Page 52 of Angel's Share

Angel’s gaze bounced from Aidan, to his mother asleep in the corner lounger, then back to Aidan. “What if Mom and I took too long?”

Keeping one hand around Aidan’s, he slung his other arm around Angel’s shoulder, giving him a sideways hug. “You took the time you needed. Both of you.”

“And I just found you two,” Bev said from across the bed where she held Aidan’s other hand. “So I can’t see how losing Aidan now would be fair. I haven’t been with you long enough to get angry and run away. I mean, I’m sure I will at some point, but not yet.”

“Noted,” Jamie said with a laugh, the spark of joy her words brought undeniable, hope chasing away some of the chill and the doubt that still lingered, despite the doctors’ assurances.

“We won’t let him go either,” Angel said as he rested more fully against Jamie. He was lightly snoring in five minutes, and Jamie must have been too shortly after, because when he woke, it was to pressure around his hand and sunlight streaming in through the window across the room.

Wait.

Pressure around his hand.

He glanced up toward the head of Aidan’s hospital bed and found autumn eyes watching him. “Good morning,” his husband rasped.

“Oh, thank god,” Jamie sighed. Carefully extricating himself from a still sleeping Angel, he rose from the chair and leaned over the bed, brushing his lips against Aidan’s. “I was so fucking scared I’d lost you.”

Aidan lifted their joined hands so the backs of Aidan’s bandaged knuckles rubbed over his pec, where Jamie’s tattoo and heart were beneath his shirt. “You can’t lose me, Whiskey. I’m right here, always.”

“I like you right here,” Jamie said, palming his cheek. “With us.”

“Us?”

He shifted so Aidan could see more fully around the room, past Angel in the chair beside Jamie’s to where Izzy and Bev were curled up in the lounger. “They were scared too, but they wouldn’t let you go. None of us would.”

Aidan’s hand clenched around his. “I’m never letting any of you again either.”

THIRTY-TWO

Aidan entered the conference room on Sunday morning to cheers he didn’t think he deserved. “Don’t clap for me,” he said, then jutted a thumb at Jamie who entered behind him. “He was the one who pushed us outside in time.”

“You’re still standing, Irish,” Jamie said, a hand at his lower back. “That counts as an applause-worthy win. Especially on this case.”

“Which we closed,” Rick said. “With William and Maryanne in custody.”

They’d picked up the brother and sister pair at LAX, trying to hop a flight to Europe with the money Martino had paid them to lure Aidan and Angel to him. Russo had beat them out of town on a supposedly planned vacation to Italy, but as he wasn’t the target of this investigation, they hadn’t notified Interpol. Nor had they stopped Pudge and Lara from flying to Las Vegas a few short hours after Russo’s flight had taken off. Aidan had figured he knew what for, and that Pudge figured he was on the FBI’s, LAPD’s, and LBPD’s radars now. Maybe he’d stick to just being a rich husband and soon-to-be father. As for Martino, he had died in the blast. Another death in addition to the White siblings. Aidan couldn’t help but feel a niggle of guilt that there wouldn’t have been three deaths without the original one—Arty, who he and Tom had sent to prison.

As if reading his thoughts, Jamie leaned close and whispered in his ear, “You were just doing your job, then and now.”

It was an inescapable part of it, which was why it was so important to get it right. And for those criminal suspects who were arrested, doubly important that the rest of the legal process was followed as well. It certainly had been for Angel. “They’ll have counsel, William and Maryanne?” Aidan asked Rooster.

The prosecutor nodded.

“Good,” Aidan said, then to Matt, “I’m sorry this didn’t turn out to be the answer to your jewel thief case.”

“Not an answer,” Matt said, “but more of a lead than I’ve had in over a year. We’ll be working through all those visitors to Martino’s box. See if any of them had been looking to buy those jewels or other stolen goods in the past.”

“And we know a lot more now about the cargo theft rings operating in the city,” Rick said.

“Not to mention the meth dealers,” Berat added. “I shared White’s list from the bathroom wall with LAPD. They’ve made two arrests already.”

Aidan shuddered, recalling that awful house, glad that neither he nor Bev ever had to go inside it again.

“What time’s your flight back today?” Matt asked.

“Last one out tonight,” Aidan replied. Mel and Danny had already left with the private plane, leaving Aidan and Jamie to fly commercial, after dinner with Izzy, Angel, and Bev.

“Good. You should have plenty of time to fill out this, then.” Matt dropped a stack of familiar post-case paperwork on the table in front of where Aidan stood.

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