Page 113 of Leading Conviction
“But where’s the fun in that?”
“Here you go.” She fitted a cold mason jar in his hand. “Made it fresh this morning.”
“Hell yes,” he whooped, making his teammates and their women chuckle. “You guys can’t tell me Hannah’s orange sweet tea isn’t the best you’ve ever had.”
“Again, fair,” Phoenix conceded.
Hawk glanced around at his team as a comfortable silence rested in the air. His chest filled to the brim with pride as he watched his family get settled in their line of chairs. The kids were either asleep or—as in Tommy’s case—watchingSportsCenterin the residence below.
The little man had been fun as hell to have around and was smart as a whip, as Hawk’s pops used to say. A total sponge for all things BlackStone. He was growing into a fine young man, one Hawk couldn’t be more proud of.
BlackStone was growing, too. Hawk had stopped sleeping outside of his room the moment Hannah suggested it. That afternoon, they’d moved Tommy into the spare studio, and he’d made it his own with Braves memorabilia in no time. Now they were even expanding into the other side of the second floor to add more studio and family-style apartments.
Life was good. His team was thriving, and they were finally able to take a breath. But it was times like these that made him think about the one brother that was missing.
“What’re you thinking about?” Hannah asked, her brows furrowed in the center as she traced his lips in a downward motion. “You’re frowning.”
He grabbed her hand and kissed it before holding it on the chair’s armrest. Her engagement ring caught the light from the setting sun and he squeezed her palm as he met her sweet-tea-brown eyes.
“Just admiring the view, dove. And thinking about the ones who aren’t here to see it.”
Her lips lifted in a sad smile as she glanced around the roof at his team. She leaned in to whisper low enough so that just he could hear her.
“He would be happy, you know?”
“You think?” Hawk asked, not caring that his voice lilted with emotion.
Hannah nodded. “I think he would be at peace knowing his entire family found happiness in the end. That despite all the twists and turns, everyone found their happy ever after in their own way.”
The sentiment made Hawk’s chest hurt, and he swallowed back the emotion in his throat as he took in the sight of his family coming together to celebrate.
The past year had been hard and now that the court cases were over, they deserved to celebrate their victory at last.
Vlad had indeed sung like a canary, so long as a BlackStone agent was in the room. He now had a nice little six-by-nine foot home in a supermax prison, one of the most secure prisons in the country. Apparently, he was already making a name for himself as a motherfucker you don’t want to mess with.
The second MF7 team had been as forthcoming as they could be without implicating themselves, unearthing even more information about the drug aspect of the General’s enterprises. The gut punch reveal of working for the General had been tough on them, but having BlackStone members with shared experiences had helped both teams come to terms. Some of the guys were even becoming friends.
Assistant District Attorney Marco Aguilar was no longer anassistant. The public had seen all the hard work he’d been doing and elected him district attorney, a well-deserved promotion the team had celebrated by throwing him a barbecue. They were thrilled for him, even if it meant they saw less of him. Although word on the street said he was busy with more than just his job. He’d also found his soul mate. It was taking some time to convince her of that, but Hawk had full faith the lawyer would be able to sway her to see his side.
Hawk didn’t know how the man kept up with everything, really. Marco had been a rock star in the trafficking case and although he’d been stressed about not having the General to take the stand, as it turned out, they hadn’t even needed him.
According to Marco, as soon as they’d collected everything from the General’s laptops, flash drives, and his various homes and properties, they’d been able to corroborate the evidence with testimony. In exchange for lighter sentences like GPS monitoring, former CEO of Charitable Technologies International, Gail Haynesworth, her COO, Stefan Ricker, and Officer Henry Brown had all taken the stand. Once the news of an impending trial went public, people came out of the woodwork with their own stories about the crimes the General and the rest of his followers had committed. It'd been a lot of hard work, but Marco had claimed that with the amount and strength of the evidence, it’d actually made the prosecutors’ jobs “easy.”
But no case is “easy” if there are hundreds of people from all over the world who are implicated. They’d even been able to nail down the guy who’d duped Ellie into this mess in the first place. Nikolai Rusnak, Dmitri Rusnak’s son—or Benjamin as Ellie and her friend, Sasha, had known him—was the one who’d invited them to the Ashland County Scholarship Fundraiser. Authorities still hadn’t found him. Allegedly, he’d run away to Russia, but Marco had assured the team that once they did find him, his case would be an “easy” one, too.
Thanks to Juliet Bellarose-Stone she’d defended Hawk, BlackStone, and the second MF7 team from any and all potential prosecution. Hawk wasn’t sure what they would’ve done without her. Doing all that while also wrangling a toddler couldn’t have been simple, but Jules and Jason tackled it together like the team they were always meant to be.
Hawk had always had a soft spot for the couple. They’d reminded him of his relationship with Hannah in the beginning. Even though their middles couldn’t have been more different, at least they were all getting a happy ending.
When Jules wasn’t busy with their case, she was still able to help survivors at Sasha Saves alongside Ellie, Naomi, Callie, and now Hannah, too.
Ellie was poised to fully take on the role of director at the clinic once she graduated. At the moment, she was having to balance being a college student, her admittedly overdramatic best friend Virginia, and the lifesaving work they did at the clinic.
Devil had been adamantly against her doing both Sasha Saves and school, but everyone knew who was really in charge in that relationship. Of course, that hadn’t kept his overbearing ass from hovering. At least he’d been useful as the clinic medic while he ensured that she didn’t work too hard. It was undeniable how proud Devil was of his girl. He’d said as much when he’d told Hawk about how he was going to propose after her graduation.
As far as proposals went, most of the team had assumed Naomi and Wes would be the first to tie the knot after Jules and Jason, but they seemed in no rush to get married anytime soon. Considering Naomi had been in a years-long engagement when she’d met Wes, it was obvious she didn’t put a lot of stock in them. But Thea sure did.
After watching a movie about a girl who lived in a flower, Thea was now obsessed with the idea of being their flower girl and wearing her princess dress down the aisle. Hawk wouldn’t be surprised if they had a surprise courthouse wedding at some point to sate Princess Thea’s love for a good happily ever after.
