Page 140 of One Last Promise

“I love pancakes!” Hazel said.

And that broke the silence. Tillie leaned down and kissed her daughter’s head, and Boo took out glasses and poured orange juice, and Flynn grabbed a cup of coffee, and then the front door opened and Shep and London came in, breathing hard, dressed in workout gear—clearly returning from a morning run—and Shep said, “What did I miss?”

Moose wanted to ask him the same, but that’s when Axel pulled a folded letter from his back pocket and put it on the counter.

“Is that—” Tillie started.

“Yep. The letter from Pike,” Axel said. “Moose left it at the cabin, and I thought . . . Anyway,look at the address.”

Moose picked it up and read the address under theReturn to Senderstamp. “It’s in Melbourne, Florida.”

“Yeah. About two hours from here.” He took a sip of coffee, looked at Flynn. “Tell him.”

“My contact, Val Castillo, used to be a detective, and he still has access to resources. He found an expired forwarding address for your contact there—Fisher Maguire, Pike’s son. His mother lived in Melbourne, but she got remarried about ten years ago and moved to Tampa. Fisher was seventeen at the time. He then graduated, went to college in Pennsylvania, and eventually came back to Florida, where he now runs a computer security company. Ironically, in Melbourne.”

Axel took a sip of coffee, then smiled at Moose and said in a singsong voice, “Road trip.”

Oh brother.

But Moose considered the envelope, took a breath.

Tillie’s hand came over his arm. “Time to get out of the whale.”

He looked at her and she winked, and their conversation from the cave, so long ago, but really just a few days, returned to him.

Out of the whale.

“I’m going to need some pancakes first.”

“You didn’t have to come with me.” Moose sat in the driver’s seat of Colt’s SUV, shaking his head as he and Tillie pulled into a small neighborhood on the barrier island near the town of Melbourne Beach.

Yes, yes she did. After all he’d done for her—“I’m just here for moral support.” She touched his arm. “Moose, breathe. It’ll be okay.”

He nodded, but she heard their past conversations in her head and had no doubt he wasstirring up the same.

“This could be the end of Air One,” he said softly. “If I were Fisher, I’d want my father’s inheritance. I’d be asking why he gave it to a random guy.”

“Then you’ll have to tell him about the accident, and how Pike died.”

Moose swallowed, and her heart went out to him. She leaned over, caught the back of his neck, met his eyes.

“Have a little faith.”

“You’re hilarious.”

“No, seriously.” She leaned back. “If you’ve taught me anything, it’s that God does miracles. That he surprises us with more than we can ask or imagine. I mean, who would have thought that my dad was alive and trying to take down the one man who haunted me—haunted us. That he would show up right when Rigger was—” She swallowed, again, for a moment living those terrible moments when she’d been waiting for Rigger to finish what he’d started. “Anyway?—”

Moose turned to her. “You’re safe. Hazel’s safe.”

She nodded. “They were sweet today, weren’t they?”

“Yeah. Watching your dad meet his granddaughter was something I’ll never forget.”

Her throat closed over at the memory of her dad showing up at Oaken’s mother’s house with another toy puppy, then sitting on the floor with Hazel to play a game.

“I remember when he used to play Sorry! with me. It was like watching my childhood all over again.” She drew in a breath. “They’ll be fine, right?”

“Yes. Declan is meeting Axel and Flynn at the beach. It’ll give your dad a chance to bond with her before we go back to Alaska.”

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