by Marie Jermy
“Where have you been?” The hard tone to his father’s voice could have buckled the steel plates of a Navy destroyer. “And what have you been doing?”
Carrick debated with the first question, but then thought the hell with it. “LA, New York. Manila. Montana.” He directed that last location straight at Foxy. “As for what I’ve been doing? Well, I’ve been working for a top-secret organization.”
“And what top-secret organization would that be?”
Carrick shot a glance at Ross Junior, fully expecting him to provide his father not only with its name but details of the Federation’s function. Ross Junior surprised him though by pursing his mouth into a grim line and remaining quiet. So Anderson knows how to keep his mouth buttoned.
In fact, the more he stared at Ross Junior, the more it seemed he was being goaded. If Carrick didn’t know any better, he’d say Ross Junior was daring him to spill his guts about the Federation, to break his oath of silence.
He glanced around at everybody. Their expectant expressions caused him to remember his position, and his decision was final. Yes, he’d realized by faking his death, he’d hurt the people he loved the most, but the Federation was a part of him, of his soul. His allegiance to them would always stand, never to be broken. Scott Rafferty had once asked him what explanation he would give Foxy when he saw her again, and now he had an answer. “I can’t say.”
A steely tone to his voice, Ross Senior then spoke. “Ray, I know he’s your son, and I can’t even begin to imagine how happy you must feel right now. But I want him gone. I want him out of my house. And out of mine and my wife’s lives.”
His father nodded. “Where does that leave us? Our friendship?”
“Intact,” Foxy murmured. “Our bond will always be strong, and you’ll always be welcome.”
“You heard, Sam. Get the fuck out!”
Well, isn’t that fucking peachy, Carrick thought at the sound of his father’s razor-sharp tone. His father thought more of his friendship with the Andersons than he did of seeing his firstborn son alive and well. He took one final look at Foxy. Her sparkling green eyes were focused on her husband, a soft smile crossing her lips. She then turned to him, and it was at that moment that it hit him. She was no longer “Foxy.” She was Jess Anderson.
With eleven pairs of eyes staring at him, almost forcing him out the door with their piercing gazes, Carrick spun on his heel and walked out. Once he’d got to his truck though, he started to pace, wondering what to do. He’d never felt so deflated in his whole damned, sorry life.
At the sound of a door opening and closing, he stopped and turned around. His father, stepmom, Jessica, and Daniel hurried over to him, wide, delighted grins on their faces. His father reached him first and, after a heartbeat and with tears streaming down his face, embraced him.
And as he returned the hug, his own emotions dangerously close to breaking, Carrick knew that returning from the dead hadn’t been such a mistake after all.
Epilogue
For anybody who’d worried about what happened next.
Matt and Darcy were the first to be married, followed by Rex and Ramona, and Daniel and Samantha. Ross Junior and Jessica were last, but only because their mothers argued about where the nuptials should take place. Both lost as the marriage took place in Maui.
Ross Junior made lieutenant on his thirtieth birthday. Jessica continued as a PI, and with the influx of work at the agency courtesy of Scott Rafferty—not that that was ever proven—she was able to repay her debts quickly and quietly. They had two sons, Michael and James. Both went on to become police officers before taking over at Magnum Investigations.
Matt didn’t become a LA Downtown cop. Instead, he sidestepped into the role of park ranger at Yellowstone National Park when Darcy took the opportunity to become the resident volcanologist. After two heartbreaking miscarriages, they had a daughter, Grace, who after studying law became one of the country’s top-paid prosecution lawyers.
After their marriage, Rex’s vision of the brood of kids was realized when Ramona beat astronomical odds to give birth to two sets of naturally conceived, identical quadruplets. Mark, Andrew, David, and Paul, and Eleanor, Lucy, Rose, and Faye, although all of low birth weight, were perfect in every way. The brood was further expanded when the Pinebanks Children’s Trust for disadvantaged and disabled kids was founded. All four girls went on to become vets, whereas the boys, who strangely enough were all allergic to anything with fur, joined the army and were instrumental in placing a rather large hole in the Taliban network in Afghanistan. Nobody messed with the Latimer boys!
Daniel and Samantha remained in Silver Creek, where he taught geological engineering at the Montana Tech in Butte. His interest in seismology dramatically waned at the thought that Samantha could have been killed when his earthquake-proof home collapsed on them. Samantha resigned as a kindergarten teacher and devoted her time to the children staying at the Pinebanks Children’s Trust house. They had twin daughters, Sophie and Maria. Sophie became a world-famous chef and opened restaurants in all four corners of the globe, whereas her sister, Maria, turned to drink and bought Rustlers Bar.
Ray and Scarlett moved to London, England, but within a year were thoroughly sick of…No, not the weather, but the way the government ran the country, and so returned to New York. Both continued to act like a couple in the first flush of romance and lived many more happy years together before they died on the same day.
Ross Senior wrote a book about sex and managed to bang out a couple of sequels before dying with a smile on his face at the age of one hundred one. He was in bed at the time recovering from an orgasm, his wife by his side. Mourning her beloved Ross, Jess went to her grave a year to the day after. She never spoke to Sam Carrick again, which was a feat in itself since two of her children married into the Ferris family.
Just as he said, Scott Rafferty made an excellent PI and stayed on at Magnum Investigations until Michael and James Anderson took over. He continued in his role as Federation director until the day he died. He would have carried on, but he didn’t have unfinished business. Thinking he’d never love any woman as he did Laura Williamson, he decided to remain a bachelor. However, that all changed when he spilled coffee over Leia Howard. Secret Eyes is their story.
As for Sam Carrick…Well, he took the staker job in Brisbane, where he met and fell in love with Alice Reinhold, a two-hundred-year-old vampire he was supposed to stake. Alice, who had a thing for toy boys, fell fangs over feet in love with him. When excruciating circumstances threatened to tear them apart—he’d accidentally laser-beamed his ass and was seconds away from dying for real—she turned him. Thus, he was the one to steal Ross Junior’s line, and they became the real Together Forever.
THE END
WWW.BOOKSTRAND.COM/MARIE-JERMY
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Hmm, let’s see. Well, I was born on August 1, 1972, which makes me a Leo. So am I a lioness? Yes, although I only show my claws when provoked. I am married to Richard and have three children, collectively and affectionately known as “The A-Team,” so called because their first names start with an “A.” I would consider myself to be quite crafty, a trait inherited from my late father, and clever (well, I like to think so!). I also have a sarcastic, sometimes dirty sense of humor, and because of my time employed by the police, I am completely unshockable. When I’m not writing or looking after the kids, I can be found with my nose stuck between the pages of a romance novel or a book about the Titanic.
For all titles by Marie Jermy, please visit
www.bookstrand.com/marie-jermy
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
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