Page 19

Savannah glanced at her watch for the third time in fifteen minutes. It had been over four hours, but it felt like four days. The sky outside was dark now, and the soft sounds of janitors cleaning the area filtered through her head. Jess and Simon had brought Savannah’s purse and stayed a few minutes, but they’d left as Simon became more worried and agitated. Jess had texted her twice since, but Savannah had no updates.

All she had was growing fear after she looked up online what a craniotomy entailed. Hez was back there right now having a piece of bone removed from his skull. She still didn’t know what had happened even though she’d sent a panicked text to Nora.

A man in his fifties wearing scrubs stepped into the room. “Mrs. Webster?”

She shot to her feet and rushed to him. “I’m Mrs. Webster,”

she said by instinct. “How is he?”

“Holding his own. He was struck in exactly the wrong place, at the site of an already existing hematoma. It caused more bleeding in his brain, and we had to drain it. He’s stable in recovery, and we’ll watch him overnight to make sure the bleeding doesn’t start again.”

“What about the seizures?”

“He had another one just before the surgery, but so far there’s been no recurrence.”

She closed her eyes and exhaled. “Thank God. And thank you, Dr. Moore. Can I see him?”

His smile was warm but tired. “Yes, once he’s in the ICU. That won’t be for another hour or two. A nurse will let you know. There’s time for you to grab some dinner from the cafeteria. We have your phone number and will call you.”

The last thing she wanted was to eat, but she nodded and thanked him again before she returned to her seat. More waiting. It was going to be a long night. Her eyes burned, and her heart ached at the memory of the distance between them when they last spoke. And most of it stemmed from her fear of trusting what he’d told her. What was wrong with her? She didn’t want to carry that fear all her life, but she didn’t know how to let go of it. She buried her face into her hands and sighed.

“There you are.”

She looked up at the sound of Nora’s voice. Tears stung her eyes at the sympathy on her friend’s face, and she stumbled to her feet to fall into Nora’s embrace. “I’m so glad you’re here.”

“Have you been alone this whole time?”

Savannah shook her head. “Jess and Simon were here for a few minutes.”

Nora released her and held up a blue thermos. “I brought you some herbal tea. Caffeine is the last thing you need when you’re already stressed. Have you eaten?”

Savannah shook her head. “I wasn’t hungry.”

Nora settled beside her. “I’ll brave the cafeteria with you. Maybe there’s something edible. Even yogurt would help. How are you doing? I’ve been praying for you and Hez both.”

“We need those prayers. I’m scared of so many things right now. Scared he’ll die, scared he’ll have brain damage, and scared I’m going to let my mom’s situation poison my relationship with him.”

Nora poured a mug of tea for her and pressed it into Savannah’s hands. “Here, drink this and we’ll talk.”

Savannah took a sip. The aroma of lavender reached her nose before the honey in it hit her tongue. She sighed. “It’s wonderful.”

She savored the sweetness of another sip. “Are there any suspects?”

“No.”

Savannah frowned at the short answer and the way Nora didn’t meet her gaze. Even the calming tea couldn’t stop the spike in her adrenaline. Savannah studied her friend’s downcast face. “Do you think your family might be involved? Is that why you’re acting so strange?”

Nora set the thermos on the floor by her feet. “With the Willard family, you never know. I have a picture from a family reunion a few years ago on my fireplace mantel. Everyone is gathered under an enormous oak tree. Some of them are in the light, but a lot are in the shadows and their faces can’t be seen. I’m not even sure who some of them are, both in the picture and in their morals as well.”

Was that a tacit admission Nora thought one of them did this? “My family is a mess too.”

Nora’s expression hardened, and she took Savannah’s hand. “I love them, Savannah, but if I find out one of them did this, I will tell Augusta immediately. It might hurt, but it’s the right thing to do. I won’t let them get away with hurting you or your family. I pray for them all the time, and I know they’re in God’s hands. I derive a lot of peace from that.”

Savannah clung to her friend’s hand. She’d told Hez that Nora wouldn’t betray her, but the confirmation she was right felt as sweet as the honey in her tea. “I’ve been sitting here praying for Hez. And while I might not have full peace, at least I have certainty.”

“Certainty about what?”

She lifted her chin. “I’m never letting Hez go, no matter what. I’m not going to let my doubts and fears run my life. My time with Hez is precious. Our days are numbered, and I want to spend mine with him.”

* * *

A floorboard squeaked in the hall outside Jess’s bedroom.

She jolted fully awake. She had been dozing fitfully, haunted by dreams while asleep and memories while awake.

She reached over to her nightstand and slid open the drawer. Her fingers closed on the butt of her SIG Sauer P365.

The bedroom door opened slowly.

“Mom?”

She let go of the gun and quickly shut the drawer. “What is it, Simon?”

He appeared in the doorway, his small shape dimly lit by the winter moonlight. He hugged his thin chest through the oversized TGU T-shirt he wore to bed. “I can’t sleep.”

She sighed. “Neither can I.”

He shifted his weight from foot to foot. “Am I too old to sleep in your bed?”

Her heart warmed. “No, of course not.”

She patted the space next to her in the queen-sized bed. “Hop in.”

He got in, burrowed under the down comforter, and snuggled up to her. His feet were little lumps of ice, but she didn’t mind. He put his head on her shoulder. “Are the men who hurt Uncle Hez going to come after us?”

That was one of the questions that had kept her awake, but she hid her fears. “No, we’re safe.”

He moved back a little so he could look at her. “How do you know, Mom? They kidnapped me when you were in jail, and then they tried to kill me and Uncle Hez and Aunt Savannah out on the water.”

She squeezed him tighter at the memory. “I know, honey, but one of the men from the boat is dead and the other is in jail. And they only went after you because you went after them first. You ran away and tried to catch the bad guys on your own. Never do that again, okay?”

He was silent for a long moment. Then he nodded. “Okay.”

“We’ll leave bad-guy catching to trained professional adults, like police, right?”

“And Uncle Hez. He does really cool stuff at the Justice Chamber. I want to be like him when I grow up.”

He paused and looked up at her again. “Will he be okay?”

She decided to play it straight with him. “I don’t know. The very best doctors are treating him right now, but we won’t know anything until tomorrow. We should try to get some sleep tonight, and maybe we can visit in the morning if the doctors say it’s all right.”

“Okay.”

He rolled over and curled up with his back touching her. That was how he always slept when night terrors drove him into bed with her, ever since he was a toddler. Five minutes later, he was snoring quietly.

Jess lay awake, staring at her shadowy ceiling. Simon’s words echoed in her head. He wanted to be like Uncle Hez and fight bad guys. Bad guys like her.

She was doing the right thing, wasn’t she? Her mother deserved the justice she never received in life. So did Mimi Willard and all the others victimized by the Legares over the decades. TGU was the monument to that injustice, and Pierre Legare was the parasitic paragon of the Legare bloodline. It would be entirely fair to destroy them—and irresponsible not to. Otherwise, they’d just keep hurting people forever.

The well-rehearsed arguments rolled through her mind, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that they wouldn’t persuade the little boy sleeping beside her. She imagined the skepticism in those intelligent blue eyes. He wouldn’t see a noble Fury meting out justice. He’d just see someone who was helping the men who attacked the uncle he idolized.

Simon’s eyes weren’t the only ones needling her conscience. She’d felt another set of eyes watching her, especially since she came back to TGU. That gaze was so real that she sometimes instinctively glanced over her shoulder. But she knew the eyes weren’t anywhere nearby.

They were in a little church in northern Italy. She went on an art tour of the area in college, and she saw dozens of churches. They all had crucifixes, of course. On some, Jesus looked up to heaven with a beatific expression on his face. On others, he hung his head and seemed almost unconscious. But on one medieval crucifix he stared straight at her with enormous brown eyes, which seemed to follow her as she walked around the church. His gaze unnerved Jess, and she left the church after only a few minutes. But those eyes never stopped following her.

She closed her eyes and tried to force herself to stop picturing hypothetical debates with shrewd boys and wooden Messiahs. She focused on relaxing her muscles one by one. It would be out of her hands soon. The moment Savannah signed the loan documents, the final countdown would begin.

And none of them would be able to do anything to stop it.