Page 60 of Commander Daddy

I glance at her, and she nods like she already knows what I’m thinking.

Family first.

Always.

“Keep digging,” I tell Rhett. “But don’t move without me. Not yet.”

Rhett exhales, like he doesn’t love being told to wait. “Copy. Also—Chase is trying to teach Poppi to high-five.”

I blink. “That’s not a crime.”

“It should be,” Rhett says flatly. “She’s going to start saluting him next.”

Kayley snorts, covering her mouth like she’s trying not to laugh too loud and wake Aidan.

I feel my mouth twitch. “Handle it.”

“I am handling it,” Rhett deadpans. “By requesting immediate reassignment.”

I end the call and look at Kayley. “Apparently Chase has started a baby militia.”

Kayley grins. “Good. We’ll need a tiny army when Aidan learns to walk.”

Aidan chooses that moment to poke his head out of the blanket fort and grin like he heard his name.

I crouch, holding my arms open. “Come here, kid.”

He crawls toward me fast, wobbling with determination.

My chest tightens again.

This is my life now.

Warm cabin. Baby giggles. A woman who makes flannel look like lingerie. A found family down the mountain in the lodge, arguing about coffee and diapers and perimeter lines. And somewhere out there, a dirty cop is running. He hasn’t disappeared.

He’s just waiting.

Which means we’re waiting too.

Kayley moves behind me and wraps her arms around my shoulders, resting her cheek against my back. “Hey,” she murmurs.

“Hey,” I answer.

“I love you,” she says, like it’s the simplest fact in the world.

I reach back and squeeze her hand. “I love you too.” And I do. More than anything.

Aidan crawls into my lap, then leans back against my stomach with a satisfied sigh like he belongs here.

Because he does.

So does Kayley.

I’m done with empty cabins and ghosts.

Outside, the snow falls soft and steady. Inside, the world is exactly what I fought for. And if Mark Renshaw ever decides tostep back into it? He’s going to learn something the hard way: Haven 7 doesn’t just rescue people.

It keeps them. Protects them.

And Rhett’s going to be the one to hunt him down. Because the way Rhett’s voice sounded on the radio wasn’t frustration.

It was focus.

It was that quiet, lethal edge that means he’s already tracking the problem like prey.

Which means the next time the mountain gets loud… it won’t be because we’re running.

It’ll be because we’re coming.

The end.