Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 78334 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 392(@200wpm)___ 313(@250wpm)___ 261(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78334 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 392(@200wpm)___ 313(@250wpm)___ 261(@300wpm)
After a long moment, he closes his notebook. I take that as acceptance, if not agreement. He stands slowly.
“What is going to happen to DelRey and Schwartz?” I ask.
Hara smiles, this one slightly gleeful. “I’ve got agents executing arrest warrants for them right now. SAPG is being raided as we speak.” He looks at me with what might be called respect. “You did good work, Ms. Ward.”
“Erik did the work,” I say. “I just made sure it mattered.”
He nods once. “Well done,” he says and reaches inside his pocket, pulling out a card. “Call me if you think of anything else. I know the federal prosecutor will want to talk to you as well.”
Hara shakes my hand and then Cole’s, slipping through the curtain.
The silence stretches between me and Cole and it’s in no way uncomfortable. It’s the quiet of two people who have been through so much and are still processing that they came out the other side, everything having worked in their favor.
“Everyone’s outside,” Cole says eventually. “Josie. Reid. Sully. Malik and Anna drove up.” A pause. “They’ve been here awhile.”
A warmth moves through me at that, cutting through the pain and the exhaustion. These people who showed up and waited in a hospital corridor for a woman most of them have known less than two weeks. Hell, I’ve not even been officially introduced to Sully yet.
“Tell them thank you,” I say with a smile. “And then tell them to go home and get some rest.”
Cole looks at me. “What do you want to do?”
I don’t have to think about it. “I want to go home too. My home.”
Something moves through his expression, but he understands what I mean—not just the address, but the need to be somewhere that’s mine. To sleep in my own bed and begin the work of figuring out who I am now, on the other side of this.
“Okay,” he says simply as he stands, then reaches for my hand. He’s careful to avoid touching my wrist, his fingers folding around mine with a gentleness that tightens my throat.
I let him hold on and I think about those three words he gave me.
CHAPTER 25
Cole
Tessa stands in the middle of her living room and looks around slowly. Everything has been cleaned up from the night of the attack a week ago. I had a cleaning company in to remove the blood from the floors, replace the glass in the living room and install a new door in the kitchen.
“Feels good to be back here,” Tessa murmurs.
I lower her bag to the floor and nod toward the bathroom. “Why don’t you go take a shower.”
“Yeah,” she says with a tired smile. “That will feel good.”
The bathroom door stays open, not for any reason other than there’s no modesty between us. I lean against the wall in the hallway just outside it, arms crossed and listen to the water run. If this were an ordinary day, I’d undress and join her but right now… I’m watching over her. It’s all I’m capable of at the moment—maintaining proximity.
“DelRey’s probably lawyered up already,” she says from behind the frosted glass, and I could almost smile at that. I’m not surprised that’s where her head goes, working through all the conclusions.
“Man like that has his lawyer’s number on speed dial,” I reply blandly.
“Won’t matter,” she says confidently, and I sneak a glance in. She’s gingerly soaping up her hair, head tipped back to let the hot water hit her chest. “The circumstantial evidence is overwhelming.”
“Schwartz will flip,” I say. “He’s not built for prison. He’ll give up DelRey inside of a week.”
“Good. Let him.”
I watch her through the frosted glass, looking like a mirage. I think about the drive back from Seattle. Reid stuck around until she was discharged and drove us both home. I sat in the back seat with her, her head against my shoulder, not sleeping exactly but not fully present either. I felt the weight of someone whose system had burned through everything it had and was running on fumes. I’d kept my hand on her the whole drive, making sure she was alive and whole.
She makes a sound when the water hits her shoulders—sharp, involuntary—and I’m off the wall.
“I’m okay,” she says immediately. “Just stings a bit.”
I stop and slowly back against the wall again. “I know.”
Tessa takes her time. When the water finally shuts off and she reaches for the towel, I move into the living room, stand before the window that was replaced. The street looks so quiet and normal… streetlights glowing on wet pavement, a car passing slowly at the far end of the block. The world completely indifferent to everything that happened in the last several hours.
I hear her come out of the bathroom and turn to find her in a robe, hair damp and feet bare. She looks small in a way that Tessa almost never looks and it makes my chest feel like it’s caving inward.