Page 104 of Lethal Game

"I can't quite believe it. Who killed him? You, Jason?"

"No. I'm not sure who killed him, but his reign of terror is finally over."

"What about Henry? Alisa told me he was badly hurt. Does anyone know his condition?"

"I haven't gotten an update," Jason replied. "I'll do that tomorrow. I'm sorry to break this up, but it's late, and everyone needs to get some sleep."

Her mother gave her father another kiss and then got to her feet. "I'll see you as soon as you wake up tomorrow, Dan."

"I can't wait," her father returned.

They walked her mother back to her room. It felt a little odd to leave her there without a guard at the door. It was going to take a while for her to believe they were all safe.

After helping her mother into bed, she said goodnight and left the room with Jason, casting another anxious look back at the door. "Are you sure?" She couldn't help asking him.

He put his arms around her and gave her a hug. "I am very sure she is safe, and so are you. Let's get out of here."

"Where are we going?" she asked as they got into the elevator. "Are you taking me to my apartment or back to the safe house?"

"Where do you want to go? Either is fine."

She thought for a moment. "I want to go wherever you're going."

His eyes glittered with her words. "That's good because I want to go wherever you're going."

"My stuff is at the safe house. We'll have to go back there and get it at some point. Should we just go there?"

"Perfect."

She thought so, too, because they'd been living in a little bubble, and she wasn't ready for it to break.

A part of her wondered if she would ever be ready because she really cared about Jason. But, tonight, they could be together. She'd worry about tomorrow when the sun came up.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

There were so many things he had to do, Jason thought when he woke up Sunday morning, but with Alisa's warm, naked body curled up next to his, he didn't want to do any of them. And it was only eight, so they had some time. Still, it felt a little strange to feel so lazy, so unfocused, so uninterested in what was coming next.

He lived for the job, but even he needed a break. They'd just stopped a potentially catastrophic attack and gotten Novikov off the FBI's most wanted list. That was a huge accomplishment, and he had every right to savor the victory.

He still wondered about the men who had found Novikov and Stephanie. He had some idea about who they might be, but he wasn't sure he even wanted to know. Then, he might have to do something about it.

He'd let that situation sit for a while. There were other issues to deal with, like Stephanie's official interrogation. He was curious about her role in what had happened this week and also three years ago. Her betrayal still felt like a knife to his heart, and he inwardly raged withwhat- ifsabout the day his father was killed, knowing he'd probably be tortured by those thoughts for a long time to come.

And then there was Alisa's father. He didn't know what would happen to Dan Hunt. He had helped the US before, which had led to his defection and getting asylum. He had lived an exemplary life for the past thirty years, until he was forcibly kidnapped by Novikov and his daughter's life was threatened unless he cooperated. He'd also given Alisa the code to disarm the bombs and had intended to blow them up before they ever got to the site. But the suicide vest had derailed that plan. Dan had done a lot of things right, but he had also put together two dirty bombs and for that, there might still be a cost.

He would have to see what the higher-ups at the Bureau, Homeland Security, the White House, and the Department of Justice would have to say because they would all be weighing in. He hoped that if there was a punishment, it would be short, and eventually Dan would be able to go home. Alisa and her mother needed him in their lives.

While Dan's actions in running away didn't sit well with him, neither Alisa and nor her mother seemed to blame him. The Hunt family was all about love, forgiveness, and faith in each other.

His family hadn't been like that at all. There had been acrimony, doubts, complaints, and accusations. His parents had barely kissed or touched around him, even before their divorce. They had never been in sync. They had never looked at each other the way Dan and Pamela had looked at each other last night. Their love had truly seemed unconditional. And Alisa's love for them was the same. She'd been angry with her dad, but in the end, she loved him, and she accepted him for his limitations, for his duplicitous life.

Maybe that just made the Hunt women a little too easygoing, or maybe it was something to admire; he wasn't completely sure. He thought Dan had made some big mistakes, but then he'd never been in a situation like Dan. And who was he to talk about trusting the wrong people or not seeing something right in frontof his face when he hadn't seen any sign of evil in his former partner?

Stephanie had worked alongside him for eighteen months, but she'd felt no guilt in taking his father's life because hers was the only one that mattered. In fact, she'd probably liked the idea that by taking his dad away, she was also taking away some perceived advantage he'd had over her because of his family background. She'd always pushed the narrative that everything he'd gotten or achieved was because of his connections while she'd had to struggle every step of the way. She definitely had a victim personality. It was never her fault.

Well, she could stew about all that in jail for the rest of her life.

As Alisa began to stretch like a sleepy cat, his body tightened, and he wanted her again. The passion they'd shared last night was reawakening with the daylight. He was becoming addicted to her. And he didn't know what he was going to do about that. Because things between them were coming to an end.

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