“You’re my girl,” Pauline said. “My only child. I have no other heirs. I want you to have this place. Amos and I will be livin’ close, at his home. You don’t need to keep it as an inn. Originally it was a home and it wants children fillin’ it. I want to come here and sit on the porch and rock my grandbaby. That’s my dream now, Saria. I want you to stay close. It’s an old woman’s hope, and selfish of me, but I love you and the thought of you goin’ off too far . . .”

“That’s not going to happen,” Drake assured, wrapping his arm around Pauline’s shoulders. “I promised you I wouldn’t take her away from you and I meant it. I’m taking her to the rain forest on our honeymoon, but I promise we’ll be back soon. I’ve got a lot of lair business to take care of.”

Amos grinned at him, the faded old eyes sparkling with mischief. “Better you than me.”

Drake sent him a scowl, but refrained from speaking when Saria stepped hard on his toes. If Pauline was Saria’s surrogate mother, then Amos was signing on to be her father and she wanted to make it plain to him that nothing was going to mar Pauline’s happiness again. She’d gone through enough with losing her sister and finding out the woman was a serial killer. Saria didn’t want anything else bad to ever happen in Pauline’s life if she could have any say in it.

“Who will look after things while you’re gone?” Amos pursued.

“Joshua. He’s planning on taking his uncles to task and cleaning up his family’s home and legacy. The other members of my team will stay and of course Saria’s brothers will be on hand should anything go wrong while we’re gone,” Drake assured.

“How’s Mahieu?” Pauline asked, glancing over at the man seated on her couch.

Wedding guests milled around, allowing Saria to catch only glimpses of her brother. “He’s much better. It was touch and go for a while, but his leopard is strong and he’s healing faster than anyone thought he would.”

“And Armande?”

“He was so distraught over his mother. He had become suspicious that she was ill, I think both Charisse and Armande were suspicious,” Saria admitted gently. “When Charisse broke up with Mahieu, Iris called him and wanted him to meet her alone to talk. He called Armande and asked him to be there when he met Iris. Armande saved Mahieu’s life. If he hadn’t been there, Pauline . . .” She trailed off. “Armande and Charisse are good people.”