Beck shook his head. “No. I have everything I need. You got this?”
Rob nodded. “We’ve been ready to clean this particular mess up for a long time, boss. Take Kim back to the house. They’re all worried about her.”
He left the guns on the ground, obviously trusting the Lost Boys to deal with the situation.
He hadn’t even looked Levi’s way. Every bit of his attention had been on her. “Beck, it’s okay if you need to stay.”
He shook his head and cupped her cheeks, bringing his forehead down to meet hers. “He’s incidental in our love story. He’s nothing but a blip, and now we move on. Together.”
“I love you, Beck. Wholly and without holding anything back. I love you. I trust you.” Tears fell on her cheeks because she did. She let go of all her anger. They could start over. They could take all that passion they’d had in the beginning, pair it with the abiding love and patience they’d found, and have the marriage they’d always wanted.
“I love you. More than anything.” He kissed her forehead and then leaned over to pick her up and hold her against his chest. “Let’s get our son. And my brother. And a drink because I need one. My hands are still shaking.”
She laid her head on his shoulder and held on to him.
* * * *
Beck sat back as the CIA operative known as Drake lowered himself into the seat at the big conference table. Drake had been with the Agency for years, but he still looked like a baby to Beck.
He and Kim had been babies when they’d started. So many years had passed, and yet he felt far younger than he had back then. He reached over and brought her hand to his lips.
She gave him a smile that rocked his world. And she winked his way before turning slightly. The movement made her blouse gape a bit, and he caught a hint of the ring looped on her necklace. Her uncle had sent it to her from Malta along with a letter for Beck. He’d promised severe retribution if Beck screwed up again. The man had explained that he had a good relationship with the almighty, and he wouldn’t hesitate to use it.
Beck liked her uncle.
That ring was going back on her finger this weekend.
“I need you to understand that I had no idea what Levi was doing.” Drake looked like a man trying to placate a predator who wanted to rip him apart.
But then Ian Taggart was still angry.
Beck would never forget how pale Tag had gone when he’d seen Tasha on the ground. He’d never once seen that man cry, but the tears had fallen as he’d gone to his knees and held his daughter to his heart. He’d managed to send the rest of them on when he’d realized she was alive. But he’d still been holding her an hour later when she’d woken up. The fact that they’d had a doctor and a few nurses there who had been able to monitor her hadn’t meant anything to the Taggarts. They’d held vigil around Tasha and only breathed again when she’d woken.
“The Agency didn’t know one of their top men was using an innocent teenage girl as an asset?” The question came out of Tag’s mouth like a bomb waiting to go off.
“I assure you I didn’t know.” Drake seemed determined to defuse it. “Tag, you have to believe me. I would never have let him hurt Tasha. I would have gone against any orders I was given. I did go against orders to get Solo that package.”
“Kim,” he insisted.
“I’m only Solo now when Beck there wants to get some role play in,” Kim replied, giving the man too much information.
But it was true. Sometimes it was fun to have the badass Solo interrogate him.
Tag ignored it entirely, focusing all his attention on the Agency liaison. “Let your bosses know that I won’t forget. And I won’t forgive.”
“I think they are aware,” Drake said cautiously. “They wanted to let you know that as far as they’re concerned Ezra Fain died during the operation that took out his team. There will be no repercussions, and you’ll find no one is concerned with a priest.”
His brother could return to the life he’d built for himself. He could go back to doing good. After he’d spent some time with his family. “Thank you.”
“I’m happy to have been able to make that happen,” Drake replied as though relieved at least one thing had gone right. His jaw tightened as he looked to Taggart. “I was hoping you could give me a debrief on what happened that day. The Agency is interested in bringing Mr. Green’s body back to Langley.”
A humorless smile crossed Taggart’s face. “You’ll have to find him first.”
Drake frowned. “Are you trying to say you didn’t kill him?”
“I was far too busy being concerned with my daughter’s life, Drake,” Tag shot back. “And then I was concerned with what that fucker did to her. The things he said, they will haunt her for the rest of her life. So no, I did not bother to kill Levi Green.”
Before the Lost Boys had left to return home, they’d spent an evening at Tag’s place, sitting around the fire pit in the backyard with Tasha. They’d told her stories about her father and how he’d given his life to save Owen’s.
Charlotte had stuck close to her oldest daughter the last weeks. So had the other kids, though that hadn’t been hard since they were all grounded. According to Tag that might last forever.
Beck didn’t think so. The Taggarts would pull together and get through this as a family. The way the Kents would.
Drake looked Kim’s way. “Come on, So…Kim. You can’t expect me to believe Levi got away. If he had, you would have a bodyguard on you twenty-four seven.”
Kim merely smiled. “Beck totally trusts me to take out the bad guys. That’s what we’ve decided our jobs
