Page 54 of Valor (Long Hot Summer: Christian Romantic Suspense #2)

LANI

Twenty-six hours after Gibson, Bradyn, and Lance found me, and thirty minutes after being cleared for release from the hospital, I’m standing on the front steps of the sheriff’s department. “Lani, this is a bad idea.”

I turn to him. “No, I need this. Please.”

“She’s not worth it.”

“She kidnapped me, shot my dad, and buried me alive. I need to face this.”

He takes a deep breath. “There’s no talking you out of this?”

“Absolutely not.”

He nods. “Then let’s get it over with.” Gibson opens the door for me and steps aside so I can go in first. Peter Lenson looks up from his desk, expression grim.

“You doing okay, Lani?” His dad and mine are close, and his family ranch neighbors ours. My brothers are constantly over there helping as they can since it’s just Peter and his dad running the place.

“I will be. Thanks. For getting her.”

“I’m sorry we missed it.” He crosses over and wraps his arms around me in a friendly hug.

“I missed it too. She hid in plain sight.”

“I’m so glad we got her before—” He trails off. “I just wish we’d gotten her before Carla.”

“Me too.” I squeeze his arms as he releases me.

“Hold these.” Gibson holds out a set of keys to Lenson.

“Why?”

“Because if I’m down in the holding cell I can’t be trusted with them.”

Lenson takes the keys. “Understood. Call up if you need me. I’m finishing up the paperwork now. Transport should be here this afternoon to take her to county.”

“The sooner the better,” Gibson says, placing his hand on my lower back and guiding me down the hall toward a set of stairs that will take us down to the holding cells.

With every step, I question whether or not this was a good idea.

But the second she looks up and sees me beside Gibson and her expression hardens, I know facing her is exactly what I needed.

“What are you doing here?” she asks.

“We found Manny,” I tell her. “Seems you brought him with you when you moved here.”

She doesn’t respond to me, just shifts her attention to the man beside me. “Gibson, you have to know that she’s the wrong choice. She’s selfish. How many years did she keep you on the sidelines? You deserve better.”

Gibson is radiating anger, both muscled arms crossed as though he’s trying to keep himself from prying the bars open with his bare hands.

I take a step closer to the bars. “Ever since I escaped that first time, I kept imagining what I would say when I came face-to-face with my abductor. I had over a dozen scenarios in my head, but now that I’m looking at you—I just feel sorry for you. I’m angry for Carla. For Manny—who I never even met—but I feel sorry for you.”

“I don’t need your pity. And it’s your fault Carla is dead.”

“No,” I say. “It’s not. It’s yours. And that’s something you’ll have to think about from behind bars. I only hope you realize just how wrong you are before there’s no time to repent for what you’ve done.”

“You here to preach to me then?” she asks with a sneer on her face.

“I’m here to tell you that I forgive you for what you did to me. I’m also here to let you know that my dad lived. And that I forgive you for shooting him too.”

“Arrogant. That’s what you are. Thinking I care about your forgiveness.” She spits the words out, her cheeks crimson.

“I’m not doing it for you,” I tell her. “I’m doing it for me. Because I want to move forward with my life, and in order to do that, I need to not be weighed down by the past few weeks.” I glance up at Gibson. “I’m ready to go.”

He offers me a single nod, then reaches down and takes my hand.

“You’re making a mistake!” she screams at us. “She’s wrong for you, Gibson! She’s only going to break your heart like Kleo did! Like Manny broke mine! She has to pay! She doesn’t deserve you!”

Gibson stops walking, but I tug him forward until we’re at the bottom of the stairs. Then I keep him moving forward. Step by step, until we’re at the top. As soon as we are, I turn and wrap both arms around him.

He does the same, clinging to me. His heart is racing beneath my cheek, his body trembling. “She was right there the entire time,” he says. “She knew every step we took with the case. Every lead we chased.”

“She was good at hiding.”

“But she shouldn’t have been that good,” he says as he pulls away from me. “I should’ve known.”

“Gibson, no one did. I didn’t even realize it until she took the mask off. It was a good mask she wore.” I press a hand to his chest. “But it’s in the past now. And I really want to move forward. I need to move forward.”

* * *

“You doing okay?” I ask as I step into the living room. It’s an early Saturday morning, and even though he’s been doctor-cleared to go back to doing work around the ranch, my mom has insisted my dad stay laid up for at least another week.

“I have a stomach full of your momma’s French toast. I’d say I’m doing just fine.” He smiles warmly at me as I take a seat beside him on the couch. “Are you okay?”

“I’ll be fine.” I smile.

“Another nightmare?”

Not seeing a sense in lying, I nod. “I just can’t get it out of my head. The way it felt to feel the air leach out of that box.” Tears sting my eyes again. “Dad, every time I close my eyes, I’m terrified I’m going to wake up back there. Buried in the ground.”

He sets his plate aside. “Come here, honey.”

I lean in to him as he wraps an arm around my shoulders. “She almost killed us both.”

“But the good Lord saw fit to save our lives,” he says. “And I thank Him for that every day.”

“I thank Him too.”

He kisses the top of my head. “You are so strong, Lani Hunt. Strong and wonderful. You will make it through the healing, and when you do, you’ll be on the other side of what may very well turn out to be the worst few weeks of your life.”

“Let’s hope it doesn’t get much worse than that,” I reply. “I’ve had enough trauma to last me lifetimes.”

He hugs me tightly. “You’ll make it through, my darling. Because you have God standing beside you, holding you up when things get hard.”

“I know. ‘Fear not the fire,’” I say, quoting one of my favorite songs. “Because He’s in it with you.”

“Exactly.” He squeezes my shoulders again.

“I’ve decided to go home today.” I straighten up. “Or, back to the apartment. At least until my house is finished here on the ranch.”

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?”

I nod. “I need it, Dad. I need to get back to normal.”

“Then I want you to have what you need.”

My mom breezes into the living room with a fresh plate of French toast.

“Woman, you’re going to make it impossible for me to even walk outside,” my dad says.

“Good. Then you won’t get shot again.” She hands him one plate, then offers me the other. “Eat.”

“Mom—”

“Eat, Lani Hunt. You need your strength, and you’ll be getting it whether you like it or not.”

I laugh. “Yes, ma’am.”

When she’s out of the room, I glance over at my dad who, despite his complaint, is already eating the French toast. When he catches me looking at him, he smiles. “It’s not like I’m going to win that argument anyway.”

* * *

“Are you sure about this?” Gibson asks for the hundredth time as we step up to the front door of my apartment. “Lani, I can take you back to your parents. You can sleep in my guest room. Whatever will make you comfortable. My mom even offered up her guest room.”

Turning toward him, I cup his handsome face. “Gibson, I’ll be fine, okay?”

His expression softens slightly. “I just want you to be happy.”

Leaning up on my tiptoes, I press my lips to his. “Then let me do this. Let me fight my way back to normal. Facing her was step one. Facing this place is step two.”

“Do I want to know what step three is?”

“Another date,” I tell him.

“That I can do. Is right now too soon?” He gestures back toward his truck, and I laugh.

“Yes. Let’s get this over with. Right now, it’s the elephant in the room, and I want to see it so I can realize it’s not nearly as big as I’m making it out to be.”

He still looks unsure, but he nods anyway. I know he’s still beating himself up over the fact that—in his opinion—he’s the one who brought Deputy Brown into our lives. But none of us blamed him—not even Tommy Yates, who Gibson nearly had to arrest to keep from killing her himself before the officers came and transferred her to the county jail, where she’s waiting out her time until a trial date.

After speaking to Pastor Ford though, Taylor came down from it when the Pastor reminded him that vengeance is not ours to take. It belongs to God. And nothing we do will ever come close to what He can repay.

So instead, even though it was incredibly difficult, we said a prayer for her. That she will find whatever it is she’s looking for and make her way to redemption and salvation.

I face the door and take a deep breath before sliding my key into the lock and pushing it open.

It swings easily, no glass shards to block its way. Which is surprising, since I haven’t had the chance to come and clean up ye?—

Tears fill my eyes when I step inside the foyer of my once-trashed apartment.

It’s been completely restored. Better even than it was.

There is a brand-new potted plant—a pothos—on the kitchen counter.

My cardinal painting has been reframed and rehung, and there’s a brand-new glass coffee table in the center of my recarpeted living room.

“What—how?” I turn toward Gibson.

He shoves his hands into his pockets. “Your landlord recarpeted for you, and he let me in so I could do some cleaning and redecorating. I didn’t want you to come back to a mess.”

“But—” I trail off and turn back toward the apartment. “I’ve only been gone a week. How did you do all of this in a week?”

“Where there’s a will, there’s a way,” he replies with a grin.

“I didn’t even know I wanted to come back until this morning. I could have just decided to box it all up and move out.” I glance back at him just in time to see him shrug.

“You could have. But I knew you’d want to come back.”

“How?”

“Lani Hunt doesn’t run,” he replies with an easy smile. “You’re a fighter straight down to your soul. And even though it’s hard, I knew you were going to want to come back if only to prove she didn’t take that from you too. Just as I knew you were going to want to face her. Didn’t keep me from trying to talk you out of it though.”

Tears fill my eyes. He knows me so well. My heart. My thoughts. It makes sense that we went straight from friendship to love. Which is wholeheartedly where I am now.

I turn toward him. “I love you, Gibson Lawson.”

He cups the side of my face and gently tugs me forward, thumb stroking my cheek as he leans down and rests his forehead against mine. “I love you too, Lani Hunt. And I intend to spend the rest of my life proving it to you.” He kisses me gently, then releases me. “But this isn’t the end of the surprise.”

“No?” I pull back.

“Nope.” With a grin, he steps out into the breezeway and waves at someone.

Seconds later, every single one of my brothers come into the apartment. Tucker is first, with his twin, Dylan, at his side. Riley comes through next, a wide grin on his face, followed by Elliot. And then Bradyn steps into the room, with the most adorable little ball of fluff in his arms.

The puppy turns to me and offers a sweet bark, and my eyes fill. “What is this?”

“This is your new service dog,” Bradyn says. “We’ll work together to train her, that way you’ll know all the commands too.”

Tears slip down my cheeks. This means I’ll never be alone. Even when I am, I’ll have this little one to protect me. And that means the world to me. “You got me a puppy?”

“We did,” Riley says. “Just wanted to make it clear it was a joint effort. Bradyn doesn’t need any additional big brother brownie points.”

Laughing, I wrap my arms around his waist. “You all get the points, Riley. Not that you guys needed them. You’re already the best brothers a girl could ask for.”

He hugs me back, a warm, safe embrace that feels like home.

After releasing Riley, I turn toward Bradyn and run my hand over the soft fluffy fur of my own little German shepherd. My own partner.

“Her name is Lima,” Bradyn tells me.

“Lima?” I smile. “My little Lima.”

“If you want to change it, you can,” Dylan says. “But given our dogs’ names, we thought it was fitting. Keeping to the phonetic alphabet and all.”

“It’s perfect,” I tell them, then take the sweet pup into my arms as I turn to Gibson. He’s watching me with a wide smile, his eyes full of love. “Thank you,” I say, turning in a slow circle so I can see my brothers too. “Thank all of you.”

“We’ll do anything for you, little sister,” Tucker says. “You know that.”

“I do,” I say as I hug the puppy close. She wiggles in my arms, so I set her down and watch as she makes her way around the living room, smelling everything.

I’d had my doubts when I first decided I wanted to come back to this place. Even as Gibson has faith that I’m strong enough to do it, I can’t say I share that same belief in myself.

But this is a reminder that I’m not alone.

My brothers will always have my back.

Gibson will always have my heart.

And God will never leave my side. Even when life is not, He is always good.