He gathered Helia and Kendall in his arms as the truck bounced along the dirt path back to the courtyard, slowing only to let the arriving fire trucks pass. Harry, Vanessa, and Patrick rushed over as soon as Kaden pulled to a stop.
“The ambulance is on the way,” Patrick said as Vanessa and Harry climbed into the bed of the truck.
Monk adjusted his seat, pulling Helia across his lap and Kendall against his side. Lying his head against the back of the cab, he inhaled a small breath of fresh air, the cool, clean scents filling his body. He fought not to cough, but even if he ended up in a coughing fit to end all coughing fits, it was a price he’d happily pay for this moment. This moment with Helia alive, her chest moving in and out against his, and Kendall tucked into his side.
“Collin.”
Helia’s voice pulled him away from his moment of gratitude. Dragging his eyelids open, he looked at her.
“Kelly?”
His gaze flickered to Philly, Lovell, and Dulcie. He’d been focused on her and had no idea if the rest of the plan had fallen into place.
Philly grinned. “You were right, woman. Kelly didn’t know how to drive a manual.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
Monk sat on his bed, fingering the piece of paper he’d pulled from an envelope Leo had given him that morning. Kendall and Helia were in the lodge room playing darts with Viper and Lina while the others lounged around the fire, picked at what little was left of Dottie’s coffee cake, or tidied up after the spree of present opening that morning.
As he hoped, his family hadn’t gone overboard with Kendall. Instead of each giving her a gift, they’d pooled resources and had Leo pick out a new laptop. In truth, they each could have bought her one, but she seemed to like the idea that it came from all of them. There were, of course, other gifts—the six from him and Helia, as well as a few bits and bobs in a stocking Dottie had made and that hung beside the others by the time they arrived after Christmas Eve dinner.
A text dinged on his phone, and he set the paper aside and pulled the device out. A short message from Reaper letting him know Pena, Haines, and Peterson had been charged and were being held without bail. As was Greg and a few other folks from the valley he didn’t know, along with two dozen from Miami he’d have no reason to know.
Kelly’s little stunt had sped up the DEA’s timeline by several days, but thankfully, it hadn’t impacted the case overall. His team had scrambled more than Reaper liked, but not more than they were capable of.
As for Derek, he folded before they’d taken him into custody. As Agent Perry had said, he wasn’t involved in the drug ring, just stupid enough to give Kelly ammunition to blackmail him. Apparently, during some postcoital pillow talk between the two that Monk had no wish to picture, Derek had told Kelly that the winning lottery ticket he’d purchased wasn’t actually his. His bedridden uncle had given him the cash and asked him to buy one last ticket, knowing he wasn’t long for this world. Derek had thought the old man a bit on the crazy side but had agreed to make the run to the local convenience store because it got him out of the house, which smelled, according to Derek, like a cross between a hospital and a porta-potty. His uncle had died before the numbers were drawn, and Derek, stand-up guy that he was, hadn’t mentioned the ticket to anyone, let alone anyone named in the man’s estate.
Armed with this information, Kelly had blackmailed him to get close to Heliaandbreak into Bacco to find Roger’s hidden stash. After all, once she got rid of Greg and took over the ring, she’d need easy access to the Sundaram kitchen. Or she’d need someone else—Weber—with easy access to the kitchen.
They’d charged Derek with fraud and theft and a few other things, along with his cousin, who’d been with him at Bacco that day. Monk hadn’t bothered to read through the laundry list attached to the arrests. As far as he was concerned, their role was over, and now they could focus on moving on with their lives and damage control for Sundaram. Thankfully, Reaper and team had done what he’d hoped and been very clear in their public statements that Sundaram had willingly and proactively and at great risk to themselves reached out to the DEA oncethey’d realized what was going on. They didn’t paint the Shaws as heroes; that wouldn’t have stood up to scrutiny given that the case had started long before Helia was dragged into it, but they did emphasize their integrity and courage. It might not stop all the backlash, but it would help.
A soft knock came at his door, and he called for whoever it was to come in. The knob turned, and Kendall poked her head in. “You okay? Wanna come play a game of pool? I’ll suck, because I’ve never played, but it might be a laugh.”
He stared at her, tracing the lines of her face. She frowned at the scrutiny and stepped inside. “You’re being weird.”
He huffed a laugh. “C’mere,” he said, gesturing to a spot beside him on the bed.
She eyed him, then crossed the room and sat.
He picked up the paper and once again fingered it. “I have one more…” What did he say? He saw it as a gift, but he wasn’t sure she would. “Thing to give you.”
“You’ve already given me enough stuff,” she protested.
His eyes dropped to the top sheet. “This isn’t a thing; well, it’s not a tangible thing. Not in the way I can wrap it up and gift to you.”
Tweenage exasperation crept into her eyes, but before it traveled from her expression to out her mouth, he handed the document over. She took it without shifting her gaze from his, annoyance morphing into concern.
“Read it,” he said.
She held his gaze another four seconds, then dropped it to the paper. His blood grew thick as it thumped through his body, his heart thudding in a slow, heavy rhythm.
He counted his heartbeats as she studied the information. Twenty-six passed before her eyes met his again.
“Is this real?”
He nodded. “Leo found your birth certificate after he told us about your mom. He wanted to be very sure that the information it contained was truthful, so he managed to get samples while we were in Napa and ran a rushed DNA test. These results came back this morning.”
He held his breath as he waited for her response.
