Page 91 of Heston
Until this cross-country trek, their life together had always been packed too full of studying and tests, planning or working, and both of them striving to reach that unreachable ‘all they could be.’ Whatever that meant. It no longer mattered. The only thing Heston cared about now was bouncing in the passenger seat like a kid at Christmas. He’d had no idea how badly London had missed his mother. But then, he hadn’t understood how bleak of a childhood she’d lived through, either. That was about to change.
Heston just wasn’t sure he wanted their lives to change. The last three days had been filled with nothing but long, private conversations, impromptu stops along the way to see some out-of-the-way attraction, too much junk food, and intimate nights spent making love and getting reacquainted. Once again, theywere what they’d been meant to be. Sharers of nightmares and dreams. Listeners. First and foremost… friends and lovers.
He didn’t plan on quitting The TEAM, but he’d definitely be meeting with Murphy for a career adjustment when he got back home. Not that he blamed Murphy for the way he’d buried himself in his work to forget how much he’d missed London. But now that he had her back, the sky was their limit. The rest of their lives had already begun. Heston intended to get it right this time.
Her hair was turquoise again, and, all by herself, she’d sought counseling for her PTSD. Of all people, she’d hooked up with Shelby Cartwright, Gabe’s wife, at her first group session. Turned out Shelby had given up her home-healthcare practice and was now a certified PTSD counselor. London made a new friend and Heston was thrilled, especially since he and Gabe had cars in common. Gabe had restored a beefed-up ’69 Nova, then topped off the restoration by replacing the stock engine with an LS engine. The man had built a damned ten-second car.
While London and Shelby talked girl-stuff whenever they got together, Heston and Gabe talked cars, engines, and raceways. Heston had toyed with racing his Challenger at Evergreen Speedway in Washington, but had never taken the time to follow that dream. If London was willing, he would now, but only with her riding shotgun. That was the way the rest of his life would work, with her by his side.
“You ready?” he asked, his hand on the door handle, ready to jump out of the car before his parents burst out of their house.
London giggled. Her tropical eyes were as hot and beautiful as ever. She was the epitome of life again. “I’m ready if you are.”
“Then” —He pushed his door open— “let’s go!”
She laughed as he ran around the front of the car, opened her door for her, and scooped the woman he adored into hisarms. Still giggling, she wrapped both arms around his neck, and together, they faced his parents’ home.
He stopped in his tracks, not ready to turn her over to his mother. Not yet. But he would. Heston had a feeling Mama needed London as much as London needed her. Mama could be bossy, but he knew she already considered London part of her family.
She didn’t yet know he’d had another ring made, this one as brilliant as the first, but different. The stone wasn’t blue-topaz, and it wasn’t enhanced by white diamonds. It was simply a brilliant two-carat solitaire diamond, set in a solid gold band. Heston only needed one rare blue-topaz in his life and that was London.
“You ready?” he asked again.
She laid her head on his shoulder. “Whenever you are. Wherever you go, I will go. And whatever you want to do, I will do, too. No matter what happens next, I’m in this with you all the way, Hes.”
He pressed a kiss to her forehead. “I know, babe. I know.”
“Heston!” his mother called out from her front door. “Bring that girl inside. She needs a hug. Hurry!”
As if Mama couldn’t see he was already hugging London? Heston grinned, turned his back on his adorable mother, and kissed the hell out of his woman. Only when London was breathless, did he do as Mama ordered. From now on, the only woman he was taking orders from was… London.
The End
Bonus Epilogue
“They won’t let me leave, Boss. They keep giving me drugs. Why won’t they let me go? I’ve got a job. I work for you. Get me out of here!”
Murphy cocked his head, studying the troubled agent fidgeting with the hem of the gray Shady Creek Asylum t-shirt he’d been wearing the past three days. Sitting on the edge of his hospital bed, Grissom had both his gaze and his feet on the floor. Murphy leaned forward from the chair at the foot of the bed, wishing this agent would, just once, make eye contact. “Why do you think you’re here?”
Grissom shrugged. “I don’t know. Did I take one to the head and don’t remember? Is it a TBI? Am I dying? That why they won’t let me leave?”
“You’re too tough to die, but you’re not well. You asked me to find your boys, remember?”
Grissom nodded, then slowly, like every other time Murphy had tried to jog Grissom’s memory, the nod changed to head shake. “No. I… ah… don’t remember asking… anything.” He scrubbed both hands over his bearded face, then up over his shaggy hair as if searching for those elusive memories. “I … I got shot, recall that clear as a bell... I think. Least, I know I was in a shootout or something… somewhere... But I can’t find any point of entry. Was it my head? Did I take one to my skull? Is a bullet still in my brain?” The tenor of his voice rose even as he avoided looking at Murphy, “Is that what’s why I’m here? Who did it? Who shot me?”
“You weren’t shot, but—” That happened when Grissom was still active duty Air Force. It had nothing to do with this voluntary confinement.
“Where’s my damned kids?” Grissom cut Murphy off, peering around him to the closed and locked door of his room. “If I asked you to find them, they gotta be missing. Where are they?”
Murphy’s chest lifted with anguish more than the relief he wished he were feeling. “We’re still looking for them. You don’t remember, but—”
“Pam took my boys, didn’t she? She ran out on me and took Tanner and Luke and—”
That sounded promising, as if Grissom was remembering. “And half The TEAM’s looking for them.”
“Half? Half’s not good enough. Get me out of here. I’ll find them. I will, and I’ll find Pamela, and when I do—”
“You’re not going to find her. Think. Please, just stop and think, remember what I told you.”
