Resisting Redemption
Page 37
“She wasn’t in there,” Grant confirmed.
Roxie nodded, her eyes still not moving. “I know.” She bobbed her head faster, as though convincing herself. “You’d never hurt her.”
“She’s with Kelly.”
More silent affirmations as Roxie struggled to regain her breath. Finally, she stopped moving her head and rummaged at her side. She pulled up her phone, dialing with shaky fingers.
“Stay there,” Grant said, wanting to go to her but succumbing to common sense. He retrieved Dave’s gun and went to Stuart. He had a decent pulse. Blood seemed to come from his right shoulder.
Both guns secured, he went to Roxie, on the phone with 911, and helped her to her feet. He tucked her to his side, kissed her head while she summoned help, and then handed her a gun.
“Aim it at him until they get here,” he instructed her as they stood over the prone body of Stuart. She acknowledged him, taking the gun in one hand and aiming it at the man who’d followed her, still giving answers to the dispatcher who’d answered her call.
Grant returned to Dave, his gun never wavering, and trained the weapon on Josh’s murderer until help arrived.
Epilogue
Six months later…
“Grant,” Roxie said on a sigh. “It’s tall enough. She’s not going to get up there.”
“Are we talking about the same child?” he asked, chucking the tape measurer to the floor as he approached her. “Lucy? Our redheaded daughter who has already figured out how to run into everything vertical, how to climb every piece of furniture in this house—”
“Considering we’ve only started to move in and so far only have a couch and a coffee table in this room, that’s not all too dangerous.”
“She’ll figure it out.” Grant hugged her from behind, wrapping his arms around her expanding waist, rubbing her already too big belly. “If there’s a way, she has more than enough will.”
It came as no shock Grant was a stubbornly protective father. He’d been mentally anticipating that dream all his life. It was overdue by the time she’d taken the job at Kaniz and met him.
She couldn’t pinpoint which day she’d given him the rest of his dreams, a family, and in the end, granting her own wishes as well. Everything had happened in such a frantic blur of shocking excitement.
Dave was arrested, Stuart and Tara as well. The DA wasn’t in a great position either, but if she recalled, he missed prison time somehow. Go figure. The fact Grant had been calling her at the time Dave tracked down Grant and broke in—shooting the door open—clinched the deal. Grant had forgotten he’d left his phone on speaker, capturing Dave’s confession.
Ben was duly exonerated. It was a day she’d definitely remember. Going as a team, she’d accompanied Grant to the courthouse to see Ben released, but they didn’t immediately head to the mob of press waiting outside. Instead, they detoured to another office in the vast municipal building—to obtain a wedding license. Never would she have guessed Ben was already certified as a minister through some online deal—a silly idea he’d had in college. So on the first day of his freedom, he’d officiated her and Grant’s marriage.
Grant made Lucy his daughter legally, adopting her as soon as they could around the manic mayhem at the conclusion of Ben’s case. Another event that would always bring tears to her eyes—the day her baby girl expanded her vocabulary to include ‘Da Da’. Roxie wasn’t sure who cried the most, her, Grant, or Sophia.
To Roxie’s relief, Sophia wasn’t appalled or feeling like the third wheel when they’d announced they were buying a house outside the city. Likewise, it seemed Sophia was comforted with not having to explain to Roxie that she wanted her own life again. Still present in Lucy’s life, but on her own again, missing that adult space. She’d moved into a single-story cottage a couple streets away, so it wasn’t as though she’d be gone.
And in the time leading to closing on their home, a house to raise Lucy, Grant cut his ties with Kaniz, starting his own practice. Chris was coming along, but they had yet to take on many cases. Money wasn’t exactly an issue after Ben’s case dissolved. Walter Kaniz gifted Grant a hefty severance, perhaps of out of guilt that Tara had used and played them all. Plus, Grant had made significant dough in all those years he wasn’t the family man he wanted to be.
Debts disappeared as well, since Grant did re-appeal her civil case against Jimmy, righting another wrong. Luckily, the stable hand who had questioned Roxie’s black eye was a helpful witness to what happened at Luckey Downs Ranch. Jimmy cracked under the pressure, admitting to insurance fraud for killing Bolt, and a couple greyhounds previously.
Despite the reversal of her own previous legal troubles, Roxie earned a nice padding of money from Walter Kaniz himself. First, in the form of that eighty-grand bonus she’d originally taken the job for, and additionally in securing a settlement not to press charges against his firm. After Tara attacked her and blackmailed her with Lucy’s safety, on the firm’s property, Walter was desperate to avoid an ugly PR disaster. With her hard-earned bonus and the provision of Walter’s cash settlement, yes, Roxie was debt-less, even without Grant re-appealing Jimmy’s case.
“How did the appointment go?” Grant asked at her side.
“At the shelter?”
“Yeah.”
She shrugged in his hold, rubbing her arms. “I changed my mind. I’m thinking part-time will be better.”
“You sure?” He craned his head around to peer at her. “You mean for the first few months?”
She’d planned to go back for her vet license and procrastinated. And she’d intended to take a full-time position at the local animal shelter as a vet tech until she made up her mind to go back and finalize her degree. Part-time while she was on maternity leave, at least.
“No, maybe for good,” she said.
“Whatever you want, Rox. But if you’re worried about Lucy, and her little brother or sister, I’ve got it.”
She smiled, patting his arm. How the tables had turned. He was staying home, working on an as-needed freelance basis, taking cases that appealed to him. No more catering to scum who deserved punishment. She was the one to go back to school, to be the vet she’d always hoped to be. He a stay-at-home dad, at last, and she, the working mom.
But the allure of crossing the finish-line of her goals faded as she watched her family grow, gaining Grant as a husband, Lucy waiting for a sibling. Part-time would be just fine.
“How about both?” she asked.
“What do you mean?”
“Remember how I said I felt strange, having gained a lot of weight…so much more than I had when I was expecting Lucy…”
“Baby, you’re not fat.”
Roxie grinned and spun to face him in their hug, her belly creating a gap. “Well, I also had an appointment today with the ob-gyn and mentioned it.”
He frowned. “Yeah…?”
“I did gain a lot more weight. Because Lucy is having both.”
Grant tilted his head, eyeing her intently. “We’re having—”
“Twins.”
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About the Author
Amabel Daniels lives in Northwest Ohio with her patient husband, two adventurous toddlers, smiley baby, and a collection of too many cats and dogs. Although she holds a Master’s degree in Ecology, her true love is finding a good book. When she isn’t spending time outdoors, or wondering how to negotiate with her mightily independent daughters, she’s busy brewing up her next novel, usually as she lets her mind run off with the addictive words of “what if…”
For more information about Amabel’s work, please stop by www.amabeldaniels.com.
Other Books by the Author
Better Than the Best
Appetite of Envy
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