Page 41 of Montana Justice
A baby’s giggle flooded the room. Sadie. Making her little baby noises that I’d know anywhere. I didn’t know where it was coming from, then I heard Beckett say, “Aw, come on, now. You’re ridiculously cute.”
What ? Beckett wasn’t here.
The baby’s laugh came again, and I realized the sound was coming from Lachlan’s phone. He’d made Sadie’s laugh his ringtone.
Ray’s head turned toward the sound, like mine did. But it took him longer to figure out what was going on.
I took advantage of his mistake, dropping like dead weight, straight down, while twisting my body. Ray’s grip broke. His gun hand flew up as he tried to maintain control.
Lachlan knew what to do from there, as I knew he would. Two shots were deafening in the enclosed space, and Ray fell away from me, dropping back onto the floor.
Lachlan was up the stairs and on me, pulling me away from Ray and kicking his gun out of his reach.
Sirens wailed in the distance, growing closer.
“Are you okay?” He pulled me against his chest.
“Yes. Are you?”
“Now that he doesn’t have a gun pointed at your head, I am.” Red and blue lights were flashing outside. “I radioed for backup as soon as I got your call and realized Ray was here.”
“Why didn’t you wait for them? You could’ve been killed!”
He cupped my face in his hands. “There was no way in hell I was leaving you in here alone with him. I could tell he was unstable, and I wasn’t taking a chance with your life.”
“Thank you.” That choice had probably saved me. As soon as Ray had heard sirens for real, he would’ve made sure I couldn’t testify against him.
“Thank you. Everything worked out just the way it should because of you.” He kissed my forehead. “Now let me go get things calmed down outside.”
Ray moaned on the floor at my feet. The man who’d haunted every corner of my life—reduced now to a trembling, broken shell. Pathetic. Small. Just an old man undone by his own overconfidence and paranoia.
Lachlan returned less than a minute later, two deputies flanking him. They pulled Ray upright, hauling him down the stairs and cuffing him as he wheezed for breath.
“You’ll never be more than what I made you,” he spat, blood staining his teeth.
The room went still.
I stepped closer, my voice steady, cold. “You’re right. Everything I am is because of you. Because you showed me exactly what I never want to be.”
Ray blinked, confused by the calm in my voice.
“I am a real parent. I am someone who protects their children instead of using them. I am someone who loves instead of destroys. So yeah…you get the credit. Because I became everything you weren’t.”
They dragged him out, his venomous threats trailing behind him until they were drowned out by sirens.
Lachlan and I stood in the ruined hallway. Plaster dust clung to our hair. My throat throbbed where Ray’s hands had been. Around us, the wreckage of his final tantrum. But he was gone. And I was still standing.
“Let me see.” Lachlan’s hands were gentle as he checked my throat, the developing bruises. “We should get you checked?—”
“No, I’m fine.” And I knew I was. “By now, Beckett should be back at Resting Warrior with Sadie, right?”
“Yes, any minute.”
This time, I cupped Lachlan’s cheeks. “We need to go get our children.”
We walked through the destroyed house, past the shattered picture frames and scattered papers. None of it mattered. It was just stuff. What mattered was waiting for us at Resting Warrior Ranch.
The drive passed in silence, our hands clasped over the console. His thumb traced circles on my palm—comfort and promise and partnership all in that small touch.
I didn’t know what tomorrow would bring. There would be consequences for my actions over the past few weeks.
But tonight?
Tonight, both my babies would sleep in our bed. Safe. Together. A family.
Tonight was for healing. For holding them. For believing that maybe, just maybe, broken things could be rebuilt into something stronger.
Lachlan squeezed my hand as we pulled into the ranch driveway. Through the lodge windows, I could see warm light. Safety. People who’d fought for us.
“Ready?” he asked.
To face whatever came next? To pick up the pieces and try to build something new? To believe I deserved the family waiting inside?
“Yes.”
The lodge door opened before we could reach it. Emma stood there with Caleb in her arms, his little face lighting up when he saw us. Behind her, Beckett appeared with Sadie.
“Mama’s here,” Evelyn whispered to Caleb, passing him to me just as Beckett placed Sadie in Lachlan’s arms.
Then we were both moving at once, coming together in the doorway. I shifted Caleb to one arm as Lachlan did the same with Sadie, and suddenly, both babies were between us, safe in the circle of our arms.
Sadie’s tiny hand found Caleb’s, their fingers tangling together like they’d never been apart. Fresh tears spilled down my cheeks—happy ones this time—as I pressed kisses to both their heads.
“We’re a family,” Lachlan whispered, his voice thick with emotion. “All four of us. Finally.”
I looked up at him through my tears, saw my own joy reflected in his eyes. “Finally.”
The babies cooed at each other, some secret twin language already reforming. And there in the doorway of Resting Warrior Ranch, surrounded by the family we’d chosen and the family we’d made, I knew that broken things really could be rebuilt.
Stronger. Better. Whole .