A few flurries swirled through the chilled air, but the ground wasn’t quite cold enough for it to stick. The officiant Adare had selected asked if we wanted to move things inside, but I said no. Nothing short of a natural disaster would get me to deviate from the plans she’d made. I owed it to her to see things done right.

As I took my place in the first row of chairs, I couldn’t help wondering if she’d have been pleased with the turnout. Her attorney had contacted her family like she’d wanted him to, but none of them were here. She’d told me that she hadn’t expected them to come, but in my mind, I’d thought she had to be wrong. Who would miss their own child’s funeral? Or their siblings’?

There hadn’t been a service for my mom, not with things having happened the way they did. Anton had only been twenty-seven then, and without any other family, it had all been on him.

It’d taken everything inside him just to deal with the aftermath of what happened as well as my injuries. He hadn’t had the heart or strength to arrange anything. Some people might have been upset by it, but we hadn’t stayed in Indiana long enough for me to find out. By the time I’d asked about the funeral, we’d been in Hell’s Kitchen, and I’d been relieved to hear that I hadn’t missed anything. He’d promised that if I ever wanted to do something, we would, but I’d known that a memorial would only bring back memories that were better off left where they were.

There weren’t many people there, but Adare had wanted it that way. Over the years, she’d stayed friends with some of her past clients, and they were all here, but she hadn’t wanted an open service. As the news had gotten out, however, waves of cards and flowers had come into the office. She hadn’t been some big public figure or a wealthy supporter of various foundations, but she’d been genuine in who she was, and people had loved her.

Jalen took the seat next to me, immediately reaching for my hand. I’d never thought of myself as someone who needed a lot of physical contact. I didn’t flinch away from it exactly, but it wasn’t something I’d found myself gravitating toward. Jalen did it automatically with me though, offering comfort that I didn’t even know I needed. Or, more accurately, that I didn’t want to acknowledge that I needed.

“Adare Burkart was many things to many people.” Tall and rail-thin, the officiant didn’t look like he had enough strength in his wiry frame to produce such a deep bass voice. “I was blessed to be among those who called her a friend. When my late wife, Cecily, came home from Christmas shopping with a story about a woman who’d chased off a potential mugger, I knew I had to meet the fierce woman Cece had described.”

Each person here had a story like that, I realized. None of them had known Adare as a child or a teenager. They’d all met her in one crazy way or another. People from every walk of life imaginable, all brought together by a single person.

She’d come to Fort Collins as a college student, which made the elderly criminal justice professor from Colorado State University the person here who’d known her the longest. I’d heard that story already. How a stubborn sophomore had wanted in his class so badly that she’d camped out in front of his classroom for an entire week before the semester had started.

The middle-aged redhead a few seats to my left had been the victim of a car-jacking twenty-three years ago. After Adare had found the car and given the police information that had led to the jacker’s arrest, she’d asked Laura Briggs out on a date, and they’d stayed together for five years. When they’d ended their romantic relationship, they’d remained good enough friends for Adare to want her here.

Behind me was a family of three who’d been smuggled into the country by a coyote who’d then held the youngest brother hostage in order to force the other two to work as drug mules.

To their left was a couple who’d just celebrated their thirty-ninth wedding anniversary because Adare had gotten to the bottom of false infidelity rumors being spread by a business rival.

Sitting here now, I could see more clearly than ever the gift Adare had given me when she’d left Burkart Investigations to me. It wasn’t simply a way to earn a living, a legacy in success. It was a way to build a family of my own choosing. A way to make a difference in people’s lives that I wouldn’t have been able to do even as an FBI agent. Not every ‘bad guy’ was going to cross the agency’s radar. Not every case would deal with breaking the law.

And, sometimes, I might need to be the one doing the law-breaking.

When the words were all said, it was time for me to do my final job today. I stood, and Jalen stood with me. His hand on the small of my back reminded me that I had more than one reason to thank Adare. I smiled as I stooped to pick up a handful of dirt.

“I get it,” I said quietly. “I get it now, and I promise, I’ll do you proud.”

One by one, each of the people whose lives she’d touched came forward to say their goodbyes. There’d be no mingling afterward. Adare’s orders. Once it was done, it was done, and we were supposed to go live our lives.

A life that was a little poorer for her not being in it, but a life she’d believed in more than I’d realized before now.

This time, I took Jalen’s hand and led the way back to his car, neither of us looking back.