I held my hand out for Slone to take, then gestured to Ares’ office.
I couldn’t stand not being out there anymore. I had to know.
Had to…
“Hayes.”
The moment I heard her voice coming from behind me, my entire body went taut.
Whirling around, baby still in hand, I came face to face with my girl.
And about half of the SWAT team, as well as Downy.
“What happened?” Ares breathed, looking at the very dead Toomey.
Downy looked down at Toomey dispassionately.
Booth walked to Toomey and pressed his fingers to Toomey’s pulse point.
I could’ve told him that it was futile, but I didn’t blame him for checking.
The funny thing was, even though he was very dead, he still kicked the gun out of reach…just in case.
I passed the baby off to Downy, who took her with a grin.
Slone was still staring blankly at the blood on his hands.
“Toomey was holding Slone at gunpoint…” I explained the rest, the hunch I had, and why I’d come in at all.
Thank God that I had.
With the school evacuated like it was, there was no telling when all this would’ve been found.
“Come on, kid,” Downy ordered, grabbing Slone by the shoulder and guiding him into Ares’ office. “Tell me everything that happened.”
Slone said something so quietly that I couldn’t hear it, but whatever it was made Downy chuckle.
I allowed Ares to go, but only just far enough so I could look into her eyes.
“How?”
She didn’t need more of an explanation.
“Bailey is a dumbass,” Bourne muttered.
“He rigged the building to blow, but he forgot to use something that would make his bomb explode. Ares was just biding her time until the dumbass exposed himself before calmly elbowing him in the throat, stepping away from him, and announcing that he didn’t do what he thought he was doing,” Malachi said. “Bailey tried to follow her and Louis shot him in the hand, forcing him to drop the knife. He’s currently in a KPD police car with federal escorts.”
I breathed a sigh of relief.
Then brought Ares up to my body again and plastered her to my side.
“Next time, you’re staying with me,” I told her.
Ares’ laughter was like a balm to my fired-up soul.
“There won’t be a next time, Hayes,” she whispered.
Thank God for that.
My phone rang, and absently, I picked it up and placed it to my ear.
“Hey, man,” Ryan said. “Do you think you can babysit tonight? I have something to do.”
I hung up without giving my brother a reply.Chapter 20Not in the moooooood.
-Cow print coffee cup
Ares
Hayes was currently occupying my bed as he stared blankly at the ceiling. Trigger was on the ground, but his head was resting on the bed, and Hayes’ hand was absently rubbing one ear.
“Any word yet on Bailey?” I asked curiously, wrapping the towel slowly around myself and staring at my man with not a little amount of worry on my face.
Hayes’ eyes turned to meet mine.
“He’s refusing to confess,” Hayes said. “Easton is currently working him hard, though. They already have enough evidence to tie him to Abilene’s murder. It’s only all the others that we’re waiting for confirmation from him on.”
“Ford and Ashe went home?” I asked quietly.
Hayes nodded.
Ashe had been escorted over to our place by a very annoyed looking Ford.
According to Hayes, the only girl that they hadn’t been able to link with the ‘teenage mother’ link had been Ashe’s friend. And, according to Ashe, she had disappeared for a few months during the middle of the year, but she couldn’t confirm that there’d been a pregnancy.
But Ashe did say, now that she thought about it, that her weirdness the year before she died could’ve been explained by a pregnancy.
The FBI had been dispatched to find out more from her parents, and Ashe had hugged the absolute hell out of Hayes for ‘solving’ the case.
A twinge of jealousy had speared through me at that, and I’d had to go get in the shower to keep from decking my friend.
Which led to now, standing beside the bed naked, staring at Hayes who was so entirely focused on the ceiling that he wasn’t even noticing how very hot and naked I was. And that the towel was slowly slipping down to reveal my nipples.
Thinking that he could use a distraction, I let the towel slip all the way down, revealing my naked body.
Still he didn’t look.
But I didn’t need him to.
Instead, I moved until I was standing directly beside the bed, then straddled his body.
Which then got his attention.
My hot pussy pressed against his bare belly, causing me to squirm.
His eyes, hot now and fully aimed at me, slowly roamed the length of me, starting with my face and going all the way to where I was pressed against him.
His hands moved to my hips and he stared at my breasts for a long second before moving quickly and shoving down his sweats.