by Sharon Sala
“Thank the Lord!” she cried, and then realized what Sahara had said. “What do you mean ‘they’?”
“There were three of them, Mama. Three more of his children and a boyfriend who loved enough to kill.”
“Who? What?”
“Just come home, Mama. We’ll talk about it when you get here.”
“I’m on my way.”
Sahara disconnected, then put the phone in Brendan’s hand.
“A crowd is gathering again,” he said, looking toward the gate.
“For once, I don’t care,” Sahara muttered. “I’ll have to give a public statement after we get back.”
“I won’t be part of it. Will you be okay with that?”
Her heart sank. “Do you mean you’re still leaving me?”
He hugged her and kissed the crown of her head.
“No, never. What I mean is that I don’t publicize what happens to my clients, even though you turned into far more than that. You can say anything you want about me. But I need to stay out of the public eye. A bodyguard can’t become the target, too.”
“Oh,” she said, but amid all of the surrounding chaos, she got very quiet.
“Are we okay here?” he asked.
“We’re okay.”
“Are you still going to come to Wyoming with me to meet my family?”
She sat up, needing to see his face.
“Yes. I would love to meet your family. Do you think they’ll like me?”
He smiled wryly. “When my mom finds out I’m coming home with a woman, regardless of who she is, she’ll be mentally planning a wedding before we can get there.”
Sahara managed a shaky smile. “Really?”
“Yes, really.”
“Are we planning a wedding, too?” she asked.
Brendan glanced around at the cop cars and the noise, thought of the four dead bodies in the house behind them and thought, what the hell.
“I think I need to ask you first, but never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined proposing to the woman I love more than life itself in the middle of such a clusterfuck. However, let’s just consider this something we can tell our grandkids someday, okay?”
Imminent joy rolled through her.
“Okay.”
Brendan took both of her hands, kissing freshly bruised knuckles she’d gained from hitting the floor, then held them against his heart.
“I love you, Sahara Travis, more than I believed it was possible to love, and faster than I ever thought possible to fall this hard. I will never betray you. I will spend the rest of our life together honoring you and protecting you, and I will never leave you behind until God calls me home.”
Sahara’s gaze was locked on his face, on his eyes and on his lips, watching the changing expressions on his face as he promised her a lifetime of allegiance. The ache in the back of her throat was so big it hurt to breathe as she waited for those four little words.
“Despite the fact that we are in the aftermath of hell, will you marry me?”
She was laughing through tears as her arms went around his neck.
“Yes, yes, yes, I will marry you. Thank you for loving me, not the famous me with the ugly secrets and crazy life.”
The first kiss was little more than a brush of lips across her mouth. The second kiss was with intent, lingering longer. The last kiss was urgent and deep, with promises of so much more to come.
“Get a room,” Fisher said, as he passed them on the way back to his car.
“I’m about to put a ring on it,” Brendan said.
Fisher stopped and smiled. “Then let me be the first to congratulate you both,” he said, and continued down the steps.
“We’ll get a ring together back in LA, before I take you home to Wyoming,” Brendan said.
She cupped his face and kissed him, and then kissed him again before she paused.
“I’m trying to come to terms with the worst day of my life and the best day of my life happening at the same time. As for a ring, I like simple. Even if my life is glitz, I’m not. I can’t wait to go with you to Wyoming, but Lucy said everything in the penthouse was ruined. This will be the first time I can honestly say I have nothing to wear.”
He was laughing when he saw Billie’s car at the gates. She was looking for a way to get around all the traffic to get to the carriage house.
“There’s your mama,” he said. “She can’t get past the cop cars.”
“She sees us,” Sahara said, and watched her mother stop behind the last car and get out running.
“Go,” Brendan said, and turned her loose.
Sahara went down the steps two at a time, then slowed to a walk, unable to believe that she was outside and safe. The midday sun was hot and the air was thick and close, but it didn’t matter because her mama was coming for her. The closer she got, the faster she went, until she was running into her mother’s arms.
Brendan stood, leaning against a stately white column with his hands in his pockets, watching them embrace and thinking about how long they had been forced to live a lie.
Today wasn’t just about endings—it was new beginnings, and he didn’t like the distance between him and them.
He took his hands out of his pockets as he went down the steps, moving past cop cars and ambulances toward the rest of his life.
Epilogue
Three weeks later
The private jet landed safely at Cheyenne Regional Airport, then taxied to a stop out on the tarmac.
“We’re finally here,” Brendan said, kissing Sahara and then her hand, near the square-cut, two-carat diamond she was wearing. It was anything but simple, but it was hers.
“I’m so excited, and at the same time feeling a little guilty about leaving Mama behind,” Sahara said.
“You heard her,” Brendan said. “This visit is for you alone. She’ll come another time. And after that makeover you gave her last week, I don’t think she’s going to be on her own for the rest of her life.”
Sahara grinned. “A little hair color. A stylish cut and some new clothes…yes, Billie Munroe was looking good when we left.”
“Harold was looking pleased, too,” Brendan said. “It was nice of him to have her as his guest while we’re gone.”
Sahara rolled her eyes. “Harold wasn’t just pleased. He was smitten. He could very well become family for real.”
Brendan laughed.
Sahara glanced out the window. Her pilot was lowering the stairway. She got up, smoothing out the wrinkles in her very short dress.
“Do I look okay? Not too wrinkled or messy? Should I do something to my hair?”
“You are a knockout. Stop worrying. Oh, look! See that wild crew waving like fools on the far side of the security fence?”
She bent down and looked through one of the windows.
“Yes, I see!” She stood up. “Is that them? Oh, Brendan, you do have a big family. I am finally going to belong…really belong to a big family.”
Her pilot entered the cabin.
“Sorry to interrupt, but you can disembark now. I’ll get your luggage.”
Nervous all over again, Sahara reached for Brendan.
“You’ve got this, my love. Enjoy it.”
He gave her a quick pat on the backside and then took her by the hand.
There were shouts of hello, catcalls and whistles when they appeared at the head of the stairway.
“You first, baby. I wouldn’t want to hide one single inch of those long, beautiful legs from the viewing public. Give ’em the full Hollywood strut. You can be your sweet self later after we’re home.”
She grinned, her eyes glittering from the excitement of the moment as she took a step forward, looking out with wonder at the vast open sky and the backdrop of mountains. As she did, the Wyoming wind caught her hair, lifting it up and whipping it about her face. Even the wind made her welcome. She threw her head back and laughed.
The McQueens were dumbstruck by the stunning beauty of the tall, leggy w
oman coming down the steps. They’d seen pictures that did not do her justice. The turquoise minidress she was wearing was hugging every curve, and she was laughing as she descended with that wild mane of black hair blowing in every direction.
And there was Brendan coming down behind her, as always, making sure he had someone’s back, but with a look on his face they’d never seen.
“He’s in love,” his mama said, and started to cry.
“So is she,” his daddy said, and cleared his throat.
They reached the gate.
Brendan opened it to let her pass, and as he did, Sahara was engulfed. Hugs, kisses, oohs and aahs over her ring, hugging her again because of the grief she had endured, promises of the years of joy to come. The broken bits of her were filling up so fast.
She looked over her shoulder to see where Brendan had gone. He waved, still standing at the gate and watching her over the crowd with that look on his face that never failed to make her shiver.
He spoke, and while the words were lost in the noise, she read his lips.
He’d just told her, welcome home.
*
ISBN-13: 9781460398845
Life of Lies
Copyright © 2017 by Sharon Sala
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