“And the lawsuits.”
“So you’re not denying you were behind the arson attempt?”
“We were both behind it!” the governor shouted.
Alexei stepped back and glanced at Jonas. “Is that enough to arrest him?”
Caldwell let out a low guttural sound, then lunged.
Alexei didn’t have time to brace himself before the governor’s hands slammed into his shoulders. The force of the impact drove him backward a few steps, but he regained his balance and shoved the man away.
It was enough to send the governor crashing into the doorway.
“Enough!” Jonas was across the room in an instant. He wrenched Simon backward, hooked one arm around the man’s chest, and yanked his arms behind his back in a clean, practiced motion.
“I demand you release me immediately!” Caldwell twisted, but Jonas forced his face against the wall and kicked his feet apart. “I’m the governor.”
“And I’m the acting US Deputy Marshal.” Jonas’s voice was as hard as the steel Farnsworth used to build his massive ships down in San Francisco. “And I just witnessed you assault a civilian inside his own home after admitting to conspiracy to commit arson. You’re under arrest.”
“You can’t arrest me! You have no authority to?—”
“I have every authority,” Jonas snapped.
Caldwell tried to lurch away, but Jonas slammed him flat against the wall.
Alexei met the man’s gaze. He hadn’t known for certain that the governor had been involved in the arson, only his brother. So Alexei had made a series of calculated statements to see if he could get the truth, and they had paid off.
The governor seemed to realize that, because even from his position against the wall, he narrowed his eyes at Alexei. “Just wait until I get released from jail, Amos. I’m going to use every last resource I have to destroy?—”
“Stop talking, Governor.” Jonas hauled the man upright. “Unless you want me to add threatening an individual to the list of charges against you.”
That was enough for the governor to finally shut his mouth.
Jonas used the few seconds of silence to march the man toward the door and out of the house.
30
Sitka; Two Days Later
“So there’s no lasting damage to my lung?” Rosalind sat with her arms raised, trying not to wince as Kate wrapped a bandage around her chest.
“There doesn’t appear to be, no.” Dr. Reid stood beside the bed, scrawling notes onto the pad he’d used to track her respiratory rate and symptoms for the past two days. “Your trouble breathing now has to do with pain from your broken ribs, not because air from your lung is leaking into your pleural cavity.”
“I see.” Or at least she tried to see everything that he was explaining, but all she knew was that every breath still seared the bottom of her chest.
“There, how does that feel?” Kate pinned the end of the bandage to the top of her chest, then sat back. “Does it hurt less when you breathe?”
Rosalind took a slow breath, dragging air partway into her lungs. “The pain feels duller now, though it’s still there.”
Dr. Reid gave a short nod. “That’s to be expected. We’ll keep your ribs bound constantly for the next few days, but I’d like to move toward unwrapping them at night as soon as possible to prevent pneumonia. We don’t know exactly why restricted breathing leads to pneumonia, but you’ve been through enough already.”
Yes, she had been through quite a bit, hadn’t she? She pressed her eyes shut, memories of the past three days filling her mind.
Both her father and Uncle Simon were in jail, and they must be furious. This wasn’t the first time they’d done something illegal, but it was certainly the first time they’d been arrested for it, and without a judge on the island to set bail, they would be there for a few more days at least.
Deputy Marshal Redding said he was going to petition the judge to deny her father bail because of the severity of the charges, but the judge might let him post bail anyway. What would happen once he was released? Would he come to the Amoses’ house and try to get her?
The Deputy Marshal was less optimistic about the judge denying her uncle bail. He was only facing arson conspiracy charges, and it would take a good bit of nerve for a judge to force the governor of Alaska to stay in jail until trial.
