Page 70 of The Grave Between Us
Noah turned his hands over, tangled his fingers with Cole’s. “This was supposed to be forever.”
“We don’t have a future as long as he’s out there. I have to stop him.”
“Cole…”
“Michael has arranged for you and Katie to be put in witness relocation. The FBI will rent a place for you under an assumed name. You can pack some bags, and another agent will—”
“I’m not leaving our home,” Noah growled. “Ian Ingram is not chasing me out of the home you and I built together.”
“He knows where we live.”
“I’m not leaving our house. Double the police presence, but I’m not leaving.”
Cole nodded. He lifted Noah’s hands and kissed each of his knuckles. Kissed his ring finger and the engagement band he’d put on Noah himself. “I love you.”
“Don’t do this,” Noah’s voice fractured. “Please.”
“I swore I’d do anything it took to keep you safe.” Cole’s words were breaths of air on Noah’s skin, brands on the backs of his hands. “Ian nearly killed you on that highway, and I watched over you for days in the hospital, thanks to him. I’ve lived every second since then terrified he was going to come back and finish what he started. He can’t have you, Noah. I’ll do anything to stop him.”
“Including leave?”
“Anything,” Cole breathed, “If it means you live.”
Cole leaned in and kissed him, a soft, salt-stained press of cold lips against his own. Noah’s chin trembled, and he tasted his own tears as he kissed Cole back. He tried to hold on, tried to lace his hands through Cole’s, grab hold of his jacket or his arms, keep him from walking away.
But Cole slipped through his hold, and he walked across the grass, toward Michael and the waiting FBI car. He climbed inside and didn’t look back.
Noah sank to his ass on the dead lawn and watched the love of his life drive away.
* * *
Noah walked backinto the FBI office at five p.m. Jacob and Sophie were still there, talking softly over the coffee pot. They straightened when they saw him, twin expressions of concern on their faces.
“Boss?” Jacob asked softly. “You look like a bomb went off inside you.”
Noah shook his head. His fingertips traced the edge of a filing cabinet. A few days ago, he and Cole had held hands right here, eaten doughnuts side by side. How ridiculous his fears of marriage seemed now, set against Cole walking away. He’d take being an awful husband, he’d take Cole’s recriminations, if it meant they were together. But they weren’t, not anymore.
Not as long as Ingram was out there.
His eyes blurred as his breath hitched. “Cole moved out. He left.”
Jacob sagged against the lateral file cabinet. The metal groaned, squealing beneath his weight. Sophie cursed and shook her head, her face a mask of confusion.
“Why? He loves you. That doesn’t make sense.” Jacob glared at the conference room, the closed blinds and the locked door. “It has something to do with this investigation, doesn’t it? Who shot us, Noah? What the hell is going on?”
He doesn’t want me to have anything in my life aside from him, so he’s coming after you. I can’t be around you as long as he’s out there. I can’t be with you until we catch him. I’ll do anything to save your life.
And I’ll do anything to save our love, Cole.
He took a breath. “Yes. It has to do with the investigation. And I’m going to fix it. I’m going to stop the son of a bitch that’s tearing our lives apart, starting right now. But to do that, I’m going to have to steal some FBI files, and then I’m going to have to run my own, off-the-books investigation.” He looked each of them in the eye. “If we put the bastard away, no one will complain about the details. If we don’t…” His throat closed up. He couldn’t even let the idea take shape. He pressed his lips together. Felt his pulse hammering. “Will you help me?”
* * *
First,he had to explain who Ian Ingram was. The FBI had done a bang-up job covering its own ass. Whether by strategy or by luck, the Bureau had avoided press releases and the media when Ingram was initially captured. When it all went sideways, there wasn’t much to sweep under the rug: two murdered agents and Cole’s devastation. That was a small price for an FBI director to pay to avoid being eviscerated on Capitol Hill. Director Harper, like all FBI directors, was a politician, not a cop. Sometimes that was painfully obvious.
Noah started with his and Jacob’s shooting, and how Assistant Director King had swooped in and taken over that investigation. Then him and Cole going to Oak Haven Meadows, and then Brett Kerrigan’s abduction, and King’s arrival in their office. The break-in at his and Cole’s home. How the BAU, and Cole, thought Ian was coming after Noah.
He went back in time next and told them everything Cole had told him, which he knew Cole had self-edited. There were big chunks they were missing.
