“Like I said, it was a professional job. There was no trace left behind. All we have is this note. Which . . .” He paused. “The note is a calling card explaining the reason for the death.

It’s something that we’ve seen before. Many times. We’re positive it’s the same stock and ink. It’s gone through testing. I just can’t tell you more.”

That note. The only thing I had to hold on to that told me Reese was safe. Whoever had killed Marco wouldn’t have a reason to come after Reese. I doubted anyone even knew she was a part of his past.

I ended the call just as we pulled up to a small café where Harlow was waiting with Reese outside. There was concern on Reese’s face, but I needed her with me. I wanted to hold her close while I thought things through.

“Hey,” she said, hurrying toward me the moment I stepped out of the truck. “What’s wrong?”

I pulled her to me and inhaled deeply, letting my heart rate slow down.

“What’s wrong?” she repeated against my chest.

Nothing was wrong. She was here. She was safe. And someone else had made sure she was safe for good. “He’s dead,” I said. “Marco is dead.”

She pulled back and looked up at me with shock and hope mingling in her eyes. “What?” she asked in a whisper.

“He’s dead,” I repeated. I decided not to give her details. Not now.

“Oh, my God,” she whispered, and then let out a sob. “He’s gone. He’s gone forever?”

I nodded, understanding her emotion. “It’s over, baby,” I told her as I held her head in my hands and thanked God she was safe. And she was mine.

Reese

My head hurt, and I was ready to go home. The detective assigned to Marco’s case had questioned me about everything. My mother, my real father, my father’s family. I’d had to tell him exactly what Mase and I did during the two days after Marco assaulted me in the grocery store. Remembering it all was difficult, but I tried to give them as many details as possible.

I felt guilty telling them that Captain had been the one to walk Marco out. I didn’t want him pulled into this. But they already had that information from eyewitnesses, and Captain had already been questioned; whatever his alibies were, they were solid.

Once we were cleared to leave, the detective gave me a fatherly pat on the back. I didn’t hope they caught the person who killed Marco. I was thankful he had gotten away. I had been shown a card that said simply For My Little Girl and asked if I could identify the person who had left it. I had never seen a card like that in my life, although it hurt my chest to look at it. It was my fault that someone’s little girl had been hurt by Marco. I had never told anyone about what happened to me before I met Mase. Marco had been free to keep terrorizing little girls because of my silence.

Mase kept me close as we walked out to his truck. “You need a long bubble bath. Then I’ll give you a massage. This day is over. It’s all over. You can live your life without him now.”

I nodded. He was right. This was it. My life really started right now. Marco and my mother were gone, never to return. I was letting my memory of the life I had lived with them go, too.

“I want to see my dad,” I told him. There were things I needed to say to him. Things I hadn’t said before because I was just so happy to have a family. But for me to truly move on from my past, I had to let my father know how I felt. And that I forgave him.

“When? I’ll get us a flight out as soon as possible.”

“Not yet. Just soon. Let’s go home and get back to our life first.”

“Whatever you want, baby.”

Over the next two weeks, life fell back into place. Mase brought me lunch every day, and Captain hadn’t set foot in my office again. He either left paperwork for me in a file on the table outside the door, or he sent Major to bring it to me. I wasn’t on edge anymore, and the emotional trauma I’d dealt with when Marco returned had begun to fade.

It was a Sunday afternoon when everything changed. Again.

Mase and I had spent a lazy morning together, and then he’d left to check on some things down at the stables. After the incident with Marco at the grocery store, we weren’t just low on food, but we were also nearly out of paper towels and shampoo. While going through the bathroom to make sure there wasn’t something else we needed, I saw the unopened box of tampons I’d bought last month.

Staring at them, I tried to remember when I should have started my period. I grabbed my birth-control pills out of the medicine cabinet and checked them. Two weeks ago. I should have started two weeks ago.

My hands trembled as I put the pills down and walked to the bedroom so I could sit down a minute. I’d been through a lot two weeks ago. My mind had been on everything but starting my period. I’d just missed that one pill the morning after seeing Marco.

I’d taken two the next day, though. We hadn’t even had sex that night. I’d been a mess. Something had to be off. I couldn’t be pregnant.

Putting my hand on my stomach, I let myself imagine for a moment that I was. That I was carrying Mase’s baby. Joy coursed through me, but it was quickly replaced by unease. Mase hadn’t even asked me to marry him yet. He wasn’t ready for a family. I couldn’t force this on him. He trusted me to take my birth control, and I’d let him down.

How could I be a mother if I’d never had one myself? I had no example of a mother. The one I’d been given hadn’t been anything I would want for my child. Touching my stomach, I knew I had to go to a doctor. Without Mase. There was no reason to panic if I didn’t have to, but how could I go see a doctor without telling someone?