Page 103 of Holding on to Chaos
She nodded. “I’m sorry.”
“Me, too. Do you want to hit me too?”
Eva shook her head. “No, but maybe a hug would help.”
Beckett swept her off her feet and squeezed.
“Okay, that’s enough,” Donovan said, breaking up the embrace and dragging Eva out of Beckett’s arms.
“What the hell is going on out here?” Gia demanded from the porch.
“Beckett walked into Donovan’s fist, and everyone is friends again,” Niko reported.
“Imbeciles,” Emma muttered.
“Next time go for a body shot. I have two consults tomorrow,” Beckett groaned touching the swelling under his eye.
“So, how are we going to figure out how to keep Dad from finding out about this,” Gia asked. “It’s going to be all over town that Eva’s house was broken into.”
“Shit,” Emma said succinctly.
“Maybe we can say that it was just a random act of planetary crossing?” Eva wondered.
Niko closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. “I’m sorry. Are you guys saying you don’t think your father needs to know about Agnes?”
“Ofcoursehe doesn’t need to know,” Emma argued, gesturing wildly with her hands. “Things are so good for him right now; if we spring this on him—”
Donovan slapped the handcuffs on her before she could even finish her sentence. “I’m gonna take a raincheck on that ice,” he told Beckett.
“What the hell, Cardona?” Emma growled in her best manager voice.
“Donovan! Stop it!” Eva reached for his arm. But he caught her wrists easily enough and slid the zip ties over her hands. Gia took a step toward them as if she was going to help but changed her mind and ducked behind Beckett.
Beckett dragged her out. “Baby, you know that I love you more than anything in this world, but you were enraged at Eva for keeping this from you. Now, you want to do the same thing to your father.”
“Beckett Pierce! You and your hulking bodyguard can release me right now because I’m going to murder you both!”
Beckett kissed Gia on the cheek and handed her over. “Good luck, Sheriff.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
Eva watched Niko waving from the curb as Donovan pulled out of the driveway with the three Merill sisters in the backseat. Emma flicked off her husband despite her bound wrists. Immediately they exploded as one. They were loud and angry and half Italian. Donovan did the only thing he could. He turned the stereo up.
“Where are you taking us?” Eva demanded. If Donovan Cardona thought that he could just arrest her and take her to jail, he had another thing coming.
“Your boyfriend is going to be in so much trouble when these cuffs come off,” Emma snarled.
“He’s clearly lost his damn mind,” Gia muttered. “Maybe we should wave something out the window so everyone will know we’re in distress.”
“Good idea,” Eva rolled into Emma’s lap and tried to raise her foot up to the crack in the window.
Donovan, smiling to himself, closed the windows. The yelling in the backseat increased.
“Who’s got a cell phone on them?” Eva asked. “Maybe we can call someone?”
“Who can we call? Donovan is the law. Who’s going to rescue us from an insane sheriff?” Emma groaned.
“You can’t arrest us,” Eva tried again, leaning up against the divider between the front and back seats. “We didn’t do anything illegal.”
