Page 102 of Hero's Heart

Between Dorian and Zac, they got Callum up and over to the door. Sloane broke away from Annie and sprinted right to him.

She was okay. Until he saw it with his own eyes, he hadn’t let himself truly believe it.

She stopped before touching him, realizing there was nowhere she could hug that wasn’t going to cause him agony. While he appreciated the sentiment, he still held out his hand for hers.

“You’re alive,” she breathed. “I was so afraid…”

“Me too. But Joy got word out to the cavalry, and they came for us.”

“She’s alive.” Tears poured down Sloane’s cheeks. “Thank God.”

“But she’s in the hospital,” Zac said. “Bad shape. Bear is with her.”

“There are so many people here,” Sloane whispered. She turned to Zac. “Thank you for coming for Callum when he needed you.”

“Callum’s deputies couldn’t have kept these people away if they’d tried,” Zac said with a chuckle. “Pretty sure we’ve got some senior citizens out there who can’t even lift the shotguns they brought.”

“Because they love Callum,” she whispered with a smile. “Who can blame them?”

“Not just him,” Zac said, gesturing for her to turn back around and see how many people were there. “They’re here because they love you just as much.”

“And who could blame them? I know I certainly do.”

And Callum would spend the rest of his life making sure she felt that love every day.

Sloane’s Epilogue

Six months later

The gentle trickle of water cascaded over moss-covered rocks, a soothing melody in the crisp winter air. Sloane shifted on the fallen log, her hand instinctively cradling her swollen belly. She knew she shouldn’t linger here at Amelia’s waterfall and stone memorial, but she’d just needed a moment up here before tomorrow.

Somehow talking to a dead woman, one not even buried here, helped Sloane. “I can’t stay long. I left Callum a note, but I should head back soon. He worries so much these days.”

Her lips curved in a bittersweet smile. Callum’s protective instincts had gone into overdrive since the incident with the Kozaks. Not that she could blame him—she felt the same paralyzing fear at the thought of losing him.

They hadn’t spent a night apart since that day. Sloane never wanted to spend another night away from Callum.

And she’d needed him. It felt like her whole world had fallen apart in the past six months. Her father’s betrayal still knottedin her chest like a thorny bramble. It wasn’t just his hand in the Kozaks’ plot to kidnap her, though that alone was monstrous. It was the sheer calculation of it all—the cold signature on a death warrant, trading her life for insurance money.

She couldn’t comprehend that kind of deliberate apathy toward someone’s own flesh and blood. She doubted she ever would.

If Callum hadn’t come back for her in Moldova, she’d be dead now. Her father would’ve gotten the insurance money and walked away free. Instead, he was in prison. William and Dustin Reynolds both.

Clarice and Marissa had lost everything too. William’s bad investments, which was what had led to his getting mixed up with the Kozaks in the first place, then William going to jail, had cost the family everything.

They were broke.

No more fancy trips for Marissa. No more shopping sprees. No more house. No more Nathan the asshole butler.

Clarice had had the nerve to email Sloane a few weeks after everything went down, hinting that she still owed them money. Sloane hadn’t known what to do, so she’d shown the email to Callum. He’d assured her he would handle it.

She hadn’t heard from Clarice again. Didn’t think she would be in the future. And while Sloane had known on almost all levels that she was better off without the Gettys, she’d still been sad that she had no more family to speak of.

Although, that wasn’t true, was it?

She might not have any more blood relations that she claimed, but she very definitely had family here in Oak Creek. She’d learned that the night with the Kozaks.

Everyonehad shown up.

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