Chapter 28

TWENTY-EIGHT

Aidan had never been so glad that he'd married someone with a lead foot as he was tonight. The escort Berat called in for them helped too, the two cruisers cutting a path with lights and sirens, cutting the time from downtown to Manhattan Beach by half.

Still not fast enough, as Aidan took the stairs to the condo two at a time, heart in his throat. Ward was waiting at the door for them. "They're all still fine," he said, same as he had over the phone. "All asleep. I just checked. Every five minutes like you asked."

"Thank you," Aidan said before sprinting inside, needing to lay eyes on them himself.

Jamie hung back, asking Ward questions like what time Maryanne had left and if he'd noticed anything off, then reporting it to Berat, Matt, and Rick, who were scattering teams to surveil William and Martino post-game. They wouldn't be moving on anyone tonight, not until they got a better picture of the totality of what they were dealing with .

And not until Aidan saw for himself that the family he wanted to keep was safe.

The teen curled up on the sleeper sofa in the upstairs loft, Jamie's tablet propped on his pillow, Angel having fallen asleep working on that truck.

The other teen soundly asleep in one guest bedroom, covers pulled up tight to her chin.

His childhood best friend, standing in the doorway of the other guest room, a mix of worry and hope on her face. "Is it over already?"

Aidan crossed the loft in three long strides and hauled Izzy, safe and sound, into his arms. "Oh, thank fuck." It was a struggle not to let it all go right there, but that would only upset Izzy, and that wasn't what he wanted. He just needed to convince his brain that they were all okay. That they were safe. That fate hadn't yet pulled a cruel trick and snatched away the family it had just dropped in his life.

Izzy wrapped her arms around him, a hand coasting up and down his back. "Hey, what's going on, cari?o?"

He smiled, remembering how she used to call him that as kids whenever his teenage Irish temper would get the better of him. Or when he was struggling with being the different one with the dyed hair and funny accent. She'd always been there with a gentle word and the patience he'd needed from a peer.

From a friend.

He drew back and lightly clasped her shoulder. "You're okay? And the kids?"

"Yeah, we're fine. Maryanne left after we finished the movie. They"—she nodded in the direction of the kids—"fell asleep before it was over. I was reading, but I guess I fell asleep too. "

Jamie appeared at the top of the stairs. "All good?"

Aidan nodded, but same as him, Jamie needed to make his own checks too. First on Angel, also collecting his tablet as he circled the sleeper, then he skirted around the other couch and chairs to check on Bev, poking a head in the guest room to make sure she was okay, then gently pulling her door shut.

"What's going on?" Izzy said as Jamie rejoined them. "You're back way earlier than I remember stakeouts going, and you both look like you've been through hell."

"Let's discuss downstairs," Jamie said, then led them that way, to the dining table.

"What's going on?" Izzy asked again once they were settled.

"We just need to make sure—" Aidan started.

Only to be cut off by Izzy's uncompromising "No. The days of you shielding me from shit are over. I do not have the time or energy for that. None of us do. Tell me." He remembered that tone too, from when they were kids and she wouldn't put up with his bullshit. Remembered the worst extreme of it the day she'd cut him out of her and Angel's lives. She didn't deserve to be in the dark then, and she didn't now.

"Okay, I'll tell you what I can." At her nod, he continued. "Tom and I worked a case about ten years ago. We put someone in jail. A mob fence."

"That's the person who resells stolen goods?"

"That's right."

"What happened to him?"

"He died there."

"So then he's not the one behind this."

"Not exactly." Aidan raked a hand through his hair, still cursing himself for not making the connections sooner, for totally missing this a decade ago. "We just learned today that he may have had two children. That's who we think targeted Angel. Who targeted me."

"Do you know who they are? And are they mob?"

"They're not," Jamie said. "At least we don't think they are, but their uncle is, like their dad was."

"Their uncle?"

"A man named Michael."

Izzy froze, and all of the color bled from her light brown face. She covered her gaping mouth with a hand. "Oh no..."

Aidan covered the one that still rested on the table. "What is it?"

"Maryanne," she said. "She recently connected with her uncle, Michael. He told her he had money for her from her real father."

"Was that before she befriended you?"

"Oh god," Izzy groaned. "I'm gonna be sick."

Aidan squeezed her hand. "Just breathe, Izzy. You didn't know. None of us did."

Her gaze wandered upstairs, to the kids, then to the living room. "She was in the house here with us. She's been around Angel dozens of times."

"Which was probably how she knew he could drive," Jamie said. "How she helped her brother and uncle set him up."

"Exactly when I was in town," Aidan said. "I'm so sorry, Izzy."

She shook her head and squeezed his hand back, hard. "This is on her, not you. She and her brother tried to kill my son. "

"She didn't succeed."

"Because his godfather is a smart man." She reached out her other hand, taking Jamie's. "And so is his husband. So you two geniuses tell me this—how the fuck are we going to stop them? Because I need this to be over. Now."