam, Jake, and Ginny Kendall, who were also from Lusty. What she’d seen and taken in on that long ago visit to that small town became clear to her on this occasion. Many of the families who lived there were in ménage marriages. The Kendall men were brothers, but the men in another family, Mel Richardson and Connor Talbot, had barely known each other when they knew they both wanted to marry their wife, Emily Anne.
Peter Alvarez-Kendall, who she knew had been involved in the case against Torres, brought his husband, Jared, and his wife, Tracy. Marcia hadn’t cared whether or not her relationship with her Doms defied convention or not. Following the rules had garnered her nothing but pain and suffering from the time she’d been twelve years old. When she’d run away from her uncle’s less-than-tender care at the age of sixteen, she decided she’d make her own way. And while she’d stumbled more than she’d walked, she really believed everything she’d been through made it possible for her to stand right here, right now, with the most wonderful men in the entire world.
“My, but you are certainly one of the most beautiful, and happiest looking, brides I’ve ever seen!”
Marcia didn’t remember a whole lot of people from that engagement party at Lusty Appetites, but this woman had been unforgettable.
“Grandma Kate! How wonderful to see you again!” Who could ever forget the woman who was considered the head of the combined families of Lusty, Texas?
The strength of the nonagenarian’s hug certainly belied her years. On either side of Marcia, her men smiled and hugged the older woman, too.
“Grandma Kate, I understand I owe you a debt of gratitude for a piece of technology you made available to my boss.”
Marcia tilted her head and looked from her husband to Kate Benedict. Ramón grinned at her and nodded. “Grandma Kate saw to it that Joe was given a new-generation tracking device that we recently put to very good use.”
Kate waved away the gratitude. “Our company was very pleased for the opportunity to test that unit under real-world conditions.” She took Marcia’s hands in hers. “And I am more than happy that everything turned out well.” She stood and looked at the three of them.
“You’ve, each of you, separately and together, chosen love over hate, happiness over convention, and the future over the past. Because you dared to reach for your heart’s desire, you can look forward to a future filled with living, loving, and laughter.” Then she smiled. “I understand you’re looking for a house hereabouts.”
“I’m being assigned as a regular field agent to the Houston Office, and Clint already works out of the DPS division here,” Ramón said. “A house is a good investment.”
“Indeed, it is. When you find it, this should come in handy.”
She gave Ramón an envelope. He looked at Marcia and Clint.
Marcia grinned. “Open it.”
She thought he looked so cute when he was nonplussed.
“Now don’t fuss. You’re my grandchildren now, too, as both you men have been since you saved grandson Rich from that dreadful Victor Swift.”
The envelope contained a very healthy check and a note to call Kendall construction for complimentary refitting of the master suite.
“I don’t know what to say.” Ramón looked from Clint to her. “Gracias, abuela.”
“You’re welcome.” She grinned and leaned in to Marcia. “Now I must go and speak with that sweet Daisy Lyons. How delightful that she’s pregnant!”
The nonagenarian walked off, and Marcia laughed, even as she shook her head. “That is one amazing woman.”
Ramón passed the check over to Clint, whose wide eyes said it all. “Joe told me that, when we were ready, Jordan Alvarez-Kendall was the man who could fix us up with a Lusty-sized bed and shower.”
“A what?” Marcia had no idea what they were talking about.
Ramón laughed. “Imagine a bed and a shower at least twice as big as the ones in the apartment, and you’ll have some idea.”
Marcia could imagine that, and the imagining made her smile. “That sounds perfect.”
“Why do I hear an unspoken ‘but,’ wife?”
The smile Ramón wore told her he loved calling her that. She looked fro
m him to Clint and then tilted her head to one side. “Do you think Jordan Alvarez-Kendall would be able to install suspension hooks, too?”
Her Doms laughed. It was a sound she hoped to hear often for the rest of her life.
“I’m certain he can,” Clint said.
“And we’ll see that he does,” Ramón said. “Because if there’s one thing we want, the two of us, it’s to make our submissive happy.”
“You’ve already done that.” Marcia could honestly say they’d not only done that, they’d also obliterated every one of her demons.
She was the luckiest and happiest woman in the world.
Epilogue
One month later
Ramón finished making notes on the investigation he’d just completed. It hadn’t been an undercover assignment, of course. Nor had it been particularly dangerous. But in the end, he and his new partner, Gavin Barnes, had managed to catch their target, Miguel Cesare, a young man who’d hacked into and stolen from several real estate companies in south Texas.
It always felt good when he got a criminal off the street.
He took a moment to think about the Torres case. While most of the responsibility for prosecuting the man was resting with the DEA, he had been kept informed. It had given him great pleasure to be able to call Consuela Lopez and let her know that her friend Pilar had been located and liberated. That woman had been offered the chance to stay in the United States in exchange for her testimony.
That had been a bonus he hadn’t expected.
The phone on his desk buzzed. “Estévez.”
“Ramón, will you come to the conference room just down from my office?”
“I’m on my way, sir.”
Ramón hung up and left his office. Joe Grant had accepted a position as an assistant SAC of the field office, a promotion that, in Ramón’s opinion, was well deserved. He hadn’t known the man all that long. But after the way Joe Grant had had his back during the Torres investigation, he knew he’d always be able to trust him.
Two steps inside the conference room and he came to an abrupt stop. Joe was there, of course, and had his attention focused on him. There was also another gentleman attending, one of the US attorneys assigned to the Houston office.
But it was the third occupant of the room whose presence managed to gobsmack Ramón. The man stood by the large window, his back to the room, seemingly absorbed in the view beyond. Ramón hadn’t seen this man for more than twenty years, but he recognized him immediately. He’s got to be in his fifties.
Then the man turned around, saw Ramón, and a huge grin split his face. “Well, I’ll be damned. Ramón Estévez! I haven’t seen you in…” His voice trailed off, memory of how they’d met clearly a sobering one.
“How are you, Detective Lark?” Ramón gave the man his smile despite the circumstances of their acquaintance. It was Detective Lark who’d taken his statement in the aftermath of his sister’s abduction, who’d kept in touch with him in the days following.
It had been Lark who’d come to his apartment when María’s body had been discovered and who’d helped him bury his sister.
Lark shook his hand and then looked down at the ID badge Ramón wore. His eyes widened. “FBI Special Agent! Good for you, Estévez. Good for you. And it’s lieutenant, here.” He put his hands on his hips. “It’s been one of my few regrets, over the length of my career, that we were never able to solve the matter of your sister’s abduction. We were never able to nail the bastard responsible for her death.”
“I know you did your best, Lieutenant. That’s all any of us can ever do.”
“I’m glad you remember each other,” Joe Grant said. “Please, be seated. This is Assistant US Attorney George Harrison.”
Lieutenant Lark shook the man’s hand, and Ramón nodded to him.
“Gentlemen. I’m one of the team that was assigned to assess the evidence that was recovered in the house at 131 Elm Street in Brandy, Texas, following the arrest of Sérgio Torres. Special Agent Estévez, I believe that was your case.”
“Yes, sir, I was a part of that team.” Ramón felt the hair on the back of his neck rise, as his cop instincts went on full alert.
That had been the bonus that the DEA agent undercover in Mexico had learned. Torres had held on to that house for more than sentimental reasons. He’d used it to store what could only be called a “contingency plan.” Once they’d cleared the house of the furniture and debris, they’d begun to take it apart, piece by piece.
Investigators had uncovered a huge stash of evidence—not just money and documents bearing Torres’s image but in the name of Pedro Hidalgo. They’d also found what appeared to be extensive journals, listing names, dates, and amounts of money.
“It didn’t take us long to realize that what we had was a lot of evidence incriminating many people, people who’d had the bad judgment to do business with Sérgio Torres, aka Emilio Sanchez.”
“Emilio Sanchez…that name sounds familiar.” Lieutenant Lark sat back in his chair, his brow furrowed, clearly in thought. “I think the guys working vice in my division had him on a list with regard to drugs and…” His voice trailed off. He looked up at Ramón. “Drugs and human trafficking. Then he simply went off the grid, and we never got the opportunity to even question him.”
“No, about that time, he reinvented himself as Torres.” Ramón looked at Harrison.
“Are you familiar with the name Calvin Grebes?”
“Isn’t he some kind of mega-rich businessman, one who was making noises about running for the senate recently?” Lark asked.
“That’s the man.” Harrison met Ramón’s gaze. He said nothing but just handed a piece of paper to him and one to Lark.
Ramón skimmed the document and felt his heart trip. He started at the beginning and, this time, read every word. It looked to be a page copied out of a journal. Ramón understood it would have been one of the journals uncovered as evidence.
“This particular piece of evidence was corroborated by one of the videotapes also found in the same cache. Special Agent Estévez, access to that tape is severely restricted. We will not allow you to view it. However, I have here a photo that our lab produced from the tape. I’ll ask you if you can identify the subject, please.”
Ramón wished Marcia and Clint were both there with him. Everything inside him had gone cold as ice as hope warred with fear. He took the photograph Harrison handed him. Even taking a moment to brace himself, he felt leveled.
She’d been such a beautiful child. Papa had always claimed that she was his angel sent from heaven, that he didn’t deserve such a daughter. Perhaps she had been meant to be a princess? And yet for all of that, María Angelina had owned such a pure heart. As they’d adjusted to life in the group home, his sister had never felt sorry for herself, never complained. She was the first to make new residents feel welcome.
Until a tear fell on his hand, he didn’t even know he cried. For the second time in his life, he answered the question he’d been asked.
“Sí. This is my sister.” Mi Ángel. He cleared his throat. “This is María Angelina Estévez.”
“I won’t ask you if you’re certain,” Henderson said. “Instead, I’ll ask you something else.” He pulled out a folded piece of paper, what Ramón recognized as an arrest warrant. “Special Agent Estévez, would please accompany Lieutenant Lark as he serves this warrant for the arrest and takes into custody one Calvin Grebes, of the city of Houston, for the murder of María Angelina Estévez?”
Ramón had surrendered his need for vengeance, had chosen to let go of the past and reach, instead, for the future. And now here, completely unexpected, he’d received this…he wouldn’t call it a gift. There was nothing about this moment to be cherished.
He’d been offered a kind of closure he’d never thought to have. He’d been offered the opportunity to see the avengement for his angel. Angels, he corrected mentally. For the bastard who’d taken his sister, and the one who had brutalized Marcia, were the same
man—and now, the one who murdered his baby sister would finally receive justice.
He met Lark’s gaze and knew that man understood everything Ramón was feeling in that instant. He’d been a good cop assigned to an impossible case. A case they were both about to finally, and at long last, close.
“Yes, sir. I will.” He got to his feet and waited for Lark to take possession of the warrant. He would do this job, give thanks that, in the end, he’d been successful in avenging his angel and then…and then he would go home to his wife and his brother.
THE END
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