“He didn’t make it, sorry. Nor did his window cleaner friend.”
“Oh, God.”
Florence shook her head, sadly. “When you ran into the bedroom, Yuri defended that door like it was his sworn mission. An honest-to-God hero.”
“Oh, no. He bought me time to get away? I mean, I figured they would catch me eventually, but…”
“Bought you time to set up the pendant and the tie clip so they would record everything?” Carter said, rubbing her arm. “I can’t believe he’s been in the U.S. this whole time.”
“You mean that actually worked?”
“Silvia couldn’t believe she was actually watching a livestreamed confession. And that woman has seeneverything.”
“I remembered you telling me about them—the hidden camera, hidden microphone. I knew they were in your backpack. I figured I could use the tie clip as a hairclip, and I worked out how to turn them on, but the rest… I didn’t know if it would actually upload to anywhere.”
“Is that why you used the dictaphone?” Florence said.
“No, I figured they’d find that, but I hoped they wouldn’t suspect me of arranging anything more sophisticated, since it was so stupidly obvious.”
“I saw you turning them on,” Florence said. “Very discreet of you.”
“You knew?”
“Who do you think had them made for Carter?”
“A ‘book club’ friend developed them,” he said, air-quoting.
Florence swatted in his direction. “Oh, shush, you. Like we haven’t gotten you out of trouble more than once. They all dote over him as if he’stheirson. You should see the baking he gets.”
“I was trying to interpret the expression on your face,” Alice said to Florence. “I thought you’d given up on me.”
“Not for a second. I was trying to keep a straight face so Tania would buy it. She sure underestimated you.”
“Nika wrote a line in the book: ‘Their underestimation of me will work in my favor.’ It kept running through my head.”
“Inever underestimated you,” Carter said. “Well, not once I actually met you.”
“You know, I suspect the only person underestimating me was me.”
“And Tania,” he added, “which she will spend the rest of her days regretting.”
“Wait,” Alice said, trying to sit up and then thinking better of it, “you’re supposed to be in custody. Tania said they were going to poison you.”
“They tried. But guess the name of the guard who brought me food and water?”
“Tyler Wade,” Florence offered.
“Right there on his ID card. He showed me a photo of the two of you, tied up. Which killed me, but then I saw the pendant and the tie clip in your hair, and with Mom captured I knew it was up to me to get out and check it had uploaded—no one else has access. So I did. Plus, I knew you were wearing the ring, so I’d be able to find you.”
“Easy as that?”
“Not allthateasy, but I, ah, talked Tyler into seeing it my way, and then I ran into Silvia on the way out. Thought I’d been caught and that was the end of it but… She’d gotten sidelined, and was pissed, so she heard me out, and we managed to grab my phone so I could locate you. She’s got a hell of a lot to mop up, but boy is she motivated. These guys have been making her look bad for years.”
“I thought they tried to hack your phone, and everything got wiped.”
“So it would appear to them, but there’s a workaround.”
“And here you are,” Alice said, closing her eyes and feeling his breath toy with her hair. The rise and fall of his chest behind her back had to be the sweetest thing she’d ever felt. Warm and solid—and alive.
