38. Chapter 38
Cormac continued drying the next flute as he stared at entryway Daniela had left through. Then he dried another—and realized it had gone quiet in the kitchen.
When he turned around, only Micah and Apollo were standing there. “That was weird, right?” he asked.
They both stared at him.
“What?” he demanded.
“Are you asking if you’re weird or…” Apollo was still watching him as if he was stupid.
“No, dumbass. I mean, Dani was weird. Not like I think she’s weird, but her vibe was off…” He turned around again even though she was long gone. “I should have left with her.”
“Uh, yeah,” Micah muttered. “What’s the matter with you?”
He swiveled on Micah, then realized now Krystal and Berkley were in the kitchen too. Berkley was dirtying up another plate with more pie and Krystal was pulling a bottle of wine from the fridge. Clover and Silvia stepped into the room, both carrying their glasses.
Apparently Mike and Nick were making themselves scarce. “Why are you all staring at me?”
“Daniela seemed sad,” Berkley blurted.
Krystal nodded.
“Of course she’s fucking sad!” he snarled, wishing he had a real target to punch—like Alexander or Logan.
The woman he loved was clearly grieving and he had no clue how to make things right.
“Her father is a monster, and her brother is—” Wait a minute.
He pulled out his cell phone and called Julian.
“Happy Thanksgiving,” Julian said upon answering.
“Hey, happy Thanksgiving. Listen, Daniela’s bringing some pie and I wanted to ask if I should bring something else. We’ve got a lot of good wine.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Isn’t Daniela coming to see you?”
“No, not that I haven’t asked. Wait, is she not with you?”
“She is…was. Damn it. I’ve got to go.” He ended the call then looked at his siblings. “She’s not going to Julian’s.”
“Yeah, she faked that incoming text,” Krystal said with a wince. “I thought maybe we were being too much, but she’s seemed a little off since she got here.”
“What’s going on with you two, anyway?” Berkley demanded. “I was fully expecting to see a ring on her finger.”
“Are you insane?” He stared at his sister, who just stared right back. He glanced at the others. “Proposing now is the dumbest idea any of you have ever had!” Why was he yelling?
“I mean…is it?” Krystal asked. “You obviously love her. And she loves you. And you guys have a past together.”
“A wild one,” Apollo said. “I still can’t believe our moms were friends. Damn gangsters,” he added with a small smile.
Cormac closed his eyes for a long moment. Because he was so dumb, he wanted to punch himself. “Fuck,” he muttered, turning to grab his keys but… Damn it. He hadn’t driven here.
“Come on,” Micah said, palming his truck keys. “Clover, I’ll be back soon, babe,” he called out.
“How do you know where… Never mind.” Of course Micah was tracking Dani. He tracked all of them. “I’m glad you’re so paranoid.”
“I like to call it prepared. She’s heading to her house, by the way. It was either going to be there or her gallery.”
Of course his brother was right. It was the only place she had to go.
She had money, and could stay at a hotel, but after everything that had happened the last few weeks, she wouldn’t want to be somewhere she might be recognized.
Luckily the media was already moving on—everything seemed to last only a few days before another scandal hit—but she’d closed her gallery temporarily.
Though he knew it was soon going to be permanent because she planned to open a new one, with a new name, in a new city… She just hadn’t decided the location yet. He wanted to be there with her. Make a life with her.
“I’m feeling really fucking dumb right now,” he muttered in the quiet of Micah’s truck.
“You’re not dumb. You’re in love.”
“I think I should have made it clear how I felt.”
“Explain yourself. How did you not make it clear?” Micah asked, no judgment in his voice.
That was okay, Cormac was judging himself enough for the both of them.
“This past week I’ve been trying to take care of her, let her grieve.
Her father literally killed her mom,” he rasped out before continuing.
“I didn’t want to overwhelm her. Her entire life has been upended.
And sure, now she’s free, but she doesn’t have the support I have. ”
“She has you,” Micah said softly.
“Well yeah, but…I thought if I pushed her too hard…” He scrubbed his hands over his face, the food he’d eaten earlier sitting like a lead weight in his stomach.
“It’s going to be okay,” Micah murmured.
He wanted to agree that yeah, it was, but he couldn’t take anything for granted. He called Daniela twice, but she didn’t answer. So he texted her, even though under normal circumstances he wouldn’t have been so pushy.
Still nothing
“She’s not responding at all.” He refused to believe he’d completely screwed this up.
He was simply going to tell her that he loved her and that she was moving in with him.
And marrying him too, for that matter. Clearly he’d been playing it too safe.
Maybe his sister was right—he should have put a ring on Dani’s finger.
Micah frowned but didn’t respond. Instead, he drove faster.
It didn’t take long to make it to her neighborhood, and as they drove past her neighbors, Cormac nodded at a truck he hadn’t seen in the last few weeks.
An older model Chevy. It looked out of place and had a PBA sticker.
Which likely meant nothing. It was Thanksgiving and people were visiting families.
But he’d have noticed a Police Benevolent Association sticker—and that color vehicle.
“I’m probably being paranoid,” he muttered. “But can you run that license plate?” he asked. “Temple took down some cops and there have been whispers about Daniela helping him.”
“You don’t have to explain it to me,” Micah said as he parked in front of the curb.
“I’m going in,” Cormac said while Micah started working on his tablet. He knew he was being paranoid but didn’t care. A strange vehicle was parked across the street from the woman he loved after she’d been through a lot of shit.
He was going to embrace the paranoia and overprotectiveness.
As he headed up the driveway, he tried calling her again— Then froze when he saw slight boot prints off to the side of her driveway. The depressions were noticeable since it had rained last night.
Moving quickly, he withdrew his weapon and hurried around the side of the house. His heart rate kicked up when he spotted the broken windowpane in the side door that led to the garage.
Crouching down, he pulled out his pistol from his ankle, then flattened himself against the exterior wall. He opened the side door with one hand, swept in fast.
Dani’s car was in the garage. His brain catalogued that whoever had broken in must have done it after she’d gotten home. Otherwise she’d have seen that.
She might only have seconds.
Adrenaline pumping, he raced to the mudroom door, was glad it didn’t squeak.
Faint muddy prints moved through the mudroom, almost disappearing as they reached the connecting kitchen door.
“You don’t have to do this.” Daniela’s voice gave him life. It trembled, but she was alive.
Weapon out, he opened the other door, moved through the short hallway that connected to another hallway—because it sounded like she was in the kitchen.
“I’m sorry,” the man rasped out. “You’ve seen my face.”
Cormac moved fast, tossing out years of training because there was no time to wait. He flew around the corner, his shoes silent on the tile, but he must have made a sound. Or maybe the intruder felt the waves of his rage.
He didn’t remember moving, but he tackled the man as the guy’s weapon went off.
Cormac heard it clatter to the ground as he held on to his own weapon.
He slammed his free fist into the guy’s kidney. Hard.
The man cried out, started to fall back, but Cormac heard a familiar snick.
Switchblade.
Still on the ground, he raised his pistol as the man lunged forward, knife raised.
Instead of aiming for center mass, he shot the guy’s arm. His Dani had seen enough death and pain, and he wasn’t killing someone in her kitchen if he didn’t have to.
The man screamed and dropped as if his puppet strings had been cut. His knife clattered to the floor and familiar boots were suddenly there. Micah kicked the knife away.
Daniela scooped it up, set it on the countertop before she raced into her laundry room. She came back with a first aid kit as Cormac kept the man restrained. Though it didn’t take much, given the way the man was groaning.
Cormac was pretty sure the bullet had hit bone, and when the guy passed out… Yeah, that tracked.
“I think if we put enough pressure on it… We need to call an ambulance!” she suddenly blurted as she was helping him stanch the bleeding.”
“I’ve already contacted Grace instead of the locals,” Micah said as he looked up from his phone. “In case this is related to anything. She’s sending agents and an ambulance.”
“It is related,” Daniela said, still crouching next to him, her expression grim. “Are you okay?”
In response, Cormac lunged forward and pulled her into his arms, dragging her to her feet.
Micah could deal with the asshole on the ground.
“Did he hurt you?” he managed to get out against the top of her head as he clutched onto her. He wanted to know who the hell the guy was but he didn’t care at the moment. He just cared that she was okay. That was the only thing that mattered. Dani was alive and unharmed.
She gripped him back tightly, her cheek against his chest. “I’m okay,” she said, her voice wobbly. “I mean obviously he was going to kill me.”
“Do you know who he is?” He watched as Micah finished securing the man’s wrists.
“He’s just some dirty cop who figured out what Greg was doing.
I guess Greg trusted the wrong person at the clerk’s office—I’ll be giving their name to Special Agent Lee.
And this asshole is the one who hired Dima to get information from Greg,” she rasped out, tears spilling over.
“I hate that he’s gone but at least we know who did it. ”
Cormac wanted to kick the guy or stomp on him, not caring that he was on the floor. Instead he looked down and cupped Dani’s cheek. “You’re okay.” He wasn’t sure if he was trying to convince her or himself.
“He must have been surveilling your house,” Micah muttered.
She sniffled once, nodded up at Cormac. “It sounded like he had been watching my place. He came in my kitchen not long after I got home. I didn’t reset my alarm—I’d planned to go back to my car but I wanted to eat some pie first.” Her voice wobbled, but she kept going.
“And then he was there, demanding to know who I’d told about him.
It took some talking but I figured out why he was here.
He thought since I was helping Greg that I knew who he was and it was only a matter of time before I turned him in…
” Shuddering she shook her head and started to loosen her grip on him.
But he wasn’t having it. He pulled her back against him as the sirens sounded nearby. They were fast at least. And he was never letting her go again.
Before he could say anything else, someone called out from the front of her house. An FBI agent.
Minutes later the place was filled with people so he kept his arm firmly around her as they headed outside. He was going to have to fill out a report and answer questions, considering he’d shot someone, but he needed to tell her how he felt first.
Holding her close, he said, “I shouldn’t have let you run off like that. I love you, Daniela. And I’m a dumbass for not telling you earlier. To be brutally honest, I never stopped loving you. But—”
She leaned up and kissed him hard, taking him off guard as she grabbed onto the front of his shirt. For a few blissful, weird moments, nothing existed but the two of them. As she leaned back, she said, “I love you too.” Just like that.
The pressure in his chest he hadn’t even realized was practically suffocating him, eased.
“I’m sorry I didn’t make it clear how I felt before.
I was scared of… And this sounds stupid as I’m saying it out loud.
But I was scared of moving too quickly after everything you’d been through.
I wanted to give you time to process your grief.
I’ve always had my siblings. Even with the death of my mom, I had a support system, something I’ve sort of taken for granted.
And I knew you’d never had that. I didn’t want to screw things up and push you away or make you feel, I don’t know, indebted to me. So I was trying to be…”
“Noncommunicative?” her tone was dry.
“Okay, it sounds really dumb,” he growled. “But I’m all in. I want a future with you. And I will be proposing soon, so get used to the idea. We’re also moving in together. Today, if possible. I don’t care about the logistics of where.”
“I definitely don’t want to live here anymore.”
He blinked down at her. “So that’s a yes to moving in?”
“Yep.”
“What about the other stuff?”
“When you ask me for real, you’ll find out.”
God, he wanted to kiss her for real, to just leave, but no way in hell was that happening in front of a bunch of strangers.
Including the exhausted-looking agent stalking their way.
But later he was going to kiss her the way she deserved, then give her all the pleasure she could handle before they fell asleep in his bed—their bed.
There was no going back for the two of them. They’d fought so hard to get here and he was going to treasure her forever.
Daniela was his person. And no matter what the future held, he was going to be her person, the support she’d never had. Not just him, but his entire family, who already loved her.
Just not as much as he did, because that was impossible. She was his everything.