Something feltdifferent. Reborn, maybe. A dawn, pressing against the darkness inside.
She’d call it hope, and oh, she didn’t want this to end.
Harley set the pot of cooked oatmeal on the table, the warm maple syrup next to it, and then went to the cupboard for the bowls while Gabe—Gabe!—stirred the fire.
Jericho shucked off his jacket and boots, the expression he’d sent her way lighting inside her. Hunger—it matched his words.“Like a bear after hibernation.”
Somehow, she got the feeling he wasn’t talking about actual food. And she got it because last night, as he’d kissed her—twice—it had awakened a hunger in her too.
A hunger for justice. And restoration.
A hunger for the happy ending she’d once dreamed about.
Gabe was alive. She had anephew. And Jericho wasn’t going anywhere. He’d actually said it out loud.
Outside, the blizzard had died, but the wind still shifted snow off the drifts, across the frozen lake where Winter’s plane sat encased in snow. Still, sunlight broke through steel clouds, gilding the snow in sparkles.
And, did she mention that her brother was alive?
Yes, the entire world sparkled.
“You stocked the cabin well,” Winter told Gabe as he pulled the grate back in place.
“I drove out here before the first snow,” he said. “Brought in supplies.” He came over to the cupboard and pulled down a tin of coffee. “It was far enough off-grid to hide from Mars, close enough to circle into Copper Mountain and watch Sunni.” He’d helped his girlfriend into the living room and settled her on the sofa, her leg up on the pillow. “And Daniel.”
Harley still couldn’t get her head around a five-year-old nephew.
“Speaking of, where is he now?” Harley asked.
“With my parents, in Copper Mountain,” Sunni said. “I live with them, so it makes it easy.”
“And safer,” Gabe said. “We lived in the dome for a while, in the few months after we were married—”
“You gotmarried? Without me?” Harley had been turning toward the table, holding spoons and now the entire room went quiet.
“We eloped. It was right after that when I started working for the DEA and I thought...” He had walked over to Sunni, put his hands on her shoulders. “Well, if something went south, I wanted her to have some insurance protection.”
“You got married and took out life insurance?” Jericho had taken off his stocking cap, his brown hair wild.
“Yes. And she’s lived on that for the past five years.”
“Is that ... wait ... isn’t thatfraud?” Topher asked.
“I think technically, since it was through the WITSEC program, and I was declared dead, it might be okay ... Listen, it wasn’t my idea.” He held up his hands. “I blame the FBI—a guy named Rio. It was his plan.”
“Rio, as in the guy tracking down Mars?” Jericho walked over to the table and pulled out a chair. “He knows you’re alive?”
“All he knows is that he helped fake my death and then I disappeared. I haven’t talked to him in five years.”
“I’m going to need food for this,” Harley said. “Sit down. I want the entire story.”
She sat next to Jericho. Orlando came over and put his muzzle on her knee.
“He’s going to beg food from you,” Jericho said. She probably shouldn’t have been surprised that he took her hand, squeezed. In his gesture, all she heard was his whisper from last night.“I’m here. I’ve got you.”
Maybe he was. She squeezed his hand back. “He’ll get it. I’m a softie for those brown eyes and a guy who needs me.”
Jericho raised an eyebrow.