Chapter 29 #3
“They must have called him after they found me in your kitchen, and that's when he came to Australia.”
I grunted. “Well, they had no idea who they were messing with, did they?”
“No, they didn't.” She handed the passport back to me. “Leave that on him. If this is ever found, his true identity could still remain a mystery.”
“Good idea.” I shoved the phone back in his pocket, too, along with the cash. “I assume the car would have been hired in that false name.”
“Of course.”
“Check the glove box,” I said.
Bella popped open the compartment and pulled out a bunch of yellow papers. “Hire car paperwork. That company in Brisbane will look for the car.”
“Yeah, a car driven by Massimo Leone. Oh shit, what if the car has a tracker on it?”
“It won't,” she said, without pause. “Vincenzo planned to kidnap and kill me. He would’ve disabled the GPS tracker. Trust me, he knew how to do that.”
“Right. Okay, time to move him.”
Getting him into the seat was ugly work. But once he was slumped behind the wheel, head tilted forward, it almost looked… ordinary.
“Bloody hell,” I said. “I feel like I've slipped into some weird mafia hitman movie.”
She huffed. “What's weird is that he didn't have a gun.”
“Not really. You can't get a gun through Australian customs. And once you're here, it’s really hard to get one.”
“But Pike and Rocco had guns. Or at least one of them did.”
“True. Gun laws are tough here. But we have no idea how long they’d been in Australia before they found you, so they must have figured out how to get around the law.”
“That makes sense,” she said. “They would definitely know how to get something illegally, no matter what country they were in.”
“Vincenzo only landed two days ago, so he didn’t have much time.”
“That’s true.” She nodded.
I pulled on the seatbelt.
“Don't do that,” she said.
I frowned and let the belt slither away.
“He never wore a seatbelt.” She shrugged. “He thought he was above the law.”
She grabbed our supplies from the passenger seat and slammed the door shut.
I grabbed Vincenzo's size eleven boots and wedged his foot hard against the accelerator. The engine revved angrily. I double-checked that the wheels were dead straight and aimed directly at the swamp, because we only had one shot at this.
I stepped back and met Bella's gaze. “You sure about this?”
“Do it,” she said.
I put the car in drive.
The car lurched, and I jumped clear. It surged forward, gravel spraying under the tires. The Mercedes gathered speed fast, engine howling as it tore toward the water.
We chased after it, trying to keep up.
It hit the edge of the swamp and launched into the air, bellyflopping into the water with a splash like a bomb going off.
Mud and water exploded upward as the front end dipped, and the entire car slipped below the surface. Bubbles churned violently for a few seconds before the water smoothed out again.
The frogs never stopped croaking.
We both stood there, chests heaving, the swamp alive around us as we watched the last ripple fade beneath the moonlight.
I pulled her to my side, wrapping my arm across her shoulder, and she leaned into me.
She lifted my hand to her lips and kissed it gently. “Can you make me a promise, Declan?”
I turned to face her. “Anything.”
A frown rippled across her forehead. “You don't know what I'm going to ask.”
“I don't need to. I'd do anything in the world for you.”
She tugged her bottom lip between her teeth, and tears glistened in her eyes.
I gave her a gentle shake. “Hey, what is it?”
She whimpered, and a tear spilled over her lashes. “How did I get so lucky?”
I cupped her cheek and thumbed a tear away. “I don't know about lucky. You've been through some?—”
“Will you just shush?” She cupped my cheeks and crushed her lips to mine.
I wanted to deepen the kiss and touch her body, but I also wanted to get the hell away from this place. Pulling back, I said, “So, what's the promise?”
She sucked in a deep breath. “Promise me that we will never mention that bastard, or what we did here, ever again.”
I held my hand forward to shake hers, making it a deal. “Easy. I promise.”
She jumped into my arms and wrapped her legs around me. “Can you take me home, please?”
I cupped her ass in my hands. “Absolutely. I believe you also have a promise to keep.”
“Oh?” She eased back, and the cutest frown crossed her features. “What's that?”
“To kiss my ass.”
She burst out laughing. “I didn't say kiss your ass.”
“Yes, you did, madam.”
“No, I said I'd kiss you better.”
“Same. Same.” I grinned, kissed her again, and reluctantly set her down. “Come on, we have a long ride ahead of us.”
The sun was rising as we climbed onto Apollo's back. Bella wrapped her arms around me, and as we set off, I refused to look at the swamp or the burned trees.
The story had come full circle. The mess Frank had created over thirty years ago had rippled out in ways he could never have imagined, but somehow, against all odds, it had given me Bella.
This mess, at least, was closed.
But I still had a ton of Frank's bullshit to wade through.