Can You Go Faster?
Johnny
MONDAY AFTERNOON, JOHNNY was washing grease off his hands when his phone in his coveralls rang.
Normally he would ignore it.
Izzy in his life, he did not.
He grabbed some paper towel, did a quick swipe, and with still mostly wet hands, he pulled out his phone.
It was Iz.
He took the call, put the phone to his ear and answered, “Hey, spätzchen.”
“Johnny.”
A red-hot iron spike rammed down his back and his head jerked around until his eyes found Toby, who was bent over a car.
As if he felt it, felt what Johnny heard in Izzy’s voice, his brother’s head came up and they locked eyes.
“Iz, what’s going on?” he growled.
“Johnny,” she repeated in that awful voice.
“Talk to me,” he demanded as Toby pulled out from under the hood.
“I . . . I—” She was losing it.
“Give it to me, baby girl,” he heard Deanna say.
Deanna.
Deanna was with her.
They worked together.
But he did and did not like knowing Deanna was with her when she sounded like that.
The good part was that Deanna was with her.
The bad part was she sounded like that.
Johnny thought his head would explode as he waited and listened to the phone jostle while watching Toby move quickly toward him.
“Johnny?” Deanna asked.
“Deanna, what’s happening?” he bit out.
“Okay, now, okay, damn,” she replied, sounding freaked and tortured at the same time.
“Deanna,” he said warningly.
“Okay, no way to say this easy so I’ll say it fast. Someone took Brooks from the daycare center.”
Johnny tore the shoulder on his coveralls down his arm, ripping the buttons at the front clean off.
“It was naptime,” she continued. “The lady minding them got called out of the baby room. When she got back, she didn’t notice at first. Then she did. They looked around for him, but the lady that runs the place right away called the cops because all the babies are in cribs so they shouldn’t be able to get out. They called Addie at the grocery store. She came straight away. He’s . . . he’s . . . Johnny.” Her voice dropped. “No one knows where he is.”
He heard Izzy’s sob in the background as he stepped out of his coveralls, kicking them away. “Where’s Addie now?”
“Fuck,” Toby hissed.
“That’s why we’re calling ’cause we’re trying to get there fast but you can get there faster and she’s lost it, Johnny. She’s a mess. You gotta get to the daycare.”
“On my way,” he said, sprinting toward the door of the bay, feeling Toby on his heels. “Tell Izzy I’m on my way. I’ll be there in five minutes. Yeah?”
“I’ll tell her, Johnny.”
“See you soon,” he said.
“Soon,” she said back, her voice cracking.
Fuck.
Deanna wasn’t hard but she was strong and she was one of the most together women he’d ever met. She wouldn’t break down in any situation.
Except this one.
He shoved the phone in his back pocket and dug his keys out of the front.
“Johnny!” Toby shouted from close at his back.
He stopped at his truck door and turned back to his brother. “Tell Ray we’re closing down the bay. The Meyers aren’t getting their car today. Then close down the bay, get in your truck and meet me at the daycare center.”
Toby’s face, already alert, blanked as he prepared to get shitty news.
“Brooks okay?” he asked.
“Brooks is missing.”
That was when he watched Toby’s face get hard.
Johnny didn’t hesitate longer.
He hauled open his door, knifed into his truck, started it up and took off.
Addie raced to him the minute she saw him enter the front doors of the daycare center, crying an agonized, “Johnny!”
When she made it to him, she hit him so hard he nearly went down and to stop it had to step back on a foot.
He put his arms around her, hers were around him, but she yanked them free and latched onto his neck so tight, her nails dug into the flesh. She snapped her head back and the first close look at her face cut through him like a blade.
“Someone took my baby,” she whispered.
“Okay, mäuschen,” he murmured. “I got ya. Hang tight.”
“I should have . . . I should have let Margot watch him,” she said.
“This is not your fault,” he returned firmly.
“I didn’t want to take advantage.”
“Addie, this is not your fault.”
“I didn’t . . . things were going so great with you and Iz, I didn’t want your family to think I was a freeloader.”’
Christ, the Forrester Girls.
“Adeline, listen to me,” he demanded. “It is not your fault.”
“They said, the staff said . . . they think he came in and hid. Waited for his chance.”
Shit.
“See, sweetheart, not your fault,” he told her. He lifted his eyes to the cops who came his way. “What’s happening?” he asked.
“This your girl, Johnny?” Cary, one of the cops and someone Johnny had known and liked since high school, asked with surprise in his voice, but also something deeper.
“Her sister,” he clipped. “Now what’s happening?”
Cary nodded. “Okay, just to assure you, we have men out looking.”
“Looking for what?” Johnny demanded.
“A man was seen entering the daycare. The way he did, the woman who saw him thought he was a dad. Though interviewing the staff, no one recognized his description. Also interviewing the staff, no one saw him. Not anywhere. But this woman, a lady that lives across the street, she hangs out on her porch. She saw him come in, and about twenty minutes later, she says he exited with a little boy. A baby. She thought it was peculiar because he didn’t have, well . . .” his gaze flicked to Addie, “a baby seat in his car.”
Addie’s nails dug in deeper and ice filled Johnny’s veins at the thought of Brooks unrestrained in a car.
“And this man? What’s he look like?” Johnny asked but didn’t wait for the answer. He looked down at Addie. “Did you tell them about Perry?”
She nodded.
“Kent?” he asked.
She blinked. “Kent?”
“Izzy’s ex.”
“Oh my God,” she breathed, brightened, took her hands from him and turned to the cops, babbling, “Kent. Kent’s crazy. Kent’s got a restraining order. Kent’s my sister’s ex. He’s tall. Not as tall as Johnny. Blond. Dark blond, not light. Like, almost red but not red. Blond. Mostly. And . . . and . . .”
“Text your sister, sweetheart,” he murmured. “Get her to send a picture of Kent.”
She nodded and dug her phone out of her pocket.
“The guy was redheaded,” Zach, the other cop, muttered. He was a man Johnny knew from having the occasional beer with him at Home but he was younger, younger than Toby, so he didn’t know him well.
Jesus, Izzy’s creepy ex kidnapped her fucking nephew.
Jesus, now he had to stop himself from murdering Izzy’s crazy fucking ex who had kidnapped Brooks.
“Johnny, can I have a sec?” Cary asked.
Johnny looked at him and did it closely.
What he saw made him turn back to Addie. “Gonna have a chat, sweetheart. You get that text, you show this man, yeah? I’ll be right back.”
She nodded again.
He curled his fingers around the back of her neck, gave it a squeeze, and hoped to Christ Toby was quick with closing that bay so someone would be with her that wasn’t a cop.
Then he followed Cary down a hall under the gaze of hovering staff members of the daycare center, most of their eyes red, all of them terrified.
When they were out of earshot, Cary stopped and turned to Johnny in a way that Johnny didn’t like because he had his back to Addie.
Cary didn’t fuck around.
“Because of her concern about the car seat, the lady took note of the make and model of the car and she got a partial plate. We ran what she got and the car that popped up was reported stolen in Missouri two weeks ago.”
Shit.
Was Izzy’s creepy ex that crazy?
“Also, Johnny,” Cary continued, “the description of the man given describes Stu.”
Johnny felt his gut drop, his heart constrict, his throat close and his hands form into fists.
Even though he couldn’t see most of it, Cary didn’t miss any of this.
“Keep it tight, Johnny,” he warned.
Stu.
Stuart.
Stuart Bray.
Shandra’s brother.
“You hear from him?” Cary asked.
“No,” Johnny forced out.
“Seen him?” Cary went on.
“No,” Johnny repeated tightly.
“Shandra?” Cary continued.
Johnny gave his head a short shake.
“Guy’s always been trouble,” Cary noted.
“Ransom,” he pushed out and saw Cary perk up.
“Say again?”
“He knows I got money. More than once Shandra came to me to get his ass out of a sling. I didn’t see him but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t out there, watching me. Half the time, before you step on it, you don’t see the snake in the grass. It’s only when you get too close does the copperhead give you warning.”
“That’s your girl’s sister. Her son—”
“Her son’s gonna grow up my nephew,” Johnny cut him off to say. “So yeah, he means something to me. He’s family. That would be hard to miss. We all go out together. We were out at JerryJack’s Diner for burgers just this last Thursday, me, Tobe, Iz, Addie and Brooks.”
They were.
Toby had Brooks most the time so Addie could eat.
But Johnny and Izzy had had him too.
He wasn’t passed around, as such. He crawled around because he could get away with that because he was a baby with four adults who thought he turned the world.
Cary’s eyes had wandered and Johnny twisted at the waist to see Toby was there and had Addie tucked tight to his body, her face buried in his chest.
“I see,” Cary muttered, and Johnny twisted back.
“She needs to get home and we need to get out there looking for him,” Johnny stated, and Cary’s gaze cut back to him.
“Johnny, take her home and let us worry about this.”
“Your nephew was kidnapped would you stay home with his mother?”
“I’m a cop,” Cary pointed out.
“And as such you would have no business working a case that personally involves you but you’d do it anyway, wouldn’t you?”
Cary gave him a squinty-eyed look, it cleared and he muttered, “Fuck.”
Johnny turned on his boot and stalked to his brother and Addie.
“You take her home. I’ll call Iz and Deanna and tell them to reroute there. Then I’ll call Dave and Margot to come over.”
“You wanna give me the lowdown?” Toby formed a question that was a demand.
“At Izzy’s. Let’s get her somewhere safe and familiar.”
Toby gave him a glower before he nodded and started to move Addie.
She stood solid and grabbed on to Toby’s tee. “What if they bring him back here?”
“They’re not gonna bring him back here, honey,” Toby whispered. “When he comes home, he’ll come home so let’s get you home. Yeah?”
She stared at him, her face searching then it set, and Johnny knew she was going to dig in but then it went slack and she said, “Yeah, Toby.”
Toby gave Johnny a look and led her out.
Johnny yanked his phone out of his jeans and followed them.
He made his first two calls quick, on the road, tailing Toby and Addie.
The last call he made, they were out of town, close to Izzy’s, and he pulled off to the shoulder to do it.
She answered after two rings.
“Johnny?”
“Cops at the daycare center where Eliza’s nephew was kidnapped this afternoon say the kidnapper looks like Stu.”
“Mother of God,” she whispered.
“You get ’hold of your fucking brother, Shandra, and you make him bring that boy to me.”
“Stu wouldn’t—”
“He would.”
“Not a baby.”
“He would.”
“And not you. He wouldn’t hurt you.”
“I’m not to you what I was before.”
“He still loves you and he knows I do too so he would never—”
“He needs money and he’s desperate and he’ll do anything he has to do to make sure one person is all right. Stu. Now you fucking call him, Shandra, and get me back my boy.”
“I’ll call him, Johnny. Right now.”
He didn’t thank her and he didn’t say goodbye.
He disconnected, checked his mirrors, pulled back on the road and drove to Izzy’s.
“You’ll get him?”
“I’ll get him.”
“You’ll bring him back?”
“I’ll bring him back.”
“You’ll bring him home?”
“I’ll bring him home, spätzchen.”
Eliza had hold on him almost like her sister except her hands were gripping his head right behind his ears and her body was pressed tight to his.
Her face was pale. Her eyes were haunted. And her hold was so hard, if she had it in her, she’d crush his head.
He’d had to tell her. He’d had no choice. When this was over, that was something he couldn’t keep from her and still keep her. So while Margot and Deanna saw to Addie in the kitchen, he’d taken her aside and told her. It was up to her if she shared.
But Eliza, like Toby and Dave, both he’d shared it with before she got home, knew he suspected Shandra’s brother.
That did not rock her or make her look at him with revulsion.
It made her visibly fill with hope.
But even if she could get past it, when he found Stu and beat him bloody, he’d still get another few licks in just for Johnny having to tell his woman his ex’s brother kidnapped their boy.
She yanked his head down so his forehead collided with hers.
Staring him in the eye, hers burning, she forced out a guttural, “Go.”
Then she released him.
He bent in quick to touch her mouth with his and he turned.
His eyes slicing through Toby, Dave and Charlie, who had arrived five minutes earlier, all of them standing close to Johnny and Izzy in her front hall, he growled, “Let’s roll.”
They followed him out of Izzy’s front door, across the porch and down the steps.
“Charlie, you’re with me. Dave, you’re with Toby,” Johnny ordered.
“We can spread out, cover more area if we all take our own trucks,” Toby returned.
He stopped and looked at his brother. “You know him. Before he went bad, you were friends with him. You know his hangouts, his friends, the women he’s been with, they don’t. You cover the ones east and north. We’ll cover the ones south and west. You run out of options, you call me and I’ll give you more. Ben’s out with a bud, he’s heading to that hunting cabin Shandra’s dad had. But this way, we get in a situation, it’s better two men against one than one man alone against whatever he’s got going on in his head. Be smart. Let Dave drive. You navigate. Now roll out.”
What he didn’t say was that it was also better that they found him. God only knew what Stu Bray would do if cornered by cops, and Johnny didn’t want Brooks anywhere near that situation. He was already having severe difficulty dealing with the situation as it stood. Stu trapped and desperate and Brooks with him, Johnny couldn’t even allow himself to contemplate.
Toby took a beat before he nodded then sprinted toward Dave’s truck, a truck Dave was already in and had running.
Johnny turned to Charlie. “You drive.”
“Gotcha,” Charlie grunted, not hiding he was keeping his shit together by a thread and that thread was unravelling.
They jogged to Charlie’s truck and both of them angled in.
Charlie was kicking up dust and gravel when he asked, “South or west first?”
“South,” Johnny told him. “Toby fill you in on who we’re looking for?”
“Yep.”
“Right. There’s a dive bar down south Stu hung out at.”
“He’d take a kidnapped baby to a dive bar?”
“He banged the owner on and off. She lives over it and he’d take Brooks there.”
“Right.”
Charlie peeled down Izzy’s drive.
When they made it down the lane to the road, he turned south.
“Jesus Christ, seriously?”
Her name was Sharlane. She still owned the dive bar. And as Johnny had thought practically every time he’d seen her, she’d be very pretty if she wasn’t so obviously hard as nails.
“Would I joke about that shit?” Johnny growled.
“The cops came by before you but they didn’t say why. Fucking hell.” She ended that on a mutter.
“Sharlane, his mom has known he’s been missing now for nearly two hours. If you got anything on Stu—” Johnny said.
She whipped out her phone. “Give me your number. I see him, I’ll call you, Johnny.”
“I walk out of here, I can trust that?” Johnny asked.
She pinned him with a look. “Left me high and dry with a bun in the oven, an abortion bill to pay and did it stealing seventy-three bucks from my wallet. He’s not gonna come back here. But if he’s stupid enough to do that, I’ll give him a place to hide out. Then my first call will be you. You’ll have five minutes, Johnny. Because my second call will be the cops.”
Right.
He could trust that.
And Johnny wondered briefly if Stu knocking up Sharlane was the reason he’d knocked over a bank three years ago.
If it was, he’d have taken her with him, not Shandra, or at least have left her some cash to cover the medical bills.
So Johnny figured he was doing what Stu did.
Fucked-up shit that was just about Stu.
He gave her his number and then said, “Obliged, Sharlane.”
“It goes down, it’ll be my pleasure, Johnny.”
Johnny gave Charlie a look and they headed out.
“He was seeing a single mother who worked at the bank in Bellevue,” Johnny told him when they were in the truck. He didn’t tell him the part about Stu seeing her to get intel on how to rob her bank. “Let’s head there.”
“Jesus, how many stupid bitches did this jackass bang?” Charlie asked, pulling out of the parking lot.
“We’ll just say it could be long night,” Johnny said as answer.
“We got a problem,” Charlie stated.
Johnny looked his way. “A bigger problem than Brooks missing?”
“No, but see, we actually find that jackass before the cops do, ain’t no way I’ll keep my hands off him and ain’t no way you’ll keep your hands off him. I think this same situation is happening in Dave’s truck. Dave’s an old guy but I figure he can haul out a can of some whoop ass, anyone harms anyone that you boys got in your hearts. Plus, he’s a dad. He cares about Brooks and Addie and he feels her pain. So we gotta make a pact and hope to Christ they’re making one in Dave’s truck too. But the way Toby is with that boy, I’m thinking there’s no prayer of that happening. But we can’t think on that. We gotta have a plan. So if I get there first, you gotta stop me from murdering him. If you do, I’ll stop you.”
“Don’t wade in too soon,” Johnny replied.
“Oh, I won’t,” Charlie promised.
They drove.
Johnny’s phone rang.
He pulled it out and his mouth got tight at the name on the screen.
He took the call and put the phone to his ear.
“Norma,” he began, “not sure what this is but—”
“I know,” she cut him off, “everyone knows, word about what’s happening spread through Home like a wildfire, ’spect it’s doing the same all through Matlock. So I’ll make this quick, son.”
“Obliged,” he muttered.
“I’m in my car. Sally’s in hers. We’re on the way to your woman’s place.”
Johnny did not like that at all.
“Norma—”
She spoke over him. “Folks are thinkin’ best way to help is get on the roads lookin’ for Stu. I can’t stop that. Others think best way to help is go see to your women. Sally and me disagree so just to say, we’re heading out to Eliza’s acres and we’re gonna park across her lane and send people on their way. Make sure they got privacy while you’re handlin’ this situation.”
Johnny hadn’t thought about word getting out or what that would mean.
But now confronted with it, he decided Sally was going to get much bigger tips from now until the last drink he drank at Home, and he didn’t know what he’d do for Norma, but it would be something.
“That’d be appreciated, Norma,” he replied. “But you hear anyone talking, they find Stu, they call me first. Don’t know what’s in his head, never did, but think he’ll react better he sees me or I can call Shandra in and he’ll listen to her.”
“Gotcha,” Norma replied. “I’ll spread that word. Find him, Johnny. Now letting you go.”
And then she did just that, disconnecting.
When Johnny took his phone from his ear, Charlie asked, “What was that?”
“Townsfolk of Matlock are getting in the hunt, which I can’t think about right now. But some are also thinking of heading out to make sure Adeline and Eliza are okay. Norma, woman who owns Home, is heading out with her bartender to barricade Izzy’s lane and shut that down.”
“Good,” Charlie murmured.
He drove.
Johnny sat next to him, trying to keep his shit together.
His phone rang.
Johnny lifted it and his heart squeezed at the name on the screen.
He took the call and put the phone to his ear.
“This better be what I want to hear.”
Mercifully, Shandra told him what he wanted to hear.
“Meet me at the shack. I have the baby. I’m so sorry, Jo—”
He cut her off. “My shack?”
“Yes,” she said softly.
“Stu took him to my shack?”
“I’m so, so sorry, Jo—”
“He there?”
“No.”
This was probably good.
“We’ll be there in twenty,” he told her.
“Okay.”
He hung up. “Swing a left at the first light in Bellevue. Shandra’s got Brooks. I’ll make the call to Dave and Toby but I’m not calling Izzy or the cops until we’ve got Brooks.”
“Jesus. Holy Christ. Lord, Lord, Lord,” Charlie whispered.
Johnny closed his eyes and focused on settling his heart.
This failed so he opened his eyes and said, “Can you go faster?”
Charlie was bigger than him and driving, so even though they both ran flat out, Johnny had his door open and was out of the truck before Charlie had come to a full stop, which meant he beat him to the porch.
He vaguely noticed the glass in the window of the door of the shack was busted.
He just ran in.
Shandra was standing five feet in, holding a fretting Brooks.
Johnny went right to her and pulled him out of her arms.
Brooks looked at him, hooked an arm around one side of his neck and buried his face in the other side.
He might be eight months old but he wasn’t dumb.
Johnny wrapped both arms around him and held him close.
“You’re home, son. It’s good,” he murmured.
Brooks nuzzled his face in Johnny’s neck like Izzy did to his chest.
And only then did Johnny’s heart settle.
Charlie was standing behind him and Johnny turned to him.
“Call them. Tell them he’s safe and we’re bringing him home.”
Charlie nodded, shot a dark look at Shandra and walked out.
“Johnny,” she said.
He turned to her.
“This isn’t on you,” he said.
“I still feel—”
“But swear to Christ, Shandra, if you don’t impress on him that me, Izzy, Addie, Toby, Margot, Dave, anyone who has dick to do with me as well as the entire town of Matlock is off limits to him, I will hunt him down myself and I’ll make sure that message is received and then I’ll deliver his ass to the goddamned police.”
“He’s in a spot.”
Was she fucking serious?
“I don’t give a fuck.”
“I’m not defending him,” she returned. “I told you we were done. This wasn’t the last straw. That already happened. I’ve already called the police and told them what happened and where I suspect he’ll go. He handed over the baby and took off. If I thought I could get the baby safe and keep him here, I would have done it so they could arrest him here. But I had to look after the baby and he knows you. He didn’t hang around.”
“Your brother kidnapped a baby to hold him for ransom.”
Her eyes filled with tears.
“Get out of Matlock, Shandra. Not for me. Not so you won’t have to watch what’s gonna happen next with me and Eliza. For you. Scrape your brother off, your folks off and find something for you. You don’t, they’ll find ways to keep dragging you down while tearing pieces from you and you’ll be buried in shit with nothing left.”
“I should never have gone with him,” she whispered, tears wetting her cheeks.
“No, you shouldn’t have,” Johnny agreed.
And still holding Brooks close, he turned and walked out of the shack.
Norma saw them coming and she ran to her truck while Sally jogged to her car to jump in and then pull them back so they could drive right in.
Toby and Dave were already there.
Everyone was hanging on the front porch, but it was only Addie who came racing off it toward Charlie’s truck.
Charlie swung a sharp left and stopped a truck-length away from the other vehicles in order not to hit her.
Johnny opened his door and had barely stepped out before Brooks was pulled from his arms.
Brooks did exactly what he did with Johnny to his mother as she cupped the back of his head, held him tight, and swung him side to side, her lips to his baby fuzz, tears streaming down her cheeks.
“Come on, darlin’, come on, child,” Margot whispered, arms around Addie, gently pulling her around. “Let’s get this precious bundle inside, give him a once-over and get some food in his belly. Come, come, come on, my beautiful girl.”
Addie moved with her and Margot’s gaze lifted to Johnny’s. Relief and pride were stamped in it.
They walked away and Izzy touched her sister’s hair as Addie passed her.
Johnny slammed his door, walked to his woman and stopped.
He looked down at her face.
Tears were streaming down her cheeks too.
“I love you,” he said.
Sunlight and moonshine and honey and song and love shone in her face.
“I know,” she replied.
Right then, a police car pulled up the lane.
“Right, out,” Cary said into the speaker at his shoulder.
He looked back to Johnny.
They were alone outside Izzy’s house.
“They caught him on 36. High speed chase. He lost control, ended up in a ditch, tried to run through a field, they ran him down. He’s in custody. And to get back to what we were talking about, he’ll be goin’ down for kidnapping, vehicular theft as well as bank robbery, Johnny. But he’d have been doing that last before you shared what you just shared. We knew.”
Johnny stared into his eyes.
“The bank teller he was doing came in the day after. She wasn’t sure, but since he wrote her a note she thought was about him disappearing, but then reconsidered, she suspected. Shandra took off, leaving you, we looked into shit, gathered the evidence, of which that moron left plenty, we knew,” Cary went on.
Johnny jerked up his chin.
“But I’m glad you told me,” Cary said low, referring to the conversation Johnny had been having with him before his radio squawked. “It wouldn’t have meant anything. Hearsay. You had no physical evidence. It would have just sealed a deal on a slippery felon who’d already had the deal sealed on him. Though I wish you’d have come forward earlier.”
“Shandra gonna get fucked in this?” he asked.
“That’s for the DA to decide. She aided and abetted a bank robber. But no one was harmed during the robbery and everyone knows how screwed in the head that family is. Shandra’s the only decent one in the lot. Everyone thought she’d make her way clear bein’ with you. Pretty much everyone reckoned, Stu disappeared, she did too, he dragged her down all the same.”
“For what it’s worth, she tried to get him to turn himself in.”
Cary nodded. “I’ll talk to the chief and the DA. Chief’s lived in Matlock thirty years longer than me. I reckon he knows the tale of woe of Shandra and Stuart Bray. She might get slapped on the wrist. Worst, community service. But I doubt that, since she got Brooks Forrester and called it in, giving up her brother. Two wrongs don’t equal a right. But one wrong and one right makes you even.”
It was Johnny who nodded then.
Cary looked to the house. “Glad this had a happy ending.”
“Yeah, me too,” Johnny muttered, even though “glad” was not the word he would have used.
Cary looked back at him. “No, Johnny. For that baby, goes without sayin’ I’m glad he’s home safe. But I’m also talking about another happy ending.”
Johnny just stared at him.
Cary grinned. “She as sweet as they say?”
“She’s the world.”
Cary blinked.
Then he smiled.
Then he clapped Johnny on the arm and headed to his cruiser.
Johnny watched him get in and drive away.
And he watched Izzy’s empty lane, assessing the calm of his heart, making sure it was still there.
He felt her arm curl around his waist and her weight lean into him.
He lifted an arm to wrap around her shoulders and kept his eyes on the lane.
“You told him, didn’t you?” she asked.
Fuck yes, he did. If it meant just a month more on Stu’s sentence, he was going to spill.
“Yup.”
“Are you gonna get in trouble?”
“Nope.”
“Angry you didn’t get the chance to beat the crap outta him?”
“Yup.”
“Me too,” she whispered.
That was when he looked down at her.
She lifted blue eyes up to him and gave his waist a squeeze.
“It’s all good, häschen, let’s go inside.”
“All right, baby.”
She didn’t move.
She called, “Johnny?” like she wasn’t staring straight at him.
“Yeah?” he answered anyway.
“Ich liebe dich auch.”
He kept looking at her.
Then he busted out laughing.
But while doing it, he curled his Eliza to his front and he kissed her.