Page 73 of Sasha’s Secret

“He’s fine. They’re keeping him overnight for observation, just to make sure. How are you doing?”

“I’m okay.” Sasha could barely get the words out. “I’m glad you’re back, though. Is there anything you need?”

“Only you,” Rocco murmured, his breath moving her hair as he spoke. “I’d like to hold you for a while, if that’s okay with you?”

As if he needed to ask. She stepped away from him, took his hand, and led him around the couch to where she’d abandoned the blanket. “Would you mind if we stayed here? It’s just—”

“Wherever you like,” he agreed readily. “You don’t have to explain.”

Rocco removed his jacket and toed off his shoes. His bow tie had disappeared at some point, but Sasha guessed he cared as little as she did. She coaxed him into lying full-length on the sofa, then nestled close and pulled the blanket over both of them.

“The police will be here tomorrow afternoon to start taking statements,” Rocco said at length. “They’ll need to speak to everyone in turn. Especially you and me. Thanks for being there tonight.”

“Where else would I be?”

Rocco seemed not to hear her. He was staring into the distance, consumed by whatever dark thoughts were taking him away from her. No matter what he’d seen and done in the past, he was still a human being—what he said next bore that out.

“Sasha, it was a fucking disaster. I should have pulled the plug on her appearance. If I’d known they had explosives, that Ram would… just for being her boyfriend—”

“Shh.” Sasha laid a gentle finger over his lips. She’d almost been expecting this. “Listen to yourself. If you’d known. Yes, you would have done things differently, but you didn’t know. You didn’t know Linzi would be so stubborn about taking Ram with her when Scott tried to get her to safety—you couldn’t know it, either. And the Schofields—there was nothing in their records to suggest they’d go as far as this. I know, because as soon as I could, I checked. You checked too, remember? Neither of them has any history of experience with explosives in their résumé, and that’s all we could go on. Okay, for all we know, they could have experience, but all it takes is a simple search on the internet to find out how to build a bomb. We couldn’t know how far they were willing to go, and you are not responsible.”

Rocco’s expression didn’t alter, but she wasn’t surprised. It was going to take more than a few words from her to relieve him of this burden of guilt, no matter how mistaken it might be. Several people had been injured in the explosions and the ensuing panic, but thankfully, there were no life-changing injuries and no additional fatalities. It could have been a lot worse, but Rocco, being the man he was, could only see what he viewed as his failure. For now, Sasha would let it slide, but not for ever.

Rocco shifted beside her and pulled her more closely to him. “There’s something else we need to talk about.”

And here it came. Sasha braced herself, hoping that the way he was holding onto her meant something good, something positive would come out of this, selfish of her though it might be.

“I meant what I said, Sasha. I’m in love with you.”

Her heart soared skyward and then plunged back down to earth. Emotionally overwhelmed, she turned her face into his chest and let the tears flow. Her whole body quaked with the force of the feelings she was trying to control.

“Hey. I didn’t think it would be quite such bad news.”

“It isn’t.” The arm she’d draped across him held him more tightly than ever. “I meant what I said, too. I was so scared I was going to lose you tonight.”

His chest jerked under the force of a humorless bark of silent laughter. “It takes more than a couple of deranged lunatics to see me off, cara. And Ghost and his team were there.”

Hopefully she’d soon have an opportunity to thank her friends properly. Without them, the evening might have ended very differently.

Without them, Ram might not have been the only fatality, and Linzi might have been in the hands of kidnappers, maybe even dead by now.

Without them, Rocco might have been wounded or even killed.

“It’s all right, Sasha. It’s over.”

It was only when he held her even more tightly to him that the trembling stopped. “What are we going to do, Rocco?”

He tilted her chin up so he could kiss her forehead. “Don’t worry about it tonight,” he urged softly. “It’ll be all right. Everything will be all right. Rest now.”

Chapter 17

During the investigation that took place over the following weeks, the full story behind the attempted kidnapping of Linzi Suto emerged piece by piece.

The whole Schofield family was involved—what remained of it. While the story was heart-breaking, it in no way justified the revenge they had planned.

Frank Schofield, rather than being divorced as he’d claimed, had been widowed in tragic circumstances. His wife had lost her life in an automobile accident a year or so before he’d been hired to work for Linzi, leaving not only him mourning his partner of almost three decades but her twin adult children—Brian and Sandra—grieving for their mother.

The accident had involved only one other vehicle—a powerful convertible driven by one Thane Murdoch, who had also been killed on impact. The tox screen carried out during the autopsy had revealed Murdoch been driving under the influence of both alcohol and illegal drugs. However, he’d been more than a drunk and an addict—he was Linzi’s elder sibling, her half-brother by her mother’s first husband. The different surnames had concealed the relationship, adding an unanticipated layer of complexity to Tex and Charity’s investigations.