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John was still behind her. She could feel him.
“Heat Seeker, move out,” he was ordered again.
John stared back at Bailey as she turned to him.
“You have to go?” she whispered, trying to smile back at him. Trying to let him know she understood. She had known he would leave her again, but that didn’t stop the ache of betrayal from searing her soul.
His lips tilted into a rueful grin. “Not a chance in hell.”
Bailey felt the rush of light-headedness that exploded through her system. Hell, she was going to fall to her knees herself.
His arm wrapped around her as he turned to his commander.
“I’ll be in for debriefing when it’s over.”
Dark blue eyes narrowed and reflected irritation. Bailey could see the fight brewing between these two men now. Tension suddenly filled the room as the other men stopped, stared.
Those brilliant blue eyes moved slowly to her, raked over her, narrowed further in calculation.
“You’ll regret it,” he warned John, but nodded anyway before leading the way for the others and heading out of the house.
“You’re staying?” She had to lean against him. She had to feel his arms around her.
“I’m staying,” he promised. “Forever, Bailey. I’m staying with you forever.”
She turned back to the scene before her and once again felt the overwhelming disbelief that coiled inside her chest. She couldn’t believe Wagner had pulled it off for so long. That he had remained hidden, worked so hard to place the guilt on his father.
Had he sensed that Warbucks had gone as long as he could?
Unfortunately, loyalty just wasn’t what it used to be. Myron had helped raise the children of the men he’d always associated with. He had held them as babies, hell, he’d babysat groups of them at a time. And she believed he’d cared about them.
He’d known Wagner for what he was, known the joy Wagner obviously found in destroying the security his father and his father’s friends worked to build for them.
Wagner had hated them all.
She moved to where Ford was being loaded onto a gurney. An oxygen mask covered his face; he was pale, weak. Tears leaked from his eyes.
“I loved him,” he whispered again.
She knelt by the gurney and touched his cheek. “We all loved him.”
And she had. Like a brother.
The tears were trapped inside her for now. They would fall later, when she could sit down and assimilate what had happened, and how.
“Your director is taking care of the police,” John whispered at her ear. “You have FBI and DEA here. The warehouse is secured and the missiles are being packed for transportation. It’s over, Bailey.”
She stood to her feet and stared around. Yes, it was over. But maybe, just maybe, something else was beginning.
She turned back to John and let his arms wrap around her once again.
“Hanging around, huh?” she sniffed against his chest as she felt his heartbeat beneath her cheek.
“Always,” he whispered, that beloved flavor of Australia stroking over her senses. “Always, love.”
Two Days Later
Langley. It had been a long time since she had been here. Bailey moved into Director Milburn Rushmore’s office as his assistant showed her in.
