“It’s just me!” Axel shouted. It took a moment for them to quit screaming, and then Ella’s body began shaking as she realized they were safe.
“The ambulance will be here in just a minute. Is everyone alert?” Axel asked, his hands running over Ella as he looked in on her first.
“We all seem to be fine, just shaken up,” Reese replied.
There was a pause before Ella turned and looked at Axel with suspicion. “Were you following me?”
“Yes, I was,” he said, sending her a glare.
A myriad of words passed through her brain, and then the ones that came out shocked her, Axel, and her friends. “Thank you.”
He was going to say something when his phone beeped and he looked down. Then he looked up and smiled at her, his real smile. “We got him, Ella. Maverick was with me, and I jumped from the car when he went after the van while calling the cops. He pushed Wade off the road and the cops are already there. This bastard is going down, along with his boss, and you won’t have to worry about him anymore.”
Emotions flooded Ella, but it wasn’t all joy. They’d caught the grunt Felix had hired to harass her, and now that he was surely going to jail, it was unlikely he’d be able to afford to hire anyone else. But didn’t that mean she didn’t need Axel around anymore? She should be consumed with happiness, but instead she found herself close to tears.
Maybe it was that she was in shock. She really didn’t know. And she didn’t get a chance to say anything else because the paramedics showed up, and after checking all three of them, they were told they’d be sore, but other than that, they were fine.
It was time to go home. And it might just be time to say good-bye forever to the man for whom she was falling hopelessly.
“I find your actions despicable, Mr. Monsone. You, as an attorney, may think you’re above the law, but I guarantee you that you are not. The jury has come in with your sentence—guilty—and I’m enforcing the maximum time afforded by the law, twenty-five years.”
The courtroom erupted at Felix Monsone’s verdict. Ella thought this moment would bring her joy, thought this was what she needed for closure on a bad chapter in her life, but she felt oddly numb as she sat there and watched the man who had threatened her, tried to intimidate her, and tried to kill her. She felt slight relief that he’d be behind bars, but other than that, she felt nothing.
“Let’s go.”
Turning, she found Axel holding out his hand—and still she felt nothing in this moment. It was quite odd, really. She looked back at Felix and their eyes met, his expression nasty, his mouth compressed. Then he lifted his hand and swiped it across his throat. Still, she felt nothing.
“Don’t worry about that scumbag. He’s going where he belongs, and now he’ll be behind bars with several unhappy people he helped put there, along with the people he sold out while trying to make a deal,” Axel said.
“Yes, he’ll be where he belongs,” she echoed, her voice a monotone.
Rising from her seat, she took Axel’s hand and allowed him to lead her from the courtroom. Why was she so stoic? Why couldn’t she feel anything? As they walked from the courthouse, she followed him to his SUV, grateful he was there to shield her from the reporters trying to ask her questions, not that she could hear them past the strange buzzing in her ears.
It all seemed so surreal. The trial had been so fast. She’d been warned it could take months, and instead it had begun and ended within two weeks. All the while, Axel had barely left her side, especially after the car crash, even though that had landed Wade in jail, where he couldn’t harm her.
“You didn’t have to stick around after Wade was arrested,” she said with a brittle laugh that sounded anything but humorous.
Was this the reason she was so upset? Now that the case was over, now that her ex was moving into his new luxury accommodations, she wouldn’t have an excuse to have Axel around. She’d just begun thinking of him as her . . . well, as her boyfriend.
But he wasn’t, was he? They’d never defined their relationship. Yes, they went out on dates, and yes, they made love often, but they’d never spoken of exclusivity or anything regarding their future.
Was he going back to the FBI? She had all these questions, but for some reason she was afraid to ask him. Maybe because then he’d have to answer. And what if she didn’t like what he had to say?
“Why don’t we go have a drink and celebrate this victory,” Axel suggested.
“No, I think I’m just going to go home,” she answered.
He paused for a moment and she couldn’t read at all what he was thinking. “That might be best. It’s been a trying day,” he said, turning the SUV around and making his way back toward her place.
“Yeah,” she said automatically. Not really. It should’ve been a trying day and her ex should be all that was on her mind right now, but he was almost an afterthought.
All she seemed to care about was what was going to happen between Axel and her. How could she have become so dependent on one person in barely a month? It made absolutely no sense.
He pulled into the driveway and she reached out a hand to stop him from exiting the car. “I really need to be alone right now.”
Axel was silent for several seconds while he turned and looked at her. “I don’t know if that’s such a good idea. You seem to be in shock, Ella.”
His words sent a sliver of emotion through her—anger. She was grateful for that. It was so much better than feeling numb.