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One by one, the rest of the team slumped down, exhausted, sitting on torn couches or just on the debris-strewn floor. “You’re gonna need some new furniture,” said Colton, looking around.
Which raised a question. Now that it was all over, what did we do next? I’d been so focused on just keeping her alive, over the last few weeks, that I hadn’t thought about the future. I had a sudden stab of panic. New York? Mount Mercy? How the hell were we going to make it work?
I stroked Lorna’s hair, sending a shower of dust down over her clothes. She looked up at me shyly with those big gray eyes and the swell of protective love that hit me was like getting body slammed by Colton.
My panic melted away. I didn’t know what the future would look like, but it was going to be together. I pulled her close and she cuddled in, resting her head on my chest.
My phone rang: Lily. I had a missed call, too, from Lorna: I must not have heard it over the gunfire. “What’s up?” I asked Lily.
“I fucked up,” she said. “That military record, Radoslava Burski…I only looked at the main section, the part with all the commendations and kills. I never thought to look at the basics. And in my defense, there was no photo. It just never occurred to me—”
“Whoah, whoah. Slow down. What never occurred to you?”
Lily sighed, embarrassed. “Alexei pointed out that Radoslava is a girl’s name. I checked the record and he’s right: Radoslava’s a woman.”
I sat there blinking, my mind trying to catch up. Russ’s secret child was a girl, not a boy.
I’d just assumed all along that a man was behind this. Now I felt like an idiot. In Mexico, I remembered thinking that the leader of the gunmen was small and lightly built. It had never occurred to me that she might be female, under the ski mask.
And then I froze, remembering another moment.
In Lorna’s office, when she’d shown me the photo of Maria. I remembered thinking the face was familiar. The cheekbones, the smile.
I’d just realized where I’d seen them.
I bolted for Lorna’s bedroom. Kicked open the door to the bathroom.
As soon as Paige saw my face, she knew. I raised my gun but she was quicker. She pulled Cody in front of her, whipped out a knife and put it to his throat.
Lorna ran through the door and froze, horrified. “What the fuck? Paige, what are you doing?”
Paige said nothing, just stared back at me, watching my eyes. Just as she had in Mexico. Cody had gone pale and was struggling but Paige kept him mercilessly pinned to her chest.
“Paige, please!” yelled Lorna, almost hysterical. “Put the knife down! This isn’t funny! You’re scaring him!”
“Her name isn’t Paige,” I told her. “This is Radoslava Burski. Maria’s daughter.”
60
LORNA
I thought I’d known fear. Standing on stage, seeing the gun swinging up to point at me, or trapped in the car feeling the water rise over my chin. But I hadn’t. I hadn’t known true fear until I saw a crazy woman holding a knife to my son’s throat.
My mind refused to accept what JD was telling me. I pushed past him, putting myself between him and Paige and held my hands out like a teacher trying to stop a schoolyard fight. It had to be a mistake, a misunderstanding. “No!” I yelled. “Stop! She’s a nanny! She’s from Los Angeles! I checked her references, I talked to families she’d worked for!”
“Yeah,” said JD, his eyes locked on Paige. “You asked about their nanny, Paige. And they told you how great she was. But did any of them show you a photo of her?”
The knife was so tight against Cody’s neck that the skin was indented. I could see a vein on his neck bulging, a millimeter away. I was so scared I could barely think. “No,” I said at last.
“There really is a nanny called Paige somewhere in New York,” said JD. “Radoslava stole her identity.”
“But...” My mind still wouldn’t accept it. “No. No, I met her by chance, in Central Park!”
“No you didn’t. When did you say you met her? Three months ago? Her mother died four months ago. I figure that was what started all this. She came over here, probably watched your family for a month. Figured out that you needed a nanny. Stole the real Paige’s identity and then approached you in the park.”
The rest of the team arrived, drawn by the shouting. When they saw what was happening, they froze, crowded in the bathroom doorway.
I looked between JD and Paige. It was crazy. JD had to be wrong. But then why wasn’t Paige denying it? Her gaze was fixed on JD and there was a raw hatred in her eyes I’d never seen before. “Paige?” I asked, my voice fractured.
