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He blows out a breath, shaking his head again. “Well, as long as you know.”
The officers ask us a few more questions, and Dunagan warns us to be prepared to go over the story several more times, because that’s just how things go in investigations like this. Then he slides his chair back from the table and gets up, sliding his notebook back into an inner pocket of his jacket.
“We’ll be looking into this. Chapel drive dead-ends at Hennepin, so there aren’t too many places that warehouse could be. We’ll find it.”
He dips his head, then turns and heads for the door. Before he can reach it, I lean forward. “And if you find something there? If you find the car?”
He stops with his hand on the knob and turns to look back at me. “We’ll run forensics on it. If it truly was the car used to kill Iris Lepiane, there should be DNA evidence for us to find.”
“And if you find it?”
His expressions softens just a little, so imperceptibly I could almost convince myself I imagined it.
“Then I imagine the charges against your mother will be dropped.”
27
“You’re fidgeting.”
“No, I’m not.”
“Uh, yeah, Low.” Chase chuckles. “You are.”
“I’m nervous.”
Linc’s arms wrap around me from behind, his warm, solid body enclosing mine
as his breath fans over the back of my neck. “You have nothing to be nervous about, baby.”
He’s right. I know he’s right.
But my stomach is still in knots, my heart tapping out an erratic rhythm as we stand outside the Fox Hill Correctional Center waiting for Mom to be released.
A new wave of nerves hits me at the thought, and I wrap my arms over Lincoln’s, holding him closer to me as we stare at the entrance to the prison. The guys all offered to come with me to pick her up—even Chase, who was just released from the hospital and is still a little pale and tired looking. I worried a little about him overexerting himself, but I could see in his eyes how much he wanted to come, so I didn’t put up a fight.
And now they’re all here.
About to meet my mom.
That’s one of the reasons for the nerves wreaking havoc on my internal organs right now.
The other is an unreasonable fear that someone will stop her before she can step out into the sunny, crisp air as a free woman. That Detective Dunagan will call and say it was all a mistake, it wasn’t Iris’s DNA they found on that car in the warehouse on Chapel. That a paternity test hasn’t revealed her unborn child to be the offspring of Judge Alexander Hollowell.
But all those things are true, and with Hollowell no longer manipulating things behind the scenes or paying off dirty cops to plant evidence, the truth has finally come to light.
I shift in Linc’s arms, and River leans down to plant a kiss on my lips. “We’re here for you, Low. No matter what.”
His words are soft, and I close my eyes and nod as he pulls away. They know Mom knows about them, but I can tell the guys are a little nervous too.
Or maybe “nervous” isn’t the right word.
Protective.
They want my mom to be okay with us, not for their own sakes, but for mine. They know how much I love her, how close the two of us are, and they want her blessing for my sake. Although I would never break up with them just because my mom didn’t approve, I so, so badly want her to be okay with this. To understand it.
Despite the boys’ affectionate teasing, I can’t stop fidgeting as we wait for several more minutes.
But the moment Mom steps through the door, every bit of my nervousness is forgotten.
