Chapter 37
Three hours later, after the EMTs had checked us over and Vero and I had given our statements, we stood at the edge of the parking lot in our blankets, our clothes still damp with sweat and soot as we watched the rest of the academy students load their luggage into two waiting charter buses.
After the fire, Commander Ortega had ended the lockdown and ordered that everyone be sent home.
Feliks had been sighted that morning at an airstrip near S?o Paulo, Brazil, and when Roddy had returned to the classroom where he had left Stu, all he’d found was an empty pair of handcuffs.
Nick and his commander had agreed it would be best to shut the academy down early to let the staff debrief and clean up after the long night.
Roddy and Ty stood beside the charter bus doors, issuing certificates of completion to each student as they boarded.
Vero and I looked down at the ones Roddy had presented to us from the top of his pile.
The certificates were all generic, the recipients’ names left blank.
In all the chaos over the last twelve hours, the staff hadn’t had time to worry about preparing for the final ceremony.
The only things special about Vero’s and mine were the two first-place ribbons taped to the corners.
“Too bad we all couldn’t stay for graduation,” Vero said, tracing the satin ribbon on her certificate with a sigh. “Sure would have been nice to rub it in Joey’s face.”
“Rub what in my face?” Joey appeared beside her, glaring at her under two sooty eyebrows. It had taken him an hour this morning to convince her to hand over his gun. She’d only relinquished it after he’d threatened to handcuff her and shut her in the back of a patrol car.
“Finlay and I won,” Vero gloated. “We had the most points of any team. Bet you regret betting against us now.”
“You didn’t win,” Joey groused. “The tallies closed early. Those numbers don’t count.”
Nick patted Joey’s shoulder with a pitying smile. “As the program director, I certified the tally. We’ll settle up later at the bar.”
Mrs. Haggerty shambled across the parking lot toward us, waving her certificate. Her grandson gave chase, calling after her. “What’s this business with these awards?” she demanded, shaking her paper at Nick. “Why aren’t there any names on them? How will we know who won?”
“It’s fine, Grandma,” her grandson said, trying to coax her back on the bus.
“No, it’s not!” she said sharply. “And don’t give me any of this ‘everyone’s a winner’ crap. When I was your age, we had real competitions. There were winners and losers, and nobody complained when they didn’t get a prize.”
Vero gave Joey a pointed look.
“Actually,” I said, holding out my certificate.
“I think you might have gotten mine by mistake, Mrs. Haggerty.” She pushed up the frames of her glasses as she took it, studying the satin ribbon with a satisfied nod.
Vero gasped in protest as I handed her certificate to Mrs. Haggerty’s grandson, swapping it for his unadorned one.
“I was under the impression we came in second place,” he said, politely trying to give it back.
“Extra points were awarded to your grandmother this morning,” I insisted.
“For what?” Vero asked. “Answering her damn phone?”
“For answering the call of duty last night.” I gave Vero a stern look.
Mrs. Haggerty’s grandson touched his chest in a gesture of gratitude. He put his arm around his grandmother, gently steering her back to the bus.
“That woman’s never gonna let you hear the end of it,” Vero muttered.
“It was the right thing to do,” I said, watching as Roddy helped Mrs. Haggerty up the steep bus steps.
Joey’s grin was smug around his toothpick. “Guess my team won after all.” Vero stared a hole in his back as he sauntered into the building.
“What was that all about?” my sister asked, slinging a bandaged arm around me. Sam stood beside her, their hands hanging close together, their pinky fingers touching.
“Nothing. Just giving a little credit where credit is due. Hey,” I said, “have you heard from Mom?”
Georgia nodded. “Dad’s fine. They got home from the hospital late last night. I’ve got to stick around here for a few hours, but I’ll run by their house on my way home and check on him.”
“Wish I could stay, too,” Sam said, “but Nick needs a chaperone for the buses. I told him I’d go.” She hooked her pinky finger around Georgia’s and whispered, “Call me.” Georgia looked a little starstruck as Sam waved good-bye and rolled her luggage across the parking lot.
Max leaned out her window and waved at us from the bus. “Bye, Vero! See you, Finlay! I’ll text you about that interview, okay?”
“So glad I never gave her my number,” I said to Vero as I smiled and waved back. Vero bit her lip, hiding a guilty grin. I gaped at her. “Tell me you didn’t.”
“Better to keep your enemies closer, right? And besides,” she whispered, “how else will we know what’s happening with Ike?”
As soon as the buses pulled away, Georgia took me by the arm and dragged me aside.
“I have a really big problem and I need your help,” she said urgently.
“What kind of problem?”
“I invited Sam to dinner.”
“That’s a problem?”
“I don’t know how to cook.”
“That’s easy. We’ll just call Mom—”
“No, Finn! You know how she gets. If you tell her I’m having din ner with someone, she’ll buy a bunch of wedding planners and magazines and turn into Mom-of-the-Bridezilla. She’ll scare Sam off.”
“Okay,” I said, gesturing for her to calm down. “Vero and I can probably help.”
“Help with what?” Vero asked, waddling up to us in her blanket.
“Georgia asked Sam to dinner, but Georgia doesn’t know how to cook.”
Vero reached for her phone.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“This sounds like an emergency. I’m texting your mom.”
Georgia lunged for her.
Nick took me by the hand, luring me away as Vero and my sister wrestled over her phone. He opened my blanket, stretching it to fit around his shoulders and closing us in a cocoon. “Is it wrong that I want you to stay?”
“Don’t take this the wrong way, but I would really, really like to sleep in my own bed tonight.”
“That makes two of us,” he purred in my ear. He captured my lips and kissed me like he was still smoldering.
Wade snuck up behind me and said, “If you two don’t cut that out, we’re going to need a damn fire hose to put you out.”
Nick’s smile was wide as our smoke-blackened faces pulled apart, his bright white teeth shining down at me. He shrugged out of the blanket and wrapped it securely around me, tucking it under my chin.
Vero muttered to herself as she waddled back with her phone. “Javi’s not answering. Maybe we can hitch a ride home with your sister later.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Nick said. “Charlie offered to drive you. I want you both to stay inside and lock the doors until I get there.”
“Vero and I will be fine,” I assured him. “Feliks is in Brazil.”
“And I won’t feel good leaving you alone until he’s here, doing hard time in a maximum-security prison.” He tugged me closer by the blanket, his hand soft against my cheek. His slow kiss lingered, becoming another.
“Then I guess we’d better get back to work, Detective,” someone growled.
Nick’s head snapped up. He turned to the stern-faced man standing behind him, putting a little distance between us.
“Commander, I was just saying good-bye to my…” I raised a singed eyebrow, curious to hear his next words as he risked a sideways glance at me.
“This is Georgia’s sister, Finlay. Finlay, this is Commander Ortega. ”
I extended my hand from the blanket. The captain frowned at my soot-stained fingers as he offered me a tight-lipped nod.
Unlike the rest of us, his decorated uniform was freshly pressed, his square jaw was freshly shaven, and his high and tight didn’t have a single sterling strand out of place.
He frowned at Nick. “Did someone get Ms. Donovan’s statement? ”
“You could say that,” Roddy chuckled as he rolled our luggage to Charlie’s car—everything but Vero’s suitcase, which she had insisted on carrying herself.
Nick cleared his throat. “Yes, sir. Two statements, actually. Both were very thorough.”
Vero snorted into her hand.
“Then say your good-byes and make it quick,” the commander said. “I want a full debriefing in the staff room in ten minutes.”
“Yes, sir.”
When the commander was gone, Nick drew me close again, making sure the blanket was snug around me. “I’ll come over as soon as I’m finished here.”
“Maybe wait until tomorrow,” I said, wrinkling my nose.
We both smelled like a house fire and neither one of us had slept more than an hour or two since Wednesday.
All I wanted was a hot bath, a clean pair of underwear, a warm pair of pajamas, a snuggle marathon with my children on the couch, and a very long night’s rest.
Tomorrow, Vero and I would figure out what to do with the money Javi had made from the sale of the Aston.
We had enough cash in Vero’s suitcase to pay off her debt to Marco and, if necessary, a little extra to get him off our backs.
And as soon as I revised the end of my manuscript, I could collect the rest of my advance.
Feliks was halfway around the world, I had an all-you-can-eat buffet of inspiration for my book, and EasyClean was…
well, I didn’t really want to think about that.
Everything wasn’t entirely resolved. I still worried about Cam even though Joey had promised he would let me know the minute he heard from him.
I still had Carl’s body to relocate and Steven to contend with—Vero’s warrant in Maryland was something we would eventually have to face.
And, of course, there was the issue of potty training.
But compared to the week Vero and I had just survived, those all seemed like manageable worries.