Page 144 of Fatal Intent

Grant scooted to the other side of the bed and patted the space. “Come sit with me.”

She froze. “Is this a conversation where you break up with me?”

He stared. “Break up with you? No way. This conversation is where I ask you to marry me.”

Rayne blinked. “Really?”

“That’s usually what follows after a man and woman confess their love for each other. But they move slower than I want to go.”

“When did you want to get married?”

He raised her hand to his mouth. “Answer my question first, my love.”

“Yes, of course I’ll marry you. I love you, Grant.”

“Enough to marry me tomorrow or the day after at the latest?”

More staring. “Tomorrow.” Her voice was faint. “I literally have nothing to wear. I’d have to show up in my Fortress uniform.”

“Fine with me. That means I can wear mine, too. I know we talked about having our teammates attend, and we could have most of them. We’d only be missing Noah and Violet.”

She was silent for a moment, then slowly shook her head. “No.”

His heart sank. “No? You’ve changed your mind about marrying me?”

“Are you kidding? Marrying you is a dream come true. No, I was talking about having our teammates attend the ceremony. After all we’ve been through the past few days, I’ve changed my mind about that. I want a very private ceremony with just the two of us and the judge or pastor. After things settle down, we can have a big cookout at your house.”

“Our house. It will be our house now, and I think a cookout is a perfect celebration of our marriage.”

“You really don’t mind if I wear my Fortress uniform?”

“We’ll have interesting pictures to explain to our kids one day.”

She smiled. “Should be fun.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

“LET ME GETthis straight,” Maddox said. “Donovan Vance waited twelve years to avenge his brother’s death because he was an active duty SEAL?”

“Yes, sir.” Grant gingerly tugged on a clean black t-shirt and tucked the bottom into his cargoes and glanced at the phone’s screen to see his boss scowling.

“What about the antiquities thefts?”

“Gino Savage and his team decided the government wasn’t paying them enough and helped themselves to some national treasures. They sold them on the black market and made a killing on them. Their only problem was Beau Reed saw them but he didn’t realize what he was seeing until he saw a documentary on the disappearance of the treasures and put the pieces together.”

“He contacted Savage and gave him a chance to explain himself, didn’t he?”

“I’m afraid so.”

Maddox sighed. “He involved Lawson.”

“Who involved Eileen. They were already having an affair so they planned Beau’s murder down to the last detail.”

“Why didn’t she just divorce him? That’s what most sane people do.”

“According to his coworkers, Beau had told Eileen for years if they ever split up, he’d request full custody of the kids. With his military background including almost every medal the Armyawards, she was afraid the judge would grant Beau’s request and she didn’t want to lose her kids.”

“What a mess,” Maddox muttered.