The Long Way Home (Corps Security #6)(86)

His eyes widen.

I take a deep breath, and I get to work ridding the world of the trash that wishes to pollute it. I feel each layer of pain I had carried over the years fall off my shoulders. The incredible freeing feeling that I never thought I would feel again slams into me when I step back from Ray’s prone form.

I’ve killed my last name.

And with his last breath … I took the first full one I’ve had in two long as fuck decades.





I enter my apartment and nod at Zac, sitting in the kitchen facing the door. Waiting. The place is dark, and I can tell Riley is sleeping by the lack of noise. The only time the apartment is this still is when she isn’t here … or sleeping.

I drop my keys on the table just inside the room and toe off my tennis shoes. We had all brought our change of clothing, burning everything we had worn before we left the run-down area we found Ray in.

“Is it done?” Zac asks, his deep voice rumbling through the vast room like thunder.

“It’s done.”

I walk toward him, taking a beer from the fridge on the way. “You want one?”

“Yeah. Now that you’re back, I’ll have one.”

“Good boy,” I mutter.

“Nice keys,” he says, pointing at the table I had dropped them on earlier.

“Not mine.”

“I’m guessing there’s a story there?”

“Oh, there’s a story there. Story for another day, my boy. I need—” He holds his hands up with a wide smile, stopping my words.

“Say no more, Pops. You’ve got one hell of a good-looking family waiting for you in there. I’m glad to be part of that and so fucking happy you’re alive.”

“Fuck,” I whisper, his words slamming home and mending the last piece of my heart I didn’t know was still broken. “Me too, Zac. Me too.”

He nods, smile still bright and eyes full of pure joy. “Try to get down to visit before I end up with another sibling. Would like to get to know the one who comes with your Olivia for a little first.”

“No promises.”

“I imagine so,” he agrees on a laugh.

“Thank you for protecting them tonight. Hard to believe my new baby boy is big enough for me to say that to.”

“I’ll be back in the morning before we head home. I promised the little princess I would take her on a date to lunch tomorrow. Give you and Olivia some time alone without you three being apart for too long. I ran it by Olivia, but understand if you aren’t there yet.”

“Hey.” I smile, walking up to him from where I stood just a few feet away. “If it’s okay with Olivia, it’s okay with me. She’s a great kid, but I’m real happy she’s getting you out of this to be her role model.”

“See you tomorrow around noon, then.”

“Your dad’s downstairs,” I call out, remembering Asher’s request earlier to take all the time I needed, and he would be waiting for Zac to go to the hotel.

“You know, people will think my two dads are gay,” he tosses over his shoulder, stepping into the elevator.

His toothy smile, so much like the one that used to frequent my own face, is the last thing I see before the doors slide shut.

Damn, that kid is incredible.

“He’s pretty awesome.” Olivia stands just outside of the threshold to my bedroom.

“I was just thinking the same thing.”

We both start walking at the same time, her meeting me with a soft collision. She runs her hands down my arms and looks over my body while following her hands’ path. It wasn’t until she moved to drag them down my chest that I realized what she was looking for.

“Hey, I’m okay.”

She looks back up with tears in her eyes. “Is …?” She trails off, one tear falling.

“It’s over, baby.”

She closes her eyes, and the tears start flowing freely.

I pull her close and hold her to my body. She continues to cry softly. I rest my head on hers and pull her as close as she can get comfortably. Her hands fist the shirt at my back. My eyes zero in on my bookshelf and that gold glitter. I stand in the same spot I had months ago thinking there would never be anything worth shining in my life. Now, now I hold my whole world in my arms. The rapid beat of her heart slamming against my body, mine answering the call with its own hurried beats.

“You have my word that I will never lie to you, omitting or otherwise, Olivia. I don’t ever want to see you hurt, baby, and I’m so sorry I contributed to that feeling.”

“Stop,” she cries softly. “Right this moment, it’s you, me, and Riley, Zeke. We aren’t going to let this sour us. We will not let the gift you just left in Georgia be shadowed by this. We move forward, and we do that together.”

“Just like that?”

She arches a brow. “Nothing in how we got to be standing right here was ‘just like that.’ I know I love you. I know that the thought of you hurting physically sickens me. When you look at Riley, I know you feel the same way I do. And I know when you hold me, I’m the safest woman in the world. What we have is something some people never find. I’m no fool, Zeke Cooper. I will not look this gift in the eye and spite it.”

“Do you want that ring now?”