Page 83 of Deep Cover

He dropped his forehead to hers. “Welcome home.”

Those two little words were true in a way nothing had been in six long years.

She stared into the eyes of the man she loved. “Yeah,” she whispered, smiling through her tears. “I think it finally is.”

EPILOGUE

Rivers’s leg bounced under the war room table in a rapid, restless rhythm. Even though Caryssa glanced at him several times with a questioning expression, he couldn’t make himself stop.

He’d been this way for three days, jumpy and distracted, checking his phone for a shipping notification. Cannon had already shot him two suspicious looks during the briefing, and Caryssa’s brows pinched whenever she looked his way, clearly clocking that something was off.

He deflected with a mumbled excuse of high-test coffee giving him the jitters.

Just when he thought he’d have Cannon breathing down his neck again, the door swung open and Rorke entered with the latest supply run, boxes stacked chest-high in his arms.

Rivers leaped out of his seat and rushed him, stripping away box after box and dropping them to the table in his search for one particular package.

He spotted it and snatched it off the stack, then hurried out of the room, leaving a stunned silence in his wake.

“What the hell?” Cannon’s voice followed him out.

“Reid?” Caryssa.

“Just a minute!”

Murmured questions came from the room as he tore open the box. He already knew what was inside, but when he opened the box and stared down at the object, his heart slammed into his chest.

He had a single thought in his head, and it propelled him down the corridor at a dead run toward the kitchen, where he knew Jolie and Stina would be sharing afternoon coffee.

They looked up in alarm when he burst through the door.

“I need you two,” he said, breathless. “Now. War room.”

They jolted to their feet.

“Is everything okay?” Jolie asked.

“Everything’s about to be perfect.” He was already turning, moving, and they scrambled after him, tossing each other a look.

At the war room door, he stopped dead. Drew a deep breath.

Then walked in with the ladies behind him, the box clutched in his fist.

At their sudden appearance, the entire room silenced. Every set of eyes fixed on him, and he knew someday he’d laugh at how they must see him, hands shaking and a flush climbing his neck.

Across the table, he caught Caryssa’s gaze, and the air shifted.

Before he could make a move, Cannon’s rough voice boomed through the room. “Absolutely not. No girls in the war room. We’ve been over this.” He gestured at Jolie and Stina as if the breeze from his hand would wave them back out the door.

“I’m a girl,” Caryssa reminded him dryly.

“I asked them to be here,” Rivers blurted. “They’re helping me.”

Cannon eyed him. “With?”

“This.”

He crossed the room in three long strides, straight to Caryssa. He reached for her hand and pulled her gently to her feet. The whole room held its breath around them.