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Chapter Twenty
Maceo
“Idon’t know what happened. The car was too cramped with the three of us. I struggled with the gearshift, and everything happened so fast. Those vile men were breaking the windows. I stepped on the gas, going backward instead of forward. The girls were screaming and grabbed the wheel. We were spinning, and somehow, I managed to stop. But I panicked when I heard Jo say he was coming, and I stepped on the gas.”
Stella shakes her head as Detective Luke Quire scribbles her statement in his notepad. “I didn’t even know I hit him ‘till I stopped the car outside and saw the blood on the windshield.”
Hit him, she did. Lorenzo looked like he got bulldozed from how hard she nailed him with the Lamborghini. Flay, our crew’s medic, said he probably was killed on impact—the fucker never even got the chance to register the pain before he was gone. Pisses me off that I didn’t get a fucking round in him.
Stella sniffles in Jim’s arms as she recounts what happened an hour ago. “I never meant to kill anyone,” she sobs.
Luke closes his notepad and smiles kindly. “Of course, you didn’t. Your story matches your daughters’ statements. The evidence is pretty cut and dry. The situation was dire, and it’s obvious you didn’t know how to drive a stick.”
Something Luke says makes Jim frown and look at his wife. He shakes his head, brushing off whatever errant thought he had, but I smirk, understanding at once.
“I’m going to go talk things over with the FBI and see if we can’t wrap things up and let you guys head home,” Luke says. I shake his hand before he heads over to the FBI working the case.
“Jim?” Stella looks at her husband. “Can you see if the paramedics have any bottled water? I’m parched.”
Jim kisses his wife’s head. “Of course.”
When he’s out of earshot, I turn to my future mother-in-law with a raised eyebrow. “Stella Holland, you sneaky woman. You know how to drive stick, don’t you?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, dear,” Stella says dismissively, avoiding looking me in the eye.
I bark a laugh. “Shit, Stella. If I had given you a pistol the night we caught the hacker, you would have gone out and gunned the prick down, wouldn’t you have? Come on. You can tell me the truth.”
Stella gives me a leveled look. “I married a tradesman who drove a stick shift. You honestly think he didn’t teach me?”
Wow! Stella is a piece of work. Note to self—never piss off my mother-in-law.“Why backward?”
Stella sighs. “I actually was having trouble with the stick at first, with it being between Jo’s legs, I couldn’t see. But when I heard the defeat in her voice when she said he wasn’t going to stop…there was only one thing to do. I don’t regret it.”
My arm snags Stella into a giant hug. “Thank you, mama bear,” I murmur against her head.
“You’ll learn soon enough when you become a parent the lengths which you’ll go for your children. And by the look of it, I’d say that’s sooner rather than later,” Stella says.
I pull back and look at her skeptically. “I’ve assumed, but how do you know?”
“One, a mother always knows. And two, her nausea isn’t stress-related.” Stella smiles and pats me on the arm. “Congratulations, but if you hurt my daughter, I’ll find myself another flashy car and run you over.”
I can’t help but laugh out loud. Fuck, I’m marrying into the perfect family—I’ll fit right in with their crazy.
Shaking my head and chuckling, I go search for Josephine. I find her monkey-hugging her sister in the ambulance. Neither one will let go of the other. A paramedic works to clean the lacerations the girls received when the windows in the car were busted.
Chase paces back and forth like a caged lion, talking to his tech team on his cell. The guy has every reason to be on edge.
After Stella so wonderfully took out Bianchi, Luca and Paolo took off. Paolo was picked up by highway patrol a mile down the road, but Luca is still MIA. Chase didn’t get his pound of flesh, and he isn’t going to rest ‘till he chokes the life out of Luca for touching his woman. And I’ll be there with the shovel and garbage bag to help assist him when the time comes.
The paramedic talks candidly with the girls, trying to distract them from the crime scene. Josephine must sense my eyes on her because she looks up and gives me the most radiant smile.
My heart does a backflip, making me rub my chest where my heart beats for her. I swagger forward ‘till I’m standing behind the paramedic.
Chattering away, he turns and jumps when he sees how close I am. I’m naturally intimidating looking to outsiders, but when I’m hovering over someone, I’m sure I scare the crap out of people. Josephine has always said if I was an Avenger, I’d be Hulk—minus the green skin.
The paramedic gulps. “Hey, man. Your fiancée is all cleared.”
“And what about my girl?” Chase says on the other side of the paramedic.
