Page 83 of Merciless Protector

She frowned. “Is Ruin dead?”

This was a harder question to answer. “It’s better if you go with what the news reported.”

Ruin had met Karma, and his name was Connor. Griff had asked if I’d wanted to stay while Connor made the man pay, given my position in the FBI. It hadn’t been a question. Ruin had hurt Tayla. Revenge was best served when it was least expected. And Ruin hadn’t expected to see me.

We’d even gotten intel on his other cohorts who needed to be caught. The one question I really wanted to know was what Ruin’s connection was to the kingpin. Turned out, he had used Nicolas Cortez to help acquire the trackers he used. Their relationship was limited to that.

With Ruin out of the picture, Griffin was working to helping the women we’d freed back to lives they wanted. It would take time.

“He can’t hurt my family?” Tayla asked, drawing me out of my thoughts.

I gave a barely imperceptible shake of my head. Her apartment was still bugged. “He’s dead, according to reports. You should feel secure in that.”

“Are you moving?”

“I’m buying a place and hope you’ll move in with me,” I offered.

I didn’t like the silent no she gave me. “Agents aren’t allowed to live with anyone else.”

“Then marry me.” It wasn’t exactly how I planned to ask again, but nothing we’d done had been conventional.

“I wouldn’t marry Shawn. I won’t marry Matt for the same reasons.”

I took her left hand. “You are going to make my mother mad at me. She insisted I give you this.” I pulled the red box from my pocket with my free hand. I flipped it open and showed her the ring inside. Her eyes grew round. “It was my grandmother’s engagement ring. When you weren’t wearing a ring at her birthday dinner, I got an earful. She made me promise I’d give it to you. You won’t make me a liar, will you?” I could see the wheels turning in her head. “A long engagement until I can win you over?” I offered.

“You’re lucky I love your mother. But you have a lot of work to do if you want me to wear this ring.”

“Anything,” I said as I slipped it on her finger. I loved seeing it there, knowing she was mine and no one else’s.

She stepped away. “First things first.” She led me to her bedroom, where she opened a side table. She used her fuck you fingertip to open a gun safe. Inside, on the top, was a picture. “Here is a sonogram picture of our daughter.”

A wide grin split my face. “I told ya.”

“You did. And there she is.” I looked at the picture. It was odd to see the shape of the baby in shadows. “And I want you to love her like Matt but be her dad like Shawn.”

I chuckled. “Why is that?”

Her expression was deadly serious. “Because I want Shawn to kill anyone that wants to harm her.”

“You can count on it.”

EPILOGUE

The dirt road brought back ugly memories of our brief time in Utah, but we were in Pennsylvania. Tayla was due any day, but this couldn’t wait.

She sat in the back seat with a young girl, or rather, a woman. We’d learned from the raid on the baby farm that Serenity was around twenty-two years old. She and her mother, who at the time had been a teen mom, had grown up here. It was shocking to learn how long the farm had been working.

The man Serenity's mom married likely killed her. A psychologist suspected Serenity had witnessed the crime.

“Over here,” Griff said from the passenger seat, pointing to an open area on the side of a two-lane farm road. We were in the territory of a community that didn’t embrace technology.

I shook my head at the getup he was wearing. He had on a pilgrim outfit he’d gotten from a high-priced costume store. “You really think that’s going to work?” In the compound, men did dress similarly, but not so 1700s.

He shrugged. “From afar, yes. What will they know? Besides, I need to get to the electronics Kalen left. If I’m spotted, likely no one will question me,” he said, sounding like a true American today.

Bailey was back home. Kalen had sent her here for the summer to keep her safe. She had the added benefit of spending time with her family. There had been an alert on the security that Kalen had installed to keep the compound safe. Only a select few of the community were aware of the security measures that had been implemented. Kalen was on his way, but Griffin had been closer. No one knew him here as they did Kalen. And Griff didn’t want to answer a bunch of questions to gain access. So he’d disguised himself and planned to slip in and out of the compound unnoticed.

“Don’t get your crazy ass killed?” I joked.

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