Page 152 of Proof of Guilt

Ivy kept watch of everything going on, but she continued her conversation on the phone. Obviously, she’d reached Jameson and could assure him that everything was okay. Well, as okay as it could be considering just how close she’d come to dying.

“Wesley said he sent something to the sheriff’s office,” Theo told one of the deputies who approached him. Her name was Susan Bowie, someone he’d known since he was a kid.

Susan nodded. “A courier delivered some papers about thirty minutes ago.”

Right about the time the attack had started—though it certainly felt as if the gunfire had lasted a lot longer than that. “The papers implicated Lacey Vogel?”

Another nod. “They’re records to show withdrawals from an offshore account in Ms. Vogel’s name. There were other bank accounts to show where the money went.”

Theo was betting they could match the deposits to the dead gunmen scattered over the ranch. Lacey had been an idiot to use a bank to pay for all of this, or else she’d been so hell-bent on revenge that she didn’t take precautions. Of course, Wesley wouldn’t have helped with those precautions, either, since he’d probably intended to set Lacey up right from the beginning. Lacey had helped him by making herself a prime suspect.

Gabriel stayed right by Wesley until Susan and a male deputy hauled the man into the cruiser. Theo watched, too, and even Ivy got one last look at Wesley before the deputy shut the door. At least Wesley wasn’t smirking or smiling now. It had probably set in that he would never be in a position to hurt them again.

Nor Lacey, for that matter.

The ambulance would take her to the hospital, but after that, she’d be arrested. Not only had Wesley ratted out Lacey as funding this attack, Lacey herself had admitted to paying for the thugs used in the attacks.

“Susan, you and Mick go ahead and take Wesley to jail,” Gabriel told the deputy. “Read him his rights. Do everything by the book.” After Susan nodded, he turned to the third deputy. “I want you to stay here and help Edwin wrap things up. I need to use your cruiser to take my sister somewhere.”

Gabriel didn’t say where that somewhere was, but Theo figured it was the safe house. There was nothing that would get that look of terror off Ivy’s face faster than seeing her son.

Their son, Theo mentally corrected.

He figured it would help settle him down, as well.

Theo hurried when he helped Ivy from the SUV and into the cruiser, and she ended her call with Jameson, probably so she could hear an update from Gabriel and him. As they’d done on their other trips, Theo got in the back seat with her, and as soon as Gabriel was behind the wheel, he took off.

“Please tell me we’re going to the safe house,” Ivy said.

“We are,” Gabriel answered. “I’ll drop you two off there and come back here and deal with the investigation.”

That wouldn’t be a fast or easy thing to do. Heaven knew how many dead bodies there were, and there was a huge crime scene to process. If there were any gunmen left alive, they would also have to be arrested and interrogated. Gabriel would be putting in a lot of long hours and all because of a dirty agent and a greedy stepdaughter.

“Wesley sent bank documents to the sheriff’s office,” Theo told Ivy and Gabriel, too, in case he hadn’t heard what Susan had said earlier. “It should be what you need to bring murder charges against Lacey.”

“Murder?” Ivy repeated on a rise of breath.

“Yeah. Because of Belinda, the CI and McKenzie. Since Lacey paid for the attacks, both Wesley and she will be charged.”

Ivy stayed quiet a moment, probably letting that sink in. Then fresh tears sprang to her eyes. “It’s over.” Her voice was mostly breath and filled with relief. So, the tears weren’t from sadness this time.

“It’s over,” Theo assured her.

Gabriel took the turn from the ranch, and once he got onto the main road, he sped up. “The safe house isn’t far. Ten minutes or so. That should give you two a little time to…talk or something.”

Theo met Gabriel’s gaze in the rearview mirror, and even though Gabriel didn’t come out and say it, he seemed to be telling Theo to go for it. But what Gabriel didn’t know was that Theo already had. He’d told Ivy he loved her, and she hadn’t said a word about her feelings for him.

Maybe their pasts were just too painful for her to put behind her. Hell, maybe she didn’t even want him in her and Nathan’s lives. Well, tough. He was going to be there. At least in Nathan’s, anyway.

“I’m taking that desk job in San Antonio,” Theo said. Unlike Ivy’s voice, there was no relief in his. But there was some anger. “I could try to put in for a transfer to Houston or wherever you end up—”

She slid her hand around the back of his neck, pulled him to her and kissed him. Hard. That was probably the fastest way to get him to shut up.

“I love you,” she said when she broke for air.

Ivy went back for another kiss. Apparently, that was another way to get him to hush, because it stunned him to silence. Strange considering how much he wanted to say to her. But at the moment, he just mentally repeated those words.

And savored them.

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