True to her word, Lana Rose arrived at Emberlyn’s fifteen minutes later.

“Daddy! Uncle Will let me ride in the front and turn the lights on in the cruiser,” she announced at the same time, taking a running leap into my arms. I held her tightly and for much longer than my normal.

All this time, I’d been sitting on these pieces with only one missing. It scared the life out of me that Dodge could have struck where it hurt most at any point. Problem was, there was still one piece missing, which meant that someone else was going to get hurt before he came for me.

Ten minutes later, I was still stuck in my thoughts. Emberlyn and Will were entertaining my daughter when Dalton showed up with a heavily pregnant Devolin and Brycen Matthews in tow.

Seeing as Emberlyn’s house was decked to the nines with Stan’s bells and whistles security-wise, I’d been okay with temporarily moving into her place. It would do a better job to keep the most precious people in my life safe.

“You need to let your mother know what’s going on,” Emberlyn whispered to me while the others sat around her dining room table, devising a plan of action, while Brycen typed away with Devolin at his side, giving him a run for his money.

“I will,” I vowed, “but she’ll be at Maggie’s for at least another week.” Emberlyn nodded, seemingly satisfied with my answer. After all, a hip replacement on a seventy-something woman took some time before said woman could do everything on her own again.

“I think I’ve got something,” Devolin blurted.

“What?” I got up, rushing to stand behind her, Dalton on one side, me on the other.

“I’m going to go check on Rosie,” Emberlyn announced.

“Please.” I gave her a meaningful look of appreciation. She’d been in Emberlyn’s bedroom watching a movie, which should almost be over. The last thing I wanted was for her to come down and overhear something about the investigation which now included her.

“You want to watch the next one with me?” Lana Rose asked.

I’d come to check on her, noticing that she’d decimated the two slices of pizza we’d left her with from our earlier order.

“Sure.” I propped a few extra pillows against my headboard, then kicked off my shoes before joining her on my bed. Lana Rose moved closer, cuddling into my side on a sigh, as we watched the end credits to the first of the Hunger Games trilogy.

“Is everything okay?” she asked.

“Everything is just fine, Sweets,” I reassured her, kissing the top of her head. “Daddy just needs help for some work stuff.”

“He hugged me extra tight. Daddy doesn’t do that unless he’s been worried sick about me,” she announced.

“Rosie, you’ll have to talk to your dad about that.” I wasn’t sure how much he wanted his daughter to know, and I wasn’t about to overstep my bounds.

“So there is something wrong?” She arched her neck so she could look up at me.

“Yes and no,” I simply stated, gaining a confused look from the nine-year-old.

Just then, the bedroom door creaked open.

“Mind if I join you, ladies?” Devolin pushed the door wider, revealing her large belly, which she was holding. “The guys kicked me out.” My brows arched. Devolin didn’t strike me as a pushover. “I’m having some Braxton Hicks contractions and Dalton wants me to take it easy,” she explained on a grumble.

“You can sit next to me!” Rosie’s smile beamed.

Next thing I knew, the movie mostly as background noise, Rosie proceeded with the grand inquisition—about babies.

In that moment, and with the topic the little girl and myself had been on prior to the other woman’s interruption, I was extremely thankful to talk babies. So was Devolin, by the look on her face.

“I’d like a baby someday,” Lana Rose said, breaking the peaceful silence. Turning to stare at the girl, I’d noticed that she’d shifted just enough so that one of her hands rubbed Devolin’s belly as it moved in subtle undulations when the baby shifted. Devolin had fallen asleep, and it looked like Rosie was fading quickly.

Shifting onto my side, I spooned her in a hug as I covered her rubbing hand. “Me too,” I yawned. “Me too, Sweets.”

“How did we miss this?” was the first thing I asked as soon as Emberlyn had disappeared. “Jesus Christ! He’s been local this entire time?”

Dalton and Will were both on their phones. Dalton with Rex, one of our part-timers, while Will had our captain verifying the information.

According to what Devolin had managed to find, there was a property—albeit in a remote location on the outskirts of Jacksonville—that could potentially be used by Casen Dodge. Will was checking up to see if Captain Dodge knew anything about it.

Hanging up his phone, the man turned to me and shook his head.

“Cap says he’d heard of that place, but he had no idea that it was still in the family. It’s some old hunting shack in the bush that used to belong to his wife’s father. She hated going up there, and since she was an only child, he assumes that it must have been passed off to her in the will when all of this time, he thought she’d sold it off years ago,” Will explained.

“I need a unit sent out there,” I told him.

“Cap’s already taken care of that.”

“I’m sending Rex and Cade in too,” Dalton said, as he slid his finger across his phone’s screen to disconnect the call he’d been on.

“ETA?” I asked.

“An hour, tops,” he said.

“Good.”

Will and Brycen had left about five minutes before, while I pulled out a beer, handing one to Dalton as we settled on the couch. The man needed it after his wife had managed to scare the daylights out of him with what seemed like severe Braxton Hicks contractions.

“She’ll be fine, you know,” I told him.

He sighed. “I fucking hope you’re right.”

“Eva had them bad when she was pregnant with Lana Rose,” I said.

“Dev says it’s normal. She’s been through so much that I worry.”

“I know how it is.” It was my turn to sigh, adding measure to my frustration by rubbing my face with a single palm. “Don’t expect the worry to go away once this kid comes out though,” I chuckled. “It gets worse.”

The man groaned. “Yeah, I figured as much.” He took a long pull from his bottle, finishing his beer off.

“I’ve been doing some thinking over these last few weeks,” I started.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.” I paused. “With everything going on with this investigation, and with Em coming into our lives, I think it’s time I make a few changes.”

The man shifted in his seat, turning his body toward me and leaning forward, then grinned. “Any of those changes work to my benefit?”

My answer was simple—a nod.

“I’m glad to hear it, my friend.”

“Good.”

“So when’s this change happening?”

“Let me see this case through to the end,” I told him. “I’ll be handing in my resignation before the ink dries on any of that closing paperwork. Timewise, I guess it’ll depend on the captain and the bureaucrats.”

“Keep me posted, bro. You know I’d have taken you on full-time over a year ago when NSI was finally in the black.” He slapped me on the side of the shoulder as he got up. “Now that we’re done for the night, let me get my wife and we’ll get out of your hair.”

That’s when we found the most precious sight of all: three beauties sound asleep, one large with child, while the other two protectively held her belly, all cocooned together.

“That’s where it’s at, right there, my man.” Dalton patted my shoulder as he made his way past me and toward his wife.

He had no idea how right he was.