Page 98 of Finally Mine
“Get it up higher into his arm hair,” Gloria suggested. Her breath returned, coming in short ragged gasps. She collapsed against the wall, the skillet still in her hand.
Harper rolled to look at her, and their eyes met. The first giggle slipped out, and there was no stopping it. It was contagious. One by one, they all slid to the floor in a loose pile, shaking with laughter and adrenaline. Lola limped over, pausing to lick each one of them, reassuring herself that they were all okay.
The front door exploded off of its hinges and crashed to the floor, narrowly missing Sophie. Aldo and Ty tumbled through the door. Ty, with his gun drawn, and Aldo, with rage in his eyes.
They all froze. Aldo’s gaze found her, and Gloria felt it like a force field surrounding her. Safe. She was safe.
“You could have come in through the window,” Harper wheezed.
It was deathly silent for two seconds that felt like minutes. And then Sophie and Harper exploded in peals of hysterical laughter. Ty clambered over them to kick the knife away from Glenn’s still body.
Gloria wondered if she’d actually killed him. Was she a murderer? Was she going to go to jail now? Oh, the irony.
Her downward mental spiral was abruptly cut off by strong arms banding around her like steel. She relaxed into the safety of Aldo’s grasp. He was here. He’d showed up when she needed him most. And so had she.
“Are you okay?” his voice was rough with emotion. She could feel his heart racing in his massive chest.
She let the pan slide from her hand and fall to the floor, wrapping her arms around Aldo.
“I’m good. So good.”
53
The big bastard was awake and fighting his restraints with the desperation of a man who knew he’d never again see daylight.
Bellowing like a wounded bear, Glenn lowered his shoulder and lumbered at Ty. Ty let the man hit him like a limping freight train.
Aldo saw the opening and didn’t question it. He threw a roundhouse to Glenn’s jaw, knocking the big man back into the wall, where he slid to the floor. Ty got up, brushed himself off. “That’s all you get, my friend.” He stepped between Aldo and the dazed Glenn.
“It’s not enough,” Aldo rasped.
“No, it’s not. But now we get to add resisting arrest and assaulting an officer to the charges.”
Ty hauled Glenn up to his feet and handed him over to a pair of uniforms. “Get this asshole outta my sight.”
Glenn howled with rage on his way out the front.
Aldo watched from the porch as the man who’d tortured the woman he loved for years was hauled off in the back seat of a cop car, out of their lives forever.
The woman he loved.If he’d had any doubt, tonight had brought things into crystal clear clarity. He loved Gloria Rosemarie Parker.
He flexed his fingers, relishing the pain. Glenn Diller deserved a hell of a lot more than one quick shot to the mouth, and Aldo knew he’d have to live with the regret for the rest of his life. Sometimes karma didn’t let you be the instrument you longed to be. Aldo knew he would also spend the rest of his life reliving the moment he and Ty knocked the door down together. He still wasn’t convinced she was safe.
She was inside, surrounded by first responders, giving a statement to the state police. She was safe. But he couldn’t tell his body that. Not when it was in the midst of a full-blown adrenaline dump. His heart hammered in his chest as if he’d just sprinted a marathon. Blood rushed in and out of his head, his breath coming in short stabs. He felt like he was underwater and fighting for oxygen.
“Little Gloria Parker knocked ‘em out cold with a fry pan,” an EMT was saying to one of the neighbors that had lined up on the sidewalk eager to witness the gruesome spectacle of domestic violence.
Through the sea of adrenaline that separated him from everyone and everything, Aldo thought that Gloria would appreciate the fact that she hadn’t been referred to as “poorlittle Gloria Parker” this time. One home run swing of a cast iron skillet had banished that adjective forever.
She’d taken the stand she’d needed to. But Aldo couldn’t forgive himself for being late. He hadn’t been here when she needed him most.
And he didn’t care how alpha or selfish it sounded, he’d wanted to be the one to end Glenn Diller’s reign of terror.
But he hadn’t.
Gloria had.
He went to her. Needing to reassure himself that she was okay, that she was still here.
