Joe had made a lot of speeches during his career with varying degrees of importance. Today’s felt as though it carried more weight. Both of the topics could warrant their own address, but he was only going to get one shot at saying this. Once he dropped these two truth bombs, things would spin out of control.

He stared at the black and white printed words on the page Aslan had given him before going out to push through Joe’s release. It had been a long time since he’d written his own speech. He’d forgotten how arduous it could be choosing the right words. He hoped he hadn’t messed up.

“Mr. Neilson?” An officer approached the cell doors.

“Come to call me home?” Joe stood and buttoned his jacket. He’d have never thought the day would end with him about to resign, but he should have known that he would never get away with this crime.

“Yes, sir.”

The officer walked him through the release process. Joe’s things were returned to him before he was shown out into a public area where his lawyer and another familiar face waited for him.

“Are you really going to do this?” Aslan asked.

“I thought you knew me by now.” Joe smiled, but it was painful. He’d made a mistake and now he’d pay the price. It was what he had to do. “Thanks for being here, Ryan. Is everything set up on your end?”

“My team has everything ready to go.”

“Let’s do this.” Joe set his eyes on the glass doors leading outside.

He put one foot in front of the other. Ryan opened the door and proceeded him outside to the cameras and microphones. The initial barrage of questions melded together into a drone of sound.

Joe held up his hands and waited.

After a few moments the questions stopped.

“I have a few things to say.” The words simmered in the back of his mind.

He stared out at familiar faces and new ones behind the camera lenses and microphones. When he’d started this career it had been for one thing, to help people. His lies didn’t do that, but his truth would.

“By now you have read about the charges against me. My lawyer could list them. I cannot. What I can tell you is this, I messed up. I made a mistake and I regret my actions.

“A little over a week ago a man approached me while I was at a restaurant. He had a photograph of my sister. Now, many of you don’t know about Jules. She made—makes—beautiful documentaries, but she used to be a reporter.

“Four years ago she and her crew were taken prisoner. All efforts to get my little sister back have been a failure. When this man, Kawa Dwek, told me he’d seen my sister, and he knew how to bring her home, I lost my way. I made an emotional decision to trust someone who did not deserve that trust. I made this decision knowing that he would want me to do something for him.

“If you’ve been paying attention to the news, then you’re aware of the investigation into Aerospace, Inc. They have paid millions in bribes to people all over the world to influence their purchases. A little freedom fighter movement in Syria bought equipment from Aerospace because they were the only company who would do business with them. The man I made a bargain with was one of their champions for freedom. I won’t call him a good man or a bad man, but he had a vision for a free, safe country I can respect. It is his methods I abhor.

“None of this excuses my actions. I knowingly accepted an offer to bring my sister home in exchange for supporting Kawa’s cause. And that is why I will be resigning from the senate as soon as this is over.

“I’d like my last act as a senator to be in the spirit of the platform I ran on—honesty. Today I’ve seen a lot of bad in the world, and it stretches to all parts. Even our own FBI. You see, there’s a young woman who was taken advantage of and coerced into helping the FBI. Now they want to charge her as an accessory to Kawa’s crimes when her only crime was breaking the rules the FBI asked her to. I invite you, the public, and my congressional brothers and sisters to review the recorded threats against this young woman and you be the judge today. Thank you.”

Joe rocked back on his heels.

He was done.

For a moment no one spoke, then the questions started, pelting him from all sides.

“Come on, Joe.” Ryan took him by the elbow and guided him down the steps through the people. “Move. Move please.”

The trek from the stairs through the crowd to Aslan’s car was a blur. Even sitting in the front seat staring out at the cameras was surreal.

“Well, you did it.” Aslan sighed and started the car.

“Do you think it will help?” That was all Joe could ask for.

“I’d bet money on Carson being released in the next ten minutes. As soon as that goes live someone will start acting.”

“Senator Neilson?” Ryan leaned forward. “Thank you.”

“I should be the one thanking you. You saved this whole day.”

“It’s part of the job.” Ryan smiled, but it was a weary expression. “I wasn’t joking when I said we have a team who could bring your sister back. It’s not cheap, but this is the kind of thing we do. Through the proper channels if we can.”

“Are you on that team?” Joe asked.

“No.”

“You and those other boys from this morning are the only ones I could trust with a thing like that.”

“You did transfer two hundred grand to us. That could be the down payment.”

Joe blinked at the young man.

He was serious.

Jules could be rescued.

“We can talk terms in a few days once this has blown over.” Aslan twisted with his phone pressed to his ear. “They’re going to release Carson.”

CARSON HUNCHED LOWER trying to keep as much of her inside the coat as possible. Except for Owen and the lawyer she hadn’t seen anyone in what felt like days. It was just her and this room.

Would she ever get out of here?

Someone tapped on the door.

She frowned and said, “Come in?”

The door swung open and Owen stood there, his blue eyes twinkling.

“Ready to go?” he asked.

“Is that a trick question?”

“Come on.”

He held her chair while she got to her feet.

“I think I’m completely frozen,” she said.

“Sorry about that. I tried to adjust it.” He placed his hand on her back. “There’s someone here who’d like to see you.”

Carson didn’t know if that statement was a warning or a promise.

Owen guided her out of the interrogation room and through a few doors into a spacious office area.

“This is bullshit,” Walker spat.

“You have the right to remain silent,” a man with bright red hair said as he clapped cuffs on Agent Walker.

Carson stopped in her tracks and watched along with everyone else as Walker was read his rights. She’d been confident that he was bluffing earlier, but guilty? What had happened since she’d been locked up?

“Carson?”

She turned toward the voice and her whole world seemed to stop.

Ryan stood in a doorway wearing the most rumpled and dirty suit she’d ever seen. His eyes were drooping and even the way he stood there telegraphed exhaustion. He was perfect.

She hobbled toward him, but he was faster.

“Easy!” Owen warned.

Ryan squeezed her and pain shot down her back.

“Ouch.” She winced but kept holding on.

“What the—?” Ryan lifted Owen’s coat off her shoulder.

“She needs to go to the hospital,” Owen said.

“What happened? Why are you freezing?” Ryan slid the back of his fingers over her cheek and brow.

“How’s Frankie? What happened?” She fisted Ryan’s shirt with her one good hand, desperate to know everything.

“Frankie’s fine. Last I talked to your mom she was waking up and copping an attitude with the nurses. Your dad’s going to have to take it easy with his knee. Other than that, everyone’s fine except you.” He glanced at his phone. “Shit. Pizza is going to be there soon. I was supposed to call about your mom’s pizza.”

“Wait—my mom’s pizza?”

“Yeah, I stupidly thought all veggie pizzas were the same.”

Carson blinked at Ryan, who knew her mother’s picky ways when it came to pizza and the state of every family member. He grew blurry, the edges of his face turning fuzzy.

“It’s okay. She’s okay. It’ll be fine. Hey. Hey? Why are you crying?” Ryan shut the door behind her and drew her in closer.

“You’re still here.” After everything she’d put him through, he wasn’t just here, he was taking care of her family and Mom’s silly pizza.

“Well, yeah.” He cupped her cheek.

Emotion clogged her throat to the point all she could do was sob. This was a man she didn’t deserve.

“Sh, you don’t have to cry,” he whispered.

She reached up and cupped his face, bringing it down just enough for her to kiss him. His hands pressed into her lower back and curled in her hair. The way he held her gave her hope.

IT WAS CREEPING PAST ten when Ryan unlocked the door to the house and nudged Carson in over the threshold. The familiar sounds of the video game churned away in the background.

“Welcome home,” Paxton said without glancing away from the screen.

Vito grunted from the other end of the sofa. It was as close to a hello, welcome home as Ryan would get.

“Going to bed,” he said.

With any luck he’d actually make it to the mattress before passing out. The adrenaline had burned out long ago. He’d begun falling asleep wherever he sat. At the hospital Frankie’s laughter had woken him up from a deep sleep to find his head craned sideways and a knot in his back that ached every time he breathed. She claimed he snored loud enough to wake death.

Everything was fine.

Carson’s family were okay and their front door would be fixed up tomorrow.

Kawa would recover and face some kind of trial.

There was a social media storm brewing over Senator Nielson, who might not have to retire.

And Carson was here. Where he wanted to keep her. She’d torn muscles swinging on the hook like she had and her knee was pretty jacked up, but she was alive.

He kicked the bedroom door shut and didn’t bother with the lights.

“I’m going to kill myself in my sleep with this thing.” Carson sighed and sat on the side of the bed. Her arm was in a sling with Velcro straps holding it to her chest in exactly the right position for her shoulder and muscles to heal.

“No, you won’t. Time to take another pain killer?”

“I think so.” She reached for him with her one good hand and tugged on his fingers.

He braced his hand on the edge of the bed and went to his knees, kneeling between her thighs. He wrapped his arms around her and hugged her gently, keeping his hands low.

“Thank you,” she whispered for the thousandth time.

Those weren’t the words he wanted to hear. Now that the threat to her life was gone, she didn’t need him any longer. He’d been happy enough when she agreed to coming back here, but it wasn’t enough. Soon she’d put her life back to order, and he wanted to know if there was room for him in it.

She wrapped her one good arm around him and pressed her knees against his side.

“Ryan?” Her voice wavered.

“Hm?”

“What happens next?” The way she said it, he didn’t think she meant the big picture.

“With what?” He closed his eyes and listened to her heart and felt her move as she breathed.

“Us,” she whispered.

“We are going to sleep.”

“That’s not what I mean.”

He leaned back until he could look at her face shrouded in shadow. He didn’t need the light to see the lines of concern etched into her brow and around her mouth.

“I think that is up to you.” He’d put it all out there with her. When he’d fallen for her, even the fake idea of them, it was a no going back situation.

“I don’t want to lose you.” Her voice wavered. “I know I’ve messed up and all of this is my fault—”

“Sh. No, it’s not.” He pulled her to him and kissed her cheek, tasting tears.

“It is.” She buried her face in the crook of his neck.

“Okay, then how are you going to fix me? Hm?”

He was fucked up. There was no way around that fact, but he could be better. He’d just never had a reason to change before her.

“Carson? Hey, look at me?”

He sat back on his heels then reached over and turned on the lamp.

She blinked down at him, her beautiful face creased with worry—and fear?

“I need you to understand that I don’t blame you for any of this. Shit happened, we got through it and it’s over. What isn’t over is...us.” He picked up her hand and brought it to his lips, pressing a kiss to her knuckles. “I know I’m not a great package—”

“I love you. At least I think I do. I don’t really know.” She pulled her hand out of his and covered her mouth with it.

Ryan sat there staring up at fresh tears in her eyes.

“I’ve never said—or felt—that for anyone except Mom, Dad and Frankie. I just have this...big, scary knot right here.” She flattened her palm over her heart. “And whenever I think you might have been hurt or you want nothing to do with me it hurts. I’m not good at this. I’m going to fuck up. I am a fuck up.”

He ducked his head while he blinked away the grit in his eye.

“You feel like...” He cleared his throat. “Like, you’re holding on for dear life and the only thing on the other end is me?”

“Yeah,” she whispered.

“That’s how I’m feeling right now.”

Her face crumpled, and she sobbed, but there was a bit of a smile behind those tears. He leaned forward and hugged her to him, that life line stretched between them growing just a bit shorter, bringing them together.

“If you promise not to hold my fuck ups against me, I promise to cut you some slack, too. Okay?” He sucked in a breath and it felt as though his ribs might break. He’d fallen for the idea of him and Carson from the beginning. Now he didn’t want to let go.

“I promise,” she whispered.

She didn’t know it, but Ryan was going to keep her forever.