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She lifted her head and pressed her lips against his in a firm, almost desperate kiss. “This pain in the ass loves you. Very much.”
“I love you too, mein liebling.” He kissed her just as hard, then tucked her head under his chin.
She nestled there, listening to his steady heartbeat for so long, she thought she might be asleep. “I guess we should try to get out of here,” she ventured softly, not making any effort to move.
He chuckled. “All in good time, love.”
She sighed. “I don’t think anyone’s going to believe we fell in love in a dumpster.”
“Speak for yourself,” he scoffed, kissing her head. “I never fell out of love with you. The dumpster just…deepened it.”
She hugged him tightly. It was the best answer she’d never expected.
CHAPTER35
Four days later
Monty settled Hartley more snugly against him, taking care that he didn’t upend the oversized mug of coffee she cradled against her chest.
“You okay?” he asked, looking down at her upturned face. Two things became impossible to resist. The first was pressing a kiss against the network of healing scratches on her forehead. The second was the fury that flared to life in his gut as he looked at the rest of the reddened scrapes and cuts on her beautiful face.
Fury at Karol, whose charred remains had been shoveled into a bucket by some of Eli’s men during the small window of time the fire marshal had given them: sixty minutes to clean up and remove anything Cavendish didn’t want showing up in the official report.
“I’m doing great, but how are you?” she asked, glancing at his bandaged arm.
He couldn’t care less about his injuries now that they were safe in his Seattle condo. He would have taken off the white bandage around the arm resting on the pillow, but he liked the way Hartley fussed over it. The wordsHartleyandfussingin the same sentence still boggled his mind. “I’m great. More than great,” he told her, patting the papers under his hand on the pillow.
“I still can’t believe we were basically in an action movie just a few days ago,” she said, facing the others in the room.
“Me either,” Claire agreed from the love seat where she sat huddled against Eli. She shivered, and he squeezed her closer against him.
“No disrespect to the dead or anything,” Becca chimed in from the TV monitor where she and Porter had joined the meeting, “but I’m pissed we didn’t get to be there for all of it. Running across the estate while shit blew up? The only thing missing was Bruce Willis.”
Porter rolled his eyes, and Becca frowned at him. “What? My entire life is spent watching movies,” she defended.
“This is real life, though. It’s about a million miles different,” Porter said, nudging her with an indulgent smile. “But I get the spirit of what you’re saying.”
“Speaking of shit blowing up, I got ‘gas leak’ stated as the official cause of the explosions,” Spencer said, his voice brusque. He gave Montgomery a look. “The explosives were impossible to hide, so I had my guy tamper with the gas main. It made it an open-and-shut investigation. You owe me big time, buddy.”
Montgomery nodded. Spencer was right. “How about a private jet?” he offered, smiling when Spencer’s eyes widened. “The gas bill will kill you, but it’ll be fun for a few months. I’ll talk to your boss about getting you that much paid time off.”
Spencer’s eyes widened even more. His poker face was no match. “I’ll believe that when I see it,” he countered. “Also good news is that Cavendish blowing sky-high has diverted any attention from the issue with Lucas.”
“I can’t believe you got him off the property without getting hurt yourself,” Hartley said, sipping her coffee.
“It was close, but my guy drove his four-by-four right to the fence. We were already on the road when we heard the first explosion,” Spencer explained.
“And you didn’t go back to check on Hartley or the others?” Georgia asked, her mouth curving in a cynical grimace. “That’s cold.”
“I’d set up a dump location for Lucas and someone who would ID his body,” Spencer explained with an uncaring shrug. “I was on a deadline to make that happen. I’m only here now because I felt I owed Ms. McKay an update.”
“Mrs. Meyer,” Hartley corrected, and the Sigma sisters exchanged knowing glances.
“Apologies, Mrs. Meyer,” Spencer said with a nod.
“Spencer went above and beyond what my contact asked him to do,” Montgomery said with a nod. “Thanks for that.”
Again, Spencer nodded.
