Total pages in book: 115
Estimated words: 107079 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 535(@200wpm)___ 428(@250wpm)___ 357(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107079 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 535(@200wpm)___ 428(@250wpm)___ 357(@300wpm)
I stood and ran over to Alison, then knelt down beside her and wiped my hands on the grass. Blyat’, she looked so fragile! I just wanted to pull her into my arms, but I didn’t dare risk moving her. “Will she be okay?” I asked, brushing my fingers across her cheek.
“She’s lost a lot of blood,” said the older, female FBI agent, her voice tight with worry. “The paramedics are on their way.”
Alison murmured something I couldn’t hear. I leaned closer, my heart pounding. “What did you say?”
She was mumbling, spacey from the blood loss. “Did I catch the bad guy?”
I glanced around at Grushin, bloody and battered, but alive. And then I looked down at myself. I grabbed her hand and squeezed it. “Yes,” I managed around the lump in my throat. “You did.”
EPILOGUE
Alison
After that, things went hazy for a while.
I remember being loaded into an ambulance as the street filled up with police cars. Gennadiy was trying to climb in beside me, a cop was trying to handcuff him, and Calahan was arguing with both of them. Then everything went black.
When I came to, it was daylight, and I was in a hospital bed in a quiet room. One leg was in plaster, I was hooked up to an IV, and I could feel a dressing on my back. I tried to move, winced and groaned, then tried again.
“For once in your life, would you just stop?” pleaded a familiar voice.
I twisted around to look. Calahan, looking even more disheveled than usual, was sprawled in a chair next to my bed. “Gennadiy?” I asked immediately.
His mouth tightened. I think maybe he was still hoping that he could talk some sense into me. But then he looked into my eyes, and whatever he saw there made him sigh in resignation and then soften. “Gennadiy’s fine. I mean, he’s at the center of a major police investigation into all the bodies that you two left at that ambulance company, and at Viktor Grushin’s house, but–”
The door opened, and Gennadiy marched in.
“…he does have a very good defense attorney,” grumbled Calahan.
Gennadiy swept his hands under my shoulders and lifted me to him, pressing me to his chest and resting my head against his shoulder. He only loosened his grip when the machines beside my bed started to beep accusingly. Then he gently laid me back down and gave me a look of such fierce, possessive love that I melted.
“Are you going to jail?” I asked, worried.
“Conrad got me out on bail,” Gennadiy told me. “As for jail…” He looked at Calahan and rubbed his stubble. “The situation is…fluid.”
Calahan sighed. “About a billion people want to take statements from you. You might want to start thinking about what you’re going to say.”
I nodded gratefully.
Calahan ran a hand through his hair. “The DA wanted to throw the book at the Aristovs. But now the DA himself is under investigation by the Justice Department. As is everyone who Grushin gave a new organ to at all three clinics. It’s going to take months to shake out, and meanwhile, the case against the Aristovs is falling apart. Especially because Caroline has testified that it was Grushin who tried to assassinate you, and that she switched the bullets to try to implicate Gennadiy, and stole the coke they used to set you up.”
“Is she going to jail?” I asked.
“For a while,” said Calahan. “But she’s cooperating in the case against Grushin. If she gets a good lawyer…”
I made puppy-dog eyes at Gennadiy.
“The woman conspired to assassinate you,” he reminded me. “She set you up. She stabbed you!”
“And saved me,” I argued. “She did the right thing…eventually. And she has kids!”
Gennadiy cursed under his breath. “I’ll get Conrad to recommend someone good.”
“What about you and Carrie?” I asked Calahan.
Calahan shrugged. “Well, we broke a lot of rules…but Carrie managed to spin it that we were helping an agent in danger, whose own office had been compromised. The FBI is embarrassed enough that it’d rather the whole thing just went away. We’ll be okay.” He stood. “I’ll give you two some time alone. Try and rest, okay?” He walked over to Gennadiy, stopping when they were almost chest-to-chest. “And as for you…” His voice became like steel. “Treat her right. Or jail will be the least of your worries.”
Gennadiy gave him a solemn nod. When the door closed behind Calahan, he leaned over the bed and put his big, warm palm on my cheek. His thumb brushed my lower lip. “You scared me.” He smiled, but there was a tremor in his voice. “Maybe…try not to drown, or get shot at, or stabbed, just for a week or so?”
“I’ll consider it,” I muttered. And kissed him.
Four days later, Gennadiy was pushing me around the hospital gardens in a wheelchair. It was my first time outdoors since I was stabbed. September had brought an end to the thunderstorms, and the crisp, cool morning air felt amazing against my face. Then a familiar figure wandered towards us, and my heart forgot to beat for a second. This is it.