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Griz wraps his good arm around her and squeezes, mumbling, “Brave and thick-headed. That’s our girl.”

“Those threats changed my motivation,” I confess to them, as if it isn’t obvious.

“The only two I hadn’t considered a threat were the fire chief and the governor.

They weren’t supposed to be part of the plan.

Until the governor decided he should still expect the financial backing that Wheeler had promised.

” I shake my head. “Asshole,” I say under my breath.

Swallowing roughly, I lean back, head pressing against the wall.

“But that was irrelevant, because the plan had always been to remove Wheeler. If he went to prison and was still alive, then there wouldn’t be a way to guarantee her safety,” I say, lifting my chin to Griz. “Or Hadley’s.”

Hadley grits her teeth, eyes closing as she whispers, “The damage my father caused… I’m so sorry…”

“Knock it off, Hadley Jean,” Griz says. “You’re done apologizing for anything your father did. None of that was ever on you.”

Griz’s brow furrows, trying to work it out. “I understand that. I understand what it means and the lengths a man will go to keep the woman he loves safe.”

“I know you do. Been doing that for a while now, haven’t you?”

Grant shifts his attention to me, putting his coffee down and leaning forward. And Faye leans against the wall, arms crossed with a knowing smirk on her face.

“You’ve been making plans to join her, haven’t you?” I ask Griz, eyebrows lifting.

“What the fuck?” Grant interrupts. “Who’s he talking about, Griz?”

But I keep going. “You needed to tighten things up here as best as you could first.” I watch my grandfather try to keep a brave face.

Hadley looks at me, and then at Griz, trying to read between the lines of what isn’t being plainly said.

Griz crosses his arms and shakes his head with a huff. “Dammit, Atticus.”

“Such a romantic, Griz,” Faye adds.

“I found an old postcard in the mess that you like to call your office downstairs. It was from a town in Montana that when I asked Julian if he could look into it, he said it didn’t exist, but he found it anyway.”

Griz smirks beneath his mustache, almost like he was proud of me, albeit pissed off at me for finding it.

“The town wasn’t on any map,” I say, glancing down at my phone buzzing in my hand.

“Then a little over a year ago, when Faye went missing for a couple of weeks with her sister Maggie, who never came back, I knew my hunch wasn’t wrong.

Those girls were given a chance to see their mother.

Shelby Calloway was in hiding because of Wheeler.

She trained for Finch & King for too long not to know what they’d been doing, and that put a target on her back.

You ensured her safety and haven’t forgotten about her for one day since. ”

“He hasn’t. But I’m betting neither did she,” Faye adds.

Grant stares at both of us, and then shakes his head with a disbelieving laugh. “What the hell? The both of you.”

I drag my fingers through my hair. “I’ve been trying to make it right, tying up loose ends.

As soon as you started making arrangements about work, I knew you were planning on leaving.

And that fucking marriage stipulation only sealed the deal at confirming my suspicions.

” My phone buzzes again, twice more in succession.

“That meant that anything or anyone who might make it unsafe so that Shelby could come back here, and so that you would stay, needed to be handled.”

Hadley gets up from next to Griz and rushes to me. She ignores the rest of the room and wraps one arm around my neck as my arms circle her waist. Brushing her hand along my brow and down my jaw, she says, “I love you.”

I look down at her sweet smile and blink back the tears that have been brimming in my eyes.

“I’m right here.” She lifts onto her toes to give me a soft kiss, and I lean down to rest my forehead on hers. When I take a breath and focus back on my grandfather, my phone buzzes again.

HARPER

Just pulling in. You had better be right about this. If it’s not safe here, we’re going to have a bigger problem on our hands.

I hope you know what you’re doing.

Ah fuck, what the hell is Del doing here?

“I’m not ready to see you go anywhere, old man. You and I butt heads, but I need you around here to piss me off as often as possible.”

Hadley covers her mouth, a small gasp escaping just as the side door opens.

The timing of it couldn’t have been any more perfect.

A wafted breeze of clove cigarettes enters the room first, followed by a weathered and annoyed U.S.

Marshall. And behind her stands a teary-eyed, and very much alive, Shelby Calloway.

“Oh, hell.” His face squints up, standing as fast as a man with a bullet hole in his leg can.

He rights his emotions quickly when he asks, “What are you doing here?” Without waiting for an answer, he wraps an arm around her as she moves with him back to sit.

She releases a cry filled with longing, burying her face in his neck.

Hadley squeezes her arm around me as she loops her other around Faye’s shoulder while we watch two people find their way back to one another. I let out a breath, knowing that it was all worth it for this moment, right here.

Shelby rests her forehead against Griz’s, and I can hear her tell him, “Every day.” Her lips press softly to his. “I think of you and my girls every single day.”

Griz swallows audibly, holding her tighter, and I can tell there’s not much he can say at the moment, his eyes closed as he whispers something to her that makes her choke out another sob.

When she looks up and sees her daughter, she rushes toward her.

Griz watches on as she and Faye hold one another.

Loud words of “missed you” and “so happy you’re here” are peppered between cries.

I know regardless of how we got to this moment, it was all worth it.

Hadley glides her hands around me once more and searches my face, tears falling from her eyes as they meet mine.

“You’re a good man, Atticus Foxx.” She leans in closer, kissing my lips first, then my cheek as she says, “So much better than the fantasy.” We both smile as she whispers, “I love you, baby.”

Hearing those words, feeling them from her, hadn’t been in my plans for a long time, but not a single part of me is anything but thankful for it.

I brush away the wetness on her cheeks and rest my forehead against hers, letting those words seep into me.

Wrapping my arms around her, I hold on to her tightly, burying my face in her neck as I mumble out what all of this unknowingly proved.

“I love you, too.”