21. Chapter 21

twenty-one

Lucas

I wasn’t worried about being gentle as I dragged her across the street and down a dozen yards to the surveillance van. She needed to get out of the open.

I slammed the door closed behind us, not bothering with being quiet or stealthy. I’d worry about the ramifications of revealing this van later. Athena’s safety was the most important thing.

“Lucas—” she began, but I held my hand up to cut her off.

“Uh-uh. Don’t you say a word.” I sat on the little stool in front of the main computer monitor, pausing to scooch the second stool to my side as I brought the screen to life. She needed to see what I saw.

Because despite how angry and worried and flat out scared for her I was, I wasn’t stupid and I wasn’t an idiot. I came to the van first before barging inside the Morelli law offices because I knew how to do my job and knew the importance of reconnaissance. I needed to zoom through recent footage from this morning to know who was present in the office so I could be prepared.

I scrolled through the video until I came to the correct timestamp from yesterday afternoon and showed her the shocking footage of the Morellis and Leo Lombardi putting her two identities together. I heard her sharp intake of breath. I couldn’t bear to look at her yet, but it was good that she was realizing the severity of her actions. I moved on to the next video, showing her the shitshow I saw when I arrived and prepared to rush in and rescue her all manly and sexy-like.

9:03 am: a dingy car pulled into the back alley. Leo Lombardi exited the vehicle, swinging his key ring around one finger before opening the back door to the office. He arrived with plenty of time to lie in wait for her to get there for her interview and surprise her when she made it into the back office.

She didn’t need to see the rest of the video. I’d zoomed through it at 3x speed to make sure no one else arrived or left before she did, that I wouldn’t need to reach out to my contact with SFPD SWAT, and then rushed in to stop her when it looked like she was going out of sight, heading into the back to be murdered.

I pressed stop on the feed, turning to look at her.

“What do you have to say for yourself?”

Her kind, contrite eyes melted into flame and fury.

“I say that I think it’s really toxic behavior that we sleep together once and suddenly you’re following me around everywhere and fucking up everything!”

I raised an eyebrow, taken aback. “What did I fuck up for you? Your suicide attempt? ”

“I could have handled myself just fine. But every time I get a lead in my mom’s case, you have to get in the way and mess everything up!”

“And what makes that any worse than you always getting in my way, holding back evidence, and obstructing my case? My legal, authorized, federal case?”

“It’s worse because my mom is already dead and no one is trying to stop the people responsible.”

“Maybe it hasn’t occurred to you in your self-centered tirade—”

“Self-centered?!”

“—But other people, people I was responsible for, have died and been put in danger working this case, too. Just because you didn’t know them doesn’t make their sacrifices any less significant.”

I paused to think of dead Mario Costa, my CI. Of Claire Reynolds who looked so much like my dead sister, who risked her life and was currently in hiding so she could testify. If my case came to a skidding halt she’d be in hiding with another witness indefinitely, poor girl.

“Doing things like this doesn’t help the real case against the Morellis, Athena. It’s just selfish.”

Maybe I expected the slap subconsciously, but I didn’t try to stop it. I deserved the pain. She wasn’t a selfish person—hell, she was very kind and passionate underneath everything—but she couldn’t seem to be a team player, and I couldn’t keep the asshole-side of my brain from leaking out. I just rubbed my jawline for a much different reason than I did when I woke up this morning, staring into her hateful eyes. So much for last night being the start of something amazing.

Point made and then some, I knew we just needed to get out of dodge. We could sort through the details later.

“We can argue about this at home. Let’s get the fuck out of here,” I said.

She nodded tersely, her arms wrapped tight across her chest. If I didn’t know better, I’d think my words hurt her, made her feel vulnerable.

I clicked the screen to bring the feed back to live viewing, confirmed no one was waiting outside the van for us, and opened the door. I hopped out first, offering my hand to Athena to help her down, wondering if she was too pissed to accept even that much from me. I didn’t bother to hide my relief when she took my hand after all, even if she did hesitate for a moment first.

She didn’t protest when I put a protective arm around her shoulders, leading her to my car that was parked just a couple vehicles past the van. I opened the passenger door, lent her my hand again to assist her inside the car, and closed the door behind her.

Her little Audi could stay here forever, as far as I was concerned. She was under my protection, so she would ride around in my car wherever she needed to go.

I rounded the vehicle and sat in the driver’s seat, but paused before putting my key in the ignition. Something felt off.

“What is it?” Athena asked, still attuned enough to me despite her anger. Her eyes darted frantically out the different windows .

“I’m not sure…” I trailed off, my eyes still searching for whatever was wrong. There. Leo Lombardi’s shitty old Pontiac was idling at the curb in front of the office.

When did he pull his car around front? While we were in the van? How long had he been there?

He did that same smirk and finger wave he did at the airport, not even trying to hide anymore, but it was the kiss he blew to Athena, the disgusting little tongue waggle, that had me putting my hand back on the door handle.

“What are you doing?” Athena exclaimed, reaching over to grab my hand and stop me.

“I’m going to arrest him. He threatened you!” As I said the words, I realized that wasn't actually true. He hadn’t said anything at all, threatening or otherwise. He was just trying to rile us up. I darted my gaze back over to him.

“I’ll see you later, baby,” he taunted with a wink and blew another kiss. That clearly was a threat, but not overtly enough that I could respond legally.

The little shit was confident, but we would catch him sooner or later, and all these little things, while circumstantial, would add up during trial once we got him there. It would all be worth it when considering enhancements to his charges when we did finally nail him.

I fought against every protective instinct in my body and released the door handle. I forced myself to ignore Lombardi and turn the key in the ignition, bringing the car to life. The second we had an opening I pulled onto the main road, speeding down the street. Lombardi’s car was facing the opposite direction. If he had the intention of following us we had a very small window to lose him before he could circle the block.

“Put on your seat belt, baby, I need you to stay safe,” I warned Athena before taking a hard right turn, then another, jumping the curb a little the second time. She hurried to pull the belt across her lap.

“Is he behind us?” she asked, craning her neck to look. I had yet to even tap my brakes, swerving around cars in my attempt to put as much distance between us and Lombardi as possible.

“No,” I said confidently. I’d been cycling my eyes through all my mirrors and didn’t see that rust bucket. Yet. “No, he’s not, but we’re not stopping.” The speedometer continued to climb, approaching forty-five—a little fast for city streets, so I let my foot off the gas just a little.

“Good,” she said, leaning back in her seat. “You should put on your seat belt, too,” she chastised.

Fair point. “If we don’t see him in the next two minutes, I’ll pull over and buckle up like a good boy,” I teased. I was pleased to see her deep blush out of the corner of my eye. I knew she liked all the good girl stuff in the moment, but it was encouraging to see her still reacting to it after the fury from the last several minutes. At least something of us survived the night.

I turned on my blinker as we approached an upcoming freeway entrance, really wanting to put some distance from the financial district.

But as we climbed the on ramp I could hear a little beep. The sound was muffled by the noise of the engine accelerating past fifty, but I felt a small bump at the same time, like we ran over something. I glanced in the rearview mirror, but didn’t see anything in the street.

“Did you feel that?” Athena asked. I nodded.

“Did you hear that?” I countered, noting her grim nod. “It would be just my luck to need a car repair in the middle of all this shit.”

But her lips thinned out even more instead of laughing at my stupid joke.

“What are you thinking?”

“I’m thinking that Leo Lombardi’s favorite movie is Speed.”

“The movie with the bomb on the bus?”

“The movie where the bomb on the bus gets activated after the bus reaches fifty miles per hour. How fast were you going? When that happened?”

“About fifty.” I confirmed, clearing my throat. “That might explain the beep, but not the bump. And do you honestly think he has the skills or smarts to make a bomb like that?”

She paused while I eyed an exit; I didn’t want to stay in one place long enough for anyone to find us. The Morellis weren’t being subtle anymore. I felt like we were approaching their endgame, but I really wanted to stop long enough to at least take a peak under the hood and see if anything looked wrong.

I tapped my brakes to slow down as I merged onto the offramp, but nothing happened. I pressed my foot against the brake pedal more aggressively, then put pedal to the metal but still nothing. Shit.

“Athena.” She met my eyes, the horror in my voice matching what I saw in her eyes. “The brakes are out. ”

We were approaching a red light at the end of the ramp. A few cars waited for it to turn green, so I swerved onto the shoulder, speeding past them when I still couldn’t make the car slow. Athena screamed and held on to the handle above the window as I took the turn at double the speed limit, car hopping onto the sidewalk before finishing the turn in the far left lane.

There were too many cars around us, and I tried to keep one hand on the horn to warn other drivers, but then I’d need two hands to swerve and avoid hitting all the cars in the road. Athena unbuckled to scoot over, one hand gripping my thigh in a vice grip, the other pressing down on the horn so I could use two hands to maneuver.

I appreciated the thought, but I needed her safe. Another red light ahead meant I needed to hop up onto the sidewalk again, our speed too fast to avoid serious injuries if we were to rear-end another vehicle. The pedestrians screamed, jumping out of the way into store fronts. That was too dangerous as well. What if someone had mobility issues and couldn’t get out of the way in time? I couldn’t be responsible for killing someone.

I had to find a way to stop the car.

“Buckle your seat belt,” I warned Athena again, shifting her hand away from the horn, laying on it again myself.

I recognized where we were and knew what I had to do. I saw the sign and knew where I had to go. If I had to choose who would suffer from an inevitable car accident, the answer was easy. Me.

Fidelity, bravery, integrity.

I looked at Athena, sliding back to her side of the car and hurrying to buckle back up, a determination and strength visible on her face. In her own way, she already embodied all the merits I strived to possess. She would make the same choice as me.

Fidelity, bravery, integrity.

She was buckled and she was strong. A survivor. I glanced ahead, seeing the sign just ahead. She would make it out after.

It was time to get the car off the road. I could see a clear path to the left if I just put pedal to the metal before anyone else got in the way. She would make it, even if I didn’t.

I looked at Athena again. As if she could read my mind, she held her left hand out to me. I took it, squeezing hard, and whispered one last sentence to her.

Then I pushed the accelerator all the way to the floor, turning the wheel so we smashed through the boards that blocked off a broken section of the wall surrounding the pier. Then I drove the car down one of the long wooden docks and directly into the San Francisco bay going sixty miles per hour.