Page 27 of Avenging Jessie (Black Swan Division Thrillers #3)

Twenty-Seven

Jessie

The first thing she noticed was the smell—bleach and antiseptic. The second was the ache blooming from her shoulder, thick and dull under the heavy weight of bandages. The third was the soft beeping at her side, an IV drip snaking into her arm.

Jessie blinked at the ceiling tiles, blurry around the edges. Her throat was dry, her mouth like sandpaper. She turned her head, wincing.

Through the cracked bathroom door, she heard a voice.

Spence.

Low and tight, laced with exhaustion. “Understood. I’ll file the report when we get clearance. Yeah. I couldn’t be happier the bloke is dead.”

A pause. Then, “Hastings is in custody?” His voice lifted, incredulous. “I’ll be damned. I figured he’d take out half the compound before he let you take him alive.” A longer pause. “Roger that. See you in ten.”

Jessie swallowed, her voice rasping against her dry throat. “Spence?”

The bathroom door flew open, and he appeared, dark circles under his eyes, his right hand in a soft brace, his phone in his other. Relief flooded his face as he crossed to her.

“You’re awake.” The look morphed into that steady, calm smirk that usually annoyed her.

He clumsily poured water into a plastic cup with a straw.

“About damn time, Swan Three. You don’t usually slack off on the job like this.

Of course, this is what happens when you take a bullet for your boss and then nearly fall out of a moving car. ”

She started to chuckle, but it hurt.

He held out the cup, placing the straw to her lips. His sarcasm left as quickly as it had come as she sipped. “God, J, you scared the hell out of me. On our next mission—if we get one—I’m securing you in bubble wrap.”

The water was too good, soothing her parched throat. She sipped again, too fast, and coughed. “How long have I been out?”

“Eight hours.” He set the cup on the rolling tray next to her bed and gently touched her forehead. “They got the bleeding stopped. You lost a lot of blood, but you’re stable. No major damage, just a whole lot of pain meds and a pissed-off shoulder.”

She tried to sit up—instantly regretted it.

“Whoa.” He eased her back with a hand on her good arm. “Don’t even think about playing tough right now.”

Everything hurt, even with the meds they were pumping into her veins. “And Brewer?”

Please be captured. Please be captured. Please be captured. She couldn’t stand the thought that he was still out there. That this had all been for nothing.

He sat on the edge of the mattress, expression serious but lighter, too. “He’s dead. The impact with the pole crushed the entire front of the car.” At her relieved sigh, he nodded and squeezed her hand. “He’ll never hurt anyone again.”

Thank God. “And Hastings?”

“In a cell. Tried to use a stolen access badge to get out of the sublevel—ran straight into Flynn and a half-dozen CIA HRTs.” Spence gave a crooked smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “Tessa said it was poetic.”

Jessie exhaled heavily again, her shoulders relaxing into the bed. Everyone was okay. The bad guys were done. “And the drones?”

“They’re down,” he confirmed. “All of them. The failsafe worked. Pentagon confirmed a full blackout sweep.”

His hand was warm and reassuring. So was the gentle smile he gave her. She could have lost him. Could have lost Tommy and Tessa.

But she hadn’t, and in fact, may have regained part of her soul that she’d sold to Brewer a year ago.

She squeezed Spence’s fingers with as much strength as she could muster. “You did it.”

He looked at her like she was the only thing in the room worth seeing. “We did it. Partners, remember?”

“Forever?”

“On one condition.”

She quirked a brow. “Just one?”

He snorted, then turned serious. “You promise not to go behind my back and make a plan with Tessa again that affects the mission, or our partnership.”

“Oh, that.”

“Yeah, that,” he said, making a contrary face. “What were you thinking?”

“I wanted to put as much heat as possible on Brewer.”

“I’m afraid he never saw any of it, but you sure riled up a whole lot of people.”

“Including our boss?”

“Actually, just between us, Flynn laughed. He bitched out Tessa, of course, when she took credit for it, but he recognized your fingerprints all over Rat Trap. I expect you’ll get an official slap on the hand when you go back to work, but secretly, I think he’s pleased.”

When I go back to work… Was she going back?

The question pinged around in her brain. What else was she going to do? She was a trained agent, not the girl next door. If the CIA still had a job for her, she’d take it, even if it was behind a counterterrorism desk again. As long as Spence was there, nothing else mattered.

She laced her fingers through his, her grip still weak but sure. “Back at the warehouse, I told you something. I wasn’t sure if you heard me.”

His eyes darkened. “I heard you.”

She swallowed, bracing herself. “I meant it.”

He didn’t look away, didn’t deflect with sarcasm or distance like he usually did when things got real. His hand tightened around hers, thumb brushing along the inside of her wrist. “I’ve been in love with you since our first swan mission,” he said softly.

The beeping monitor and the hall sounds faded away to nothing. She’d known he’d had feelings for her for a while, but not for that long.

“I didn’t want to be,” he continued. “You were reckless, opinionated, and way too good at pushing my buttons. And when I thought you were dead, only to discover you weren’t…” His throat bobbed with the words he didn’t say.

“I betrayed you,” she whispered.

“You came back,” he countered. “You chose to come back. You risked everything to stop Brewer. To protect your brother. To protect me.”

The swans hadn’t exactly given her a choice, but they hadn’t had to push too hard to get her to cooperate.

She blinked against the sting in her eyes. “After everything I did, how could you still want me?”

“Because I know who you really are.” His lips twitched with a sly grin. “You never run from a fight, and you’ve never stopped trying to make things right. You’re stubborn and impulsive, but also loyal. To me, to your brother, to saving the world.”

Tears slid down her cheeks. She didn’t bother to wipe them away.

“You’re it for me, luv,” he said. “Always have been.”

Her pulse seemed too loud in her ears, her body too warm under the sheet and coarse blanket. “You’re going to make me believe in second chances, you know.”

The grin grew, curving his lips. “I’m a firm believer in them. I’ve been given more than I deserve, and look how good I turned out.”

He winked and she grinned through her tears. “We really need to work on bolstering your confidence.”

Just as he brushed a hand over her hair, careful not to jostle her bandaged shoulder, a knock sounded on the closed door.

Before either of them could answer, it creaked open and Tessa poked her head inside, a wild spray of grocery store flowers in one hand and a suspiciously large bag of gummy worms in the other.

“Hope we’re not interrupting,” she said, grinning.

Jessie let out a tired laugh. It hurt, but she didn’t care. “Get in here before I start crying again.”

Tommy followed close behind, holding up a bottle of sparkling apple cider like it was champagne. “Vintage…uh, fifteen minutes ago. Courtesy of the vending machine.”

Spence groaned. “If you pour that over my head, I swear—”

“Tempting,” Tommy deadpanned, “but I’ll settle for toasting the fact that we saved the world. Again.”

Jessie smiled, soft and a little wobbly, as her brother set the bottle aside and leaned in for a hug. It wasn’t awkward—not anymore. It was solid. Real. The kind of hug that said we made it without needing to say the words.

She clung to him fiercely. “I thought I’d lost you.”

“Not a chance,” he said, gripping her just as tightly. “You’re stuck with me.”

Tessa dropped the gummy worms in Spence’s lap and slid into the chair next to him. “Flynn’s calling you both reckless geniuses.”

Jessie raised a brow. “Both of us?”

Spence gave her a crooked smile. “You did take a bullet and shoot out Brewer’s back window on the way to the hospital.”

Tessa smirked. “Ballsy.”

“Against my orders, I might add. I’m still mad about that,” Spence muttered.

“You’re welcome,” Jessie said sweetly.

Laughter bubbled up. It was the first genuine laughter any of them had shared in what felt like forever. It settled in the air, light and warm. For the first time, the room didn’t feel haunted by what they’d done or what they’d lost. Just who they still had.

Jessie glanced at Tommy, then at Spence.

Her brother was here. Alive. Hers.

And Spence was too.