Page 130 of Close Pursuit

It took her a while to get through it all, but Alex never left her side. He was silent through most of it, holding Dawn while he listened. He wore being a father well. If only he was willing to embrace this side of himself.

But Katie’d had a lot of time to think about it sitting in that damned chair, and she knew better. Now that she’d experienced the adrenaline rush that was his life, she knew first-hand the thrill of cheating death.

Alex would never walk away from all this for good. He’d been born and raised to it. The spy game was in his blood. She only prayed it hadn’t infected her, as well.

At least she understood now what pulled her brothers into danger over and over. She’d also proven she could play with the big boys—not that she ever needed to do it again, thank you very much.

She only had to take one look at the infant nestled in the arms of the man she loved to know there was more to life than adrenaline. She had much more important things to do than chase bad guys all over creation. She had a baby to raise. A home to make for Dawn and herself.

The FBI agents finally ran out of questions for her and released her to Alex sometime around three p.m. Someone had arranged for a helicopter to Teterboro Airport, and a business jet back to D.C. By dinner time, a dark blue government sedan had delivered them to Alex’s doorstep.

No surprise, Alex made her and Dawn wait in the car with the nice, armed escorts while he thoroughly checked out his place. Finally, though, he came back out to the vehicle. “All clear,” he announced. “Let’s go home.”

Tears filled Katie’s eyes at the words. If only.

The escorts rode up in the elevator with them and waited until they were all inside the condo to leave. The door closed and silence fell around Katie one last time. Except this time it felt safe. Welcoming.

Okay, she was a little delusional. But after the twenty-four hours she’d just had, she figured she was authorized.

“Hungry?” Alex asked.

The FBI had fed her stale sandwiches earlier, and there’d been food on the plane, but her stomach growled loudly.

Alex smiled in response and she followed him into the kitchen. It all seemed so normal. He chopped vegetables and threw them in with a pot of pasta while she warmed a bottle for Dawn and fed the baby.

Alex served up dinner while Katie put the baby down in her crib. Poor kiddo was exhausted and crashed immediately after her bottle.

Trepidation rattling through her, Katie returned to the kitchen. Alex held her chair for her and she sat down beside him.

“We need to talk,” he announced quietly.

She nodded, at a loss for words and terrified that if she said the wrong thing now, she would lose Alex forever. She forced herself to be honest. There was likely nothing she could say to hang on to Alex, anyway. It was useless to try.

“I understand that I have to let you go,” she blurted “I won’t try to cling to you and make you hate me and Dawn.”

Alex stared, shocked. After a long moment’s silence, he said merely, “How about you let me talk first?”

“Umm, okay.”

“First, I will never be able to apologize adequately for putting you and Dawn in such danger. I will never forgive myself. I do promise, however, to do everything in my power to keep the two of you safe for the rest of your lives.”

“That’s really sweet of you, but you don’t have to?—“

He interrupted gently. “It’s still my turn. Please let me get this out before I lose my nerve.”

Him? Losehisnerve? What was the world coming to? She subsided, shocked.

“First things first. I know why the Russians were after Dawn.”

She listened in disbelief as he outlined what he and Ian had pieced together. Those poor people in the Karshan Valley. They’d just been trying to make a little money. Give themselves a better life, and they’d gotten caught up in a political game that extended far beyond their isolated valley.

“So that was why Dr. Fortinay took Dawn’s umbilical cord stump and her diaper?” Katie exclaimed when Alex got to the part about the U.S. government needing a sample of Dawn’s bodily fluids to prove his theory. They’d been looking for trace uranium in the infant, and that was apparently the reason everyone had wanted to lay their hands on the baby.

Alex nodded.

“And did they find uranium?” Katie asked.

Another nod.

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