“What about Red Square and the Dominion Pipeline?” Ozzie asked. “Have you heard anything more on that front?”
Meadows’s scowl turned him into a bulldog again. “You can thank Miss Blue for foiling that plot as well. Or rather, you can thank her vigilante friends.”
Hannah’s confused expression matched the faces of those around her. “Wait.” She sat up straighter. “What?”
“Seems the same people who gave you the backdoor into the FBI servers all those months ago when you were looking for evidence to clear Grace Beacham’s name also had a backdoor into Dominion’s system. They were able to squash the incursion and wrestle control of the pipeline back from Red Square.”
“Kerberos…” Hannah breathed the name of the online white-hat hacker group with the reverence most people reserved for a deity.
“That’d be them,” Meadows said with a snarl.
“If the oil supply to the East Coast is safe,” Ozzie piped up, “why are you still wearing a face like someone shit in your sundae?”
“Because we don’t know who these Kerberos folks are.” Meadows gave his head a forceful shake. “And they seem able to access information and closed systems with impunity. Which means they’re privy to classified intel thatnoone outside those within the government who’ve been vetted should be privy to. It’sbeyonddangerous; it’s downrightterrifying.”
“But they do good work,” Hannah insisted.
“Fornow,” Meadows came back immediately, not trying to hide his political nature which undoubtedly saw conspiracies and enemies around every corner.
“And the country is safe,” she insisted.
“This country isneversafe, Miss Blue,” Meadows scoffed. “Texas may have power and the East Coast may have fuel today, but that could all change tomorrow. Our enemies are vast and grow smarter by the day.”
For a while after that, everyone was silent. Then the chief of staff began giving further instructions to Ozzie and Eliza. But Sam stopped listening. Instead, he squeezed Hannah’s hand, hoping to lend her a little of his strength because it was clear—to him anyway—that the last thread that’d been holding her together frayed now that the double threats to the country had been dealt with and now that her good name had been restored.
In the last twenty-four hours, the poor woman had been arrested, had survived a harrowing escape from FBI custody, had nearly frozen to death, had raced to Texas to save the state from would-be destruction, and had been held hostage and stabbed.
Or more likecut. On the flight home he’d cleaned her up and placed a butterfly bandage over the inch-long gash on her flank. It didn’t need stitches, but it might leave a little scar to mark the occasion.
Oh!He snapped imaginary fingers.And she also watched a man get shot and nearly bleed out.
If anyone deserved a good, old-fashioned emotional breakdown, it was Hurricane Hannah.
As if on cue, the moment Ozzie cut the secure connection on the video call and all their screens went dark, she collapsed back in her chair. Her face screwed up as a little whimper seeped out of her.
“Shoo. My turn.” Sam swiped at Peanut, who hissed his disgruntlement but hopped off her lap all the same.
Acting on instinct, he lifted her out of her chair and into his lap. Her arms went around his neck. She buried her face in the crook of his shoulder. And then she really let loose, her whole body shaking with the force of the sobs she tried to hold in.
The others were quick to discreetly adios themselves. Eliza and Fisher headed up to their rooms and Ozzie made for the stairs leading to the first floor.
Once they were alone, Sam ran his hands up and down Hannah’s narrow back in a soothing motion. “It’s okay, sweetheart,” he whispered. “Get it all out.”
The horror of the past day rolled through her in waves. Rolledoutof her with the force of a tsunami. And all he could think as his heart was squeezed by a painfully tight fist was…
She’s right. Who wouldchooseto live this kind of life?
30
I should be dancing naked in the streets. Shouting from the rooftops. Eating an entire deep-dish pizza to celebrate the end of all this. But all I can seem to do is cry!
The tears just kept coming. Cups of them.Bucketsof them.
Why?Hannah wondered hysterically.What the hell is wrong with me?
But she knew the answer even as she asked the question.
Despite the relief she felt that her long nightmare had come to an end, despite the pride she felt that she’d managed tomostlykeep her shit together through it all, she couldn’t ignore the indisputable fact that along with her nightmare being over, so was her brief—all too brief—stint as Sam’s lover.
