Page 161 of Hostile Saint

“The man—your friend fed you?”

“All the time.”

“Then I like him.”

As if reaching back in time and touching the past, Lace touched another frame. It was a picture of me staring at the tree where Lynx found me.

So thankful for that moment to have been captured, I fought for air as I pointed over Lace’s shoulder. “That’s where your cry saved me. You,” my eyes watered, “called out for the pack to hear you.” I whispered, “They did, baby.”

Lacey quickly peered around me to see Lynx, still stunned at this miracle happening.

More confident, Lace faced the wall, setting her shoulders back. “Tell me more.”

I choked at the next picture. It was of me on the treadmill. “That is where I ran toward your smile, every day, until I could run… to you.”

She wiped tears that were suddenly falling. “More.”

I chuckled at me sitting next to Vice, smiling with a mouthful of my first burger. “They do barbecues. So good.”

Lace gasped, peering around to Lynx again. “May I come to one of your barbecues someday?”

As Lynx fought tears, veins pushed against the skin on his forehead. “Anything you want, Pretty Girl.”

Her waving had me looking over my shoulder to see Vice, as shocked as Lynx. Lacey said, “That’s you in the picture!”

Vice’s shoulders softened. “It is. I’m Vice. By the way, your man eats a whole bunch.”

Her back still to my chest, she now looked at me. “They had a lot of food?”

Fighting emotions, I promised, “And shared it.”

Her face lit up as if so pleased I was being taken good care of. Then she looked back to the wall and pointed. “Is that a beer?”

My first beer, on the couch with Lynx’s arm around me. “Yeah. Elle was with us, over the phone.”

Lace peered around me. “Did you have one, too, Elle?”

Elle was wiping tears. “I did. I wouldn’t miss his first.”

My precious wife nodded in more thought, smiling, then gazed back at this wall of surprises. “Oh my gosh, that’s you, getting to me.”

So fucking grateful for the captured moment, I leaned my head down to the top of hers. One of the men, to whom I now owed the world, took a picture of my scaling the wall to my girl.

She grabbed her chest. “I wanted to touch you so bad that night.” Then she smiled. “Oh, that yummy milkshake. Look! I’m taking a sip!”

The wall continued… Lacey gasped and celebrated all the pictures as if now feeling she had been with me the whole time. She got to see me on the back of Lynx’s dragon, my iPhone, Charlie, sleeping in bed with Charlie.

Still petting his head, she asked, “Can he sleep with me, too?”

Melt my heart… “Absolutely.”

She gazed back at the wall… “Why are you and Vice in a backyard with a spoon?”

After a ‘cough’ of “Spoon Bandit,” laughter boomed, including from me.

I explained to Lace, “Vice was training me how to fight. To keep me from getting hurt with a real weapon, he chose the spoon.”

As if keeping me safe deserved an award, she peered around me and smiled at Vice, immense trust in her hazel eyes.