Page 47 of Fierce Hope (Hope Landing: New Recruits #3)

Sirens wailed closer, emergency vehicles converging rapidly on their location, their lights casting sharp red-and-blue patterns across the snow-covered ground. The rhythmic pulse of those lights felt oddly comforting—a return to order after chaos.

Now that DJ and Jade were safe, Deke wasn’t ashamed to notice his own hands trembling.

Uniformed officers swarmed the area. Christian secured Sarah’s gun, ejecting the magazine and checking the chamber before handing it carefully to Chief Frazer.

“Everybody good?” he asked as he took the weapon with a gloved hand.

“Not a scratch,” Christian responded. “Right. I mean, not a lot of scratches,” he quickly amended, brushing a finger across the blood on his chin.

Two burly officers escorted a still-struggling Sarah toward a patrol car. EMTs had patched her up until they could get her to the hospital.

“Get her processed,” Frazer instructed. “Full workup. I want prints, GSR, everything.”

The chief turned to Deke, his expression softening slightly. “Your boy okay?”

Deke glanced across the clearing where Kenji had wrapped a blanket around DJ’s shoulders. His son looked small and vulnerable, but remarkably composed. “He will be.”

Ronan and Maya appeared from around the side of the building, escorting a handcuffed Chad Delgado toward another waiting patrol vehicle. Chad’s face was twisted with rage, his voice rising sharply in the cold night air.

“Sarah set this up!” He shouted, straining against his restraints. “I only did what she said. She totally scammed me.”

Zara stepped forward, phone held out, recording everything while Maya grinned. “Keep talking, Chad. You’re only making Chief Frazer’s job easier.”

“She told me Kent was stealing from Russians,” Chad continued desperately, his breath forming frantic clouds in the frigid air. “Said we’d both be dead if we didn’t disappear. I believed her!”

“Into the car,” Frazier directed firmly, guiding Chad toward the waiting vehicle.

Sarah, hair disheveled and mascara streaking down her cheeks, launched into a tearful performance from outside the other cruiser.

“He scared me—I had no choice!” she cried, her voice pitched high with calculated desperation. “Chad killed Kent! I was just trying to protect myself!”

Frazer looked like he was developing a serious headache. He gave Deke a weary nod. “They’ll both talk plenty. We’ll have everything we need.”

As the officers cleared the area, Deke felt a presence beside him. DJ stood quietly at his elbow, visibly shaken but steady. The boy’s face was ashen in the harsh emergency lights, his eyes wide but remarkably composed.

“Dad,” DJ started softly, voice hesitant but sincere. “I wasn’t sure you’d make it in time. But you did.”

The simple statement rocked Deke back on his heels. His throat tightened painfully as he gently grasped DJ’s shoulder, the solid reality of his son safe and whole beneath his palm nearly overwhelming him.

“Deacon James Williams Junior,” he began, holding his son’s eyes with heartfelt conviction. “There’s nothing in this world I wouldn’t do for you. Nowhere I wouldn’t go to save you.”

“I know. You’re the best.”

Deke’s eyes stung in the cold air. “Right back atcha, son. You’re the bravest kid I know,” he whispered roughly. “I’m proud of you too.”

DJ’s shoulders straightened slightly at the words, a fragile smile touching his lips.

Something shifted between them—some new foundation being laid that was stronger than what had come before.

“How did you find us?” DJ asked, his natural curiosity reasserting itself.

“Your text helped us zero in, buddy. Super smart thinking.” Which reminded him. “How’d you unlock Sarah’s phone? No way she didn’t have that passcoded.”

His son puffed out his chest. “Smudges.”

“Smudges?”

“You know, fingerprints. It was dark in the back seat, so I could see the smudges from her fingers. Two guesses and I had it.”

Deke had to swallow around the sharp rock in his throat before he could speak again. “It’s official, dude. You are the smartest Williams in the family. By a million miles.”

“Yeah, I rocked that for sure. But Jade was amazing, too. She kept talking to me, telling me you’d come. Even when Sarah had the gun, Jade didn’t give up.”

Deke’s gaze traveled across the clearing to where Jade stood talking quietly with Zara, arms wrapped around herself against the cold, or against the receding terror.

Izzy stepped forward decisively, gently nudging DJ away with a reassuring smile. “Hey, hero,” she said warmly. “Let’s get you warmed up, okay? I think I saw some hot chocolate in one of those emergency vehicles.”

DJ glanced at Deke, then nodded and moved willingly with Izzy and Kenji.

“I’ll catch up with you in a sec.” Deke headed toward Jade, protective instincts surging again.

Jade turned as he approached, her eyes lighting with relief and something deeper. The bruise forming along her cheekbone made his stomach clench, but it was the vulnerability in her gaze that truly undid him.

Before he reached them, Zara glided away.

In the harsh glare of emergency lights, every emotion was laid bare on Jade’s features—relief, exhaustion, lingering fear, and beneath it all, a tentative hope.

He began quietly, voice thick with emotion as he launched straight into it. “I was wrong—about everything. I shouldn’t have pushed you away. It was easier blaming your past than admitting my own failures.”

Jade met his gaze. “Deke?—”

He gently interrupted her, touching her arm tenderly, feeling the slight tremor that ran through her.

“No, listen. Your past doesn’t define who you are.

Your actions do. You’re brave, strong, and good.

And you risked everything to save my son.

You’ve got more heart and courage than anyone I know.

And I need you to know I don’t want our lives to go back to the way they were.

Jade, I want you in DJ’s life. I want you in my life. ”

The words hung in the cold air between them, his breath forming small clouds that dissipated in the space between their faces. He felt strangely weightless having finally spoken the truth he’d been fighting.

Tears shone in her eyes, catching the colored lights from the vehicles. She tilted her chin up. The sweet show of bravado humbled him.

“I can work with that,” she murmured.

“Good to know.” He cupped her cheek tenderly, his thumb gently brushing the bruise forming there.

She leaned into him then, the warmth of her body against his melting away lingering fear.

“After I told you about my past, I figured you’d need to protect DJ,” she whispered shakily against his chest. “Which I totally get.”

Deke’s arms tightened around her, his heart swelling with certainty that he’d never felt before. “My son would be lucky to have you as a role model. You don’t have to prove anything,” he murmured into her hair. “Not to me. Not ever.”

The cold air burned his lungs with each breath, but he welcomed the sensation—a sharp reminder that they were alive, that they had survived. His fingertips tingled where they touched her, every sense heightened in the aftermath of danger.

DJ returned quietly, Izzy and Kenji trailing behind him, both grinning broadly.

Kenji nudged DJ with a shoulder. “Nice moves back there, bro. You should consider a career in covert ops, you know, after you’re old enough to drive.”

DJ smiled with genuine pride. “I was just doing what Jade taught me.”

“Which was?” Deke asked, curious.

“To think before I act,” DJ replied with a sudden maturity that caught him off guard. “But to act when it matters.”

Pride surged through him, so intense it was almost painful. He looked between DJ and Jade, overwhelmed by how close he’d come to losing them both. The world narrowed to the three of them, standing together in the cold night, surrounded by the bustle of emergency personnel but somehow set apart.

She winced slightly when she shifted her weight.

He scowled. “That fall hit you harder than you’re letting on.”

“Bruised ribs,” she admitted. “And probably a spectacular collection of other bruises. But nothing serious.”

“The paramedics should check the two of you out.”

“Already did,” DJ reported. “Just some rope burns.” He raised his arms, showing raw, reddened wrists.

Deke bit down on a fresh surge of fury at the sight. “We’ll get those taken care of properly.”

“No worries, Dad. The paramedic said they might leave scars .”

A very good thing, judging by the awe in his son’s voice. Deke wanted to argue, but he had to admit his own fifteen-year-old self would have wished for the same.

Ronan approached, his expression uncharacteristically serious. “Delgado won’t shut up. Says Sarah’s been working on the theft ever since she found out Kent planned to dump her.”

“Any actual evidence of Russian involvement?” Deke asked. Not that he cared overmuch.

Ronan shook his head. “Nothing concrete. Despite what Sarah seems to think, it could be Wycoff was laundering for garden-variety criminals, not international players. Frazer’s contacting the FBI regardless.”

Ronan nodded, relief evident in his expression. “Get Jade and DJ out of here. Take the SUV. We’ll fly back.” He clapped Deke briefly on the shoulder before moving away.

Chief Frazer approached next, his weathered face solemn. “We’ll need statements from all three of you, but it can wait until tomorrow. Go home. Get some rest.”

“Thank you,” Deke said quietly, genuine gratitude in his voice.

“Quite the math tutor you found,” Frazer commented, glancing at Jade with new respect. “Not many civilians would have handled this situation so well.”

“Copy that,” Deke agreed, his gaze returning to Jade’s face.

As Frazer walked away, Deke tightened his arms around Jade, his other hand resting on his son’s shoulder.

His family was safe—finally whole.

He’d never take the feeling for granted again.