Page 28 of Frankie (Big Northwest #5)

EPILOGUE

JD

T his was harder than he expected it to be.

JD gripped the handles of the four-wheeler, focus bouncing between the tree trunks in front of him and the branches overhead as he tried to keep one eye on his path and the other on the woman racing among the leaves.

“Slow the fuck down.” He dodged a fallen log, redirecting the ATV in a quick move that kicked up dirt and debris.

“You hurry up.” Frankie’s voice was barely breathless through the bud in his ear as she laughed. “You have way more horsepower than I do. I shouldn’t be the fast one here.”

The engine wasn’t the only thing that should have given him an advantage. Between the lupus affecting her joints and the barely healed bullet wound in her shoulder, Frankie should be struggling at least a little bit .

Instead he was the one having issues. “You try driving this thing through the woods. It’s not as easy as it sounds.”

But it was the compromise they’d come up with. She’d been itching to get out for a few weeks now. He’d managed to hold her off until her six-week checkup, but when the doctor said Frankie was good to resume normal activities, he knew he was fucked. Knew there was no way to keep her on the couch a second longer.

“Deal. Next time I’ll drive the four-wheeler and you can run through the trees.” Frankie’s words were rushed and followed by a grunt.

A heavy branch rattled a few yards in front of him as she jumped from one tree to the next.

“I doubt you’ll have any problem keeping up with me.” JD maneuvered onto an old hunting path he’d cut through the woods as a teenager. “So I hardly think that’s gonna be a fair deal.”

They were a couple minutes down the dirt trail before he realized Frankie purposefully led him to a spot where he’d have an easier time following along. He grinned, shaking his head as he watched her move, practically flying, through the treetops. The woman loved to give him shit, but she worried about him just as much as he worried about her.

Eventually, her injuries and new limitations started to catch up with her, and Frankie’s movements slowed until she finally worked her way to the ground, jumping down and dusting off her hands, smile bright as he pulled up alongside her.

He looked her over, searching for any sign she’d hurt herself. “You good?”

Frankie sucked in a deep breath of the evening air, eyes bright. “I’m fucking amazing.”

That was what he wanted. For her to feel like she used to. As much as that was possible, anyway. The bullet Lena fired hadn’t hit anything too important, but it still tore through muscle and connective tissue, doing damage that couldn’t be undone and stealing a little bit more of Frankie’s mobility.

“You’re frowning.” Frankie’s smile slipped. “Stop thinking about it.”

“You know damn well I can’t do that.” He reached out to loop an arm around her waist, hauling Frankie onto the four-wheeler behind him. “She only got as close to you as she did because of me.” And he’d beat himself up forever for it. “I never should have brought her to Lily’s party.”

Frankie laced her arms around his middle, resting her chin on his shoulder. She scrunched up her nose. “I want to agree with you, but honestly, that’s what pushed me over the edge and sent me running right into your waiting arms.”

JD snorted as he turned them around, aiming for the house they now shared. “You’ve never run at me unless you were looking for a fight.” He tipped his head to glance her way. “And if I remember correctly, it wasn’t my waiting arms you tried to run into. It was Foster’s. ”

The private investigator left Shadow Pine almost as soon as they’d cuffed Lena and hauled her away. He offered to stay and help deal with Carl, but between Craig and Kenneth, he and Frankie had more than enough backup to deal with that asshole.

And he was a fucking asshole.

As expected, when they fired him, the prick tried to coerce, convince, and intimidate as many of Frankie’s employees into leaving as he possibly could, and he’d had some success.

Luckily, it was temporary. Adam made some calls to ensure the news stations picked up the story of Lena’s arrest and the charges that came with it. When it hit, every single person who quit started calling, begging for their job back. Plus some. Once the loggers of Washington caught a glimpse of the curly-headed, blue-eyed owner of the company, they lined up to put in their applications.

Frankie held him a little tighter as they started up an incline. “I just wish they could have tied Carl to something. I know he was in on it. He had to be.”

It was the same conclusion Kenneth came to. It was possible Lena found Frankie’s house all on her own. She could have crept around the same woods they were in now, spying on the time he and Frankie were spending together. But would she have done it alone? Unlikely.

Plus, Frankie heard more than one voice the night she was caught in the net, and he believed in every fiber of his being that was Carl taking Lena out to show her where Frankie lived. Since he worked at the logging company, he’d been to the warehouse at the edge of town enough times he had to have seen the cameras going up. He would have known the only way to get in without being seen was through the woods.

And the lucky bastard decided to strike right when everyone was distracted and Frankie wasn’t at her best. Otherwise they would have caught the two of them that night in the woods and stopped them right in their tracks.

But then he wouldn’t be here. With Frankie. She’d still hate him and he’d still be too stupid to realize he could have two things.

“I don’t think you should worry too much about ol’ Carl. I’m pretty sure he’ll get what’s coming to him. Karma has a way of working that shit out.” He was pretty well acquainted with karma and didn’t expect Carl’s indiscretion would go unchecked.

Frankie sighed. “I guess. I just wish I knew he wouldn’t try to get back at me for his daughter getting locked up.”

He understood her worry. She knew better than most people how deep the need for revenge could run. Had faced it down before.

But a lot had changed since then, and that made all the difference in the world.

“I don’t think we have to worry about seeing Carl again anytime soon.” JD rested one hand on her thigh as the terrain evened out. “I’ve got a feeling he’s going to want to stay as far from you as he can get.”

Frankie turned her head, resting her cheek against his shoulder. “I hope you’re right.”

The back of their house came into sight and he pulled the ATV under the deck onto the concrete pad that also housed the hot tub. Shutting off the engine, he held out a hand for Frankie as she worked her way off the seat. His eyes stayed on her as she stretched from side to side.

“How do you feel?”

Frankie’s brows pinched. “Okay, I guess. Maybe a little weak.”

He bit back the need to tell her she shouldn’t have gone out. That it was too early and she needed more time to heal. That wasn’t how the woman standing in front of him worked. Telling her she couldn’t do something would only make her want to prove she could even more.

All he could do was run interference. Keep her in check when he could and be ready to catch her when he couldn’t.

And that sounded like one hell of a good way to spend the rest of his life.

“Come on.” He flipped back the lid on the hot tub and switched on the jets. “Get naked so we can sit in here and plan our wedding.”