Page 98 of Lethal Game

"Go," Flynn said. "We'll monitor this device until the HDU team gets here." He paused. "Here they are now."

"Come on," Jason said, taking her hand as they went up thestairs.

When they reached the top-level parking lot, she saw a very different scene than the one she'd left. There was no longer any panic, no screaming, no running in different directions. There were plenty of cops and teams from various agencies roaming around, but now there were clusters of groups conversing without the anxious urgency of just minutes before.

Jason stopped to speak to Savannah, who told him the vice president was shaken but physically okay and was on his way to a secure location. The vice president had confirmed that Agent Stephanie Genaro had taken him out of the party and a man waiting in the stairwell had killed his Secret Service detail.

While they talked about that, Alisa took a minute to compose herself. There was still a lot to do, but it was all good now. She would go to the hospital and check on her dad. Then she would tell her mom that he was alive, that they were both alive. Things could have turned out so differently.

It didn't seem quite real yet, and there was a part of her that still didn't know if she'd ever feel safe until Novikov and Stephanie were caught.

"I can take you to the hospital now," Jason said, returning to her side.

"What about the rest of the team?"

"They'll be working here for a while, and there are plenty of company vehicles to get everyone back to the office and home, but that won't be for a few hours."

He took her hand once again as they walked to the car, and she was more than happy with the connection, the reminder that she hadn't lost him, and he hadn't lost her.

As they got in the car, she said, "I want to be happy, but Novikov and Stephanie are still out there, and who knows what they'll do next?"

"I feel the same way," he admitted. "But we have to take the victories where we get them. No one died tonight. That's what matters. And you got your father back."

She looked into his warm blue gaze and said, "Thank you for working so hard to save him, Jason. I owe you."

"No, you don't. You spotted the shoe in the hallway. You had the code."

"That was all from my dad. He said he'd try to leave a clue if he couldn't detonate the bomb before they got here."

"Well, you still had the presence of mind to recognize the clue and remember the code. Then you disarmed the second bomb. That's a very good night for—what did you once call yourself—an ordinary woman from a rather boring family?"

She smiled. "Well, I was wrong about the boring family part, that's for sure."

"And wrong about yourself. You are nothing close to ordinary. You saved the day, Alisa. Don't you realize that yet?"

"It hasn’t sunk in." She paused, looking into his eyes. "I was so scared when you were trying to disarm that bomb. I thought I was going to lose you and my dad, and I couldn't stand that thought."

"I had the same feeling in the garage just now. But I knew you could do it. I had faith in you, Alisa."

"I had faith in you."

They kissed again, a longer kiss than before, one filled with even more emotion, and they didn't stop until they both needed to take a breath. "To be continued," Jason said with a smile. "Let's get out of here."

"Happily," she said as she fastened her seatbelt. It felt strange to take that small measure of precaution when she had come to realize just how much danger there was in the world, how a happy Saturday night out at the mall could have been so many people's last night. That's why she needed to live in the moment because nothing else was guaranteed.

But she had also learned that there were hundreds of people who worked hard every day to make sure tomorrow came, and she would never take them for granted again.

As Jason drove away from the hotel, his phone buzzed with aseries of texts. He paused at the light and picked up his phone, his gaze widening.

"What is it?" she asked.

He drove through the green light, then pulled over. "I just got a photo," he said. "Two, in fact."

Her jaw dropped when he showed her the photograph of a silver-haired man lying on the floor with blood pouring out of his chest and his head. "Oh, my God! That's Novikov."

"Yes." Jason flipped to the next picture.

"And Stephanie," she breathed, seeing Jason's former partner tied to a chair but very much alive.

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