Page 100 of Nightfire

“Chloe!” He managed to get the word out before his throat locked down.

Harry was looking down at the dead Russian at his feet. He hauled off and kicked him, a vicious slam of his boot that would have done real damage if the fucker hadn’t already been dead.

“Chloe?” Mike tried again, his voice scratchy and raw, as if someone had rubbed his throat with sand.

She stood, slowly, smiled at him and held out her arms.

He snatched her up, trying not to crush her against him, trying not to pull her right into him, past his skin, straight to his heart, where she belonged.

His own heart was jackhammering, the sound so loud he couldn’t even hear what she was saying, his whole body pulsing with the beat of his heart.

“Eh?”

Chloe laughed and pointed up at the helicopter flaring above them, FBI stenciled in white on the side.

Sand blew around them in hot, choking swirls.

“Cavalry arrived,” Harry shouted, thumb angled up. “We’ll spend hours at the station house.”

“No,” Mike shouted back. “Chloe and I are going to get married first. Right away.”

Harry rolled his eyes. “Don’t you think you should ask her first, smart ass?” he shouted.

Mike turned to Chloe.

It would have been nice to lift her hair with his hand and whisper a gentle marriage proposal in her pretty ear, but her hair was being whipped into a froth by the rotors and she wouldn’t hear a whisper.

“Chloe Mason,” he screamed. “Will you marry me?” Nail it down, he thought. “Right now?”

She laughed and kissed him. “Yes!” she screamed back.

EPILOGUE

Four years later

Sam Reston’s apartment

They weren’t expected. Mike and Chloe arrived around lunchtime two days early.

They both felt they had to rush back home with the news.

The two families were having lunch together, as they often did on Saturday. Merry, sharp as usual, was the first to see them. Or rather Chloe. When Chloe was around, Mike barely existed.

With a squeal, Merry ran into Chloe’s arms, followed by Gracie, her sister Emma and Laura, born the day Chloe almost died.

The four girls jumped around Chloe in a jumble of words and excitement, jostling for attention. Mike stepped sharply to one side, getting out of the way.

Nicole and Ellen were great. Sam and Harry were really lucky guys.

But Chloe was the catch and Mike had caught her. She couldn’t cook and she wasn’t smart with money, but the kids loved her and that was more important than anything. Aunt Chloe was central to their lives. She was always there for them, and Nicole and Ellen knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that if they had to work and there was a sick girl, Chloe would be there and would love them and care for them like a mother.

It was the best gift of all.

Merry was jumping up and down, trying to see behind Chloe’s back. “Aunt Chloe, Aunt Chloe, did you bring us presents?”

“Pwesents!” Laura echoed, clapping her hands. It was a ridiculous question, of course. Chloe was absolutely incapable of going somewhere without buying presents for the girls. Let alone go to London, which they’d been doing on a regular basis for the past two years. She could just as easily have sprouted wings and flown as come back empty-handed.

Every time Chloe hoped she could hand them out in an orderly fashion and every time fate laughed cruelly. The sounds of ripping paper and cries of joy started up behind them. Merry, Laura, Gracie and Emma were hopping up and down, in girl heaven.