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)
“Hey,” said Assistant Director Halifax. He nodded politely to Gennadiy. “Mr. Aristov. May I have a word with Alison?”
Gennadiy scowled at him. He’d make an exception for me, and maybe for Calahan and Carrie, but, to him, the FBI was still the FBI. “You want me to stay?” he asked me.
I shook my head. “No. Thank you.”
Gennadiy wheeled the wheelchair over to a bench so that Halifax could sit down. “I’ll be just over there,” he told me, nodding to a nearby tree. But he was glaring at Halifax when he said it, and I didn’t miss the threat in his voice.
Halifax sat down on the bench and passed me one of the two coffees he was carrying. “I’ve got news.”
“The charges, or my job?”
“Both. Which do you want first?”
My mouth was suddenly dry. Ever since I woke up, I’d been imagining this moment, playing out all the different ways it could go. I sipped my coffee. He’d remembered how I liked it. “The charges,” I said, my voice tight.
“All charges against you have been dropped.”
I took a breath. It felt like an iron band around my chest had just disappeared. I took a gulp of coffee to cover myself. “And my job?”
“Given the extenuating circumstances, Grushin’s arrest and all the arrests it’s led to, the Director feels it would be a mistake to lose such a good agent. There’ll be a reprimand in your record, and you’ll need to complete a probationary period, but…” He smiled. “You can come back, Alison.”
And that’s when I realized that, unconsciously, I’d been hoping I’d be fired. Because now I had to choose. Halifax’s eyes followed mine to Gennadiy.
“You don’t need me to tell you that there are rules,” he said gently.
I nodded silently. My eyes were going hot.
“You don’t need to decide now,” Halifax told me. “Think it over while you heal. Take a week.”
I tried to imagine life without the FBI. It felt like a crack was forming, starting on the surface and winding deeper and deeper, until it terminated right in my soul and a whole, cliff-sized wedge of me broke off and tumbled away into the ocean, leaving huge areas of me vulnerable and exposed. For my entire working life, I’d been catching bad guys and solving cases, going for beers with cops or FBI agents, and then falling asleep thinking about a case. I didn’t know how to do anything else. I didn’t have anything else.
Then I looked at Gennadiy. Somehow, I’d found the one person in the universe who was the same as me, who got me. Who knew what it was like to stay up until three in the morning because you had to solve this problem, who wouldn’t hate me for working flat-out. But who’d look after me, who’d drag me off to bed when I really was overdoing it. And who’d let me do the same for him. Who’d always protect me, no matter what. Who’d risk everything to save me.
A new life, without the FBI, was terrifying.
But a life without Gennadiy was unimaginable.
I sniffed, blinked back tears, and shook my head. “I don’t need a week,” I told Halifax. “I resign.”
One Month Later
Gennadiy
“So this is your favorite place?” asked Alison. She was blinking, her eyes still adjusting to the gloom after the bright sun outside.
“My favorite place,” I confirmed. Not long ago, I wouldn’t have even considered telling someone that, or even admitting to having a favorite place. A lot had changed. I squeezed her hand and led her forward, through shafts of sunlight that lanced down into the dark space like lasers, revealing dust motes that danced and swirled as we breathed.
I took Alison’s hand and guided it. She suddenly yelped as her palm brushed a warm, velvety nose.
“Heaven’s Tears,” I told her. “But we call him Cloud.”
As our eyes adjusted to the dark, we could make out a beautiful gray stallion with cream patches. Alison gasped as the horse snorted against her palm and then lowered his head for scratches.
“He likes you,” I told her.
“He’s amazing,” whispered Alison.
“He’s the second most beautiful thing here,” I murmured, running my eyes over her. The jodhpurs showed off every graceful curve of her long legs, and the tight white blouse made those high little breasts absolutely mouthwatering. With her black hair swishing in its ponytail and her ass bouncing up and down in the saddle, I knew I wasn’t going to be able to take my eyes off her all day.
“Even standing still, he looks fast,” said Alison.
“He was a racehorse,” I said. “Until a guy called Spartak burned our old stables down. Cloud survived, but…”–I showed Alison the burn scars– “He’ll never race again.”
Alison nodded sadly, running her hand over the horse’s back. I could feel them bonding.
“He still loves to run, though,” I said. “Don’t worry, we’ll start you off on someone slower. Let me show you how to put a saddle on.”