My eyes focused on the empty chair in front of me, the one Reed had been sitting in before I fell asleep. Maybe he had gone to get some fresh air. After the doctors checked me out and determined I was okay, Detective Wallace and Detective Palmer came into the room and filled us in on the news of Jake. Just thinking of him sent my heart into a full on sprint.

Even though my body felt rested from the long nap, I was still tired. The doctor said rest would be the best thing for both me and the baby right now. Unable to get comfortable, I rolled over to my other side, hoping to find a more relaxing position.

I gasped as my eyes immediately zeroed in on the person standing in the corner. My eyes grew wide and my heart leapt into my throat. The person that was standing in front of me wasn't supposed to be here. He was supposed to be dead.

"Surprised to see me?" he asked, a tiny smile breaking across his lips. I'd missed that smile.

"Mike? Is that really you?"

"In the flesh."

"But… I thought you were…" My voice faded. I couldn't even say the words.

He chuckled softly. "Not yet."

"But Jake…" I hated even mentioning his name.

I pushed myself up into a sitting position, wanting to believe that this was really happening. Mike was alive. He was safe. The past few months, there wasn't a day that had gone by when I hadn't thought about him. He had risked everything to help me get away. He was the reason I was alive today.

"We really shouldn't be talking about all of this right now." He took a few steps forward, out of the shadows. "You need your rest. I have strict orders from your Reed that you are to remain stress free. I just really wanted to see you. I wanted to make sure you were okay."

Mike and Reed have met? When? What all have I missed?

"Do you know about Jake?" I asked, talking around the lump in my throat.

He nodded and his eyes dropped away from mine. "Yeah, I know all about it. It's all over, kid. He won't hurt you again." The way he avoided looking me in the eyes and the sound of his voice made me feel like he knew more than he was telling me.

"Do you know… what happened?” My voice was shaky. “The detectives didn't have much to tell us, other than he was dead. They wouldn’t give us all the details other than he was found in the desert on the outskirts of Vegas. They did say it was an execution style killing...” a shiver rippled through me just imagining it, “...and he was found—in a shallow grave."

He continued to stare at the ground in a complete daze.

"Are you okay, Mike?” I could tell something was seriously bothering him. “Whatever it is, you can tell me."

"All I want you to know right now is that he's gone. He'll never hurt you again."

From the way he was continuing to avoid looking at me, I knew it could have been Mike that put Jake in that grave.

"He told me that he—he killed you." I stumbled over the words. My body trembled as I remembered the anger and hate in Jake's eyes when he had said it.

Slowly, Mike lifted his head and sighed. "I tried so hard to do it the right way. I tried to keep you out of it so you wouldn't get hurt. I really wanted a good life for you, Emily. I wanted you to start over and not have to deal with any of this."

"What are you talking about?"

He took a seat in the chair beside my bed. "About a year ago, I started working with the FBI. The day before I put you on the bus out of Vegas, I made a deal with them. I agreed to help them take down Jake if they agreed to leave you out of it. I didn't want you to be dragged through anything else. You had already been through so much." He ran his hands down his face. He looked more tired and stressed out than I'd ever seen him.

"I wasn't sure the plan we had was going to work. Jake had been known to get out of things like this before. He had people everywhere, even more than I thought. So no matter what, I wanted to do whatever I had to do to keep you safe. The safest place was out of Vegas, away from Jake and away from me."

My head was spinning. Mike was working with the FBI? He had made a deal? When Reed told me that one of Jake's men was working with the FBI, I couldn't believe it, especially not Mike. I thought he was dead.

"You did all of that for me?"

His face softened and he held his head up high. "I spent most of my life working for the Terrell family. They were my life, my family, and I would have done anything for them, even died for them. I actually thought that's the way I would go out, taking a bullet for one of them. But when you came into Jake's life, you became a part of my family, too. After watching him treat you the way he did for so long, I knew I had to make a choice. I realized that Jake had to be stopped. He wasn’t the same man I used to know. He was nothing like his father. His father had morals, respect, and integrity. Jake was all about greed and power, and he was getting worse every day. I knew he was going to kill you if I didn't do something to stop him."

He sighed as he sat back in his seat. "It wasn't long before Jake knew that I helped you get away. When he confronted me about it, I told him he was crazy, that he didn't know what he was talking about. The deal I had made with the FBI… I needed to stay close to him. As much as it pained me to do so, I had to try and keep his trust. After a while, though, I was tired of lying, tired of letting him feel like he had that control over me. So when he confronted me again, I told him the truth. I told him I put you on a bus and that he would never see you again, that he would never touch you again. I knew the moment I told him I was either a dead man or I was going to have to kill him. Then he did something I never expected. He told me that he forgave me. He told me we could get past it." Mike stopped talking and shook his head. "But when I turned around to leave, he shot me, twice in the back. Believing him was the dumbest thing I've ever done."

I took in a shaky breath. I couldn't speak. I was at a loss for words.

"If I hadn't listened to the FBI and wore a bullet-proof vest," he continued, swallowing hard, "I wouldn't be sitting here talking to you right now."

"It was you, wasn't it?" My eyes stung with tears, knowing what he had done. What he felt like he had to do.

"After Jake thought he killed me, the FBI kept me in protective custody. They wouldn't allow me to make contact with anyone in fear of Jake finding out that I was alive and that the FBI was on to him. I'd been in hiding for a couple months when I heard a couple of agents talking about your case. About how Jake was wanted for attempted murder. It killed me to know that after all I had done, he had still found you. That he had hurt you again. So the next day, I left protective custody. I couldn't sit back and wait to get the news that he had finally killed you—I would've never forgiven myself—so I did the only thing I could do. I had to stop him and I did, for good this time." His face was serious, stoic, just like most of my memories of him.

"I wanted to come tell you. I wanted to tell you that you didn't have to live in fear anymore, but when the FBI found me, they placed me under surveillance and wouldn't allow me to make contact with you… not until a few days ago anyway... when they found his body. Then, when I finally had the chance to see you, I couldn't do it. I wasn't sure if that's what you needed or even wanted. All I wanted was to see that you were happy, and for the past few days, I saw that you were. You looked happy.”

So it had been Mike in the mysterious car following us.

When Mike finally stopped talking again, I blinked a few times, absorbing what he’d just told me.

It was over. Everything. My nightmare. My fear. My worry.

Epilogue

I WAS never the girl to dream about her wedding day. I never wanted to wear a big, poofy white dress. I never pictured my groom standing at an altar, waiting for me. I never imagined myself being walked down the aisle on the arm of my father. It never occurred to me to dream like that because, well, I never thought it would happen like that for me. A big reason for that was I had never found the right person, the person I wanted to spend the rest of my life with… not until now at least.

Lexi had dreamed about her wedding day. She knew what colors her bridesmaids would wear. She knew where she wanted to get married and on what day. Since her parents couldn't be there, she wanted to honor them by getting married on their wedding anniversary. She already had the dress of her dreams designed in her head… and it was the big, poofy princess dress. She had dreamed of walking down the aisle on the arm of her father. That was the saddest part about all of this. The one dream that no matter what we did, it would never come true. However, Reed was there to take his place.

Right now, as I glanced up at her, my heart ached. The girl standing in front of me had been through so much, yet she was still the strongest and sweetest person I knew. I wished I could make all of her dreams come true.

"How do I look?" Lexi twirled around, smiling.

"Absolutely beautiful. You look like a princess." I blotted my eyes with a tissue, soaking up all the tears. I took in a few deep breaths, trying not to totally lose it right here in the dress store.

"I feel beautiful." She beamed.

Right after I’d gotten myself under control, the sales lady came over and placed a veil on her head. Then I burst into tears all over again. I had been a blubbering mess the past few months, not to mention I felt as big as a house. I only had one more month until my due date.