Epilogue

Austin

I was going to throw up.

My stomach churned and I felt the bile creeping up my throat. Sweat dotted my brow and I used the back of my hand to wipe it away.

Agent Silva eyed me like he knew I was about to vomit all over the ugly carpet of the Houston FBI office we were currently borrowing.

It had been three months since I’d seen him. I was feeling about the same seeing him now as I did back then.

“Need a minute?” he asked, and his tone was actually genuine.

“No,” I told him with a sharp shake of my head. “Let’s get this over with.”

Four hours I’d been sitting in someone’s office, in a plush chair that did nothing to make me feel comfortable, waiting for this damn moment. I wasn’t happy to be back in Texas. Especially not for the reason I was here.

He led me down a long hall, stopping in front of a door.

“Ready?” he asked.

I nodded as I sucked in a slow breath through my nose. I wished Ford was here. I wished I’d told him the deal I made. I wished…

Agent Silva pushed the door open and walked in ahead of me. My feet were slow to cross the threshold. I scanned the small room, taking in the muted paint on the walls and the two-way mirror. Basically, looking at everything but the man already seated at the table.

“Son,” the man said, causing a deep shudder to run down my spine. “It’s been, what, ten years since I last saw you?”

I turned to face him. His hair was all white and grown out past his ears. His eyes were cloudy and his face looked as if it had been thirty years since we saw each other, not ten.

The monster was in front of me. He was smiling at me, deep wrinkles carved into his face. But it wasn’t a nice smile. No, it was the smile of a monster waiting for the right moment to strike.

“The drive was only a little over an hour to get here, but it’s so lovely to get out,” he said.

“I’m not here for pleasantries,” I told him, doing my best to keep my emotions locked up tight. Maybe it would help if I lied to myself. All I had to do was pretend this wasn’t my father, it hadn’t been my life.

“You want to know why I did it?” His smile was smug as his dead eyes looked at me.

“I don’t give a fuck about why you did it.” I nearly growled. “What I care about…” I took in a quick breath through my nose and tried again, this time making sure to keep calm. “I want to know where you left the bodies. I care about those women and their families. Don’t mistake my visit for giving a shit about what happens to you.”

“Well,” he said, shaking his head as if he were disappointed in me. “The Lord wouldn’t like you talkin’ to your father like that.”

I stared at him blankly. Maybe the kid in me flinched at his words, but I was an adult now. I refused to let him manipulate me.

I snatched the stack of folders out of Agent Silva’s hand before tossing them on the table. Leaning over, I opened the first file in front of him.

“Mary Sherwood,” I said, pointing to the picture of a girl who had gone missing nineteen years ago. He’d confessed to killing her but never revealed where the body was. “Where is she?”

“That one? Pretty little thing. She sure liked to talk a lot.” He leaned back in the chair, the clanging of the chains that bound his wrists and ankles together ricocheted around the room like a shotgun blast. “She was studying to become a nurse, wasn’t that right?”

It was hard not to get sick over the disgusting disregard he had for Mary’s life.

His cold gaze shot over my shoulder to land on Silva, staring the man down in a way that said he enjoyed fucking with the agent.

Part of me was curious to how Silva reacted, but I wasn’t stupid enough to take my eyes off of him. I waited for Silva to reply to my father, but he did right by his promise and stayed stoically quiet.

“Where is she?” I asked, causing my father’s gaze to snap back to me.

There, for a fraction of a second, the ugly monster flared to life behind his eyes, showing how much I’d gotten under his skin. But in a blink, his mask was back in place.

“I don’t know,” he replied coolly. “It’s been such a long time, and my memory ain’t what it used to be.”

My jaw clenched as I bit the anger back.

“Fine,” I said, standing up straight. I turned to Silva, who very discreetly gave me a look of warning, like he thought I hadn’t tried hard enough. “Let me out. I’m done.”

Reluctantly, Silva raised his hand to knock on the door.

“I’ll have your visitation cut,” I said, hating that I was using my mother and my sisters that way. Even if it was an empty threat, it still churned my stomach to say it. “Mom and the twins won’t be able to—”

“That’s enough of that,” my father stated coldly.

I didn’t know why my mother was a soft spot for him, or why he seemed to care about the twins more than he cared about me or Braden. I probably didn’t want to know.

I had a hunch it would get to him given that Mom came to visit him several times a year and brought the twins, even though I’d told her it wasn’t a good idea on several occasions.

Or maybe he was just desperate for those visits.

Whatever it was, I had him.

Empty threat or not, I had him.

“Sit down,” he said with an edge in his tone I was all too familiar with. It was the one that had me fixing my attitude really quickly as a child. And though it sent me back to memories I didn’t want to relive and threatened to send a shiver down my spine, I pushed it down just to deny him the pleasure of seeing that he got to me. “You leave your mother and your sisters out of this and I’ll tell you what you want to know.”

I turned around, my face a blank mask, and took the seat across from him.

I looked the monster in the eye and resisted the urge to smile.

For the first time in… probably my entire life, the man in front of me didn’t seem larger than life. The image of him in my mind shrunk until it dissolved into nothing but the tiniest of dust particles, then it faded away.

I would get closure for those families. Maybe it would give them some sense of peace. I would give the victims a true resting place, one where they could be remembered.

He was going to go back to his little cell and rot, having nothing else to hold over anyone.

While I was going to go back to a house that was full of warmth. To the man who lived in that house and loved me just as much as I loved him. To a family that might not have shared blood, but was the real, true definition of what a family should be.

***

I blindly followed behind Agent Silva as he lead me out of the room, not even aware of where we were headed. The last three hours had passed like I was in a hazy dream, and I still felt like I was stuck in it. It didn’t seem like we had gone far when he opened another door.

I blinked into the dimly lit room, not believing what I was seeing.

I opened my mouth to say… something, but I was so shocked and relieved to see Ford standing before me that I couldn’t even speak.

“My son might have mentioned that you’d probably like him to be here even if you’d never say so,” Silva said, causing me to snort. This confirmed it, Keller was officially one of my non-blood brothers. We looked out for each other, and this was looking out on a level I couldn’t even explain.

The door shut, leaving just the two of us.

Ford walked over and wrapped his arms around me. I fell into him, using his strength to hold me up. I buried my face in the crook of his neck.

“Wearing a visitor badge is weird,” Ford muttered grumpily.

His comment caught me off guard, making me choke out a wet laugh, and I wasn’t even embarrassed by it. It was everything I needed.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

Tears stung my eyes and all I could do was nod.

He had every right to be disappointed in me and yell at me. Hell, he even had ever right to hate me.

But what did he do the moment he saw me? Held me and made me laugh.

I gripped his hips tightly, afraid that if I didn’t hold him, I’d fall apart.

I’d been such a fucking fool trying to do this on my own. I only wanted to keep him away from this because I didn’t want to dark parts of my life to touch us. But as he held me tight like he was never going to let me go, I realized that Ford would always be the light shining on the dark. He’d keep me safe without letting it tarnish what we had.

“I’m okay now that you’re here,” I said in a raspy whisper.

“Next time, let me be there for you, please? Promise me, Austin.”

“I promise,” I said before breathing his scent in deeply.

“We’re in this together, honey. You never have to do anything alone ever again.”

“How did I get so lucky?” Not a single thing about my tone was teasing.

“I ask the same thing every day,” he responded, making my heart melt and my knees a little weak.

“Let’s get out of here,” I said, standing tall and taking his hand.

I walked out of there with my head held high, and made a promise to myself that I was done giving my father the power to drag me down and hold me back.

Ford

“Mine,” Austin said as he plucked Anna out of my arms.

I blinked at him as half the room erupted in laughter.

“You can’t just steal a kid out of someone’s arms,” I said.

He stuck his tongue out and twirled around, causing Anna to squeal with delight and declare that “Uncle Awtin” was her “fay-ret.” So adorable.

It melted my damn heart seeing him with her.

Salsa music played from the living room. Reed’s condo in Atlanta was big, but it was starting to get crowded with everyone here. I stood on the edge of the kitchen, staring into the living room as Carver attempted to show Austin some easy salsa moves, which only made Anna clap her hands frantically with excitement in his arms.

I never saw myself with kids before, but the image in front of me definitely had my heart warming in a way that said things had changed.

Austin would make an amazing dad. It was hard not to think that as I watched him attempt to twirl Silvie, Theon’s little sister that he and Cade had custody of, with his free hand.

If it wasn’t something he wanted, I was good with that too. We sometimes took Anna for the night to give Reed, Tony, and Keith a night to themselves. So, I got my fill of seeing how amazing Austin truly was with kids. I was happy being Uncle Ford, or “Fward” in Anna’s case. With how big our family was, I had a feeling that there would never be a shortage of little ones to love and spoil.

Reed clapped me on the shoulder as he came to stand behind me.

“I feel like everyone’s meshing pretty well,” he said.

I nodded. It had been nine months since I quit the FBI and had taken a few members of my team with me. That hadn’t been planned, but I was happy with how things were going. It was a better fit for all of us.

“We got a good thing,” I agreed. “I don’t know if I’ve ever properly thanked you.”

Reed shook his head. “It’s what family does.”

I hadn’t planned on getting choked up today, but it seemed as if I was riding an emotional roller coaster. I think it had taken a while for everything to fully sink in. I was finally ready to move past the shit that had happened to me, and accept the good that had been given to me after.

Reed pulled me in for a firm but quick hug.

I wouldn’t change these moments for anything. Here, surrounded by people I felt safe with. People who had my back. I often said Austin needed this, but I was starting to see that I did too.

Reed left to steal his daughter from Austin. I got lost in watching as everyone talked and laughed. Oh, and Carver trying to teach anyone within reach how to salsa. I had to say, Kyle’s best friend, Reese, was pretty good with the hip work, even when he pulled a stiff-looking Violet into a dance. I’d never have moves like that, which was why I stuck to the far side of the room.

“Hi, my Sexy Agent,” Austin whispered into my ear as he wrapped his arms around me from behind. I leaned back into him as I shook my head.

Yeah, this was a thing we did sometimes.

“No,” I warned because this was not the time or the place.

“What? You can’t be my Sexy Agent man?”

“Austin,” I said under my breath. “Say it again, and I’ll—”

“Handcuff me, spank me for being bad, and then fuck the bad right out of me?”

I hissed a curse so low only he could hear. The image was in my head and I couldn’t say I hated it. I closed my eyes, willing my body to calm down.

“I don’t have any handcuffs,” I told him as if that was the right thing to say. “And we’ll have to save the spanking for later.”

“What if I pout?” I turned around in his arms to see his bottom lip pushed out. I knew he didn’t really mean it. He sure as hell didn’t want me to strip him down and do dirty things to him with everyone around. But he liked to get my blood pumping, which it was. And he liked to torture me, which he was.

“I’ll fuck you later,” I promised in a harsh whisper, making that pout turn into an instant smile. I put my mouth next to his ear. “I’ll turn that ass red first before I eat it, then I’ll stuff that pretty little hole until my cum is leaking out of it.”

I pulled back in time to see his eyes roll in the back of his head, and the shudder that ran through his body was so hard that he might have fallen down if I wasn’t holding him up.

“And we’re leaving,” he called out, breaking out of my hold to grab my hand. “Brunch was amazing. We’ll be at the next one.”

He marched toward the door, waving carefully over his shoulder. I at least tried to turn and make eye contact with a couple of people as I waved goodbye.

The laughter that followed us out said we weren’t smooth in our quick exit.

“Don’t forget the twins are coming tomorrow,” I said as the elevator started to descend.

“Shit,” he said, but I knew he wasn’t upset.

He was actually looking forward to their week-long visit.

After quite a few discussions, Austin helped Braden rebuild the house on the property in Nebraska. Luckily, Braden hadn’t asked too many questions about what happened, and Austin had worked into the FBI deal for them to “clean up the mess without consequence.” Braden and Austin had gotten closer over the last few months. Oh, Braden was now a goat farmer, which he figured out was his true calling, as he said. He had started making soaps and lotions out of goat’s milk and he was working on growing his business. He’d sent us quite a few boxes of the stuff, and I had to admit, it was nice.

Their mother and the twins were also living with Braden, for now. I think the plan was to build another house on the property soon. It seemed like getting out of Texas had brought the family together. It might have been the very thing their mother needed to clear her head. Austin’s relationship with her was still strained, but both of them were trying.

I didn’t want to jinx it, but things seemed to be going really well all around.

Austin was super excited for Dina and Diana to get here. He already had a list of things planned, and I already planned on having to reel him in a little. I loved him, but he could be a bit over the top sometimes. I found it adorable, but I had a feeling the twins might not see it the same.

“I…” Austin started as he stepped out of the building. I stopped and turned to face him, not giving a shit about blocking the sidewalk. People could hustle their asses around us if they needed to get somewhere. “I love you.”

A smile spread on my face.

“I just wanted you to know that,” he rushed to add.

“I love you too,” I told him.

“I know my life can be a lot sometimes, but I can’t thank you enough for being there for me.”

I looked at him pointedly.

“We literally fell in love while I had the whole country hunting me down,” I pointed out dramatically.

He laughed softly and smiled.

“Fair,” he said. “Thanks for not giving up on me.”

“Thanks for letting me in,” I told him. “You are everything I’ve been waiting for.”

His blush was the best thing.

“Thanks for protecting my feelings.”

“Always,” I whispered right before I kissed his lips.

The End