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Michael didn’t answer. He stood and motioned for Faith to follow him out. Turk growled one last time at Carter, then turned and followed the two agents.
Faith drove them to the bar where they would meet Missy for drinks to celebrate the successful conclusion of their case. Michael wasn’t in a celebratory mood. All he could picture in his mind was Faith sitting in the chair in the abandoned barn where Jethro Trammell had kept her. He recalled the dozens of cuts that crisscrossed her body, the odd bulges where severed tendons had caused her muscles to bunch grotesquely.
He had never told Faith—or anyone—that he had done this, but when he looked at her and saw her reduced to that state, he had nearly drawn his service weapon and emptied the entire clip into Trammell’s lifeless head.
He didn’t condone Carter Barkley’s actions. Not at all.
But he could understand them.
***
Michael half-expected the house to be empty when he arrived. So when he opened the door and Ellie flew into his arms and pressed her lips to his, it was a half-second before he overcame his surprise and kissed her back. Her arms snaked behind his head and tangled in his hair, and when he lifted her off the ground, she wrapped her legs tightly around his waist.
Twenty minutes later, she lay with her head on his chest, smiling softly and sliding her finger softly up and down his navel. “I missed you,” she said.
It was the first words either of them had spoken. “I missed you too,” he replied, stroking her hair. “I’m sorry we fought before I left. I didn’t stay in the same room as Faith this time. I got my own—”
She pushed herself up and kissed him softly, interrupting him. “Shh,” she said when she pulled away. “You don’t need to apologize.”
“Still,” he said, “I don’t like that we left it like that.”
“Me either,” she said, “but we’re adults. We both know that sometimes we’re going to fight.”
“I know, but—”
“But—” she continued, lifting her hand to silence him, “we know that we love each other, no matter what.” Her smile widened. “And,” she added, “soon, we’ll be able to memorialize that love.”
He stared at her, eyes widening. “You mean…”
She nodded. “This morning. My attorney just faxed the papers.”
A wide grin spread across Michael’s face. He pulled the laughing Ellie into his arms and kissed her deeply. When he pulled away, she gasped, cheeks flushed, and said, “My God, Michael! You have to let me breathe or you won’t get a chance to marry me.”
“So marry me tonight,” he said. “We’ll go right now.”
She giggled. “Well, it will be two to four weeks before the divorce is recorded in the state’s records, but once that happens, we’ll head straight to the nearest courthouse and I’ll make you mine. Sound good?”
He rolled on top of her, fast enough that she gasped again.
“Yousound good,” he growled.
She gasped once more before his lips met hers. She wrapped her arms around him, and they were one again.
CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR
David locked the door to the office, checked it, then turned and headed to his car. Faith watched, smirking, as he fiddled with his keys, not realizing she was there until he was only a few feet away.
He gasped and jumped when he saw her, and she laughed. “You really need to be more aware of your surroundings,” she said. “Someone could be following you, and they wouldn’t even have to try to hide themselves.”
“Well, how are they going to get to me when the baddest girl on the planet is stalking me too? They’ll never make it past you.”
“Damn straight,” she said. “You’re mine, whether you like it or not.”
He chuckled. “So you’re going to keep following me until I agree to take you back?”
“I might even kidnap you,” she said.
“Sounds dangerous,” he said, smiling.
