Page 97 of The System

“We got him,” Dylan replied.

Ada practically jumped over the table and rushed into Dylan’s arms. Dylan held on to her, and they stood like that for a long moment, with the rest of the group not sure what to do with themselves.

“He’s in jail?” Ada finally asked.

“He’s being booked as we speak. I only left because I wanted to tell you.”

“God, babe. You did it. You really fucking did it.”

“He’s lawyered up. He thought we were there on the child porn thing, so he called his attorney the instant he saw our cars pull up outside the house.”

“He lives here?” Carina asked.

“No, he was visiting that buddy of his, which is why we wanted to act tonight. He was supposed to leave for another show tomorrow.” Dylan was still holding on to Ada around the waist and staring into her eyes while answering Carina’s questions. “He should take a deal. We have him on the wire, confessing. He even said Noah’s name, babe. He can’t take that back. We’ve got him.”

“What deal are you going to give a child killer?” Ripley asked.

“Life without parole, taking the death penalty off the table,” Carina supplied. “That’s about all my office would ever consider. But even if they just give him twenty-five on the murder count, whatever else they can find on him, now that they can get all the search warrants, will keep him locked up forever. He’s not getting out. Whether he takes a deal or not, he’s not getting out, Ada.”

“This calls for a celebration,” Kenna suggested as she stood. “We have pizza coming, right?”

“On its way,” Hollis replied.

“Beer in the kitchen,” Kenna said. “How about we toast to Noah?”

“Yeah, I’d like that,” Ada replied before she kissed Dylan. “Thank you,” she whispered to her wife.

The action was happening behind Kieran, who was still sitting on the floor, but she could only stare at Carina, who looked beautiful as she smiled at her friends. After a moment, Carina met her eyes, looking a little confused as to why Kieran was staring at her, but Kieran only smiled at her.

When the pizza arrived, everyone helped themselves in Ada and Dylan’s kitchen, and they ate around the island, with some of them sitting at the kitchen table. Their toast to Noah was short and sweet, but Ada’s eyes welled with tears before she pushed them away and pretended like she hadn’t just cried a little. Dylan kissed her temple and told her that she loved her.

Kieran moved into Carina’s side then, wrapped her arms around her waist, and whispered, “Can we go when you’re ready?”

“Are you okay?” Carina asked, looking concerned.

“I think they want to be alone.” She nodded toward Dylan and Ada, who were in their own little world. “And I’d like to be alone with you.”

“Yeah, okay. We can go,” Carina replied.

They said their goodbyes, but not before Hollis and Raleigh did it first after Eden came down the stairs looking adorably sleepy and hurrying over to Hollis to stand at her side and wrap her tiny arms around Hollis’s waist.

Kieran drove them back to Carina’s, and Carina told her to wait a second. She did as she was told, and the garage door was opened for her. Kieran pulled in next to Carina’s car, climbed out to grab her bag, and met Carina inside. When she did, she was met with a garage door opener being held out to her.

“For you.”

“Carina, you don’t–”

“I want you to be able to come and go as you please,” Carina stated simply. “Might be too soon, but I don’t care. I’ll get you a key, too, and the code to the alarm. I’m not scared of this, Kieran. I’m not worried that we’re going too fast or that I’ll scare you away, either. If I’m late from work and you want to be here to meet me for dinner or just to be here when I get home, I want you to be able to let yourself in. It’s as simple as that. If you don’t want it, you just have to say so, but–”

She stopped when Kieran took the remote and set it on the counter behind Carina.

“Can we go to bed?” Kieran asked.

“It’s not that late. I thought we’d just watch a movie now that tonight’s big event is behind us. I don’t want to talk about anyone else getting arrested or being behind bars tonight, if we can avoid it. But are you tired? We–”

“No,” Kieran replied.

“Okay. You want to watch TV in bed or something? Shower?”

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