Page 84 of Pursuit of Her

"A bridge between independent protection and institutional reform," Eve observed.

"It’s worth considering," Reagan concluded. "If properly structured to maintain our independence."

Eve reached into her jacket pocket, withdrawing a small box she'd carried for weeks, waiting for the right moment. "Speaking of partnerships..."

Reagan recognized it immediately—the velvet container Eve had shown her five years earlier, containing the engagement ring purchased days before Reagan's disappearance a decade before that.

"You kept it all this time," Reagan observed, her voice revealing more emotion than she typically allowed.

"Waiting for the right moment," Eve confirmed. "You said to ask again when we'd built something solid, when we were sure this partnership worked beyond the mission and crisis."

Reagan's expression softened in the gentle lighting. "Five years of building. Three hundred successful extractions. A legitimate operation transforming how Phoenix Ridge protects its most vulnerable."

"And us," Eve added.

Eve opened the box, revealing the ring she'd carried for fifteen years—through believing Reagan dead, through hunting her as a vigilante, through building their protection service together. Simple, elegant, practical enough for a woman who valued function alongside beauty.

"Reagan Shaw," Eve began, "fifteen years ago, I bought this ring intending to ask if you'd build a life with me. Ten years ago, I thought that chance was lost forever. Five years ago, we found each other again and began creating something neither of us could have built alone."

She removed the ring from its velvet nest. "Will you marry me and continue this partnership officially, permanently, and completely?"

Reagan's smile—rare and genuine—transformed her face. "Yes," she answered, extending her hand. "From vigilante to partner. From vengeance to justice. From isolation to this."

Eve slipped the ring onto Reagan's finger, the simple band a perfect fit despite the years between purchase and placement. "From enemies to partners," she added. "From hunting you to loving you."

From the terrace, Phoenix Ridge stretched before them—the city they'd both served in such different ways, the city they'd helpedtransform through painful but necessary exposure, the city they now protected through partnership rather than opposition.

"What comes next?" Reagan asked, her head resting against Eve's shoulder as they looked out over the city. "Beyond the Patterson extraction and Foster's consulting proposal. Beyond this moment."

"Whatever it is," Eve replied, echoing words from their final confrontation five years earlier, "we face it together."

The mission that had consumed a decade of Reagan's life had been completed. The system Eve had served for twenty years had been transformed. And in the space between vengeance and blind loyalty, they had built something neither had imagined possible: a partnership serving justice without requiring the sacrifice of everything else.

Together.

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