The medic stood over me, carefully wrapping the wound of my arm. In a small bowl next to me was the bullet. Hurt like a bitch to come out. After wiping away any excess blood, he handed me a mouth guard.

“Bite down. This is going to hurt,” he said.

“Couldn’t hurt worse than the first time,” I said.

The medic laughed, but he didn’t retract the offer. “You’d be surprised.”

I closed my eyes and bit down against the thin cotton, calmly breathing through my nose. I couldn’t think, let alone react properly. Everything had happened so fast that I still couldn’t believe it.

When I left the city, the one thing I wanted to fix was my family. I felt like I had failed. Tired and exhausted, I nodded my head at the medic. He took my wrist and pulled back until the shoulder caught and popped back into place.

I fell back against the deck of the boat, forehead clammy with sweat. The medic threw Marcus a blanket before the head of the entire investigation walked forward.

“The three of us need to talk,” he said.

I opened my eyes and looked at the man. I nodded. “Us? Talk? Now, what would we have to talk about?” I laughed, but he didn’t find any of this funny. “Okay. Might as well get that over with now, right?”

“This won’t be the only meeting we’ll have, but if you’d like to give a statement now, it could help us clear the case faster,” he said.

“Without a lawyer present?” Marcus asked.

The man leaned against the barrier of the boat as we glided toward another end of the dock. “You guys will have to tell me if Matthew is safe, first. Then, I’ll tell you whatever you need to know,” I said.

“He’s safe and waiting for you at a hospital nearby,” he said.

“So, we’re not under arrest?” I asked.

“Not yet,” he said. “But it’s best to get all the stories out on the table sooner rather than later.”

The sun was finally coming over the horizon, and the thick fog that trailed across the water had started to drift away. “My brother told us he found Fulton’s badge at a creek nearby my parents’ home. That’s where it all started.”

“The creek? Would you be able to point it out on a map?” he asked.

I nodded. “Sure can. It’s the spot where my mom nearly died,” I said. He bent down and showed me the map. I pointed at a small clearing.

Marcus stepped forward and put his hand on my kneecap. “Sawyer, you never told me that,” he said.

“I didn’t want you to see me in the same light as them,” I said.

“I would never,” Marcus said.

“What happened with your mom?” the FBI agent asked.

“We were coming home from a holiday church party. Our family was never the God-fearing type, but we always loved the lights and seeing Matthew’s excited face was the best sight in the world. You know how kids are. It’s a fun thing to do,” I said.

With every word I spoke, I tried not to break down. I could feel it again. The cold chill of winter, and the stark white snow all around me; it made me feel like I was on top of the world. But once the accident happened, I never wanted to see a snowflake again.

“We were driving home, and something happened. Matthew was crying, but my parents were distracted. My mom wanted to take us to see the lights in a nearby neighborhood, but my dad was tired. He wanted to go home.”

I took a deep breath in and closed my eyes. I could hear the music on the radio, the light clanging of bells slushing together. I could see the dim red and green lights on every storefront, the flashing neon Santa Clause at the tree lot.

“I reached for the radio. I guess I couldn’t hear it as well as I wanted to. My mom got distracted. Between Matthew crying and me reaching over the two of them, she lost track of what she was doing,” I said.

I pointed to the bridge in front of us. I tried to get her to turn around, but nothing was working. Her hand loosely slid from the wheel, and that was that.

“Just like that.” I snapped my finger. “We glided into the other lane, and my mother tried to regain control. We hit the edge of the bridge and dropped to the bottom like a stone. The rest is history. My mother broke her back, a few of ribs, her leg, and tibia. My father broke his jaw and collarbone. But Matthew and I… we got through it unscathed.”

After that, I was the one to blame. How could I not be? I reached over their laps. I distracted her. I nearly killed my whole family.

Reaching into my pockets, I felt the sharp edges of metal brush against my fingers. I pulled the badge out. “Here it is. There’s some blood on that corner there. I believe it belongs to the doctor he killed. There must have been a struggle, forcing him to lose it,” I said.

“We’ll check into it,” the FBI agent said. “Anything else you can tell me?”

It was Marcus’s turn to talk. “Jim Garish. He’s not the guy,” Marcus said.

The man stood tall for a moment, pausing. “We know.” Satisfied with the answer he gave, the man walked away, calling out orders to his men.

We pulled up to a bigger dock, where ambulance lights could be seen at every square meter. Both Marcus and I were silent. The last twelve hours were mayhem, and we didn’t know how to take it yet.

I carefully ran my hand over the bandages tightly fastened around my shoulder, the flashing lights shining brightly against my body. “Now what?” I asked Marcus.

“Now, we move on,” he said.

A man in a wheelchair came out from a black SUV. He wheeled down to where we were sitting, and Marcus quickly stood up, saluting. “David!” he cried.

He put out his hand for me to shake. “I’m David Frist, Marcus’s old partner.”

“I’ve heard good things. I’m Sawyer McKinnon, Marcus’s—” For some reason, I stopped myself and glanced at Marcus.

“It’s okay. I think he knows,” Marcus said.

“I’m his boyfriend,” I said.

“It’s great to meet you, Sawyer. Marcus, I’m sorry it took so long for us to arrive. We didn’t expect, well, all of this,” he said.

With a dumbfounded look on Marcus’s face, he scratched the side of his head and tried to make sense of everything. “You’ve been building a case this whole time?” he asked.

“It was a federal investigation. I couldn’t bring you in yet. In all honesty, we didn’t think Fulton would snap so soon,” David said.

“Well, you came at the right time. I thought we were going to drown out there,” Marcus said.

“The good news is that there were no casualties. The chief has been transported to Good Faith Clinic. He’s lucky—after shooting at federal officers, the guys wanted him dead,” David said.

“He came at you?” Marcus asked.

“We came to the department with all the evidence in the book. He tried to give us the slip, but one of our guys got him right in the stomach,” David said.

“And Fulton… he’s stable too?” I asked.

“Don’t worry. Both of these guys are looking at life in prison,” David said.

“But these guys are officers of the law,” I said.

“They broke federal crimes. Fulton murdered over fifteen different men. They’re going away, Sawyer,” David said.

David escorted us to an ambulance. The two of us sat on the back as the day broke. “As soon as I heard you were safe, I had to make it down here. I gotta run now, but I’ll be seeing you both soon,” David said.

“Thanks for everything,” I said.

“Hey, it’s what we do,” David said.