Chapter 27 #2
I wondered—had the timing been on purpose?
So that Luna only had one person to contend with instead of two?
Likely, since she was alone herself. I was thankful, though, because that meant Grandma had at least been out of harm’s way.
I knew my grandmother. She’d have lifted her cane and tried to protect Charlotte.
That begged the question, though: “How did you even know that we had freed Yan Yichen?”
“I had a webcam feed up so I could keep an eye on him,” Luna sniffled. “I saw it.”
Oh. I hadn’t thought to look for any kind of webcam. But that stood to reason, psycho stalker that she was.
I heard sirens and blew out a breath of relief. Finally, the backup had arrived. “Jo Jo, you got her?”
He grunted. “She’s not all that strong. Just squirmy. Listen, you Bond villain from Temu, just fucking lie still already! He doesn’t want you, don’t you get it? Even in death, he doesn’t want you!”
Luna stopped fighting him and broke down, crying ugly sobs like she’d lost Yan Yichen all over again.
She garbled out something that sounded like but I love him so much and I didn’t do anything, which was incredibly ironic considering what she had just done.
This girl was too far gone. A padded cell and about ten years of therapy were called for.
Romero was through the door with gun in hand, which she holstered pretty quickly upon realizing we had the situation locked down.
She rolled her eyes at me with asperity, like she’d really wanted just one chance to take a bad guy down.
What could I say, I was super efficient where bad guys were concerned.
Romero was lucky this one was still breathing, frankly.
Jo Jo got off Luna so Romero could slap cuffs on her. Another officer escorted her into the back of a squad car.
Jo Jo homed in on Charlotte and pulled her into a fierce embrace, pressing a kiss against her temple in reassurance.
I let them have a minute. If my heart was still shaking, Jo Jo’s likely wasn’t doing much better.
Charlotte’s watery eyes caught mine as she mouthed a thank you.
I gave her a smile in return. She was my little sister, of course I’d ride to the rescue.
I just wished I hadn’t needed to prove that today.
Sadly, it wasn’t as simple as us riding off into the sunset.
We had security cameras everywhere, so it was easy enough to pull the footage and prove what had happened.
Still, we all had to give statements, which meant going down to the police station, a chore I didn’t want to handle.
Had to be done, though, otherwise processing Luna would stall.
And we all wanted her safely behind bars.
Two hours later, we were finally released, and all I wanted was to go home. Too much crazy for one week. Way too much. My emotional tolerance for danger had officially hit max point.
I came out the front door of the station, hand in hand with Kris, thinking of dinner because it was already dinnertime. Or close enough to it. “Korean?”
Kris looked utterly drained and smiled weakly. “Only if its takeout, I can’t people anymore today.”
“That’s entirely fair.”
Charlotte joined us outside and surprised me by wrapping both arms around me in a fierce hug. “Thank you. Thank you so much, Zhen.”
I wrapped my arms around her in turn, murmuring, “Of course, I wouldn’t leave you in danger. Just sorry it happened.”
“Never a boring day around here.” She stepped back, smile shaky. “Although I am absolutely taking you up on those self-defense lessons.”
“Probably smart, yeah. We’ll start tomorrow.”
“Sounds great.”
Jo Jo joined her, laying an arm around her shoulder.
She hugged him, too, leaning in to rest her head on his chest. I could tell, looking at her, she felt perfectly safe and content with him.
Then again, the man had jumped on a knife-wielding lunatic, so I guess he’d passed whatever mental bar she’d set with flying colors.
Jo Jo’s eyes focused entirely on her. “How about we get takeout, too? And ice cream. Sit on the couch, watch your favorite comfort movie until today feels like a bad dream and nothing more.”
Her eyes softened as she looked up at him. “That sounds like exactly what the doctor ordered.”
“Then let’s do it. Kris, Zhen, don’t expect us anytime soon tomorrow.”
Kris shooed him on. “I think I can handle tomorrow. Go.”
I watched them go, studying body language and the way those two looked at each other. “I gave it even odds that if Charlotte ever faced danger herself, she’d rethink dating him. But she doesn’t seem ready to run?”
“When we went to the bathroom earlier, she told me she was kind of resigned to being in some level of danger just because she’s related to me. Bizarre things do seem to gravitate around me.”
Kinda hard to refute.
“She also said she’s relieved Jo Jo isn’t all talk. When things hit the fan, he immediately jumped in to get her out of there. That’s all she needs to know about him, really. He’s not a braggart, he will come through on any promise he makes.”
“I’d think that the bare minimum?”
Kris gave me a pitying look. “Honey, you have no idea how many men fail to even meet that bar. Why do you think I liked you so soon upon us dating? I realized you were actually a man of your word. It’s super rare.”
“Uh. Wow, that’s incredibly shitty. I thought better of humanity.”
“That was your first mistake.”
“Clearly.”
She hugged me tight, expelling a breath as if all her troubles went with it. “Thank you. For keeping calm. I felt anything but. I can always count on you, and that means the world.”
I hugged her back, feeling a tear drop on my chest, knew she’d been holding everything in, not wanting to upset Charlotte. Kris was always one to put on a strong face. I was glad she didn’t feel the need to wear that strong front with me.
“I’ve got you, lao po.” My arms tightened around her, this woman who’d become the center of my world.
“I know you do.” She sank into me a little more with a sigh.
We stood on the sidewalk of a police station, but for this moment, I didn’t care. I held her close, let her have a second. I think having Charlotte in danger on top of everything else that’d happened this week had been too much. Anyone would need to take a minute, process. Hell, I certainly did.
She tilted her head back to look up at me and I swear it was like her heart communicated with mine.
A silent relay of how deeply she felt for me, how grateful she was.
My own heart stirred in response, and I hoped my own expression told her what I felt.
I still didn’t know if it was right to tell her I was falling in love with her.
She’d been through so much this week, hitting her with feels was maybe too much right now.
But I felt the words deep in my chest, and from the way her eyes softened, mouth curving up, I suspected she could read me like one of her books.
She leaned up, kissing me softly, the pure affection unmistakable. I kissed back, pleased.
“We did great,” Kris murmured. “But I need the crazy to take a damn break. I know the phrase is this too shall pass, but can I get an ETA on that timeline?
“I’m very much with you. Enough crazy for this week. We’ve met our quota, Samhain is coming, let’s at least have two weeks of peace before shit hits the fan again.” I pulled back. “But for tonight, Korean. With everything going on, we missed lunch completely.”
“How dare bad guys not let us have a lunch break.” Kris laughed at her own sarcasm as she pulled out of my embrace, digging keys out of her purse.
“You laugh now, but just wait until we have a case where we’re skipping multiple meals. Then you’ll see!”
“If you’d said something, I could have passed you one of my power bars.”
I blinked, not following. Then she pulled two out of her purse and waggled them like a gambler with a winning hand. I stared at those two bars and blurted out, “Wait, purses have snack technology?!”
“What do you think I put in here, anyway?” Kris demanded, exasperated.
“I don’t know, it seems to be this magical bag of holding or some shit! You’re always pulling surprising things out of there. I’ve seen you pull out talismans, for god’s sake.”
“So do you want a bar or not?”
“Of course I do, my stomach is a yawning pit of despair right now.”
I took the bar she offered and munched happily as we walked up the street to where her car was parked.
Maybe I should start carrying a man purse with snacks.
This was genius. Some power bars, maybe a few sports drink or water bottles, I’d be set no matter what happened.
My wife was a genius for thinking to carry food.
It was decided. I’d shop online for man purses tonight. Surely someone, somewhere had realized the same thing and had made some. If not, maybe I could make one?
Ooh, wait, if I made one, I could make an extra ammo pouch in it too, because extra ammo in a tight spot was always a godsend. Yes, let’s do this. I’d work out the design with canvas or something first before getting out my good leather. This was absolutely doable.
Seems I’d found myself another project.