Page 60 of Married to My Master

BioSphere's home office was on lock down. A ring of steel and guns surrounded the campus, with more guns than had been at her house. Teams were readying themselves to enter the building, to bring Dane and his hostage out.

She could tell from the general feeling, though, that the cops seemed to empathize with Dane and what he was doing. Pharma had targeted first responders as their prime market with a drug that didn't even work.

“Sure we have to even go in after this guy?” one of the SWAT joked. “Seems like a real dick, from the news.”

“Orders are orders,” the officer in charge said, as they walked past. “Until you're signing the city's checks, you gotta follow 'em.”

Emily and Det. Moore set up near the front of the line, at a vantage point that gave them a clear line of sight to her destroyed Escalade and the office building's entrance beyond. The detective stuffed a phone into her hand. “You know the number?”

“By heart,” she said. She'd had to call and talk to Barker more times than she had liked throughout her short tenure at BioSphere, and she’d had the number memorized in the first week. She dialed the number, then worked her way through the automatic answering service, with its robotic operator.

The phone began to ring. After a few short buzzes, someone picked up. “Edward?”

“No,” the voice on the other end grated, “Edward can't come to the phone right now. Can I take a message for this asshole?”

“Dane!” Her heart leapt with joy to hear him safe and sound. “Dane, baby, you're fine!”

“For now,” he said, the smile coming through in his voice. “But, you know, the day's still young. Guess you got out all right?”

“Yeah, of course.”

“Good,” he said, sighing. “I'm glad. They giving you any trouble?”

“Not since the story hit the news,” she replied. “They all know what you're doing, and why you're doing it. Everyone knows. I've just . . . I'm just so worried about you, Dane. I want you to come out of there.”

“That worried, huh?” he asked, his breath heavy on the phone. “You sure you want a crazy vet like me?”

“Well, I wasn't at first,” she replied. “I'll be honest. When I first met you in my office, I really did care about what you and your brother were going through. But, I thought I had to keep my company front and center. I thought I needed to keep my own emotions from coming through. But you've shown me I don't need to hide behind my ambitions anymore, and that there are more important things in my life.”

Silence on his end, punctuated by him licking his lips.

“I just, I want you out of there. I want you back in my life. This past week or so, it's just been the most eye-opening experience for me, and I don't think I can ever go back to the life I was leading before you. You've changed me, through and through. You really have.”

“You …” he began, trailing off for a moment, then speaking again. “You've changed me, too, Emily. For the better. You really have. I was broken before. Just shattered. But I feel like I can have some peace now. I'm not perfect, of course. No man is.”

“I don't want or need you to be perfect, Dane,” Emily said, feeling the wetness on her cheeks from her falling tears. “I just want you to be mine. And in one piece, of course.”

“Yeah,” he said. “I think I can do that. I think I can get back in one piece for you.”

“You're going to try, then?”

“Yeah,” he repeated. “I'm coming out.”

She closed her eyes, trying to squeeze the tears to a stop. “Thank you,” she whispered.

“I love you,” Dane whispered.

“I love you, too, Dane Bishop.”

# # #

Dane

“Well,” Dane said after he hung up the phone, his pistol still trained on Edward. “Looks like I've got everything I need from you. Everything I'd ever possibly need.”

Edward's eyes nearly crossed as he stared down his nose at the barrel of his own pistol pointed back at him. “What do you mean?” he asked, nearly stumbling over his words. “Are you . . .?”

Dane thumbed back the hammer on the small automatic he'd snatched from Edward's hands, seriously considered his options. The man in front of him deserved to die. He knew that. He deserved Benton's looming fate, and worse—much worse—for the resulting deaths of Dane's niece and nephew.

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