Defending Raven (Mountain Mercenaries #7)(99)

That night, after arriving home from a celebratory dinner, and after sitting on their back deck talking about the beautiful ceremony they’d attended that day and how proud they were of their son and all he’d accomplished, Dave and Raven eventually moved inside to the couch.

Once upon a time, Mags might’ve been embarrassed about David telling her story to an auditorium full of people, but she’d long since decided that she didn’t have anything to be ashamed of. If her story could help even one other person who might have been in a similar situation, it would be worth it.

She and Dave had sat him down when he was a senior in high school and told him the entire story of his life before he’d turned five. How he’d been conceived, how they didn’t know who his biological father was, and what he’d lived through in that small house that belonged to del Rio. They even told him what the evil man had planned for him, how Dave had arrived in the nick of time to save him from that life, and how he’d gotten them both out of Peru and back to Colorado Springs, where they’d made a new life.

David hadn’t said much. Had just listened intently. But when the entire story was out, he’d taken his mom in his arms and told her he loved her and was proud of her for all that she’d endured. He’d thanked her for taking such good care of him and said as far as he was concerned, from now and forevermore, Dave was his father, he had no desire to ever step foot back in Peru, and he certainly had no intention of ever wanting to find the rapist who had gotten his mother pregnant. It had been a tough conversation, but David had taken it like the mature young man he was.

Mags hadn’t expected him to open up about his past in his speech today, but she couldn’t have been prouder of the amazingly smart and compassionate man he’d become.

Feeling content and mellow, she snuggled into Dave after he sat down next to her. Being with her husband and having his arms around her was one of the places she felt the safest.

As they sat there, each lost in their thoughts about all that had happened that day, Mags couldn’t stop herself from asking something she’d wondered about off and on for the last twenty years.

“Dave?”

“Yeah, sweetheart?”

“You killed del Rio . . . didn’t you?”

He looked surprised at the question, but as soon as the shock showed in his eyes, he wiped his face clean of all emotion. “Why would you ask that? You know I didn’t leave your side after we came home. I think it was around three years before I was able to spend even one night away from you and David.”

“I know you didn’t do it yourself, but you arranged it . . . right? It’s okay,” she hurried to say. “I’m not upset about it. I just . . . I need to know.”

Dave pulled her closer, and Mags went willingly. She curled her hand around his belly and rested her head on his shoulder. They might be in their sixties, but she and her husband still enjoyed pleasing each other in bed, and she would never get tired of snuggling with him.

“I didn’t kill him . . . but I know the team of men who did. I called in a favor. It was one they were happy to take on.”

“Did he . . . did he suffer?” Mags held her breath as she waited for his answer.

“Yes, Raven, he did. I’m not going to tell you the specifics, because you’ve lived with enough shit in your head because of that man, but rest assured that he knew exactly who sent the men who killed him, and why he died the way he did.”

Mags let out the breath she’d been holding. “Good. I’m glad. I love you, Dave,” she whispered. “I don’t know what I did to deserve you, but I do know one thing.”

“What’s that?” he asked.

“I’d go through everything that happened to me all over again if it meant I’d end up right here with you now.”

“Raven,” Dave whispered, but he didn’t say anything else.

“Thank you, Rex. Thank you for making sure no one else suffered as I did. You’re my hero.”

“No,” Dave protested. “You’re my hero. I’ve never met a stronger or more amazing woman in all my life.”

Mags leaned up and kissed Dave’s jaw, then rested her head back on his shoulder. Wanting to lighten the moment, and feeling settled inside for some reason, now that she knew Dave had had a hand in killing her tormentor, she said, “David did good today, didn’t he?”

“Hell yeah, he did,” Dave said with a smile. “Are you watching this?” he asked, gesturing to the television with his chin.

“Not really, why?”

“I thought we might head upstairs.”

Mags smiled. “Oh yeah? Got something you want to show me?”

“Oh yeah. It’s something I know you’ll love too,” Dave told her, moving her hand from his belly down between his legs.

“You’re a dirty old man,” Mags teased as she felt him harden beneath her palm.

“And you’re a dirty old woman,” he returned. “My dirty old woman.”

Grinning huge, Mags stood and held out her hand. “Well, then, let’s just head upstairs and see what trouble we can get into.”

As they walked hand in hand up the stairs to their master bedroom, Mags kept her eyes on her husband’s ass, and smiled. She’d been through hell, there was no denying it, and she’d chosen not to be a victim, but a survivor. And people might not believe her, but she’d been happier over the last twenty years than she’d been in her entire life. And it was all because of the protective alpha man holding her hand and practically dragging her to bed.