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“Me, too,” Mitchell chimed in. He had buried the axe between him and Jason to a point but still blamed the older brother for the breakup. Sometimes the old wound would fester, like now.
“Sure thing, guys. Go.” Megan didn’t look up from her laptop. She was so focused, but more than that, she was beautiful and she was his and Scott’s.
“Number twenty-eight on the blue team and number thirteen on the red team are out,” Jason’s deputy, Charlie, yelled from across the street. “Firing in a no-fire zone.”
“Got it. Thanks, Charlie,” Amber said.
Charlie was reprimanding the two participants. He was going to be missed.
Eric hated to see him go, but understood completely why Charlie wanted to be with his kids. What he never would understand was what had happened to him and his ex, Aimee. Eric hoped they might be able to reconcile their differences, at least for their boys.
Eric looked at Megan, imagining her pregnant with their child. God, he couldn’t wait for that day.
“I don’t need more shit,” Jason snapped, staring at his brothers’ backs as they walked away. “I’ve got too much on my plate already.”
“Like what?” Scott asked.
Jason blew out a big hot breath of frustration. “I haven’t even finished the state’s paperwork on the Stones’ big shootout let alone even starting on the mess that happened at your offices. With those two witnesses dead, Niklaus Mitrofanov is being released. The feds don’t have enough to hold him.”
“Can you guys please be quiet?” Belle snapped, and then suddenly became excited, pointing to one of the gamers. “Amber, there’s Juan. Do you see him?”
“Yes. He’s doing great, too.”
Jason lowered his voice. “I’m looking into why Niklaus’s son, Sergei, was on Amber’s missing persons report as her husband. I spoke with the officer who filed the report, Officer Nicole Flowers.”
“What did you learn?” Eric asked.
“Not much except she’s a handful. Against my wishes, she’s coming here.”
Emmett, Bryant, and Cody Stone walked to the judges’ table with Sawyer and Reed Coleman, their ranch hands. Of course, they were much more than that. They were all like brothers to Eric and Scott, having all lost their parents in the same plane crash a couple of weeks after 9/11.
Cody leaned over the table and kissed Amber. “Hey, baby.”
She blushed. “Can’t you see I’m working, cowboy?”
“Can’t you see I’m in love?” he asked.
Jason turned to Sawyer and Reed. “You two might be able to help me with a problem I have heading to town.”
“What problem?” Sawyer asked.
Before Jason could answer the game buzzer went off.
Megan clicked on her microphone. “That’s the end of the round, players.”
The gamers started lining up in front of the table to claim their shots. The two that got everyone’s attention instantly moved to the front of the line. When they took off their goggles and masks, there was a uniform gasp from the other players.
Gretchen and Ethel were arguing over who shot who.
Eric smiled, watching Megan take charge like the pro she was. Thank God, he and Scott had decided to sue her. It brought her, the woman he would love for the rest of his life, to Destiny, a place like nowhere else on earth. A place where misfits, castaways, and even two elderly women who enjoyed a good game of paintball were welcome. Destiny was his home. He placed his hands on Megan’s shoulders. She turned and smiled. This tiny town in northern Colorado had always been his and Scott’s home. Now, it was Megan’s too.
Destiny was where they all belonged together, now and forever.
THE END
