Yvette felt the steady rhythm of his heartbeat beneath her palm. "I keep thinking about those names in the files. They weren't just statistics in RareCore's cost-benefit analysis. They were real people with families, dreams, futures that got stolen."
"They were." Vincent's voice carried both grief and gratitude. "And for three years, I carried the guilt of their deaths. I never talked about them because I thought..."
"Because you thought it was your fault they died."
"Vincent?"
"Yeah?"
"Tell me about them. Really tell me. I want to know who they were, not just how they died."
His expression grew thoughtful as he considered her request. She'd given him back the truth about their deaths, freed him from guilt that wasn't his to carry. Now she wanted to honor their memory properly.
"Camacho was twenty-two, kid from El Paso who could strip and reassemble any weapon blindfolded," he began, his voice warm with affection despite the grief. "He had this laugh that could make everyone smile, even in the worst situations. Kim had two daughters back home and a wife who sent care packages with enough cookies for the entire squad. He carried their pictures everywhere."
"They sound like good men."
"The best. Washington was our medic—saved more lives than any of us, which was saying something. He wanted to be a doctor when he got out, had already been accepted to medical school. Reeves was tough as nails, never complained, always had our backs no matter what." Vincent's voice grew weary. "For three years, I thought they died because I made bad tactical decisions. Because I led them into a situation I should have anticipated."
"But now you know the truth."
"Now I know they died because Larry Curtis valued profit margins over Marines' lives. Because RareCore executives decided ceramic armor plating was too expensive." His jaw tightened with anger. "They died so some corporate criminal could afford a bigger yacht."
Yvette reached up to touch his face gently. "They died as heroes, fighting for their country. And now, because of what we've exposed, their families will finally know the truth. Their deaths will have meaning beyond Curtis's greed."
"Thank you," he said simply. "For giving me that."
"Thank you for trusting me with their story."
They held each other in comfortable silence, processing the weight of everything they'd accomplished together. Outside, the first hints of dawn were beginning to lighten the sky—the sunrise of their first day as partners in every sense of the word.
"I should probably check the news," Yvette said eventually, though she made no move to leave the comfort of Vincent's arms.
"The news will still be there in an hour," he replied, tightening his hold on her. "Right now, I just want to hold the woman who saved thousands of lives and probably prevented a war."
"Prevented a war?"
"Think about it. If RareCore had continued supplying defective equipment, how many more soldiers would have died? How many families destroyed? How much erosion of public trust in military leadership?" Vincent's voice carried deep conviction. "You didn't just expose fraud—you prevented a national security crisis."
The magnitude of what they'd accomplished settled over her like a warm blanket. She'd started this investigation as a routine audit, never imagining it would lead to exposing a conspiracy that had killed thousands of people.
"We should probably talk about what comes next," she said.
"What do you want to come next?"
Yvette considered the question seriously. "I want to keep doing this kind of work. Financial investigations that have real-world consequences. But I want to do it with you as my partner."
"Fisher-Benoit Investigations?"
"I like the sound of that." She smiled up at him. "We could specialize in cases where financial crimes intersect with national security. Corporate fraud that gets people killed. Congressional corruption that endangers lives."
"There's probably more work than we can handle," Vincent said. "Defense contractors aren't the only ones who profit from cutting corners on safety. Medical device manufacturers, pharmaceutical companies, infrastructure contractors—they all have the same incentives to prioritize profits over lives."
"And they all leave financial trails that can be followed by someone who knows how to look."
"Partnered with someone who knows how to handle the dangerous people who don't want those trails exposed."
Yvette felt excitement building—not just for their romantic future, but for the work they could do together. "We'll need office space, equipment, legal support..."
