Harrison laughed at Logan’s sad dramatic pout. “Yeah, I told Ryan this morning and accepted his job offer. Looks like your sorry asses are stuck with me.”
Logan grinned. “Awesome. There’s an empty apartment in my building. Let’s go take a look at it. There are some hot chicks in 5B that will wow you.”
The rest of the men congratulated Harrison and welcomed him to Appledale and for being the newest deputy.
Gabe drove home filled with thoughts of Karissa. Now he understood better what Ryan and Ethan had felt when their woman was in danger. He was going to protect his little love whether she liked it or not.
* * * *
Karissa did not like the idea that she couldn’t work for God knew how long. She wanted to kick the asses of these drug dealers herself for interfering with her job and plan to save money.
“Gabe, I have to work to save money. I need a car and a place to live. I can’t keep on imposing on my sister forever,” Karissa complained, feeling overwhelmed with all this new information he had just told her.
Gabe sat her on the couch, rubbing his fingers gently over her hand until he felt her breathing slowing down. “Okay, first of all it’s only a matter of time before one or all of them head into Thorn’s. Do you want to be there?”
She shook her head with wide eyes.
Gabe continued. “Karissa, when I said I loved you that means forever. I want marriage, kids, everything life has to offer us. Good or bad, I want to be with you. I want to make you happy and comfort you when you’re sad. If you don’t want to live here we’ll buy something else, okay?”
She swallowed past the lump of emotions stuck in her throat. She had resigned herself that her dreams would never come true but here was this man offering her everything she had ever wished for. She didn’t realize she was crying until he softly kissed her lips. “I hope those are happy tears and not horrified ones.”
Karissa giggled and threw herself in his strong arms, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath so she could speak. “I love you, Gabriel Wilson. I have forever and I want all of that with you too. I’m so blown away by your words and so happy. I can’t wait to tell Casey. She’ll be so happy for us.”
He pulled her onto his lap and enjoyed the moment of feeling her in his arms and her head resting on his shoulder. He could stay like this forever if he didn’t have to go back to work. He thought of Logan’s reaction when he announced his forthcoming
marriage and he chuckled. Karissa looked up at him with curiosity.
“Sorry, honey. We have a town filled with drug dealers, danger lurking around every corner, DEA coming to help. But I’m not sure I can walk back into that station with my ‘mean look’. All I have to do is think of you and I’ll be smiling like a big sap in two seconds flat. You ruined my badass rep, babe.”
Karissa leaned against him giggling and kissed his chin. “I love you so much and I can’t wait for all this to be over. Moving back home was the best thing I’ve ever done. I have you, my sister, and so many new friends. I am overwhelmed with joy.”
“When this is over we’ll go car shopping,” he said, feeling like he was on top of the world. “I want you to have something sturdy for winter.”
“No, not yet, I have to save—” she started to say with regret.
He interrupted her. “Baby, I have plenty of money from my military days and good investments I made. It’s my privilege to buy my wife a car. An SUV or Jeep for the winter roads. That tiny little thing you had was a danger all by itself. I’d never get any sleep worrying about you driving on the winter roads.”
“Hey now, I happen to be an excellent driver when I am not being chased by knife-wielding maniacs.” She pretended to be mad but inside she was touched by his wanting to take care of her. Besides her sister nobody had ever cared for her well-being and it felt good to know she had someone to love who loved her back.
“Do we have time to celebrate our engagement before you go back to work?” she said, putting her arms around his neck and rubbing herself against him in a suggestive manner. She kissed his neck, nipping at his ear and licking his lips softly until his mouth opened up to hers and she invaded his mouth with her tongue, making his cock harden in excitement. She began to unbutton his work shirt and rubbed his chest with her hands, exploring his hard muscular chest with pleasure.
“I’ll make the time, baby.” He laughed happily, getting up with her still in his arms and heading for the bedroom.
Chapter 13
Ethan and Harrison picked up Jason Wells and his partner, John Simmons, from the St. Louis airport. Jason was a tall husky man in his late thirties with short brown hair. His partner was shorter with blond hair in a military haircut and a quiet demeanor.
“Couldn’t you dress more casually, Wells? You’ve got law enforcement agent written all over you.” Harrison riled his old friend and coworker, looking over his standard dark suit and duffel bag and shiny dress shoes.”
Jason laughed. “Yeah, once I get to this town of yours I’ll make sure I fit in. I have a fisherman’s outfit complete with a hat. This is my partner John,” he said, introducing the shorter, more quiet man walking beside him who just nodded at the men.
Harrison shook his hand and introduced Ethan. On the drive to Appledale they discussed Cantrell and the others.
“I’ve wanted Cantrell for a long time, Harrison,” Jason informed them. “He is bad news and needs to be off the streets. He is a hot item in Chicago right now with every law enforcement agency looking for him. That’s probably why he is out here hoping to go unnoticed for a while. We heard rumors he was trying to slowly move his drug operation south.”
Harrison agreed. “You’ll be staying where I’m at, the Golden House. Ethan’s aunt owns the place and it’s pretty quiet. You can tell us how we can gather evidence against him and his cohorts that will stick.” He updated them on what had been going on starting with Karissa and Toby and ending with the observations they had already made. “So far all we have done is surveillance work because we didn’t want to spook them off.”
Ethan’s aunt welcomed the two agents and set them up away from the other guests she had. Usually people never stayed more than a day or two anyways as they passed through or went fishing for a weekend.