Emberly, the girl that I love.
She sank onto the bed, put her hands on her face.
“For God so loved Emberly that he gave his only son ...”She nearly looked up, expecting to see Boz standing in front of her all these years later.But no, just the memory of him.
“If the son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”
Oh, she wanted to believe that.
“I just...I don’t know how, God.”Her voice felt small, almost pitiful, but...even so, as she took a breath, a strength—no,a presence—seemed to fill her.
She sat on the bed and simply breathed it in.
“Not alone.”The sense of it embedded in her bones.
Go fix this.Maybe Nim’s voice.Maybe not.But Emberly got up and headed to the door.
Light bled down the hallway, across the four other bedroom doors, but she headed to the great room with the view of the city.She rounded through the kitchen to the office.
Logan Thorne stood with his back to her as she knocked, then came in.
He glanced over his shoulder, his expression dark.
“What’s going on?”
He sighed, shut the laptop on his desk, and walked over to her.“You did really well tonight.Thank you.”
“I nearly didn’t.”She made a wry face.
He gave her a grim nod.
“So, you got something off that phone.”
“Yes.We got...a big something.”He folded his arms.“For the past few years, we’ve been chasing down a rogue faction of the CIA.They were in league with Reba Jackson?—”
“The VP-elect who was involved in an assassination plot.”
“That was just the beginning.”He offered her a seat on one of the plush, blue velvet chairs.She sat on the edge, her silk dress puddling around her bare feet.“We thought—and still believe—that a faction of the Russian troika, the government leadership, wanted to pull us into a war.And they were using a branch of the Bratva to do this.”
“The Petrov Bratva.”
“Indeed.Two years ago, they created a bioweapon and tried to deploy it at an aero event in Florida.”
She sat back.
“About the same time, they attempted another assassination on Air Force One, with the president aboard.This time with an EMP bomb.”
“Creative.”
“It gets worse.You heard about the near bombing in Lauchtenland last year?”
“No.”
“Because we stopped it.”He leaned against the front of the sturdy mahogany desk.“They had another bioweapon, this time one that would have spread radioactive waste across the country.They were going to deploy it during an American–European football game.”
She realized her mouth had opened.
“And last year, the Petrovs broke into the crypobank in Montelena and stole two hundred million dollars.At first we weren’t sure what it was for, but we realized...it was to buy an island.”
