Page 54 of Decker

He wished he could have a sign from her that it was okay, that she forgave him, but he knew that was nonsense. He stood and kissed his fingers before dropping them to the headstone. “I love you both so much,” his voice cracked on the last word, and he blinked as two robins landed on the headstone.

His face cracked into a smile as he looked heavenward. “Thanks, Susie.”

He watched the birds fly away and then turned to head back to his car. As he did his footsteps stalled. Leaning against a black SUV, were his teammates. He guessed Scott must have called them.

He jogged closer to the four men, Waggs, Reid, Jack, and Gunner, who looked calm as they waited for him.

“What are you guys doing here? Is everything okay?”

Jack took off his sunglasses despite the glare of the fall sun and smiled. “We’ve come to take you home. It’s time.”

“And you flew halfway around the world for that?”

Gunner stepped forward and slung his arm around him. “You’ve saved each one of us in one way or another and now it’s time for us to step up for you.”

Decker looked at them. “I did my job.”

Waggs chuckled. “No, Decker, you were a friend. You always protect us and now we want you to know we have your back. Yes, we were hard on you over Savannah but that’s because we care about you, and we saw how good she was for you.” Reid laughed. “Plus, I got to visit my mom and sisters while we were here.”

Gunner joined in. “Yeah, and Mrs Reid is an awesome cook.”

“How long have you been here?”

“Three days.”

“And you stayed away?” He was surprised to say the least.

“You needed time and now you need to get your ass on the company jet and fix your cock-up.” Jack opened the car door, ever the boss man.

“I need to grab my stuff.”

“No need. We got it from your hotel and closed out your bill. Leave the rental, Scott is collecting it for us.”

That was Jack, snowballing over people and taking charge like he did best, and this time Decker was happy for it. He was ready to go home and fix his mistakes.

He felt lighter now than he had in years with the forgiveness of his family and the silent blessing he’d had from Susie and felt able to make the last step towards his future—hopefully with Savannah.

As they landed at the private airfield the following day, they were met by Mitch, his face stoic and calm as he shook Deck’s hand and welcomed him back.

“What’s up, Mitch? I can see something isn’t right. You don’t normally meet us at the airfield.”

“Sorry to land this on you as soon as you got back, but we’ve just had word from Aubrey. The stalker Savannah had, that we thought was Andy Farr, was actually his pregnant girlfriend and now we can’t find her or Savannah.”

His heart went into freefall as fear slammed into him. God, not again.