His dismissive tone had Rafe biting back a Hell, no.
Gideon sat up straighter, frowning. ‘Not just your job, Tom.’
‘But technically not your job, Gideon,’ Mercy pointed out. ‘You recused yourself, remember?’
Gideon frowned. ‘I know, but . . .’ He sighed. ‘You’re right. Why do you have to be right?’
‘It doesn’t happen often,’ she said dryly. ‘Let me have my moment.’
Gideon chuckled. ‘What can we do to help you, Tom?’
Tom rose from the table, smoothing his tie. ‘Stay alive. Be there when I need answers to Eden questions and stay alive. Be careful. Be aware. Don’t take chances and don’t go anywhere where you’re out in the open. Like Snowbush. For now you’ll have protection. But I can’t guarantee how long that’ll last, and the new guy isn’t promising one way or the other. He’s just keeping Molina’s seat warm.’ He lifted a brow at Gideon. ‘Or so I’ve been told.’
Gideon coughed. ‘Yes, I said that. I’d prefer that the acting special agent in charge doesn’t hear that I did, though.’
Tom chuckled. ‘My lips are sealed.’
‘But we will get updates on the regular?’ Rafe asked, annoyed to be sidelined. He’d thought Hunter was on their side. And when did I regress to being a little kid? There are no sides. There’s justice for Mercy and Gideon, and that’s it. ‘You won’t do the “my lips are sealed” over that, too?’
Tom smiled. ‘I might get chatty if I was filled up with your mother’s cooking.’
Rafe smiled back, mollified. ‘Consider yourself invited every Sunday at two. Bring Liza.’
‘She’ll like that.’ Tom pushed his chair neatly beneath the table. ‘I’ve got to go. Text me when Amos wakes up? He’s a good guy.’
Mercy walked him out, again like she belonged here, and that made Rafe smile. He was still smiling when she came back and sat beside him. ‘What?’ she asked.
‘He’s besotted,’ Farrah said with a happy laugh. There were still shadows in her eyes, but that was to be expected. She’d suffered a near-death experience the day before. André looked slightly better, but Rafe knew they needed to get back to New Orleans, where family could help them heal.
‘And if I am?’ Rafe asked her, completely okay with being besotted.
Farrah became serious. ‘Then I’m happy. I’d be happier if you lived in New Orleans, but . . .’
Mercy cleared her throat, hesitant. ‘I’m going back for Quill’s celebration. Rafe said he’d go with me.’
‘I’ll go, too,’ Gideon said. ‘I want to meet Farrah’s family. And of course John and the others.’
‘And then you’re all coming back here, including Mercy,’ Farrah said calmly. She squeezed Mercy’s hand. ‘I figured that out already. It’s okay, Mercy. I understand.’ She smiled then, and it was a true smile that brightened her eyes. ‘You’ll come back to see me, because we’re having a big family. You know that you’re going to be a godmother eventually.’
André’s eyes widened. ‘She is? I mean, we are?’ His deep voice actually squeaked. ‘When?’
‘Not now, thank God. That would be really bad timing with that bastard causing us all this stress.’ Farrah shook her head. ‘But soon, okay?’
André looked at her like she was the moon and all the stars. ‘More than okay.’
Mercy wiped her eyes. ‘Darn it, Farrah. You had to go and make me cry.’
‘But good tears,’ Farrah said smugly.
Mercy laughed. ‘Very good tears. Now, once Amos wakes up, everything will be perfect.’
Epilogue
Granite Bay, California
Sunday, 28 May, 3.00 P.M.
Karl Sokolov tapped a spoon to his glass of sparkling cider. ‘I’d like to make a toast.’
Rafe was so happy that he didn’t groan – not even on the inside. His father was one for toasting and typically embarrassed whoever was unlucky enough to be the toastee, but he knew his father wouldn’t embarrass Mercy. Maybe me, but not Mercy.
In six weeks she’d wrapped his father around her little finger, and Rafe loved it. He loved her. He hadn’t said the words yet, but they battled for freedom every damn day. At first he’d resisted because he didn’t want to rush her, but now he was waiting for the perfect moment. Because she deserved every bit of perfection he could muster.
‘I’m going to need a chair,’ Damien muttered. ‘Move over, Meggie.’
Meg gave him a shove. ‘Get your own chair.’
Because it was standing room only in the Sokolov kitchen this day. Karl glared at Damien and Meg and they stopped bickering. ‘Sorry,’ they muttered together, as if they were their kids’ age and not grown-ass adults.
‘We’re all gathered here today,’ Karl began, ‘to celebrate our Mercy’s birthday.’ He paused to let the hoots and hollers die down, smiling down at Mercy, who was blushing beet red and looking very flustered.
And very cute, but Rafe allowed that he might be biased.
‘We’ve waited a long time to welcome you into our family,’ Karl went on, ‘and we couldn’t be happier that you’re here. We adopted Gideon years ago, so now we have a matched set.’
Mercy laughed and half covered her face with one hand. Rafe pulled it away from her face and kissed her palm.
‘Besotted,’ Farrah said, rolling her eyes. She and André had arrived the evening before, surprising the hell out of Mercy when Rafe had led her into his parents’ house, blindfolded. But it hadn’t just been Farrah and André. Mama Romero and half the Romero clan had shown up.
So had John Benz, his family, and three more of the ‘sibs’. The others hadn’t been able to make the cross-country trip but were tuning in via Skype. Rafe had met them all and liked them. Gideon and Daisy had too, and for Gideon it meant being immediately engulfed in more family than he’d been able to handle. At that first reunion, Rafe had taken his friend off to the side, standing with him while Gideon watched his new family, overwhelmed and cuddling Brutus while trying not to cry.
Rafe had been so damn happy for Gideon that he’d been the one to cry. Which Mercy had thought was precious and had earned him some very hot sex when they’d returned to her apartment to pack her things.
Because she’d moved to Sacramento. She’d really done it, quitting her job with NOPD and applying for a position in the SacPD crime lab. She started work on July first and she couldn’t wait.