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EPILOGUE
ALICE
“Max, put on your shoes!”
“I can’t find them!”
“Where did you leave them?”
“I don’t know!”
Alice chuckled as she heard Nickolay and Max arguing in his room. She was in the bedroom that she shared with Nickolay, putting in her earrings. When she was done, she headed down the hall to where they were still arguing.
“He left them by the back door after playing outside today,” she said from the doorway, cutting off the argument. Max ran by her to go get his shoes, and Nickolay rolled his eyes.
“I swear, he can’t keep track of anything.”
“Like father, like son.” In the past month that she’d been living with Nickolay and Max, she’d learned that they both could be a little absent-minded, but she didn’t mind being the one to help keep them on track.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Nickolay said with a grin.
Alice held up her hand, where his keys were dangling from her finger. “You left these on your dresser.”
“Or maybe you stole them from me,” he said, taking them and putting them in his pocket. “You did that once before.”
“That was one key, and I returned it. Besides, my days of sneaky behavior are over, remember?”
She’d officially left the FBI, but not before digging around to find evidence of Calloway’s corruption. It wasn’t easy, and she couldn’t pin the death of Chloe’s dad on him, but she found enough to show that he was a dirty agent. She planted the theory that he ran off to avoid punishment for his crimes and was probably hiding out in a country with no extradition laws. It got the spotlight off the Bratva, and since Roberts was never able to make anything stick against them, the case was dropped.
All of this was made easier by the fact that she was seen as a hero for stopping a member of the sought-after vigilante group from gunning down a group of people in a hospital parking lot, a group that included a child and a pregnant woman. That gave her more merit in the eyes of the higher-ups.
Nickolay put an arm around her shoulders as they left Max’s room and headed downstairs. “Are you happy with your choice to leave the FBI?”
“I am. It just didn’t feel right to me anymore. But this, being here with you, it feels right.”
They were by the front door now, and Nickolay cupped her cheek, lowering his head to give her a kiss, but Max’s voice interrupted them before he could.
“Are we going? I want to see Gwen.”
Gwendolyn Michelle Stuart Razin was the full name of Alek and Chloe’s newborn daughter, but everyone just called her Gwen. Max loved visiting with her, as if she was the most fascinating little person in the world.
“Okay, okay. Let’s go,” Nickolay said, flashing her a look with promise. They were attending a party to celebrate the baby at Alek and Chloe’s house, so whatever he had in mind would have to wait until later.
As they arrived, Alice couldn’t help thinking about how much had changed since she first arrived at this house, nervous about her undercover operation. She felt like a completely different person now, one that was not only comfortable being here, but considered many of the members of the bratva and their partners to be friends. She and Chloe were already close, and now Alice considered her to be her best friend. She’d also become close with Dana, the girlfriend of one of the Bratva’s Brigadiers.
As she passed by Sam, another Brigadier, his girlfriend Lexi greeted her warmly. Lexi was a chef in a popular restaurant downtown and had hooked her up with a reservation last weekend to surprise Nickolay.
There were others that she had bonded with and some members of the syndicate that she was still getting to know, but the important thing was that she felt like she belonged here. She’d found happiness and a home in the most unlikely of places.
As the party went on, she glanced over at Nickolay and Max, her heart full of love for both of them. This was her chosen family, and would never let them go.
