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Sort of, anyway. She might self-combust in the next ten seconds if her head didn’t stop spinning. Hell, what else didn’t she know?
“Excuse me for a minute.” Jason nodded and ducked out of the room.
Gia watched him ease out the front door with his phone pressed to his ear, his posture telling her he was already in business mode.
“It’s been a hell of a night,” her father commented with a sigh.
She nodded, then reached for Daddy’s hand. “It has, but I want you to know that I’m here for you all.”
“No,” Mila insisted, jumping out of her chair with her hands on her hips. “Hell, no.”
Blinking, Gia stared at her usually reserved sister-in-law. “What the…”
“You listen to me.” Mila wagged her finger. “Don’t you dare give up one more minute with your husband! Tony and I had six wonderful years together. Even though they ended terribly, I wouldn’t trade a second with him because I loved him. You gave me a year when your place was with Jason. Don’t spend more time apart from him that you may someday regret. I should have been standing on my own two feet all this time. I will from now on.”
“If we had known you were newly wedded, honey, we would have done so much more to pitch in and help.” Mama’s expression looked somewhere between miserable and guilty. “I let you handle everything because I felt lost myself. Taking care of the kids would have given me purpose and allowed me less time to wallow.”
“You weren’t up to it.”
Her mother snorted. “I’m not ancient. I would have managed.”
“I’d hoped dealing with the kids would give you less time to hunt Wayman,” her father admitted. “I damn near did a jig when you were put behind a desk. You were too set on revenge to be looking for that killer.”
“Daddy, I can take care of myself.”
“I thought Tony could, too.” He shook his head solemnly. “I kept fearing I’d get a phone call about your murder next.”
“I wouldn’t have risked myself.”
Her father scoffed. “Don’t lie to me.”
Gia sighed as guilt ricocheted through her. “I was careful.”
He shook his salt-and-pepper head. “You went into Wayman’s ‘hood with guns loaded and cocked. I made a couple of phone calls and tried to get you reassigned or put behind a desk, but I don’t have any influence since I retired. Whoever finally realized that you were going to get yourself killed and did something about it, I want to shake his hand.”
“I’m glad you approve.” Jason closed the door behind him suddenly and crossed the front room into the kitchen with his hand outstretched.
Daddy took it, pumping vigorously. “You got Gia desk duty?”
“Yes, sir. I’m acquainted with the mayor. I might have suggested that if he wanted a healthy donation for his reelection campaign, he needed to make sure a certain beautiful female officer didn’t get hurt in the line of duty.”
“Well, hot damn!” A grin broke out across her father’s face. “I like you even more.”
“Thank you.” Tears trembled in Mama’s eyes.
Mila nodded, wearing a mirror expression.
She glared at them. They all approved of Jason’s manipulation? What the hell?
Jason looked surprisingly grim. “Don’t thank me yet.” Then he turned to Gia and took her hands. “You know I’d do anything for you, that I would move mountains to keep you safe and happy.”
“Yes,” she said cautiously.
He’d proven it again and again these past nine days. Really, since they’d met. She might not always like the boundaries he gave her, but she couldn’t deny that he had her best interests at heart.
“Always,” he vowed, then faced her family. “That phone call I just took was from Caleb Edgington, the head of a security firm based out of Louisiana. They’re the best. This morning, I hired him to deal with Wayman. He spread the word in the thug’s neighborhood that I would pay anyone who brought information leading to Ricky’s capture a hundred thousand dollars.”
Her father choked. Her mother gasped. Mila’s jaw dropped.
