Page 27 of Queen's Ransom

“Your daughter, apparently.” Helena lifted her head, dragging her nose along Celia’s jawbone and making her shiver. “She’s smart, like you. I’m sure there’s a reason.”

“Should we go ask her?”

Helena grumbled an incoherent protest and dropped a light kiss on her chin. She stepped back and out of Celia’s arms, but not so far as to break the connection they’d finally made.

Celia tangled their fingers again. “Thank you for that.”

“Feeling’s mutual.” She lifted Celia’s hand and kissed her knuckles. “Training tonight? I’ve got about ten pounds of cake to work off.” And judging by the fire in her eyes, it wasn’t only the cake she had a mind to work out.

“Sounds like a plan.” Celia squeezed her hand, then released it, turning back to the fridge. “Help me carry these?” She didn’t bother looking for the labels, just grabbed those she recognized as cannoli filling.

“All of them?” Helena said, eying the half dozen containers Celia lined up on the prep table.

“Doesn’t matter how many or what flavor when you like them all, right?” She grinned. “Besides, Lily should get a feel for all the weapons at her disposal.”

Helena laughed out loud, free and amused. “You Perris are good for this family.”

“You Madigans are good for ours.”

The doors swung open, and Celia spun to tell her daughter they were on their way, then stopped short at seeing her brother there instead with his work face on. “We’re going to have to cut this short.”

All the softness in the woman beside her vanished, Helena instantly on alert. “What’s going on?”

“Brax just called. SFPD picked up Dex an hour ago. B&E and possession of a controlled substance.”

Just as Celia predicted. Dex always came back. But the warm, firm hand on her back reassured her this time would be different.

Chapter Eleven

If Celia never saw the inside of SFPD headquarters again, it would be too soon. And yet, she was back in Brax’s office, and once again, it was because of her deadbeat ex-husband. But true to Helena’s word, Celia wasn’t alone this time. The chief’s office was packed. Victoria stood guard at the door, Helena sat beside her in the other visitor chair, and Hawes and Chris stood at either end of the chief’s desk, following along as Jax, whose Mohawk was dyed a wintery blue, briefed them on the forensics report. Holt had wanted to join them in Hawes’s place, but Lily had gotten fussy again after the busy day, and Celia suspected Helena wanted to corner Brax about the distance he was keeping from Holt and Lily. Tough, seeing as the chief’s chair was the only one still empty.

“Anything else inside the Charger?” Chris asked.

“Nothing.” Jax moved the crystal nameplate that oddly read Captain instead of Chief out of the way and spread a slew of pictures across the chief’s desk. “Car was spick and span.”

“It was that way when we found it too,” Hawes said.

“Gloves,” Helena said. “The inside of the car was shadowed Friday, but I could see the trigger, and I’m pretty certain the finger on it was gloved. I’d assume the driver was too.”

Celia’s stomach sank. She hadn’t realized Helena had exposed herself that much.

“What about the parts?” Hawes said.

Jax’s green eyes glanced up, directly at Celia, and Celia’s stomach sank further. “Dex?”

They nodded and laid out a new set of pictures. Parts Celia had handled with Chris yesterday. “Prints on the parts traced back to Dex and Lenny Proctor.”

“This and the receipts…” Chris rapped his knuckles on the desk. “That’s the Lenny and Dex we know. Too stupid to cover their tracks.”

“But why did they take all those other precautions,” Celia said, “and not clean the parts or properly fry the electronics?” She kept coming back to the ECU.

Helena laid a hand on her knee. “That’s what we’re trying to figure out.”

The door swung open behind them, the slatted blinds on the inset window rattling. Brax made it one step in before he lifted his head and stalled midstride, clearly surprised to find his office packed full.

His gaze darted to Chris. “You said you’d bring Celia down.”

“Well, hello to you too, stranger,” Helena drawled.

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