“Right now, the cops have got words. You might be able to contest them in court. You can say you were bluffing. Maybe you’ll get lucky with the DNA evidence. But if you kill Patton, you give them a corpse. You give them an easy way to lock you up.”
Conor’s hand trembles, and his gun falters, moving down halfway, pointing toward Patton’s hip now.
“So that’s your plan, is it? Get me caught just so I can get out on bail?”
“I’ll take my chances,” I tell him.
There won’t be any bail for Conor, but I don’t tell him that. I’ve given the police every single piece of information I have about him. He’s going to prison for a very long time, and all without a single life being lost.
Unless he shoots Patton.
“You’ve got a choice,” I say. “Play this smart and put the gun down. Or kill him and spend the rest of your life in a cage.”
The sirens are so loud now the police must be on the docks, racing toward us.
“You’re a rat,” Conor snaps, his gun finally lowering all the way. “What sort of man talks to the fucking police?”
I shrug. “The world’s changing, and you forced my hand. You had no right to claim Lena. You had no right to torture her or whatever sick shit you were going to pull. I’d drop that gun and go with them peacefully if I were you. You don’t want to add resisting arrest to your charges.”
My heart keeps thudding hard right up until the last second with the prospect of violence lurking.
But when the officers rush in, everybody does the smart thing. Killing cops is one of the biggest taboos of this life. It brings problems nobody wants to deal with, even Conor.
The police can’t take risks with anyone, so I kneel down with my hands behind my head, and I look over at Patton.
With a grin, he tosses me a wink.
He can’t speak. But I know what he’s trying to say.
I told you it would work, cousin.
CHAPTER
TWENTY-TWO
Lena
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you,” he says, his breath moving warmly over my forehead.
I wrap my arms around him and cling on tighter, pressing my cheek against his chest and listening to the drumming of his heart.
Tears sting my eyes from where I’ve been crying, both before he returned and after, the grief and uncertainty turning to untarnished joy when I realized he was okay.
“I don’t care about that,” I say. “Just that you’re alive. Conor’s in jail. You’re safe.”
“We’re safe,” he corrects lightly, his hand moving through my hair, his fingers making patterns on my scalp that have my whole body tingling. “I couldn’t risk anybody overhearing. It was a low risk, I’ll admit, but I couldn’t take the chance. I only had one shot at getting this right.”
“And you did it,” I say passionately. “All without hurting anybody.”
“He deserved to be hurt,” Luca snarls. “He deserves a lot worse than what he’s going to get. After what he did, after what he planned to do….”
“He’s miserable and pathetic,” I say. “Let him rot in a cage for the rest of his pathetic life. Who cares? He has all that nastiness and his demons, and we have each other.”
He lowers his face to mine, our noses tickling each other, our eyes searing into each other. Beyond him, Jackson runs around the garden, Olga at his side as he leaps around in the morning light.
Luca said it took him so long to return because he had to handle things with the police, shore up his defenses, and secure all his businesses.
Now he looks tired but strong, as though he could struggle on for another week if he had to.
“Forever,” he says after a long pause. “For the rest of our lives, I will be there. I’m going to support you. Always.”
I move closer, our lips brushing. But we’re not kissing yet.
“I want all of it,” I say fiercely. “When you were gone, I couldn’t stop thinking about what would happen if…if the worst happened, you know? I couldn’t stop thinking about not having you anymore. And it didn’t feel like I’d only known you for a few days. It felt like I’d known you or been waiting for you….”
I trail off, struggling to find the words.
He hugs me firmly, pushing us closer.
“I understand,” he says, and I know he’s telling the truth. He really does. “I feel the same.”
“I thought I was flying away,” I laugh, part disbelief and part relief and part pure joy. “That’s what the tattoo was for – flying out of my situation. But now I see. I was flying toward you, Luca. This whole time.”
“My whole life,” he says huskily. “I’ve been flying toward you too. I just didn’t know it.”
Finally, we kiss, pushing our lips together as passion and lust flare, knowing that we’re going to be together for a long time.