EPILOGUE

The delicious scent of barbecue wafted through the summer air. Shannon’s brothers manned the grill, flipping burgers and chicken breasts, and turning cobs of corn.

Music played from an outdoor speaker. A string of red pepper lights hung along the wooden posts of the fence. Her grandparents had insisted on a wedding celebration, and everyone was there—his parents; his brother and his wife, and their daughter; Mindy; Ally; Nate and his wife; James and his family; Shannon’s brothers; and her grandmother’s daughter and her kids.

Everyone who mattered deeply to the bride and groom.

The first three weeks of marriage had been bliss, and Brent was confident the next thirty, forty, fifty years and then some would be too.

As he took a long swallow from a bottle of beer, his eyes found his wife. She relaxed in an Adirondack chair on the deck, bouncing Carly on her knee and making cooing sounds to his niece while chatting with Julia. The sight of his Mrs. Nichols holding a baby tugged on all his heartstrings, reminding him both of the loss in the past but also of a bright, possible future. They’d need to get working on that soon.

Very soon.

He felt a hand on his arm and turned to see Mindy. “You checking out Shannon’s brothers?” he teased.

She rolled her eyes. “Oh yeah. Totally. Just standing around, staring at the eye candy.”

He laughed, then lowered his voice. “Did you ever find out anything about that guy? The pics I showed you?”

“Brent,” she chided. “We’re at your wedding celebration.”

“This is important, though,” he said. He’d given Mindy the pictures he’d taken of the guy in the Buick a few weeks ago, and she’d agreed to show them to some of her friends on the force to see if the plates or the car or the tattoos revealed anything. He couldn’t dismiss the notion in the back of his mind that the ink meant something.

“Truth be told, I don’t have anything yet. They’re pretty swamped, and can’t really do license plate checks anymore for privacy reasons. But one of my guys said he’d take a close look and see if the ink looks familiar. I promise to let you know as soon as I hear.”

Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Shannon handing the baby to Julia, then blowing him a kiss. He returned it, and watched as she headed inside the house, her brothers in tow. They’d told him they had a special gift for Shannon, and he suspected they were giving it to her now.

He lifted his beer and tapped it to Mindy’s. “Thank you.”

“Anytime. Now celebrate. Don’t worry about the pictures. Have a great time with everyone here.”

That sounded like a damn fine plan.

* * *

Her grandmother was in the kitchen refilling a pitcher of iced tea. Michael swooped in behind her and grabbed something from the counter.

“Told you we’d get you a wedding gift,” he said, holding up a small white box with a silver bow tied daintily on it.

“I wrapped it,” her grandma chimed in. “That’s why it looks nice.”

“Because you boys don’t know how to wrap gifts,” Shannon said as she reached for the box. “Yet another reason why you all require further domestication,” she said, taking her time to give each of her brothers a steely-eyed, yet playful stare.

“Good luck on that front. Pretty sure I’m not trainable at all,” Ryan said, tucking his thumbs into the belt loops of his shorts.

Shannon patted him on the cheek. “There, there. Every dog can learn.”

“All right, funny girl. Open your gift,” Michael said.

“You know I don’t need anything, right? I hope you didn’t get me a blender,” she said as she removed the silver bow from the box.

“The world’s smallest blender,” Colin joked.

Peering inside, she found soft tissue paper laid on top of something metallic. She folded back the tissue paper to uncover a gorgeous platinum bracelet that matched the rose gold and silver ones she already wore.

“Oh, it’s so pretty,” she said, admiring the simple and elegant design. When she spotted the date engraved in the center, she brought her hand to her heart. “My wedding date.”

“Look at the inside, too. It’s also inscribed,” Michael said, nudging her with his shoulder.

Turning the slender bracelet on its side, she read the engraved script. “To our incredible sister on her happily ever after. We love you, always. Michael, Ryan and Colin.”

A lump rose in her throat, fighting its way free. She clasped a hand over her mouth, as a tear slid down her cheek.

That tear was a declaration. An announcement of their love, their bond, their unbreakableness. Her boys—her men. She wrapped her arms around Michael and Colin, and Ryan jammed his way in, too, for a big group hug.

“I love you guys. So damn much,” she whispered in their huddle.

“We love you,” they all said in unison.

When they pulled apart, Shannon wiped the tears from her cheek, and shot them a wild grin. “Hmm. Now who gets to go next? Michael, Ryan, or Colin?” she said, counting off her brothers as her grandmother laughed. “I have a feeling the next one of us to fall in love will be—”

The doorbell rang, cutting off her prediction.

“I’ll grab that,” her grandmother said, heading to the front door, a few feet away. “Probably my neighbors. I invited them too.”

When she opened the door, there were two men on the front step. One wore a light blue button-down. The other sported a gray striped shirt. Both had ties, loosely knotted, and badges at their waists.

Her spine straightened and her smile erased itself. Shannon did a quick inventory of people, even though she already knew the answer—everyone she loved was safe and sound in the house. Still, her pulse doubled as she and her brothers moved closer to the door, flanking their grandmother.

The guy in the blue button-down spoke. “I’m looking for Victoria Paige. Is she here?”

Her grandmother nodded crisply and held out a hand. “I’m Victoria. What can I do for you?”

He shook her hand. “I’m Detective John Winston with Metro. This is my partner,” he said, but Shannon barely heard the other man’s name as blood pounded in her ears. “We wanted to let you know as the family of the murder victim, that due to new evidence in the homicide of Thomas Paige, the investigation is being reopened.”

THE END

Stay tuned for SINFUL DESIRE, book #2 in the Sinful Nights series, SINFUL DESIRE releases in September and tells the story of Ryan Sloan as he falls in love with the glamorous and brilliant Sophie Winston against the backdrop of the reopened investigation. If you'd like to receive an email when SINFUL DESIRE and other new titles are available, please sign up for my .

A brief excerpt of SINFUL DESIRE follows.