Fate Actually (Moonstone Cove #2) - Elizabeth Hunter Page 0,90
She kicked his arms as he covered his head. “You think it’s okay to terrify children?”
She was aiming for his head when Henry grabbed her around the waist and lifted her up and away from the man on the floor.
Megan reached for a pile of rope in the corner, and the end flew to her hand. She looked over at Nico as she held the rope with one hand and the semiautomatic pistol in the other. “Do you know how to tie stuff?”
Nico’s eyes were saucers. “How did you—?”
“Can you tie shit up or not?” Megan wasn’t playing. “Henry, do you hear Baxter and Katherine and my kids?”
“I don’t. Sorry, I’m kind of trying to—”
“Let me fucking down I’m going to kill him!” Toni screamed and twisted in Henry’s arms. “I’m gonna kill that piece of shit!”
Nico took the rope from Megan and started tying Ruben up. “What the hell is going on right now?”
A small part of Toni recognized that she’d absorbed all the anger of a homicidal maniac who thought dynamite was a viable solution to his problems, but she had a hard time feeling her way around it like she had with Henry.
Henry yelled, “Nico, I’m gonna take her out of here.”
“Okay.” Nico’s gaze kept shooting to Megan while he tied Ruben up. “How did you do that?”
“Can we talk about it later?”
Henry carried Toni out of the cave and into the light where he finally set her down. Toni ran back toward the cave portal, but he just spun her around again.
“Do I need to throw you in the creek?” He was scratching his head, clearly trying to figure out how to get her out of the murderous rage. “Toni, you’re gonna have to help me out on this one. I don’t know what to do.”
“I don’t know either!”
“Maybe you should run back to your house.”
“Run all the way back?”
“Try it.” He waved her toward the road. “Last time, getting you really exhausted helped. I’ll run with you. We’ll find Baxter and Katherine on the way.”
They ran toward the road and spotted the truck’s dust in the distance. Baxter, Katherine, and Megan’s kids were already halfway to Toni’s house, which meant they’d be able to call the police soon.
When they were nearly halfway to the house, Toni started to feel sick to her stomach. “Henry?”
“Yeah?”
“I think I’m going to throw up, and I don’t know if it’s because of the baby or the crazy murderer I just sucked the emotions out of.”
“Either way,” he said, “you’ll probably feel better if you puke. This might be the one case where it’s better coming up than going down.”
She was panting when she ran to the edge of the vineyard and puked her guts out. Breakfast, dinner, and lunch the day before. It was all gone.
And she felt… oddly better. Still revved with way more adrenaline than was probably healthy, but she didn’t feel murderous anymore.
“Oh God.” She heaved one more time, but there was nothing left. “I think I threw up all of Ruben’s breakfast too. Not sure how that’s possible, but there’s no other explanation.”
Henry stayed beside her, rubbing her back and holding out a bottle of water.
“How did I know” —he was panting from the run— “that I’d never be bored if I fell in love with you?”
“Probably the same way I instinctively knew it was a good idea to fall in love with someone large enough to physically remove me if I tried to kick an asshole to death.” She took a giant mouthful of water and spit it out before she lifted her face to Henry’s. “Kiss?”
He put his hand on her head and turned her face away. He couldn’t stop laughing even while he was panting. “You are so weird, and I don’t know why I like you so much, but I do.”
Toni smiled when she heard sirens in the distance. “Come on, Henry. This day just got interesting.”
Epilogue
Two months later…
The party was at Toni’s, and she and the kids were the only ones not drinking. The flagstone patio under the oak trees had been cleared, and lights were hung in the trees. Nico brought wine from the barrels they’d just started bottling at the winery, and Toni’s mother and sisters brought mountains of pasta and salad while Henry and her father cooked an entire side of beef.
Katherine and Megan sat down at the old wooden table Toni had rescued from the barn.
“The place looks amazing,” Megan said. “The garden is perfect.”