Page 106 of The Wolves Come at Night
“Will he live?”
“Not for long. Not without help.”
“Guard him. I will deal with him once we’re safely landed.”
Taylor nodded and started away. She hesitated a moment, then put her hand on Angelie’s shoulder.
“I know,” said the assassin.
Fifty-Three
Avery woke to sunlight. She was in a soft bed, with a pillow under her head and cool sheets pulled up to her shoulders
A dream. What a dream. At once glorious and frustrating. What she wouldn’t do to have it be real. She stretched, lingering in the happiness of seeing his face again. It had been a long time since she dreamed of Richard.
“You’re awake.”
Startled, she jumped to a seated position, pulling the covers with her.
Her husband sat on the edge of the bed, staring at her in bemusement.
God, he’s real. This is real. She was face to face with the man she loved, a man who’d died, and her brain was simply not working. Not comprehending. How could this be?
“Richard?”
“Hi, Avery.”
She didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. She knew she couldn’t touch him or she’d disintegrate.
“You have questions. And I have answers. But first, I have something for you.”
The door opened, and Carson practically flew into the room and launched herself onto her mother’s bed, wrapping her neck in a hug. “Mom!”
“Carson? Oh, my God, Carson!”
There were tears then, joy and pain mingling, Carson crying too, and Richard watching them patiently. Finally, Carson moved to the side, holding her mother’s hand.
“Dad’s alive.”
“I see that. Richard? I—”
He pulled a chair to her bedside. She could tell he wanted to touch her, and with a deep breath, she moved her free hand to the edge of the bed. With a smile, he took it, tears in his eyes.
“You’re real.”
“I am.”
“But you died.”
“I had to.”
“You faked your own death?”
He nodded. “I had no choice. Joseph Game was going to kill you. He threatened you, and he threatened Carson and the boys. I didn’t know how else to keep you safe. If I was out of the picture, then he had no reason to come after you. Santiago and I found a way to make it work. We staged the scene, doctored the autopsy, all of it. And it did work, for a long time. You have no idea how much I’ve missed you. How much it killed me to be away from you. But I had to keep you safe.”
“Then why did he take Carson?”
Richard’s eyes grew flinty, becoming those of a stranger. Or perhaps that was the real man, and the warm and sunny person was the fake, the one she thought she knew. He was forever going to be a stranger to her, she knew that. They would never be the same people that they were before.
