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“Mama, you’re okay!” Sammy says, planting a sweet kiss on my cheek.
“I am, honey, and I am so much better, now that I have you both with me,” I reply.
“Where’s Daddy?” Luna asks with a worried look on her face.
I glance back at the house, fully aware that they’re going to start bringing the bodies out in black bags. “He’s not going to hurt us anymore,” I say. “I’m sorry you had to go through all that frightening stuff, baby. We’re gonna be okay, from now on.”
“Safe,” Luna says with a sullen nod.
“You’re always gonna be safe,” Wyatt chimes in, then helps her and Sammy into the back of the black-and-white. “You two need to stay here for a little while, okay? Your mom and I need to work some stuff out with the nice police officers. Sergeant Downing is gonna keep an eye on you,” he adds, nodding toward the officer standing next to the car. “Can you?” he asks Sergeant Downing.
“Sure thing, Wyatt. Don’t worry about it,” Downing replies.
“We’re all friends here,” Wyatt says to me with a half-smile, but it’s the love in his eyes that has me melting. “You really are okay,” he adds, as if surprised by how everything turned out. Truth be told, I wasn’t sure I was going to make it.
“All thanks to you, Chase, and… Eric,” I say before pausing and looking at the house again. “He killed Colby.”
Wyatt lets a heavy sigh roll from his chest. “It couldn’t have been easy. Honestly, I thought Chase was going to be the one to do it.”
“Yeah, me too. I think it’s why I’m still in shock,” I mumble.
“Come here, baby,” he says and takes me in his arms. I need and welcome the closeness. I need to smell his cologne, to feel his lips on my temple, to simmer in his embrace as he hugs me, tighter and tighter.
Around us, the world continues but in his arms, it’s just me and him.
Time resumes its flow. Crime scene technicians gather evidence, take photos, record everything on their tablets. Uniformed officers cordon the entire property off while the detectives and the federal agents in charge exchange notes and opinions. The two of us lean against a cop car and watch everything unfold as if it were nothing more than a true crime documentary. I almost forget that we’re the protagonists.
I catch a glimpse of Colby’s bag as they wheel him out and load him in the back of a black coroner van. A few moments later, Eric and Chase exit the house, leaving Charlie behind to deal with the task force and what I presume will be considerable fallout.
“We did this without his permission,” Wyatt mutters. “Charlie’s gonna have to pick up some of the pieces. The DA will be pissed off, but it’s done and dusted. All they have to do is build their ironclad case against Harriet Nash and her cohorts.”
“I still don’t fully understand what happened,” I say.
Eric is quiet as he comes over, his gaze fixed on me. Chase, on the other hand, seems cooler, almost at ease in light of the events that transpired.
“Actually, I take that back. I do understand,” I huff, recalling where it all started in the first place. “It’s my fault. I took the kids out on my own. I shouldn’t have—”
“It doesn’t matter anymore,” Wyatt interrupts me. “You will not blame yourself for any of this, Halle.”
“But I am to blame,” I reply. “Look at what happened, at what you had to do just because I wanted some time alone with my kids, trying to do normal family things during anything but normal times!”
Guilt hits me like a ton of bricks. None of this would’ve happened if we’d just stayed at home. It was such a beautiful morning. Luna and Sammy were getting restless. They’d been asking to see the ducklings for days, and the Danson brothers were still sleeping upstairs. It didn’t seem like the worst idea. We had cops watching us. The park was nearby. Yet my worst nightmare still came true.
“Halle, it doesn’t matter anymore,” Wyatt says. “It’s done. It’s over.”
“Eric had to—” I stop myself, a knot tightening in my throat.
Eric comes closer, still quiet, but his eyes soften as he cups my face with both hands and pulls me into a soft, sweet kiss. Everything vanishes for a moment. I feel his love flowing through me like liquid sunshine, filling my veins with sweet warmth and my soul with hope, the kind of hope I know will pull me back into the light. All feels right with the world again.
“I will kill a thousand more if that’s what it takes to keep you and the kids safe, to keep you in our lives.”
“Eric…”
“Halle, don’t even think about blaming yourself again,” Chase cuts in. “We did what we had to do to get you and the kids back.”
“It was only a matter of time,” Wyatt adds. “Colby would’ve come after you again, maybe in worse and even more violent ways. Let’s just be thankful the body count is what it is. It could’ve been much higher.”
“I’m sorry you had to do that,” I say as I look at Eric again.
