“I swear,” Roland Westwood promised before lowering his hand and taking a seat in the packed courtroom. The trial against Bertie Geofferies was going into the fourth week, but Roland was the last witness to be called for the state.

Jeff Sargent, Branson Ames, Gene Rankin, Thurmond Culpepper, FBI Director Kirby, Senator Epps, and the former first lady were some of the people who had testified. Lawyers were advising Bertie to take a plea deal since Gene pointed to Stan Detrick, Bertie’s lawyer who had suddenly come back from a vacation looking pale and tired, as the one who threatened his family. On the third day of the trial, the state produced evidence of Stan buying the burner phone he’d given to Gene. It got worse when Sandra’s dead body was found hanging in Bertie’s house in Bulgaria with papers scattered around her. Papers that connected Bertie and Rue to the Stanworth deaths and Mollia Domini.

In the six months since Bertie had been arrested, Birch had pardoned Gene, honored Jeff Sargent and Joel Davidson, and posthumously awarded Brock, Jason, and Michelle the Presidential Medal of Freedom after giving the young officer who had saved Tate a medal as well.

“Ugh, turn it off,” Valeria complained as she looked up from her laptop.

Lizzy rolled her eyes. “Don’t you want to see this?”

“See it? We lived it.”

“Fine,” Lizzy said, turning off the television over the bar. “How is your lesson plan going for the new class of trainees starting off the New Year?”

“I swear, if one more trainee calls me ma’am, I’m going to fucking snap,” Valeria swore. Janet had offered her a job as a higher-up in the DEA, but Val had turned it down. While it hadn’t been talked about, the group was sticking together. They were family after all. So instead of more shootouts, Val was now training the next generation of DEA agents at their academy in Quantico . . . for now.

“Don’t worry, girlie, you’re still younger than we are,” Buzz laughed from his usual seat next to Snip.

“Hey, where’s your grandson? He promised to teach me how to fly a helicopter,” Lizzy asked Buzz. Lizzy had taken to running the bar full-time and teaching one interrogation class at the FBI’s academy in the newly built Lance James wing, thanks to an anonymous donor.

“Crew’s on call. He’s taking the president and that sweet little Tate somewhere.” Buzz wiggled his bushy eyebrows and Lizzy tossed a meaningful look to Valeria, who was already smiling.

Birch and Tate were trying to keep their relationship as normal as possible. They didn’t answer questions about it to the media during “office hours,” only when caught out on dates. After Flint’s exposé, the public was dying for a White House wedding. Instead, they were dating and working hard on cleaning up the mess Bertie had left behind.

The exchanges were recovering, the economy stabilizing, and Birch was moving on to his own domestic and foreign policies. Life was moving forward.

“When are those usurpers coming home?” Snip asked about Dalton and Grant. Buzz and Snip still hadn’t forgiven them for taking the women they’d picked out for their grandsons.

“They arrived last night,” Lizzy told them with a smile as she looked at the diamond ring on her finger. They were getting married in June, and Val was going to be her maid of honor. They’d been planning the wedding while Dalton and Grant had been stationed in Alaska for the past month, training their replacements in Arctic rescue and survival. Right before leaving, they were sent to help rescue a downed spy plane in Russia’s Arctic zone before the Russians found them. After bringing the pilot home and destroying the spy plane so the Russians couldn’t get any information from it, Dalton and Grant had officially been honorably discharged from the Air Force.

“They’re meeting with the bank in charge of liquidating Jason and Michelle’s estate right now,” Valeria explained.

“What for?” Snip asked.

“You know how important Jason was to them and they want to buy the grounds to make sure the wounded veterans continue to have a place to recover. They want Jason and Michelle’s legacy to live on,” Lizzy said with a touch of sadness. The Wolskis had been victims in all of this, and the pain still continued as the veterans who had depended on Jason and Michelle’s camp fell through the cracks.

The door to the bar flew open and Dalton and Grant stomped inside. “Speak of the usurpers,” Snip teased.

“What’s the matter?” Lizzy asked as they watched the men angrily yank off their coats. Their eyes were narrowed, their jaws were clenched, and their movements jerky in their anger.

“The bank sold Jason’s land already,” Dalton answered as he let out a frustrated sigh.

“What? They knew you wanted to buy it,” Lizzy said worriedly.

“We didn’t have enough cash to hold it before we left for Alaska. We were told the property wasn’t going to be put on the market for a couple of months since the estate was still in probate,” Grant explained before he kissed Valeria’s head and took a seat next to her at the bar.

“So we scrapped and saved everything we had and went with the good faith deposit today, only to be told the bank sold it for all cash two weeks ago,” Dalton finished.

“Dude, that sucks,” Alex said from where he was working on his computer. He was probably chatting with Roxie who had to go back to England for her last year at university.

“I’m so sorry.” Lizzy took Dalton into a hug and kissed him gently. “This won’t stop us from doing what’s right. We’ll start looking for properties tomorrow. We’ll find something.”

Dalton squeezed her tight and took a deep breath. “I know something perfect will come along. I have you by my side, what else do I need?”

---

Birch held Tate’s nude body against his as they drifted off to sleep. He looked down and smiled at the new ring she wore on her hand. He’d never imagined he’d be married again, let alone to someone as wonderful as Tate. Even though he knew she’d say yes when he had Crew fly them out to Camp David, it still seemed like a shock when she nodded her head up and down and threw her arms around him. With shaky hands, he had slipped the diamond ring onto her finger.

The second they’d made it back to the White House, word had spread that Tate was wearing a very important ring on her finger. In less than five minutes, Humphrey was knocking on the door with a list of dignitaries who must be invited to the wedding. Tate had laughed and used her foot to close the door on him.

At that moment, Humphrey was probably downstairs planning their whole wedding and they’d only arrived back to DC four hours before. A knock sounded at the door and Birch groaned. “Go away, Humphrey!”

Tate’s brow wrinkled in her sleep as if she too were annoyed by the interruption.

“I’m sorry, but it’s important,” came Humphrey’s excited voice.

“Give me a minute,” Birch called, waking Tate up in the process.

“What is it?” she mumbled.

“Humphrey is at the door.”

“I told you I am not picking out the china pattern right this second,” Tate yelled.

“I still think you should go with the navy blue one, but that’s beside the point. This is important.”

Tate shoved off the covers, and they slipped on some clothes before opening the door.

“What the—?” Birch started to say, but was cut off.

“Hey, congrats,” Lizzy said, kissing Tate’s cheek and pushing into the room.

“Again, I better be the maid of honor,” Val said with a wink.

“Aye, there’s nothing better than hooking up with the bridal party at a wedding. Congratulations, you two,” Grant said with a broad grin as he shook Birch’s hand.

“It’s better hooking up when that person is your fiancée, but someone is moving slow,” Dalton teased Grant.

“I think I’m going to ask Roxie to marry me,” Alex said, taking a seat on the bed.

“Dude! You’re like a baby,” Lizzy exclaimed before slapping a hand over her mouth. “Dammit! I said it, didn’t I?”

Everyone laughed, and Lizzy flicked off Alex.

“While we love seeing you all, what’s so important you had to come at two in the morning?” Birch asked.

“It’s the best time to come in unnoticed,” Lizzy pointed out.

“But we have news,” Crew said, smiling.

“Bertie Geofferies took a plea deal an hour ago. He pled guilty to treason the second the prosecutor announced they’d found the book with all his notes in it. The book was found in his shower in his Hamptons house. One of the marble tiles was actually a hidden compartment. Inside was the leather book Roland described, full of names, amounts, crimes . . . by the way, I’ve stricken the French prime minister from your wedding list as he’ll soon be in jail.” Humphrey huffed as if insulted that a potential wedding guest would dare be named in Bertie’s little book.

“What was the deal?” Birch asked. Was it truly finally over?

“Life at an undisclosed location. I was thinking of the secret prison in Saipan.”

Birch thought for a second. “Do it. I want him far away from the media or any of his cohorts that will be arrested from this fallout.” Birch took a breath then, realizing why Dalton was popping a bottle of champagne. “It’s over.”

“That’s right,” Humphrey said, grinning as he handed Tate and Birch a glass. “Everyone who was part of Mollia Domini are either dead or now in jail.”

Tate squealed as she jumped into Birch’s arms. “It’s finally over! I can’t believe it. We did it. Justice has been served.”

Dalton kissed Lizzy, and Grant brought Val close to his side. Everyone smiled and laughed as the last of the web unraveled.