She rolled her eyes. “There are chocolate chips in thekitchen pantry already. I bought some the other day when we did the muffins for Mom.”
I stretched out, pulling her down with me so her body laid on top of me, my arms wrapped tight around her. “I love when you call my mom, Mom.”
“Well, calling the woman who welcomed me into your chaos-driven family with all my drama, with open arms, by her government name feels weird.”
I nodded. “True. So, dinner?”
“Something tasty,” she replied, and a loud meow came from atop the island, causing us both to look back at CC. “He’d also like food.”
“He always wants food. I swear, give the cat fresh fish and suddenly it’s like his life will end without another fix. Feral little beast.”
She giggled, and I ran my hands up her sides; her head leaned down on my chest. “I’m so happy everything is somewhat coming back together, almost normal again,” she whispered.
I chuckled as my hands ran back down her sides. I hadn’t even truly begun yet, but she was already in a fit of giggles and squeals as my fingers dug into her torso.
“Cinnamon!!” she screamed. My hands immediately stopped, and my mouth dropped.
“I can not believe after all the shit we’ve done, tickling is what has you screaming the safe word for the first time? Are you so serious?”
She laid on top of me still, gasping for breath, giggling as tears ran down her cheeks. “Yes. Don’t fucking tickle me, Carragan.”
I grinned, shaking my head as I shifted slightly and pulled her phone from her waistband, her brows drawn together asshe sat up, straddling me with a now vibrating phone in her palm. “It’s the detective.”
My eyes widened for a moment, a sobering process for us both, before I took the phone, answered, and put it on speaker phone.
“Well good evening, Detective,” I said.
Over the last two months, we’d talked to this man at least once a week with updates on the case involving Bennett. Apparently, real life wasn’t likeLaw & Order.Things like this truly did take time, planning, more planning, more paperwork, and lots of damn hoops to jump through.
Montague and I both decided we had a shared hatred of paperwork and hoops. Fields, the FBI agent in charge, seemed to love the dramatic hoops and bullshit. Which is why we decided early on to go through Montague. He was more…real, as Ember liked to say.
“Hey Wyatt, is Ember there?” he asked. He sounded nervous, which only happened when he had news.
“I’m here, Liam,” she answered.
I tried to keep the eye roll at their first-name basis to a minimum, but I was only human.
“We got him.”
The entire world went quiet as we stared at each other, and tears began rolling down her face.
“Really?” she whispered.
I could hear the phone shifting slightly, and he barked a laugh. “Yes. We got him in the act. He’s going to be charged out the ass, including for your theft charges. It’s going to be a bit of course, fucking paperwork and court proceedings, but we got him. As soon as the charges are official in front of a judge, Fields said he’d ensure your stuff gets handled quickly. Should be good as new in no time.”
She was nodding as she wiped her eyes. “Thank you so much, Liam.”
“Anytime girl. Oh and Wyatt? Tell Antonelli I’ll be in this week to see him about his girl.”
I chuckled. “Have fun with that one, Detective.”
“Ugh, fuck you.” Montague hung up the phone, and Ember and I just stared at each other.
“It’s actually over, or at least as over as what it can be right now,” she said. The smile plastered across her face had my heart skipping beats.
“It is my beautiful girl.”
After we’d met with the police and given our statements, Evan had confronted Elliot. We’d told him not to, the cops had told him not to, but Evan was a hard-headed human, and he wanted to save his brother. He’d told Elliot his options were to flip, or Evan was going to be the one going undercover.
