Page 85 of Rescuing Josiah

“Wow, this is stunning,” Ava gushed as everyone walked inside the apartment.

“So glad I got a greeting before the view stole your attention,” Chelsea teased from the couch, and Ava shot her friend a guilty smile.

“Sorry.” Ava dumped her armload of bags on the coffee table and moved to the couch to give her friend a very gentle-looking hug. “How are you feeling?”

“Like a bullet tried to hit my heart and got stopped by Kevlar,” Chelsea replied, making Josiah feel like all the blood had drained from his face.

“I think you should stop explaining it like that, Chelsea,” Teresa said with a laugh. “Josiah is going to stroke out otherwise.”

“Oops, sorry.” Chelsea shot him an apologetic smile, and he forced one of his own as he shoved away the thoughts of what could have happened to her if he hadn't taken off his vest and given it to her. She wouldn't be sitting here making jokes, that was for sure.

Once he’d closed and locked the door, he moved straight to the couch to join Chelsea. If he was going to survive this, he needed her close. The fact that she carefully leaned into him the moment he was at her side helped soothe away the roughest edges of his anxiety, and for the next couple of minutes, while everyone got themselves settled, and helped themselves to slices of pizza, he was able to relax a little more.

Small talk mostly consisted of the girls asking one another how they were doing. It wasn't so long ago that Ava had been abducted, had her kidney stolen. Isabella was still recovering from her seven-month-long ordeal at the hands of the organ trafficking ring, and she had the surprise pregnancy to deal withon top of it. And it had only been a matter of weeks since Teresa was abducted and some of her liver taken.

When Ava cleared her throat and reached for Nathaniel’s hand, Josiah felt Chelsea stiffen beside him. This was what he knew she’d been afraid of, an announcement that her two best friends were going to leave for the other side of the country, which he was sure to Chels felt like the other side of the world.

Romantic that she was, he knew she saw the beauty in Ava and Nathaniel, and Teresa and Micah’s stories, but she was also scared of losing her two best friends at a time when she really needed the support.

“So, Nathaniel and I have news. Teresa and Micah, too,” Ava announced, glancing over at Teresa, who had also straightened in her chair.

“You guys are moving?” Chelsea asked, and Josiah was so proud of his girl for not letting any of the pain he knew she was feeling seep into her words.

“Actually,” Ava said slowly, a grin spreading across her face. “No.”

“No?” Chelsea repeated.

“Well, we talked about it, of course, with Nathaniel’s job and all. But in the end, after everything we’ve all been through these last few months, I can't leave. I don’t want to.”

“Can't break up the team,” Teresa added.

“Not when we’re already so awesome,” Tobias added with a smile, a soft look in his dark eyes as he glanced at Isabella, his gaze then dropping to her still flat stomach where their baby was growing.

“You're really staying? All of you?” Chelsea asked hopefully.

“It’s only a few more years until Micah and I are out,” Nathaniel said.

“And we’re away a lot anyway,” Micah added. “So even if Teresa and Ava moved, we still wouldn't be with them all the time. So flying out here whenever we can is easy enough.”

“Ava and I can support each other while the guys are away,” Teresa said.

“We’llallsupport you with that,” Chelsea said quickly, and Tobias and Isabella immediately nodded their agreement.

“We all know this is going to be rough,” Ava said, “but we also know we can do it. And like Nathaniel said, it’s only for a few years, then the guys are going to maybe look into getting jobs with Prey.”

“So we’re not breaking up the team?” Chelsea asked, her grip on his hand tightening, and he absently began to draw small circles on the back of her hand with his thumb.

“No way we can break up this team,” Teresa assured her.

“Not after such an amazing win, taking down one of the biggest organ trafficking rings in the world,” Ava added.

“We’re a family,” Tobias said, reaching for Isabella and tugging her into his lap.

“A family,” Chelsea echoed, grinning at everyone, then leaning up to kiss his jaw.

“A family,” he agreed, capturing her chin and tilting her face so he could kiss her properly. For six years, he’d shoved his own family away and refused to allow himself to build a new one. Now it was time to embrace the life he’d been spared and start living again.