Finlay Donovan Jumps the Gun (Finlay Donovan, #3)(92)

Nick holstered his gun. He limped forward, reaching into his pocket for his cuffs.

A gust of wind caught Stu’s coat. One side of it blew open; the other seemed held in place, weighed down by something in the pocket. My eyes shot wide as I remembered Wade’s gun.

I shouted Nick’s name as Stu reached inside his coat. He pulled the gun and turned it on Nick. With the uninhibited conviction of an impassioned five-year-old, I hurled myself toward Stu and threw my arms around his legs, remembering the lessons I’d learned that week, about survival and size and not second-guessing yourself when you’re ready to pull the trigger. About not holding back. The force of my tackle hug sent us crashing to the ground. Wade’s gun flew from Stu’s outstretched hand and skittered across the roof deck.

Nick’s shoes skidded to a stop beside me. He pulled me off Stu and cuffed Stu’s hands behind his back.

“Any other guns I should know about?” Nick asked, grinning at me with an awestruck expression as I dusted off my hands and caught my breath.

“Just that one.” I gestured toward the one protruding from the back of Vero’s pants. She had a foot braced on the half wall as she dragged Wade over the ledge.

Stu wrenched his head off the ground as Nick frisked his clothes. “You know me, Nick. We’ve worked together for years. I’m not one of the bad guys. You don’t have to handcuff me—”

Wade tumbled onto the roof deck and sprawled on the concrete. “Now would be a really good time to shut up and wait for your attorney,” he panted.

Someone groaned behind the pump house. “Jesus, my head … what the hell…?” Vero cringed as Joey started shouting. “Someone get these cuffs off me! And where the hell is my gun?”

Wade rose stiffly to his feet. “Relax, you cranky bastard. I’m coming.” Vero looked sheepish as she offered Joey’s gun to Wade. Wade waved her off. “If Joey gives you a hard time, you have my permission to shoot him.”

I threw her a dark look as she tucked the pistol gleefully back in her pants.

Roddy thundered up the fire escape with Ty on his heels. Nick took a moment to debrief them before they escorted Stu from the roof.

“Wait,” I said, running to catch up to them. I stood in Stu’s path and asked in a low voice, “When you said the people you vetted had all done worse things than you, what did you mean?”

Stu lifted his chin. His glasses had broken when I’d tackled him. They sat crooked on his nose, the lenses cracked, but he seemed to see right through me when he said, “What is it you’re really asking, Ms. Donovan?”

“Why did you agree to kill my ex-husband?” I whispered.

He turned away from me. “I’m not saying anything more until I speak with my attorney.”

“Now you decide to listen to Wade’s advice?” I dropped Stu’s arm, backing away as Roddy nudged him toward the stairs. Stu’s perspective on right and wrong had become so warped. The man was clearly disturbed. I was probably worrying for nothing.

Nick limped across the deck toward me. He took me by the shoulders, holstering me snugly in his arms as he whispered into my hair. “When I woke up and you were gone, I called Ty to make sure you’d made it back to your room. He said you were fine. Jesus, Finn, if I’d known you were up here, I would have called a SWAT team.”

“How did you know where to find me?” I asked into his coat.

He drew back to look at me, brushing a few windblown strands from my eyes. “The hospital called and said Joey was missing. A few minutes later, I got a voice message from him, telling me to call Roddy and Ty and meet him on the tower roof.” He pressed his lips to the top of my head. “What the hell were you thinking, coming up here?”

“I might be able to answer that.” Joey massaged his scalp, looking a little woozy as he knelt over the duffel. He cut the zip tie with a pocketknife and unzipped the bag, turning it upside down. Twenty-five bound stacks of paper towels tumbled out of it. Joey looked up at me with an incredulous smile. “Looks like someone was pretty determined to catch her ex-husband’s would-be killer.”

Wade grinned around his cigarette as he hunched over his lighter. “We should all be lucky enough to have an ex-wife like that.”

“Don’t encourage her,” Nick said. “She could have been killed.”

“Cut her some slack,” Wade said. “You have to admit, that was some pretty impressive detective work. She’d make a hell of a vice cop.”

“What’s the going salary for that?” Vero asked.

A slightly hysterical laugh bubbled out of me. I was ready to go home, cuddle my kids, and get back to worrying about fictional bad guys. Though maybe I could make room in my life for a not-so-fictional good one.

Wade gave me a furtive wink as he shouldered his way past Nick on his way to the fire escape. Nick stopped him with a hand to his chest. Wade looked down at it and exhaled smoke through his nose, as if he was too tired to do much else about it.

“Do I want to know what you were doing up here in the middle of the night with my girl?” Nick asked through a smirk.

Wade glanced over Nick’s shoulder at me, a wicked gleam in his eye as he flicked his ash. I shook my head, furiously mouthing the word no. “Are you asking me for an official statement about it?”

“No,” Nick said.