Page 56 of The Girl He Claimed

Paige stood there in horror. Sheknew that he was going o shoot her. She knew that she couldn't stop him.

She'd failed.

She'd done her best to protectChristopher, and it still wasn't enough.

She'd failed her father.

She'd failed Christopher.

She'd failed everyone.

Paige half closed her eyes, waitingfor the moment when the gunshot would come. Paige heard it, the noise of itimpossibly loud in the underground space. Only Paige didn't feel the impact ofa bullet, didn't feel sudden pain as it tore through her.

Instead, she saw Adam jerk, the gunfalling from his grip. Blood blossomed on his shirt; then, he fell to theground with a cry of agony.

Paige looked behind her and sawChristopher lying there, one hand holding his service weapon, pointed right atthe spot where Adam had just been standing. He must have managed to fight offthe effects of the sedative and the blood loss long enough to draw it.

Paige kicked Adam's weapon away,using Christopher's handcuffs to cuff him before she went back to Christopher.Even as she did so, the gun clattered from his grasp, and his eyes started toclose.

"Hold on, Christopher,"Paige said. "Please hold on!"

CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT

St Just Institute closed. Patientsto be moved.

Paige looked through the newspaperheadline to the sunlight filtering through from above. Six months. Six monthssince her and Christopher's investigation had brought in both Adam Riker and theExsanguination Killer, and it was still only now that the institute was payingthe price for its failures.

The investigation was a success,but Paige tried not to think about everything that success had cost her. Thosekinds of thoughts hurt too much.

The truth was that the pain neverreally went away—it just got easier to deal with. The dead didn't come backjust because she'd solved the case. Her father was still dead, and theThorntons, and-

"Hey, that's far too seriousan expression for a sunny day," Christopher said, pulling away thenewspaper and leaning over Paige's sun lounger so that he could kiss her. Hewas shirtless in the sun right then. Paige had to admit that helped when itcame to distracting her. However, it did mean that she could see the thin scarswhere the doctors had sewn him back together after the cuts that Caroline hadinflicted on him.

But then, Paige had scars of herown, fully visible thanks to the swimsuit she was wearing. She didn't care whosaw them. She'd earned those scars stopping a killer.

She smiled up at Christopher as hebroke the kiss.

"I was just reading in thenewspaper that they closed the St Just Institute," she said.

"Well, that wasinevitable," Christopher said. "After everything that went on there,it had to close. But that sounds far too much like work for the weekend."

He snatched away the newspaper,obviously knowing that Paige would only get sucked back in, then passed her abeer. Paige had to admit that it was an improvement.

"It's strange to think thatit's been six months," she said.

"Given the amount that'shappened, I have no problem believing it," Christopher replied.

He had a point. They'd both neededphysical therapy after the case. Then there had been the legal case, which hadseen both Adam and Caroline locked away in a secure institution that wasn't theSt Just Institute. There had been work, of course, and there had been the twoof them.

In the wake of everything that hadhappened, it had seemed impossible not to be together. The two of them lovedone another, and they'd seen how easily that could be snatched away. Theyhadn't wanted to wait another moment.

So here they were, living togetherin the suburbs of DC. Paige's mother was already asking when the wedding wouldbe. That thought was enough to make Paige smile.

"What are you smilingat?" Christopher asked her.

"Nothing, just the fact that Iget you here all to myself. Nothing but the two of us, some beers, and aglorious weekend with nothing to do but-"

Paige was cut off by the sound ofher phone ringing. She groaned as she saw that it was Sauer calling.

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