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She threw herself against him, ignoring the way her body ached and hugged him tight.
“What happened?” she cried.
“He’s still alive. He tried to shoot me, but the shot went wild. I managed to get in a couple of hits and then the car slowed enough for the cops to approach and take over. It’s all over. You’re safe.”
Thank God.
“I don’t want to go through anything like this again.” She clung to him. It was too much.
“You won’t, baby. I’ll make sure of that. From now on . . . it’s just happy times.”
72
“So Reuben is taking you home to see your family?” Cat asked.
She and Charlie were sitting on Faith’s bed while she packed her clothes.
“Yeah. He thinks it would be a good idea to get away for a while after . . . everything.”
Everything included being hit by a car, finding out a person she thought was a friend had tried to kill her and was then murdered by her own brother. Oh, and that brother attempting to kidnap her and Reuben. Not to mention all the stuff with Smith.
To her utter relief, Cat had never believed for a second that she’d deliberately kept her relationship with Smith a secret. Alejandro had seemed a bit more suspicious. But Cat reassured her that he would come around.
Three weeks had passed since Darcy Rivers attempted to kidnap them. He’d been arrested, and with the evidence from Abel Venturo’s lawyer, he’d confessed to everything. Turns out he’d been following Faith for a while. Which really creeped her out. And she’d even talked to him. He’d been the guy outside Reuben’s building looking for the accountant.
And Darcy had hired someone to run Juliet over. Although he admitted that was against the rules, so he’d called the guy back after Louanne found out and threatened to tell the lawyer that he’d cheated.
After that incident, Juliet had been impossible to get to, so after seeing Faith with Reuben at the charity dinner, he’d decided latched onto a new target.
He’d killed his sister after they’d gotten into an argument. Louanne had been boasting about winning all of the money and he’d strangled her before dumping her in the Hudson.
“Wish I had a chance to kick Darcy Rivers butt. I can’t believe that asshole tried to frame Rafael for Louanne’s murder. Just because he saw him with us one day when we were having lunch and thought he’d make a good target.” Cat’s eyes were dark with outrage.
“I can’t believe you attacked a police officer when he was arresting Rafael,” Faith retorted.
“It was badass,” Cat said.
“It was dumb,” Charlie told her bluntly.
“Yeah, well, I got my butt beat plenty over it.” She shifted around uncomfortably. “Can you believe Rafael threatened to spank me too? So ungrateful.”
“You got arrested, Cat,” Faith said. “I was so worried about you.”
“It wasn’t fun, but I’d be fine in prison. I look great in orange.”
Charlie sighed. “I still don’t understand why he framed Rafael.”
“He was getting desperate,” Faith said as she folded up some more clothes and put them in the suitcase. They were leaving first thing in the morning. “He couldn’t get to Reuben or me since Alejandro had his men posted at the hospital, and once we left the hospital he sent men here as well. He figured if he framed Rafael, then the cops would arrest him, and he could get Reuben to leave the apartment to go bail him out. I don’t know what he planned to do since the aim was to hurt someone close to Reuben. Maybe he thought he could get to me easier.”
“But how did he know to talk out Steven? How did he get to Steven? Is he all right?” Charlie asked.
“He is. It was a bad concussion, and he’s having some time off to recover but he’s all right. And that bit was blind luck. Like I said, Darcy was desperate, and he doesn’t think his plans through well. He was watching the police station when he saw Steven pull up down the block. He quickly whacked him on the head and stuffed him in the car, then drove around the block, took off Steven’s jacket and dumped him in an alley before driving back. He used facial recognition to get into Steven’s phone first, so he could text Reuben that he was stuck in traffic. He damaged the locks and drove back to the police station to get us.”
“I can’t believe he knocked Steven on the head when he was so close to a police station.” Charlie shook his head. “That took balls.”
“Balls that I hope get broken while he’s in jail. What an evil asshole,” Cat muttered.
“Yeah.” Faith sat on the bed and Cat reached for one of her hands, Charlie for the other.
