Page 29 of Tactical Revival

“I love you, too, honey. I’ll come check on you in a few.”

“No rush. Homework time. See ya, Jax.”

“See ya.”

Matty leaves the room, but not without giving me a wide smile behind his mom’s back. I have a feeling he thinks this is more than a friendly dinner, and a part of me truly wishes it were. I could see myself with them every night. The three of us as a family.

“I grabbed this today.” Shoving those impossible thoughts aside, I reach into my back pocket and withdraw the cashier’s check I’d grabbed at the bank on my way to the Finches’ home earlier today.

She takes it, her cheeks flushing with color. “It’s not too late to back out.”

“I don’t want to back out.”

“I have paperwork for you to see. As well as an agreement I signed to pay you back. It wasn’t drawn up by a lawyer or anything, though if you want one that has been, I can contact mine and have her?—”

“Margot, it’s fine. I told you, I’m not worried about it.”

“This is a lot of money, Jaxson. How are you not worried about it?” Her eyes fill with tears. “How can you possibly be so okay just handing this over to me?”

I get up from the seat and move around the table, then squat down and take her hand in mine. “Because in the time I’ve known you, I’ve watched you raise a wonderful son, run a successful business, and take care of literally every single person around you. Including me. And for once, Margot, I want to take care of you. Even if it’s just alleviating some of the stress you so readily carry on your shoulders.”

The tears break free, and she throws her arms around my neck. I’m not expecting it, so I fall backward—taking her with me. By the time I hit the floor, my arms coming around her instinctively to keep her from hitting it alongside me, we’re both laughing.

“I am so sorry!” She pushes up from the ground, though her slender body is still pressed against mine.

I swallow hard, wondering if it would truly be the worst thing in the world to kiss her right now. To lean forward and press my lips to—my phone rings, the tone slicing through this moment between us.

Reaching into my pocket, I withdraw my cell and answer it, not bothering to look at the readout.

“Payne.”

“We need you to get down to the office,” Lance says. “Now. It’s an emergency.”

I’m pulling into the parking lot of the lighthouse ten minutes later. I’ve no sooner put my truck in park than I see that something is clearly wrong. There are two sheriff’s vehicles in the parking lot, as well as the vehicles of every member of Knight Security, and a blue sedan belonging to Bianca Theodore, a trauma surgeon from the Army who now works at a veterinarian’s office here in town.

And then I see Pastor Redding’s car, and my heart plummets.

What happened? Did the killer strike for keeps this time?

I know Margot is safe.

So my thoughts drift immediately to Lance’s wife Eliza and their son.

To Elijah’s wife, Andie.

To Michael’s, Reyna.

Throwing my door open, I slam it behind me and race up the steps and into the lighthouse. “What is it? What happened?” I demand.

All eyes turn to me, and Lance reaches down to lift an evidence bag bearing a three of hearts.

The walls close in around me and my heart hammers. Despite every impossibility that Morah is behind this, I know it’s him. It has to be him.

“Who did he take?”

“Lanetti Ester.”

CHAPTER 8

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