I managed to lie on my stomach, latching onto the outer edge of the floorboard. I peered down and saw that Dillon had Grace in his arms.
Thank you, Lord.
Suddenly, the car began to lower, but my pulse rate didn’t.
I sighed loudly, almost screaming as I hung my head.
The car finally touched the ground, and I didn’t move, my mind processing what my next move should be. I needed to see Duke. I needed to make sure he was okay. That talk with Gwen began to seep into my synapses. The one in which she’d said I could have it all but wouldn’t like the outcome. I didn’t have it all. I hadn’t found answers on Jason’s death, but with my assignment officially over, I never would. On top of that, I hadn’t brought Duke and the cartel down. I didn’t see a truckload of guns. No evidence. No jail time.
The only thing I’d accomplished was falling for the enemy.
“Joy, are you okay?” Denim was suddenly beside me.
I lifted my head. “I’m fine. Go see your sister.” I needed a moment.
“Lou Romano is staked to a metal pipe. He fell out of the cab.” He pointed at an area near the crane. “Look, about your?—”
“Fallyn,” a familiar voice shouted.
Denim’s brow furrowed at the sound of my real name. Whatever he was about to say would have to wait. I was sure the Harts would have words for me at some point.
“Seems my team is here,” I mumbled as I climbed out of the shell of the car on shaky legs.
Denim jogged off as Gwen ambled up in full ATF gear.
Her blue eyes assessed me. “You look like hell.”
“I feel like it too.” I sat on the edge of the car’s floorboard. “I couldn’t wait for you. I had to be a fly on the wall for that meeting. But after I climbed through the bathroom window and listened in, the situation started to grow out of hand. Mateo had a gun to Rosario’s daughter’s head. I had to do something.”
She hooked her thumbs in her bulletproof vest. “You’ll have to answer to Kyle for that. I’m not here to scold you. I was worried about you, though, when you didn’t answer my calls.”
“I think I dropped my phone when I fell over a pipe on the back side of the building. Did you see Duke? Grace?”
“Paramedics are taking them both to the hospital, along with Rosario’s daughter.”
“Is he alive?” I held my breath.
“So far. Hopefully, they can get him to the hospital in time. It seems he lost a lot of blood.”
“I shot him,” I said. “If he dies, I don’t know what I’ll do.” I dug my nails into my palms, swallowing my emotions. “He saved me, though. He threw himself between Mateo and me just as Mateo and I pulled our triggers.”
She cocked her head. “So who killed Mateo?”
“Rosario. When I broke up the meeting, she didn’t have a weapon in sight, but she had one in her coat pocket. Everything happened so fast. Duke was the only one who dropped his gun. Do you have Rosario in custody? I ran out of the building after Duke, leaving her inside with her daughter.” Something I shouldn’t have done, but I was concerned about Duke.
She nodded. “Ted has Rosario in the back of his cruiser.”
A shudder racked my body as I pushed out a sigh.
“Duke planned all this with Detective Hughes,” Gwen said. “The one thing Duke didn’t see coming was you.”
That had clearly been evident by the shock on Duke’s face when he’d whirled his weapon in my direction. “We don’t have the truckload of guns. I recall Mateo saying he sold them.”
“What happened here will have consequences for Duke and Rosario,” she said. “It might not be the prison time we’d hoped for, but there is a crate of guns in that building. I would suspect Duke is probably looking at five years or less, considering he brought Detective Hughes into the mix. Rosario, on the other hand, might be brought up on charges for Mateo’s death.”
“Her lawyer could argue she was stopping Mateo from firing his weapon again. If he had, I might be dead. I lost all thought when Duke went down.”
“You did your job, Fallyn. What happens from here is out of our hands. We should get you checked out.”
