Page 4 of Fast Vengeance

“When does FAST Bravo get back from their deployment?” Briar asked, sneaking another berry.

“This coming Monday.” Victoria had been counting down the days. Beginning on the night she’d escaped Ruiz’s clutches, when Brock and his team had stumbled upon her in the woods, he’d become an integral part of her journey on this path to healing. Not healing fully, but enough that she didn’t bleed inside every minute of every day.

“If you talk to Brock again, tell him I said hi,” Trinity said. Between FAST Bravo and the FBI’s Hostage Rescue Team, they were all part of a tightly-knit, slightly dysfunctional and badass family of sorts. They’d brought Victoria into their circle to help her, and she appreciated having that kind of support more than they would ever know, especially since her family was all dead.

“So how are you feeling about next week?” Briar asked her, dark brown eyes delving into hers. “Anxious to get it over with?”

Ruiz’s sentencing, she meant. “Yes. I think I’ll be relieved when it’s done.”

“You will,” Trinity said with confidence.

“Hope so.” Victoria had come a long way to get to this point. She’d endured months of intense therapy, battling her demons and fighting to find a new purpose for her life.

After so many weeks of waiting to learn what the result of her painful testimony would be, Ruiz had finally agreed to a plea deal and sentencing was coming up next week. He wouldn’t get the death penalty now, but he likely would die in jail. That was the best Victoria could hope for at this point. It had to be enough. She refused to let him have any more power over her or her thoughts.

“Are you gonna be there?” Briar asked her, topping up Victoria’s glass.

“I’m going to wait and see how I feel.” Hard as it was to face that monster after what he’d done to her and all that he’d taken from her, she wanted to be there when he received whatever sentence the judge handed down. Whether or not she could go through with it remained to be seen. Her last interaction with Ruiz had been while she was on the witness stand giving her statement to the judge, and it hadn’t been pleasant.

“You given any thought to what you’ll do after they release you from the facility?” Trinity asked, slapping Briar’s hand out of the way so she could take a strawberry.

Other than start a new life under a new identity in another city? “Some.” The one-year mark from the day of the massacre that had taken her family and resulted in her captivity was coming up the week after the sentencing.

It was more than an anniversary; it was a psychological marker, a line she had drawn in the sand. That was the day she had vowed to move forward again.

“The hardest part is going to be finding a purpose after all of this.” And losing the few friends she had made here. When she left D.C., she would truly be starting fresh. Right now she was torn between going back to school to earn a psych degree and maybe become a counselor so she could help other trauma victims, or write fiction under a pen name. She already had notes and a partial outline for a book she had in mind that used some of her experiences as a captive.

“Survival,” Trinity said flatly, a hard glint in her eyes. “You live your life to the fullest when they let you go, secure in the knowledge that the human pieces of shit responsible for it all are either dead or rotting in jail.”

She lowered her gaze to her wine. “It doesn’t make the pain go away.”

“No,” Briar said, sliding a hand over to cover Victoria’s, bringing her eyes up to meet that dark stare. “Nothing ever will. But you’re so strong. You’ll go on because you have to, and because if you don’t, then they win. And time will dull the pain eventually.” Her tone and the shadows in her too-old eyes told Victoria she spoke from personal experience.

“I hope so. It’s true that I feel an obligation to really live after this, and try to find happiness on my family’s behalf.” They were dead, their dreams and hopes snuffed out within minutes. She swallowed. “The guilt isn’t ever going to go away, though.”

“We get it,” Trinity said. “But eventually I hope you’ll live for yourself as well as them. That’s something we both struggled with for a long time,” she said, glancing at Briar for a second before looking back at Victoria. “When it all comes down to it, moving on and finding happiness really is the best form of revenge.”

“Exactly.” Briar’s smile was sharp as a blade as she raised her glass in a toast. “To sweet revenge.”

Victoria’s lips curved upward. Revenge had driven her all this time, fueled her and kept her going when all she wanted to do was lie down. It would see her through what came next as well. “I’ll drink to that.”

“You doing something special to mark the occasion?” Trinity asked, holding up the plate of strawberries to them now that she’d had some. “Anything you might want to do?”

She’d like to be able to go out in public like a regular person, without a security detail or having to look over her shoulder all the time. To go out to eat, or even to a movie. Maybe go away someplace quiet, a cabin in the mountains, and just be for a while.

But before any of that, there was something else she had been thinking about…

Her mind immediately latched onto the idea she’d been toying with for several months now. “Not sure. I think it should be something big, something I’ll always remember and look back on with a smile.” She paused, sipped her wine. “I dunno. Maybe I’ll go out on a date.”

Trinity’s eyes widened in surprise and interest. She lowered her wineglass, her stare never wavering from Victoria’s. “You’re thinking about dating again?”

Dating, no. Something else entirely, yes. “I’m thinking more along the lines of maybe climbing back into the saddle again, so to speak.”

The women stared at her in astonishment, their gazes curious. “Wow,” Trinity murmured. “Are you…sure about that?”

Victoria shrugged, unsurprised and unoffended by her reaction. After what Victoria had endured, having sex again seemed like her own personal Everest. A goal she needed to meet and conquer. “Just something I’ve been contemplating.”

“Do you have somebody in mind?” Trinity asked, her expression concerned.

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