SOS: Ship of Secrets✔️

29- Neal

Neal

"Babe, dinner is ready.", I heard Jesse call from the kitchen of our hotel suite.

I quickly washed my hands and went to the tiny dining room.

Lieutenant Barr put all of us up in these nice hotel rooms until they can hunt Ernie down. There were two police officers guarding the hall we we all on.

I kissed my sweet fiancé on the cheek before sitting down at the table. He placed plates of grilled chicken, mashed sweet potatoes, and asparagus on the table as I poured us both some red wine.

"It looks lovely, honey."

He smiled at me before taking a seat. I placed his glass in front of him before taking my seat.

"I've been thinking. How so-",Jesse began before he began staring. I realized he was looking past me at the tv that was on mute behind me. My eyes widened as I saw what he saw.

Ernie's face on the screen and in big bold letters, ERNIE FITZGERALD SHOT DEAD.

I turned the volume on and listened as the reporter stated how Ernie was killed during a standoff with the police.

There was a knock on the door. I looked through the peephole and saw Nina and Joey. I opened the door.

"Did you see? Ernie's dead."

"We just saw. I can't believe it."

Doors began opening on the hall and everyone began flooding out.

"Ernie's dead.", Dennis said.

I made a 'come in' motion and had everyone come into our suite.

"Does this mean we can go home?", Jesse asked.

"Honestly, I'm still a little afraid to go back to our apartment.", I told him.

He nodded.

"I guess this means you'll be moving out, huh?", Malcolm asked Josie.

She gave him a warm smile.

"We were actually just talking about that. We're going to look for a place closer to Dennis and Nick.", Rocco said.

Nick smiled at Josie as Dennis grabbed her hand.

"So, you'll be leaving Salinas?", Lilly asked.

"Not quite. I can't have my baby too far from their godmother.", Josie said.

Lilly smiled and hugged Josie.

"So, what does this all mean for us? I mean, are we going to stay in touch or..?",Nina asked.

"Of course, we'll stay in touch. We're a family. We survived a psychopath on the SOS ship. We're bonded for life.", Joey said.

We all ended up in a group hug. We pulled away before hearing phones go off. We all froze in place until Josie and Lilly slowly looked at their phones. They both let out a sigh of relief.

"It's just our boss. He wants us to take our time and get some rest. He said he's been holding our new positions for us and to not worry. We are now the senior editors at Lincoln Publishing.", Lilly said excitedly.

We congratulated them before we all entered a comfortable silence.

"I hate to say it, but if it wasn't for that cruise we wouldn't have this. We would've never reconnected. Josie and I wouldn't have gotten back together and we wouldn't be expecting our baby. I wouldn't have gotten my brothers back.", Rocco said.

"Let's have a toast."

Jesse grabbed more glasses as I pulled out another bottle of wine. I stretched it across the glasses.

We all raised the glasses in the air.

"To this family."

"To this family.", they repeated.

We all clinked our glasses together.

I looked around the room and I've never felt so loved.