36. Chapter 36
Three weeks later
“It feels weird being back home.” Daniela stepped into her kitchen, looked around as if seeing her place for the first time.
Her brother was with her, though he was using a cane. Edith had dropped them off and was running out to grab something to eat even though Daniela had said she could simply order something.
Cormac was meeting them there in twenty and she missed him even though they’d only been separated for a couple hours.
But she was trying to spend every second with him as her brother hammered out all the details with the FBI.
He was going to testify against not only their father, but Logan and a few others.
He wanted witness protection for not only himself, but Edith and Daniela.
And he wasn’t giving up anything without assurances.
At least Logan was in jail and wasn’t a threat to any of them. He had no one to help him behind bars.
Daniela…didn’t want to go into WITSEC. Even thinking about leaving Cormac was tearing her up inside, but this was the best way to keep all of them safe.
“I can have someone pack up everything for you. You don’t need to handle anything when the time comes,” Julian said.
She gave him a small smile. “Thank you.” They’d started getting to know each other over the last few weeks, which felt weird to say since he was her brother. But for most of his life they’d felt like strangers because he’d been her father’s favorite.
At least to her, looking in from the outside. In reality, he’d been beaten down by their father. But it had forged him into someone ruthless enough to destroy Alexander Hill’s empire from the inside. Exactly what the man deserved.
“I’m going to open a bottle of wine,” she said as she opened her pantry. “We can start before Cormac and Edith get here.” When he didn’t respond, she peeked out of the pantry and froze.
As if she’d conjured the devil himself, their father stood at the island top, an evil grin on his face. And he wasn’t alone.
A man she recognized as someone who’d worked for Julian was with him—holding a pistol on her enraged-looking brother.
“Come on out,” her father ordered with a flick of his wrist.
“You’ll pay for this, Bruno,” Julian snarled to the other man.
The tall, broad-shouldered man shrugged, clearly unconcerned. “Your father pays better. And you won’t be around much longer.”
Fear punched through her, tightening around her throat.
Daniela wanted to ask what their father was doing there but it seemed pretty obvious.
He was there to kill them. At least Cormac and Edith weren’t there.
Oh god, she hoped this was over quickly, before they could arrive.
On wooden legs, she stepped out of the pantry and went to stand next to Julian.
She slipped her hand into his as everything funneled out around her. Grief punctured her lungs. She should have told Cormac how she felt, not held back even a little bit.
“Isn’t that sweet.” Alexander looked at them in disgust. “You two are your mother’s fault,” he spat, rage mottling his face. “Both ungrateful shits just like her.” He shook his head again. “I should have killed you the same time I killed her.”
As a haze of rage descended over her vision, she took a step forward, but Julian held out an arm when Bruno made a menacing move toward them.
“Mom died in a car accident.” Julian shook his head. “You’re trying to hurt us before you kill us, but you can just get it over with. I’m done listening to your lies.”
Oh god, he must be thinking of Edith too, wanting to end this before the two people they loved returned.
Their father laughed, almost maniacally. “Your mother wanted to leave with you. Had it all planned out. Bitch thought she was so smart.” He snorted, turned toward the pantry that she’d just been in, walked back out with a bottle of wine.
She wanted to jump at him, to claw his eyes out as he inspected the bottle—as if he didn’t have one of his paid goons holding a gun on them. But there was no way she would beat a bullet.
“More lies,” she snapped, hoping to taunt him. “And you’re pathetic, trying to get in one last jab before you put us out of our misery. For the love of god, just do it!” she screamed. “I don’t want to listen to your stupid voice for one more second.”
If she was going to die, she wasn’t taking Cormac down with her.
Alexander slammed the bottle down and glared at the two of them, but his rage was focused on her.
“I’m not lying,” he snarled. “That weak bitch thought she could take my children.” He laughed but there was no mirth in it.
“Clearly I should have just let her. So I hired someone to cut her brake line, then paid off the investigators.”
“Nothing but an ugly story.” Julian shook his head, but he was squeezing her hand tight.
It was clear that Julian believed him too. Because their father was actually telling the truth. She could hear it in his nasty voice, see it in the cruel gleam of his eyes.
“She reached out to an old friend,” he continued as if Julian hadn’t spoken. He pulled out a wineglass from one of her shelves, inspected it. “Yvette something.” He shook his head as if her name didn’t matter.
Nausea punched through her. He’d actually done it. He’d had their mom killed and Cormac’s mom too. Two bright lights that he’d snuffed out because his ego couldn’t stand to be bruised. And he was going to get away with more murders now.
She started scanning her countertops, looking for anything she might be able to use as a weapon. Her knife block was too far away.
“I killed Yvette myself. Shot her, then dumped her in an alley. Exactly where that whore belonged.”
Maybe she could grab her empty fruit bowl and throw it at him.
“You get all that?” Julian’s voice was dry as he dropped her hand.
And…wait. What the hell was happening? Bruno was tucking his pistol away and nodding at Julian as if… She swiveled to her brother.
“Julian—” She stared as men and women wearing navy windbreakers with FBI emblazoned on their backs rushed in, weapons drawn.
One of the men slammed her father against the countertop, forcing handcuffs on him as he shouted insults and curses at all of them.
“Wait, you were part of this?” She stared at her brother, trying to catch the hell up.
His jaw tightened. “When you told me about everything with our mom and Cormac’s mom, I wasn’t going to let that piece of shit get away with taking her from us. From the world.” He knew Cormac’s real identity now, along with almost everything else.
“And you…just planned all this?” She looked over at Bruno, who clearly didn’t work for their father.
“I would have told you, but I needed your reaction to be real.” He looked only a little apologetic. “And not just me. The Feds were on board too. Especially Agent Lee.”
“Bruno is a Fed?”
Their father was shouting obscenities as an agent hauled him out of the kitchen, his voice fading as they made it out the front door.
Julian snorted. “Not even a little bit. He actually worked for our father before he started working for me, but he had no loyalty to him. He agreed to pretend to sell us out, to tell Alexander where we were in exchange for a big payout.” He shook his head slightly, looking almost disbelieving.
“I couldn’t believe it when Alexander started talking about our mom.
I thought I’d have to work him up to it. ”
“He wanted to hurt us in the worst way possible. To know he killed our mom. And Cormac’s,” she added, her heart twisting in pain. “Did he know about this?”
Almost on cue, she turned at the sound of Cormac shouting as he stormed into the kitchen. When he saw her, the relief on his face was so palpable that she swore she could feel it.
She was in his arms before she could blink.
“No, he didn’t know about this.” Julian’s tone was dry.
“Once you’re fully healed I’m going to kick your ass,” Cormac growled without letting her go.
“She was never in any danger. Bruno was armed the whole time,” Julian said.
“Tell that to Edith, because she’s outside and pissed at you.”
Julian cursed under his breath and she was vaguely aware of him leaving while a couple FBI agents were still talking in her kitchen. But none of that mattered, because all her focus was on Cormac.
“My father killed your mom,” she whispered, tears clogging her throat. She started to shake, felt queasy.
“And he’s never going to hurt anyone again.” His voice was hoarse as he held her close. “They’ve got his confession on top of so much other evidence. At least that’s what it sounded like from the agents talking outside.”
“You’re not angry…at me or Julian?” she whispered, looking up at him even as he held on to her.
He blinked, staring down at her. “For something your father did when you were a child?”
“I can’t believe I asked that,” she muttered, more to herself.
Of course he wouldn’t blame her or her brother.
They’d been kids, had lost their mom too.
But her brain was complete chaos right now.
Her father was arrested, had actually confessed to murdering their mothers.
Add that on to a bunch of other stuff Julian had on him…
“I’m surprised you managed to get through the agents.
” Who’d clearly set up a sophisticated sting operation.
“No one was stopping me,” he growled before taking her mouth in a hard claiming she fell into.
She wanted to be gone, to just walk right out of here and deal with any questions later. But she knew that wasn’t a possibility.
By the time they made it out to the front yard where Edith and Julian were standing in her driveway, it seemed half the Feds were gone, with the others gearing up to go.
“Don’t they need to talk to me?” she asked, feeling numb and emotionally drained. Was this it? Was she free now? Could she start the life she’d dreamed of for so long, with Cormac?
“We can go make official statements tomorrow. They don’t need us right now—and until they’ve cleared out all the cameras from your kitchen and the rest of your house, don’t say anything incriminating inside.”
She blinked. Oh right, of course they’d had to set up cameras and audio stuff. “Still can’t believe you didn’t say anything.”
“Get in line.” Edith’s tone was dry, but she was still holding on to Julian.
That was when Daniela noticed how tired he looked. “You guys should go. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”
Julian nodded once, then paused as he looked between the two of them. “One more thing. Logan is dead. Killed in holding.”
“Oh my god. Do you think Alexander did it?” Maybe he’d been afraid of Logan turning on him after he’d been arrested.
And oh what an arrest it had been. She’d recorded a couple of the news stories of him being perp-walked into the county jail. After those dirty cops had flipped on him, the Feds had gotten a warrant to his home.
There they’d found his shrine to Daniela, some stuff on his laptop, and then even more stuff that Cormac and his brothers hadn’t planted.
It had led the Feds to another warehouse that even she and Julian hadn’t known about, full of very illegal stuff.
She’d just been thrilled Logan would be going to prison for a long time.
Julian simply shrugged at her question. “He had a lot of enemies.”
She blinked when she realized what Julian was saying without actually saying. He’d had Logan killed. She wasn’t sure what it said about her, but nothing but pure relief punched through her.
She turned to Cormac when it was just the two of them.
The only FBI agents left were the ones currently in her house taking down all their electronics.
“My brother definitely meant…” She trailed off in a whisper even though they were in the driveway, relatively alone.
Julian had basically admitted to having Logan killed.
But she didn’t want to say that out loud even if they were outside.
All her neighbors had been ordered back so far behind the perimeter the Feds had set up that she couldn’t even see them.
“I think we shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth,” Cormac murmured before brushing his lips over hers.
She couldn’t argue with that.