Michael sat on his couch, Vanessa wrapped in his arms. It was getting late, but no one seemed ready to leave. They’d all gone to the hospital, and then the whole group had moved over to his condo.
“Yes. It was a very foolish thing to do.” His mother had rushed out the minute she’d heard Vanessa was in trouble. It was obvious she was his mother’s newest darling, and Vanessa would discover that his mom knew how to take care of a person. She passed Vanessa a mug of what Michael was sure was some sort of healing tea. “No one would believe that our Vanessa would ever do such a thing. Ruby, dearest, I’ve got some hot chocolate for you.”
His mom had also taken a shine to Ruby.
“Thanks, Mrs. Malone.” The teen sniffled. “I’m glad I didn’t actually kill that guy with a toilet bowl lid.”
The assassin had survived his encounter with the hacker girl, but it seemed to have wiped out his short-term memory. He couldn’t remember anything that had happened today. But he did seem to be talking about other things.
“He doesn’t know who John Smith is,” Michael said flatly. “Neither does the driver. I don’t like it. It feels too coincidental that Vanessa is almost attacked a few weeks ago and then we find out Junior hired an assassin to fake her overdose.”
“It also could have been viewed as suicide.” Vanessa sounded entirely too peppy for a woman who’d almost been murdered this afternoon.
“It’s all very Marilyn Monroe.” MaeBe sat beside Ruby.
“It’s all very fucked up, and I did that.” Tessa had a grim look on her face, the same expression she’d had for hours. “I can’t believe I fell for it.”
David put an arm around his fiancée. “Baby, it’s not your fault.”
Vanessa held up her good arm. “It’s my bladder’s. If I hadn’t gone to the bathroom…well, they probably would have found another way. You told me to stay with Chelsea. You know I now get why women die in horror films. It’s not about hunting down a scary noise. It’s about needing to pee.”
His girl was a little loopy from the pain killers they’d given her when they’d dug the bullet out of her arm.
His heart threatened to seize every time he thought about how close it had been.
“I would have done the same thing.” Kyle sent his almost sister-in-law a sympathetic look. “I would have left her with Chelsea and gone to check on the security system.”
Tessa had apologized over and over again. Michael didn’t blame her. She was forgetting one very important part of the assignment. “You were supposed to protect her from the press. She should have been safe in the lobby of the building. We had no idea Junior would take things this far.”
Damn, but he was glad the man was dead.
“I still should have been more careful,” Tessa insisted.
Vanessa shook her head. “No. You did your job, and I’m glad it went down this way. It would have happened at some point. What if he’d tried to take me when I was out with Ava? Or the kids? What if I’d been totally alone and no one had missed me for hours? No. If there is one thing I’ve learned from all of this it’s that Shakespeare was right. All’s well that ends well. If it hadn’t happened this way, it could have gone more wrong. I will take this outcome over all others because the people I love are alive and healthy.”
She’d whispered the words to him before she’d gone into surgery. I love you. He’d felt them in his soul.
“Well, I would have preferred you didn’t get shot.” He would have nightmares about that moment for the rest of his life. He would dream about the look on Ruby’s face as she’d opened the door, the way she’d pointed back and told him Junior had a gun.
He would never forget shooting that fucker who’d been about to end the life of the woman he loved.
“I don’t know. It’ll be a cool scar story.” Vanessa grinned at him. “How’d you get that one? Well, my deranged, older-than-me stepson hired a killer to stage my death, but my hacker friend is good with toilet lids and then my boyfriend saved me.”
She was a little high. Thank god she hadn’t been when she’d told him she loved him.
Or had she? Had she already had some pain meds by then?
“Well, I’m still sorry it happened on my watch.” Tessa leaned against her fiancé, but her eyes were on Michael, beseeching him to forgive her.
“Vanessa’s right. It all turned out for the best.” He meant that on several levels. He needed Tessa to know that everything they’d been through had been okay because it had led to this place. Tessa had found her professor, and Michael had his leading lady. They were good.