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Zane takes the phone from me, holding it between his shoulder and his ear as he clings to my fingers in reassurance. “What’s going on?” he growls to my brother. “Why is my woman upset?”
I can’t hear what Andreas says, but Zane’s eyes widen as he listens, and then he rattles off a string of curses. “Are you fucking kidding me?” he snarls. “When?”
He listens for another moment and then sighs, his gaze softening as it runs over me. “Yeah,” he says to my brother. “I’ll have her call you later.” He disconnects and drops the phone on the bedside table, raking a hand through his hair.
“Just tell me,” I whisper. “I already know it’s bad.”
“Fuck.” He wraps his hands around my waist and lifts me out of the bed before sitting with me in his lap. One hand slides into my hair, tipping my head back until my eyes meet his. “Jimmy Gatlin is dead, little rebel,” he murmurs. “Sheriff Armstrong found him in his cell about an hour ago.”
“Dead?” I blink up at him. “But…” My mind spins, trying to grasp this information and figure out where to put it or what to do with it. How can he be dead? “He’s supposed to go to trial. To prison. His victims,” I whisper, tears welling in my eyes. They’ll never get justice now.
“It looks like he had a heart attack, baby,” Zane says, his voice soft. “He died on the floor of his cell.”
A tear slips down my cheek. I’m not crying for him, though. God no. He doesn’t deserve my tears. I cry for everyone he hurt. I cry because he’ll never see the inside of a courtroom. And I think I cry in relief because it’s over.
Zane holds me, crooning words of comfort as I sob against his shoulder. Jimmy Gatlin is dead. And I think… I think part of me is glad. He’ll never be able to hurt anyone else again. He’ll never walk free again.
“Promise me the world will know what he did,” I whisper, my voice raw as I pull back to look at Zane, tears still streaming down my cheeks. “Promise me that word of his crimes won’t die with him.” If he can’t face justice, he should die the monster he is. The world should know him for who he is and what he’s done.
“I swear to you,” Zane vows, cupping my face between his palms. “The world will know what he did.”
* * *
Less than twenty-four hours later, Zane keeps his promise. He and Jude hold a press conference with the District Attorney and Sheriff Armstrong, announcing to the world that Jimmy Gatlin died in police custody after kidnapping me at gunpoint. They list the pending charges against him, every single one of them. Sixty-eight counts of sexual solicitation of a minor, sexual harassment, and intimidation.
None of the girls he targeted attends the press conference. With him dead, most just want to move on with their lives. That’s what I want. To move on.
And that’s precisely what I do.
I heal… and I move on. With Zane at my side and my brother at my back, I move into the future without the shadows of the past hanging over my head. For the first time in my life, I’m truly free. And it’s so much more beautiful than I ever could have imagined.
EPILOGUE ONE
AUTUMN
ONE YEAR LATER
“Did you make sure there were extra blankets in the bedrooms?” I ask Zane, pacing across the foyer floor.
“I did,” he murmurs, watching me with a soft smile on his face.
“Do you think I put enough toiletries in the bathrooms?” I worry, nibbling on my bottom lip. “Maybe I should run up and check.”
“There are enough, little rebel.”
“What about—”
“There are plenty of toys in the toy boxes, and extra clothes in the closets, and towels in the pantry, and food in the kitchen, and laundry detergent in the laundry room. The computers are working. So are the phones and the toilets, and the televisions, and the game consoles. The swings swing, and the slides are safe,” he murmurs, reaching out to grab my hand. “Everything is perfect.”
“How do you know? Something could have gone wrong?”
“It didn’t,” he murmurs, pulling me into his arms. “You’ve been working your ass off for a year straight to turn this place into a safe place for every woman and child who needs it. Nothing has gone wrong. You wouldn’t allow it.”
“I’m nervous,” I whisper, melting against his chest. Our first official residents—a young mom and her baby boy—are due to arrive in a little over an hour, and I’m so worried that I’ve forgotten something important that will make this place feel like a home to them. And I want it to feel like a home to them.
She’s on the run from a powerful ex who is threatening to take her son because she refuses to let him control her. She needs a safe place to land, somewhere she and her baby can settle in and know they’ll be protected. That’s what we want Mina’s Place to be.
I don’t want to mess it up on day one. Zane and I have worked so hard to make this place a reality, and we haven’t been the only ones. All of our friends and family have chipped in to help. They’ve dedicated their time, energy, and labor into reinventing this place.
