has a personal connection to you, and Robert won’t risk a mistrial. But he’ll be on the team for the county charges. And by the way—he’s really distressed all this has gone on and you haven’t kept him in the loop. But we’ve assured him you’re all right, so he’s grateful. He says he’s going to throttle you himself when he sees you, but he loves you.”
Raina smiled, feeling guilty.
She hadn’t kept Robert up to date.
“Will they get all the co-murderers? Have we even found all the dead? We know Brandon Wells is out there somewhere.”
“We’ll do our best,” Andrew said.
“And trust me, we will find all those who kept Loretta in business, who paid her and joined in her murder duos,” Axel said. He looked at Andrew and smiled. “We never stop.”
“None of us,” Andrew replied. “Not from a tribal viewpoint, country viewpoint—or federal viewpoint. We won’t stop. I promise.”
He walked away.
For a moment, Axel just stood by Raina’s side. Then, heedless of the medical personal and all others standing around, he pulled her into his arms.
“I need to do this while we’re alive,” he said. “I love you. I want my life to be with you—I want to say and do and feel everything while we can, while we’re breathing, and then years from now, into eternity. I realize this is fast, that it’s been intense, that—”
She pressed her fingers against his lips.
“I love you. And I’ll be incredibly grateful just to breathe beside you. To hear your heartbeat every moment we’re alive. And I hope we have years and years and then eternity.”
He smiled. It seemed so strange, here in the darkness, in the heart of the Everglades, with death around them.
But there was no better place to realize life was meant to be lived—and love was something that shouldn’t be lost.
The moon kept rising.
Police came and went. They watched Jordan’s body as it was gently taken away, followed by the body of Loretta Oster.
Titan stood by them all the while, and then it was time for them to step into an airboat themselves.
Back into the dark tangle of the past.
Where they could put together the pieces.
And look into the bright promise of the future.
Epilogue
“When the wind blows and the fog swirls over the great river of grass, you can look out over the miles of long grass, cypress trees and more, and then, as the moon rises, casting its glow out over the landscape, you can see it, riding high on the horizon, the pirate ship, great sails white beneath the glow of the moon, and you know the pirates are roaming the Everglades, ever eager to atone for their sins!”
Raina watched Axel with the children gathered around him.
They were standing in the vast and elegant entry of Adam Harrison’s historic theater. It was a Sunday afternoon, three weeks after the events that had brought the strange killing spree perpetrated by the least likely of killers to an end.
An hour ago, on the theater’s stage, Jon Dickson and Kylie Connolly had been joined in marriage. Now, tables cluttered the entry and a band played to the side where there was most customarily a T-shirt stand celebrating whatever play was being performed each night.
The food had been catered in.
Raina had met Kylie’s friends and family, down from the DC area for the occasion.
And bit by bit, she was meeting more and more members of Axel’s Krewe of Hunters, and loving all those she met, exchanging stories with them and finding she was happy with herself. What had terrified her before now seemed like something wonderful. A unique and special sense that could help others.
Axel had spun a few more local ghost stories he’d learned before one of the kids at the wedding had begged he tell them about the pirates who supposedly roamed the Everglades.
They’d also wanted to know if he’d wrangled alligators. Axel had explained they didn’t really wrangle alligators—they handled them and learned about them, sharing a special environment with them.
She smiled as Angela Hawkins, the lovely blonde wife of Jackson Crow, field head for the Krewe, sat down beside her.
“I’m imaging one day he’s going to be a great dad,” Angela said. “He definitely has a way with children.”
The groom, fresh off the dance floor with one of the older guests, slid into a chair, grinning. “That’s one of Kylie’s great-aunts! Spritely lady—octogenarian, and I think she can outlast me!” He grew serious. “Raina, you’re doing all right here? Enjoying the area—Oh! How are