Chapter Twenty-two

Billie sat on the floor at the back of Presley's living room and watched the aftermath of the dog and pony show play out. She much preferred it to the actual shitshow since here no one was trying to kill Presley and her.

Well, not trying to kill them with bullets or bombs anyway.

Ari was aiming some nasty looks at both Presley and her, but she doubted he was going to be stupid enough to try to avenge his father, what with two security operatives and a cop in the room.

And that was just inside.

Outside the house was another operative, a slew of cops, the bomb squad, EMTs, two ambulances, and last but certainly not least, Ruby Maverick herself.

Ruby had arrived shortly after the first responders and had taken over the mop-up. The woman and Presley were now outside, talking to Jesep and Hattie, who were both being loaded in ambulances.

Billie was thankful for any and all help from Ruby. She personally had the adrenaline crash from Hades going on in her body, and judging from Presley's body language, he did as well. Unfortunately, he had a more active part in cleaning up the aftermath than she did.

No sitting on the sidelines for Presley. A few minutes earlier, he'd gone outside to have a word with Ruby and Jesep. Before that though, he'd talked to the EMT who was examining Olivia for the bruises and possible concussion she'd gotten when her car had exploded. Presley had also talked to his bio parents, filling them in on what'd happened with Jesep and Damon. And before that, Presley had told Ari to sit down and shut the hell up when the idiot had started spewing about how his father had been framed.

Billie had applauded that, literally, causing Ari to give her more stink-eye.

She reciprocated. Stink-eye wasn't her specialty but she could dole it out when needed.

Like her, Angel was in the sit and watch mode, too, now that they'd given their initial statements to the cops. In fact, he was shoulder to shoulder with her on the floor. There were available chairs and room on the sofa, but they'd opted for this space to put some distance between Ari and them.

"I demand to see my father," Ari snarled.

Not his first request. More like his tenth. He'd been mostly ignored except for those barked shut-ups, one from Presley, one from the deputy trying to take his statement, and the other from Olivia, who was apparently as tired of her brother's crap as everyone else was.

"No way was my father involved in any of this," Ari ranted on, repeating his vent for the umpteenth time.

"I beg to differ," Ruby said, coming back into the room. Presley was right behind her, and he made his way to Billie, sinking down on the floor on the other side of her. "Jesep just made a full confession."

Billie released a full breath that she'd been holding for too long. She'd figured Jesep would lawyer up and drag this out in a court process that could take years to unravel. Apparently not. Then again, he had been caught red-handed trying to murder Presley.

"A confession?" Ari challenged.

"A confession," Presley verified.

Angel smiled. "Did you threaten to shoot his balls off or something?" he murmured to Presley.

"No. I'm not sure he has balls," Presley remarked. "I merely reminded him that he was probably safer behind bars than he was on the outside with three highly trained security operatives that he tried to have murdered."

Billie had to fight back a laugh. The timing for that would be totally inappropriate since only a half hour earlier, she'd killed a man and they'd been in the middle of a near-fatal attack. Still, he'd been a bad man, and if she hadn't shot Damon, then he would have killed Hattie and her. This way, Hattie would survive, and the woman had already made it clear she would testify against Jesep.

The bad blood between Hattie, Presley, and her wasn't completely wiped away. It might never be. However, Billie thought the woman's feelings had softened some. They might have failed to save her sister, but Presley and she had saved Hattie.

"Did my father really want me dead?" Olivia asked, drawing Billie's attention back to Ruby, who was staring down Ari—and winning.

"I'm sorry, but yes," Ruby verified. "He also planned on you taking the blame for the diamonds he stole. Then, he'd intended on Damon killing you. Hattie heard Jesep give that order while Damon was transporting her here."

Olivia made a whimpering sound and dropped down onto the sofa. Victoria immediately reached out, pulling Olivia into her arms, and while Olivia didn't return the embrace, she didn't fight it either.

Baby steps.

There would need to be a lot of those over the next weeks and months.

"Of course, Jesep wanted Hattie dead, too," Ruby went on, "since she's the one who came to Jesep with the info that Olivia and Presley were Victoria's biological children. But he only wanted her to die after she'd been set up for kidnapping Victoria. Jesep had already gotten started on that by planting a recording of Hattie's voice in one of the calls from the kidnapper."

That might have worked, too, because of Hattie's connection to Presley and her. It could have looked as if the kidnapping was merely a way to draw them into a dangerous situation so they could be killed.

"Did Jesep happen to say anything about hiring Joe's stepsons to do his dirty work?" Angel asked Presley.

Presley nodded. "He did mention the two birds, one stone adage. I guess he figured it would crush Joe to learn the stepsons had murdered Victoria. And he would have learned that because while Jesep didn't admit it, he would have had plans to eliminate Craig, Ellis, and Damon."

"Definitely," Billie agreed. "No way would he want to leave three loose ends like that."

"None of this makes sense," Ari howled. But it seemed to make some sense because he groaned, and he pressed his hands to the sides of his head and squeezed hard.

"It does if you understand your father was flat-assed broke," Ruby spelled out. "Because of some bad investments Jesep made, Wessington Diamonds was within a month of going under."

"No," Ari insisted. But that was sinking in, too.

"Yes," Ruby insisted. "You would have lost everything. The business, your home, and certainly your reputation. So, Jesep arranged for Victoria to be kidnapped, and she was supposed to die at the ransom drop at the creek." Ruby glanced at Presley. "So were you."

Billie filled in the blanks on the rest. With Victoria and Presley and Olivia dead, Jesep would inherit Victoria's estate. All of it. No pesky next of kin kids to stake a claim on it.

She could also understand why Jesep had wanted her in on the ransom drop. Along with her being a distraction to Presley, having the two of them would have added more suspicion to Hattie's guilt.

Billie mentally cringed as to how close Jesep had come to getting away with all of this.

"But he left everything to Victoria in his will," Ari argued. He seemed to catch onto that as a lifeline, a hope that his father wasn't the asshole killer that everyone else in the room knew him to be.

"He was hoping by doing his will that way, he wouldn't be implicated in any way in her death," Ruby explained. "And if he'd somehow died first, then Victoria would have gotten saddled with all his debt."

"And the diamonds?" Victoria asked. "Where are they?"

"Apparently, in a safe deposit box in San Antoino," Ruby supplied. "Someone from SAPD is on the way there now to retrieve them."

There it all was. The answers to this nightmare that Jesep had started. Had started because of money. Yes, he would be locked up for the rest of his life, but he'd left so much misery in his wake.

But he had left a bright spot, too.

She looked at Presley. "If Jesep hadn't insisted we be in on this ops…" She stopped, figuring that was best said at a different time.

Presley obviously didn't think so though because he leaned in and brushed a kiss on her mouth. He didn't stop there. He stood, taking her by the hand and pulling her to her feet.

"Excuse us a minute," Presley said to no one in particular.

He led her out of the living room, through the kitchen, and into the adjacent laundry room. Presley shut the door, putting his back against it to stop anyone from coming in. Then, he pulled her to him and kissed her.

Really kissed her.

It was foreplay on steroids, and Billie welcomed every bit of the scalding heat. It was a wonderful change to dodging bullets and shooting bad guys.

Presley didn't cut the kiss short. He went in deeper, notching up the heat even more. Making her need him. And it was truly need.

It was also love.

She didn't want to think about that now though. She wanted to get lost in this heat. Lost in him.

But that didn't happen.

Presley pulled back, meeting her eye to eye. "I figure we've got five minutes tops before someone comes looking for us, so I'll make this quick."

She lifted an eyebrow. "Five minutes isn't enough time." Billie winked at him.

He smiled, kissed her. And then got a very serious expression on his incredible face.

"I'll bottom line this," he said. "I'm in love with you, and I want to keep seeing you. Keep kissing you."

Which he did.

A thorough, Presley kiss that clouded her mind and made her whole body flutter with anticipation of even more heat.

"I want to keep having sex with you," he added.

Another kiss.

Somehow, he made that one the best yet. Long, deep, and perfect. He eased back from her, met her gaze again.

"I want to keep being in your life," he went on. "Did you hear the part about me being in love with you?"

"I did," she assured him.

And she kissed him. Billie made it count, too. She would never be able to dole out the heat Presley did, but she gave it her best shot and was rewarded when she heard him make a low grumbling sound of pleasure.

"I'll bottom line this," Billie repeated when she broke the kiss but kept her mouth against his. Because, hey, he was faster to move back into a kiss that way. "I'm in love with you, too."

She felt his mouth stretch into a smile.

"Good," he murmured. And he repeated it a couple of times while he nipped her bottom lip with his teeth. "Once I get all these people out of my house, we're going to have some great sex."

"Agreed," she couldn't say fast enough.

Of course, they still had things to work out. Well, he did anyway with his bio-parents and sister. They'd have paperwork and interviews to do. A debriefing with their bosses. But for now, it was just this moment.

Just them.

Just Presley and her.

So, Billie claimed his mouth for a long, slow kiss.