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Gina swallowed the bitter tang in her mouth, sorely regretting the sequence of events her personal vendetta had set in motion.

“ I wasn’t lying when I said I used to work for a locksmith, and that’s where I picked up lock picking and safecracking skills.

The man I worked for actually was a safecracker who did time in prison for breaking and entering. ”

“ Oh ,” Anna said, her eyes widening.

“ Yeah . Oh .” Gina nodded. “ Knowing I had those skills, I concocted this crazy plan to steal from the Falzones . I convinced myself I was doing it to help battered women, but it was also for revenge. And I nearly got Kinsey killed because of it. I should have told you sooner, but I was afraid.”

“ Afraid of what?” Kinsey asked in a sleepy voice.

“ Afraid you’d think less of me.” For her motives and for the Mafia blood running through her veins. She still hadn’t told them all of it. The last bit would be the hardest.

“ But it wasn’t all for revenge.” Margo touched her shoulder. “ You were donating to the Center long before we started stealing. You sold thousands of dollars of your own personal belongings to help those women.”

“ Please , let me finish.” She hung her head.

“ After my parents died, I had no family. When I met all of you and we became friends, you became my family. I was afraid this scheme we’ve been running was the glue that held us together, and that if we weren’t doing it anymore.

..” I’d lose you . She couldn’t say the words, but they hung there in the air just as surely as if she’d spoken them out loud.

“ You could never lose us.” Kinsey held out her arms to Gina . “ Come here. I love you, I forgive you, and I want to hug you. But if I get up, I’m afraid my intestines will fall out of the hole in my belly.”

Gina’s mouth fell open. Disbelief nearly took her to her to the floor. As she leaned in to gently hug Kinsey back her heart was so full of joy she thought it would burst. How could Kinsey —a woman she’d nearly gotten killed—possibly be magnanimous and forgiving enough to say I love you ?

Margo and Anna joined in, hugging Gina from behind.

“ We all love you,” Anna whispered in a trembling voice.

“ And you’re right,” Margo said. “ We are your family, and you’re ours .”

They remained that way for another long minute, none of them speaking, just holding one another.

Gina’s throat constricted so tightly she couldn’t speak the words she so desperately wanted to say.

Needed to say. That she hadn’t felt this loved since her parents died.

“ I’m so lucky to have you,” she managed to whisper.

“ Am I interrupting something?”

Gina straightened and turned to the door. Jack . Her heart was torn between beating faster because his nearness always did that to her and galloping away from sheer terror. This was it. He was here to arrest them.

In his good hand he held a decorative jar brimming with flowers. Handcuffs she expected. Not flowers. Stupidly , she stared at the pretty yellow daisies and carnations.

He set them on the rolling metal table next to the bed. “ How are you feeling?” he asked Kinsey .

“ Like I just got plugged.” She winked at Anna , who giggled. “ Thanks for the flowers. They should go great with our orange jumpsuits.”

The mood in the room instantly went as somber as a funeral. Theirs .

“ Are you going to arrest us?” Gina held her breath.

“ No . I can’t. Even if I wanted to, which I don’t.”

Gina’s jaw dropped. “ Wait , what?”

At first, he didn’t answer, dragging out her misery. “ If I arrest you, there’ll be no keeping it quiet. Tino would put a price on your heads, and you wouldn’t last a month. In or out of prison. You said he didn’t see your face, so he doesn’t know who any of you are. Let’s keep it that way.”

“ What about your investigation?” Nailing Tino for killing his colleague was the most important aspect of Jack’s case. “ Did I just destroy it?”

He shoved a hand through his hair. “ Probably . Maybe . Hell , I don’t know. Locking you up won’t help anything. What’s done is done. For now, I covered for you.”

Margo eyed him suspiciously. “ What does that mean, exactly?”

“ It means I lied. I told those cops you’re all working for me, and that if tonight’s events came out it, it would destroy a major federal investigation.”

“ Why did you do that for us?” Gina touched his arm. “ You didn’t have to.”

His gray eyes softened as he clasped her hand, linking their fingers. “ I don’t want anyone else’s death on my conscience. Especially not yours.”

“ Thanks again for the jar of flowers,” Kinsey murmured as her eyes closed.

Gina jerked her head up. The jars . “ Wait ! I forgot to tell you something!” She squeezed Jack’s hand. “ I forgot to tell all of you something. In the back of Tino’s safe were small jars filled with body parts.”

“ Eew .” Anna grimaced.

Jack tensed. Eyes that only moments ago were soft, were now steely hard. “ What body parts?”

“ I didn’t look at all of them. One had an ear in it, and it looked fresh. You know, still kind of pink and with gooey strands of…something.” Just thinking about it made her nauseous.

Jack’s brows drew together. “ What else?”

“ A finger. It was dry and dark, and there was a ring on it.” He’d said Tino cut off that agent’s finger before killing him.

His jaw tightened. “ Can you describe the ring?”

“ It was gold. A man’s ring with a green gemstone. Maybe an emerald.”

“ Jesus .” He turned away, parking his hands on his hips and tilting his head back to stare at the ceiling.

“ Does that finger belong to the agent you told me about?”

“ Yeah . Jim Spencer .” When he faced them again, his eyes blazed with fury. “ That was his wedding ring.”