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Ian just stared at her. “I want to sayprobably nothing, but knowing you, Shae…all I can say is, if anyone can survive, it’s you.” He smiled at her. “By the way, Ned asked me for my blessing to marry you. He said you already said yes.”
“I did. But nice of him to ask you.”
“The answer is yes. But my question is, what took you two so long?”
He probably meant it as a joke, but she turned back to the window, sighed. “I don’t know his reasons—I mean, a lot of them have to do with his career as a SEAL. But I didn’t push either. As much as I wanted to get married, I think I was afraid of it. I loved Dante. And I love Ned. And I think I was afraid of turning into my mother and needing them so much…and then having them betray me.” She shook her head. “You’d think after what Ned and I went through with Blackburn I would trust him. And I do—I so do. But he had his career, and sometimes it felt like being a SEAL was more important than being with me.” She looked at Uncle Ian. “And I’m not trying to get in the way. Really. But it made me…independent.”
“You decided to only need yourself.”
She nodded. “Until I went to gulag.”
“That’s a statement.”
She laughed. “I was number twenty-three. And there was a door code written in my container—twenty-three-oh-four. It’s also the verse in the twenty-third psalm about walking through darkness without fear because God is with me. I guess I started to believe it.”
From down the hall, a baby’s cry lifted.
“I gotta go. But for the record, Shae, you aren’t your mom. Not because you’re stronger or you’re marrying the right man, but because you keep fighting for joy. For hope. For faith. That, right there, is your superpower.”
He pulled her close and kissed the top of her head. “I’m so proud of you.” He let her go and walked down the hallway to his newborn son and wife.
She turned back to the view of the mountains, the glorious sky above.
Her ring sparkled in the light. How she’d managed to keep it on in the ruckus of their escape from the sinking lifeboat, she didn’t know.
But it was never coming off again.
Behind her, the mudroom door opened and Ned came in, dressed in boots, cargo pants, a parka, and hat. So, maybe not running. But he did have his ear buds in. He stomped off his boots, then pulled them off and shucked off his jacket. Took off his hat and ran his hand through his damp hair.
He wore a thick beard, his hair curly and wild, and a thermal shirt he’d borrowed from Ian. Filled it out well. The pants, too, were probably borrowed. Maybe from Fraser, who’d met them on the boat, having contacted Moose and then her uncle Ian.
Who had never gotten a call from Lukka Petrov, so there was that.
Fraser had flown straight home from Anchorage after Ned and Shae were admitted to the hospital and cleared.
They’d flown to Montana the next day with Ian. Ned had slept for nearly twenty-four hours straight.
Now showered, the fresh wind and scent of outdoors on his skin, Ned came into the room and joined her at the window.
She stepped back, leaned against him, his hands around her shoulders. He pressed a kiss to her neck. His heart was thundering.
“You okay?”
He sighed. She stepped away, set the coffee mug on a table, then came over and put her arms up around his neck. “What’s going on, sailor?”
“Well, this is all top secret, but the part that I can tell you is that we had partial mission failure of our last op.”
“Our?”
“The team went after the caesium I gave to the Russians.”
She met his eyes. “Are you in trouble?”
“No…not if we can find it. And we might be able to—I left a tracking device in the case. It’s just…the team got delayed going in country. And now the package is trapped in Russia.”
“In the hands of the Petrov Bratva.”
“Maybe. Yes.” His mouth pinched. “That was Master Chief Trini asking me if I wanted back on the mission.”
