Chapter 19

 

Later That Evening

 

“I can’t believe I let myself get so…” Words failed her, and Lena was embarrassed as she recalled how quickly she had gone from frightened to completely incoherent when she’d believed Owen was dead.

“Don’t be so hard on yourself. You should’ve seen me in the ER after the bomb. Mom threatened to put me in restraints, and even then…” Owen sighed, shaking his head. “Panic attacks are scary in and of themselves, and you were already terrified. You have nothing to be ashamed of.”

Lena buried her face against his neck and inhaled deeply. He’d scarcely left her side all afternoon, aside from the short time she’d spent getting another head CT. Fortunately, her brief but severe anxiety attack hadn’t caused any regression in her recovery, but it had been a close call. If it had gone on even five more minutes, there was a good chance she would have suffered a stroke. Since she’d returned from radiology, they’d been reclining side by side in her narrow hospital bed, refusing to let each other go even as they’d discussed PR spin and given their statements to the police.

“You called her ‘Mom’ again,” Lena said softly.

“Yeah.”

“That’s good. I, um… I think they might bring up the matter of adoption again. Soon.”

“What makes you say that?” Owen leaned back to look at her face and was confused by the apprehension he saw in her features.

“I talked to them about it the other day when you were out with Eric for a while. I’d been meaning to at least talk to Mary about it since before Christmas, but there just wasn’t a good time. I’m sorry if I overstepped… But I really think you should do this. You need them, and they need you. They’re your family.”

“I know, baby.” He sighed relaxing back against her pillow. “You didn’t overstep. I probably would’ve done the same thing. And if they do bring it up… I know what my answer will be.”

Owen smiled contentedly, and the wrinkle between her brows disappeared. They gazed into each other’s eyes, allowing all sense of time to fall away. After the insanity of the past two weeks, there was an acute feeling of relief in being able to simply enjoy each other for a few moments. Some time later, a soft knock on the door broke the spell, and they turned in unison to see Logan standing in the doorway.

“Am I interrupting another sappy moment?” he teased. Lena grinned back.

“A well-deserved one, I think.”

“Amen to that. I—” his phone chirped loudly from his pocket, and he threw them an apologetic glance. “Sorry, it’s Valerie. She’s a bit freaked out by everything that happened today.”

“We should start a club,” Lena smiled wryly. “Go ahead.”

Logan answered the phone, and his brow furrowed immediately at whatever Valerie was saying on the other end.

“Babe, slow down… What happened?”

Owen and Lena frowned in concern, listening to Logan’s side of the conversation. Lena guessed from his repeated pleas to ‘speak English’ that Valerie was most likely trying to explain something work-related. What she didn’t expect, however, was the broad smile that suddenly appeared on her friend’s face.

“I’m at the hospital now, so I’m going to put you on speaker, okay?”

“Good, they should hear this too!” Valerie’s voice filled the small room. “We had a big break in the case today, and I finally got clearance to share what led us to it.”

“This is about the bomb?” Owen asked, sitting up a little straighter. Valerie’s answer came rapidly.

“Yes! We were able to confirm the type of bomb and the exact materials used to construct it. The chemical signature was unique, not to mention the fact that the blast was so well-controlled. The ratio of ammonium nitrate to—”

“Honey… English. Dumb it down for the non-scientists, yeah?” Logan interjected.

“Right, sorry. The intensity of the blast was high, but the radius was small. It was made by someone who really knew what he was doing, and it’s not the first time the Bureau has seen his work.”

“Yeah, Ramsey said you would be cross-referencing with other cases?” Lena asked.

“Yes! And we found the suspect! There wasn’t enough evidence for an arrest warrant with the last case, but the judge was swayed by the new evidence. The guy was arrested this afternoon, and we’ve got him on at least three other bombings based on the unique composition and structure. He might as well have signed his name on the casings.” They could hear the elation in her voice, and it was clear that Valerie was still riding an adrenaline high from the discovery. The rest of them were smiling now too, but Lena had more questions.

“Wow, so… What does that mean for Phelps?”

“Well, I’m sure Agent Ramsey will be able to explain that part better, but from what I was told about the bomb maker, it didn’t take much to break the guy. The prosecutor will probably offer him a deal of some sort to turn State’s Witness against the people who bought the bombs from him, including Phelps. Three more warrants have been issued so far.”

Owen and Lena gazed at one another in astonishment, and he was the first to recover.

“So, basically… Even if Phelps hadn’t pulled that stunt today, he’d still have been arrested?”

“Most likely. They’ve got more than enough to hold him without bail now. I heard they picked up his daughter too. The hacker turned her in.”

“Declan?” Lena asked in surprise.

“No, the other one,” Valerie replied. “Wes Porter? They’re both implicated in the embezzlement but not the bombing.”

“Not yet,” Owen added.

“Possibly. Hey, I need to finish up some paperwork so I can head home soon. I just wanted to pass along what I heard. Ramsey will contact you guys with a more detailed update as soon as he can, but he said I could give you an overview.”

“Thank you, Valerie. For everything. I know you’ve been working hard on this case, and I’m sure you’re a big part of the reason it moved so quickly,” Lena spoke up. Logan nodded, smiling proudly.

“And thank you for keeping us in the loop,” Owen added. “It means a lot.”

“I’m happy I could help.”

Logan took the phone off speaker and brought it to his ear.

“Call or text me later to let me know you got home safely, alright?”

Lena met her fiancé’s eyes and was once again lost in their emerald depths. Words were unnecessary. The overwhelming relief they shared was all over their faces as they began to process what might come next, each attempting to maintain a cautious optimism that the worst might truly be over.

“So…” Logan said, pulling them out of their moment a bit awkwardly. He’d ended his call and slipped his phone back into his pocket. “I actually just came by to check on you guys. Especially you, Squeak. Langford, here, lit out of that room like his perfect hair was on fire.”

“Can you blame me?” Owen replied, ignoring the jibe. “They said she nearly had a stroke.”

Logan nodded with a sad smile as Owen pressed his lips to Lena’s forehead for the hundredth time since he’d sprinted into her room that afternoon. Lena flushed slightly at the reminder of just how badly she’d reacted to the situation.

“I’m glad you’re both okay. Today was…”

“Insane?”

“Pretty much,” Logan agreed, looking years older than he had that morning. Owen eyed him curiously.

“There is one thing I wanted to ask… You shot Phelps in the hand. I didn’t expect that.”

“That’s not a question.”

“You know what I mean,” he said apologetically. “I know you want him dead just as much as I do, so… Why the hand?”

Lena looked at Logan with sympathy but said nothing, and it took him a moment to determine how to phrase his answer.

“I had to take a lot of lives in the Army. Too many,” Logan explained quietly, staring a hole into the tiled floor. “I didn’t have much choice then, but today I did. I refuse to take another life if I can help it. Even someone like Phelps.” His eyes lifted reluctantly to his best friend. “I’m sorry if that means I let you down, Squeak. I know you probably want Phelps dead, and so do I, but—”

“No,” she interrupted, holding his gaze. “I’d never ask that of you, so don’t apologize. You did the right thing. If he’s going to die for what he’s done, it’ll be by lethal injection. As far as I’m concerned though, death is too easy for him. He deserves to spend the rest of his miserable life in jail.”

“Here, here,” Owen agreed.

“I guess we’ll be waiting a while to find out either way. While we’re on the subject of Phelps though, I have to ask… I didn’t hear the whole conversation, but I got the gist, you could say. What was he using to blackmail you?”

Once again, Lena remained silent, allowing Owen to decide how to answer.

“Does it really matter? It wouldn’t have worked.”

“It matters a lot if it could end up coming back to bite us in the ass. I’m not saying we have to broadcast whatever it was he had on you, but if he got his hands on it, anyone can. The security staff can only do their jobs if they know what’s out there.”

“It was…” Owen sighed in resignation. “When I was four, I was adopted out of a bad situation into a worse one. My adoptive mother was abusive in just about every imaginable way, and it didn’t stop until I was fifteen. She went to prison, my adoptive father disappeared, and I was emancipated. I changed my name to Langford and moved on.”

Logan had paled considerably, and there was a new gleam of respect and empathy in his eyes.

“So, Phelps was threatening some sort of PR fallout?”

“More or less… It had more to do with Lena. He assumed she didn’t know and that finding out would drive a wedge between us.”

“But you already knew,” Logan surmised, glancing at Lena.

“We don’t have secrets. I… I heard what Phelps said. As disgusting as his accusations were, publicizing them probably wouldn’t have the effect he was suggesting. Owen was a victim, not a complicit party. Any media source who paints him as anything else would lose all credibility.”

“Well, the media certainly isn’t my territory, Squeak, but I’m pretty sure you’re right about that. And Owen… I’m sorry if it seemed like I was prying.”

“No, I get it. You’re right. The last thing security needs is to be blindsided by shit like this. We’ll make sure everyone is on the same page about this and anything else that might come up.”

“My former recreational habits, for example,” Lena pointed out, once again a little pink in the cheeks.

“Yeah,” Logan snickered. “Now that could sell a few papers, but I doubt anyone would try to kill you over it.”

His words were an unintentional reminder of the darkness that had very nearly consumed their lives, and the atmosphere in the room grew heavy. The three of them sat in silence for a few moments before Logan rose to his feet with a sigh.

“Well, I think I’m going to head home for the night. Or maybe to Valerie’s...”

“Why don’t you take Wyatt with you? He needs a break, and I think we’ll be fine with hospital security for the night.”

“I’ll see if I can convince him to leave, but only if one of the new guys stays in addition to the regular security. Phelps might be in jail, but that doesn’t mean you two can start getting lax about security. There’s a reason Nate always had an armed guard with him. May as well get used to it,” Logan advised.

Lena winced only a little at the sound of Nate’s name, and Owen wasn’t certain whether it was a sign she was beginning to cope with her grief or if it was merely the fact that her exhaustion was catching up with her. After Logan had taken his leave, she agreed that she was ready for a dose of pain medication and summoned a nurse. Lena swallowed the proffered pills with a silent prayer for dreamless sleep.

Once she and Owen were alone again, he dimmed the lights and climbed back into bed next to her. They held one another in silence, listening to each other’s heartbeats and counting each precious breath.

“I was so scared,” she whispered as a tear slid down her cheek. “I’ve never been that scared. Not when my mom died, or when Logan was shot, or when I woke up from the coma and my dad was… I heard that shot and everything just… fell apart. I fell apart. I thought I’d lost you, just like everyone else. I don’t think I’d have ever come back from that.”

“You’re not going to lose me, Lena,” he vowed, smoothing her hair back tenderly. “I’m safe. We both are now. We’re going to be okay, and Phelps is going to pay for what he’s done. It’s over.”

“It’s not over. There will be a trial. Hell, there will be multiple trials. We have to find a place to live. I have to get back on my feet. We have a company to run, degrees to finish—”

“And a wedding to plan,” Owen smiled, soothing her instantly as he took hold of her hand. “I guess you’re right. Only one part is over. But you know I’ll be right by your side for whatever comes next.”

Lena smiled too, her eyes beginning to grow heavy.

“Right where you’ve always been.”