Randy eyed the cops, and nodded slowly. “Right. I should have warned you.”
“But, I am aware that, as my superior, you have access to information I do not and have to make decisions without my knowledge, so I assume you attending the wedding was part of that other investigation?”
Randy nodded. “It’ll be in my report, Agent McConnell.”
“Mine, too, sir,” Luke said. A volume of unspoken words passed between them.
Randy broke eye contact first. “I’ll just... there’s a thing... debriefing... excuse me.” Randy walked off, shouting instructions to the clean-up crew, and generally getting in their way.
The cops looked at each other and shrugged.
Then just like that Dani and Luke were alone. And free.
Safe.
For the first time in weeks.
“So, that’s it?” Dani asked. The sun was beginning to set, great streaks of gold running into red blazed from the woods. It lit her hair like a halo of golden fire. “He just gets away with it?”
“Yeah,” Luke said, not liking it any better than she did. “And David gets help.” Luke reached out to caress her cheek, and she leaned into the touch. “Forget him,” Luke said. “He can walk for all I care.” He shook his head. “You know what? I don’t care. I don’t care about any of it, not tonight.”
“But...” Dani looked up at him. Her eyes seemed different somehow, under the deepening sunset, a soft cornflower blue, he decided. Moist, bright, quick, her eyes felt like they were taking him in, like he was falling and never wanted to land. “What about my father?” She hesitated, her eyes bright with unshed tears. “My... mother...?”
“There are a lot of people looking for your father now. With Benny dead, there’s going to be a vacuum in the power levels, half the people who ran away today are going to try to move in to take over his operation. Your father is the only one who’s a serious challenge to the underground after all this. From what I’ve seen, there have been some pretty serious arrests in the wake of this little party. They caught a whole slew of men just lying around with fairly minor injuries. The rest... that’s all just a matter of time. We’ll look for your mother. If she’s alive, we’ll find her. I promise.”
She nodded, needing to be content with that. Then she stopped cold and stared at him as the rest of what he’d said sunk in. “Wait... what are you saying? That my father could take over the Mafia?”
Luke shrugged. “It’s up to him. He could have a good claim to the head of the syndicate himself. He’s got the money, the manpower, the connections. You could literally end up being a mafia princess before this is over.”
Dani made a decidedly un-princess-like noise.
“Or not.” Luke laughed. “Or, he could turn evidence. He could probably do as much wholesale destruction of the who’s who of crime as that bomb Benny tried to use. He’s in a lot of danger right now, and the only one who can determine the extent of the trouble he’s in is him. Don’t forget that damn USB stick that’s supposed to have all the evidence in the world...”
“That stupid thing.” Dani leaned against him. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “Can I confess that I was happy Katie destroyed it?”
“Well...” Luke kissed the top of her head. “She destroyed a copy of it.”
Dani stepped back and stared at him. “I thought David said you couldn’t copy an encrypted drive?”
“Encryption mixes the device with the software, so the operating system sees them both as a single piece.” Luke nodded. “Except a version of Linux. That separates the two, allowing the file to be copied. Katie destroyed a copy.”
“So where’s the original?”
Luke took her hand, stuck out his elbow, and placed her hand on his arm. Like ancient royalty in tattered and filthy court attire, they strode through the wreckage of the chapel grounds, nodding to the commoners who ran here and there, most of them hauling dead bodies away.
“Right now, honey,” he said, emphasizing the word, and waiting for her reaction. “My goodness, what an elegant snort. Hey! Last time you hit me like that I went off prematurely.”
“You’re insufferable.” She leaned against him.
“And filthy,” Luke agreed. “I need a shower.” He stopped at Benny’s car and pulled the keys out of his pocket with a flourish. “And so do you.”
“I do, do I?” Dani’s eyebrow seemed to climb up her forehead.
“You do. Let’s split one.”
Dani’s grin grew wide, and she even giggled. “Do you know...” she whispered, looking around, “the house will actually be empty? That big place and just the two of us.”
“Good!” Luke held the door open. “I propose a game of strip tennis.”
Dani laughed. “I don’t care, just so long as you propose.”
Luke walked around and got in behind the wheel, not even deigning to give a response to that. “Just think. Tomorrow...” He turned and leered comically in her general direction, “or the day after that, you can meet my family.”
Dani blinked from the sudden change in subject. “Your...”
“It’s only fair.” Luke pulled the car out of the spot and drove over the grass, around the tow truck drivers trying to untangle the knot at the exit. “You have to give my family a chance to kidnap you and beat you up.”
Dani started to giggle.
“Besides, we need to decide, do we get kidnapped by my family for Thanksgiving and yours for Christmas, or just beat ourselves up for the holidays and send them all cards.”
Dani laughed. Luke decided it was the sweetest sound he’d ever heard.
“Just our luck,” Dani said, stretching on the seat. “None of this is really over just yet, is it?”
Luke reached over and took her hand. “But it’s our luck. It’s up to us to make it good. It ain’t over. Not by a long shot,” he said, and pulled out onto the highway.
THE END