Page 95 of The Vigilante's Lover

Six Months Later

Jax looks so much like a sheep herder from a Swiss children’s book that I have to laugh out loud.

He hurries down the side of the hill at a half run, half gallop. His hair blows wildly. He’s wearing goofy green shorts and a white collared shirt. All he needs is a pair of suspenders to complete the ensemble.

Spring in the Alps is breathtaking and much easier to manage than the winter, not that I was here that much.

After leaving the Vigilante headquarters in D.C.

, we agreed I would go through Phase One training in Missouri with Alan Carter while Jax helped establish some order in the syndicates ravaged by Sutherland and Jovana’s plan to undercut their authority.

Sutherland was decommissioned, and Colette and Sam reinstated. Jovana went off grid again. Jax hasn’t decided what to do about Klaus. Currently he is working a Vigilante desk job in some rural area.

I was a model Vigilante trainee, already well schooled in a number of basics, including knot tying, dart guns, and engaging the enemy.

I got my own pair of Phase One shoes. I ran into Katya, who was just about to graduate to Phase Two. I apologized for the way I stole her shoes. She shrugged and said she learned a valuable lesson about never letting anyone, no matter how innocent seeming, learn about her food allergies.

“At least you called the medic after doctoring the tea,” she said. “A real enemy wouldn’t.”

I didn’t know what sort of place Katya would find among the Vigilantes. I’d check up on her later, see where she ended up.

The wind picks up on the hillside, ruffling the waves of colorful wildflower blooms. The chateau Jax bought me to replace my blown-up house is small and cozy and all mine.

It’s been paradise here, but a faint restlessness has started to build in me again since my Phase One training ended and we both left the network.

Jax makes it down to where I’m marking the spots where I have stubbornly planted watermelon seeds, despite warnings from the locals that they will never grow in this soil.

I remember cutting fat green fruit from the vines with my parents, and I’m determined to bring some small part of my heritage with me, even as far away as I find myself now.

“Who was the man who came by?” I ask. Jax is returning from greeting a visitor, a rare event as remote as we are from any decent-sized cities.

“Just a delivery,” he says and kisses the top of my head. “Any sprouts yet?”

I press down on the damp earth beneath my fingers. “Still hoping,” I say.

“They’ll come.”

He sits down next to me. The sun is low on the horizon, turning the mountaintops in the distance a warm gold. I scoot up next to him on the soft grass at the edge of my little garden.

He fingers the bottom of my cotton shirt, finding a strip of skin.

“You know what I love most about living out here?” he asks.

I lean into him. “What?”

“Stripping you naked under a bright blue sky.”

His eyes are mischievous as his hand slips beneath my soft shirt.

“Is that your plan right now?” I ask.

“Maybe.”

With lightning reflexes, he whips the shirt over my head and nuzzles into my neck. “You make me crazy running around without a bra.” He leans down and captures a tightened nipple with his teeth.

I fall back into the undulating grass. His dark head roves over my body, nipping with little kisses. One thing is for certain, no matter how long we’re together, this part never gets old.

The sun is just a glimmer of red by the time we slip back into our clothes.

I roll onto my back, and something presses into my spine, small and hard. I sit up. It’s a small box wrapped in parchment.

“Was this your delivery?” I ask, holding it up.

The last vestiges of sunset burnish his skin in red gold. “It’s for you.”

My heart speeds up a little. It’s awfully small. Ring-box size. Maybe it’s some other piece of jewelry.

I tear away the brown paper, revealing a black velvet box.

I take a deep breath.

Jax covers my hand with his before I open it. “Just know that I’m behind you, whatever you decide to do. Vigilante or not. Service or home. Stateside or here.” He turns the box on my palm and lifts the lid.

It’s a ring.

The diamond is square and so big it seems to fill the space. I look up from it, at his pleased, happy face.

“I’ll go wherever you go,” he says, “as long as you’ll say you’ll marry me.”

My gaze slides back down to the ring. I want this. I know I do. I love him. I know that too. But the restlessness still vibrates within me. How do I know Jax means it? How does he know himself?

His Blackphone buzzes in his pocket. He ignores it, but it keeps going, breaking the spell.

“Check it,” I say.

He nods and pulls it out. “It’s Sam,” he says. He hits the button for speakerphone.

“Hello, Sam,” I say. “How are things in D.C.?”

“Crazy shitpots,” he says. “You had enough mountains and lakes yet? I got the perfect job for a new Phase Two.”

I look back down at the ring. I know we’re going to get to that place eventually. I know I want it. But I also want to know for sure that we’ve figured out the rest of it. Our careers. Our lives.

“Sam, we’re getting on a plane,” I say. “See you stateside sometime tomorrow.”

“Excellent,” he says. “Only bring that deadbeat boyfriend of yours if you can’t figure out anywhere to stash his body.”

Jax lifts his eyebrows. “She knows exactly where to stash me.”

“Aw, man! Now I have to scrub my ears with soap,” Sam laughs. “Over and out, kids.” The call disconnects.

Jax takes the box from me. “Is this a no, then?” His voice has an edge to it, like he’s masking his feelings.

“I want to marry you,” I assure him. But I close the box in his hand. “Can you ask me again after my first real Vigilante mission?”

He holds my gaze in his, then leans in to settle a soft, warm kiss on my mouth. “Of course I can. I’ll wait all my life.”

The sun disappears behind the mountains as we stand up and head back to the chateau. I take a look around at the shadows forming on the hillside as we approach full dark. I won’t be here to see if my watermelon seeds manage to sprout.

But I’m doing the right thing.

I take Jax’s hand and pull him along with me. He dragged me into this world of Vigilantes, danger, risk, and intrigue. He tied me up and stripped me down and thrust me right into the middle of it all.

So I’m going to drag him right back.

You ready for Mia’s first mission?

Now that the Vigilante’s Lover series is over, we’re continuing the Vigilantes series with standalone books about Jax and Mia’s missions. If you love these characters, you can keep living with them and find out if they’ll actually, you know, get married.