Our lips meet while the Rangers cheer loud enough to shake the tavern windows.
When we pull apart, Colin rests his forehead against mine.
“I love you, Mara Shaw.”
“I love you, Colin Shaw.”
Trigger shouts, “Finally!”
Rylie elbows him.
Colin laughs.
I look toward Grant’s photograph.
For one second, I can almost see my brother standing beside his Rangers.
Young.
Smiling.
Home.
The ache will always be there.
So will the love.
That’s the thing about promises.
The ones that matter don’t end when someone dies.
They wait.
They survive.
And sometimes, fifteen years later, they bring a Ranger home.
THE END
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25
JUDY
The dead woman was smiling.
That was the first thing I noticed when I walked into the bedroom.
The second was that someone had forced her mouth into that smile after she died.
I stopped just inside the doorway and pulled in a slow breath through my nose. The smell of bleach burned the back of my throat. Beneath it lingered the unmistakable metallic scent of blood.
Blood.
There wasn’t much of it.