Fifteen interminable seconds later, she had her answer.
DAVID LEE OPENEDthe front door, hands in the air, shotgun grasped tightly in one raised fist. He surveyed the scene, and his expression shifted from one of triumph to one of confusion.
He said something in Korean to Mr. Park.
Mr. Park answered, and his voice was cold and filled with fury. The men argued, but there was no way to know what was being said. What was clear was that both men were beyond reason.
On TV, when a scene turned to chaos, everything slowed down. But that’s not how it worked in real life.
Everything blurred. Mr. Park shoved Faith toward Luke and in the same moment took aim at David Lee. David Lee lowered the shotgun. They both fired.
They both went down.
37
FAITH LAY FACE DOWNon the ground. Luke was draped across her with his arms wrapped securely around her head. She pulled her head up and peered through the spaces of the cocoon Luke had formed around her.
David Lee and Mr. Park were both splayed on the ground. There was a lot of blood. Neither of them moved.
For the space of a heartbeat, no one else moved either. Then Dale and Jacob approached the bodies and secured the weapons that had fallen beside David Lee and Mr. Park.
Then they checked for signs of life, the whole scene playing out like a silent movie until Dale yelled, “I’ve got a pulse!”
And Jacob’s Jersey accent called out, “I’ve got one too!”
Somehow both men were still alive.
Pandemonium broke out. Paramedics rushed forward while everyone else was kept back as far as possible from the house.
In the chaos, Luke’s cheek rested against hers. “Faith?” His voice was shaking. “Can you move?”
In answer, she rolled onto her back and punched Luke’s good shoulder. “What were you thinking? You could have been killed!”
Luke smiled—that slow, soft smile that made her forget shewas lying on the wet ground with the smell of smoke and blood thick in the air. His thumb brushed her cheek. “I love you, Faith.”
Before she could respond, they were surrounded. Dale, Jacob, Tessa, Gil, and Zane encircled them, all talking at once.
“Are you all right?”
“Were you hit?”
“We need to get the paramedics over here to check Faith’s neck.”
“We need to move.”
Faith couldn’t tell who was talking, but it didn’t matter. No matter how they worded it, they were all saying the same thing. “You scared us. We’re glad you’re okay.”
Luke moved to his knees, then offered her a hand and helped her into a sitting position. Then they both got to their feet, aided—or more accurately, hindered—by five other sets of hands.
Once they had succeeded in convincing everyone from Dale and Jacob to the paramedics to their friends that they were not in need of emergency medical services, the rest of the evening was a blur.
David Lee and Mr. Park were taken to the hospital. If either of them survived, it would be hours if not days before they could be questioned.
Faith waited with Luke and the others as the bomb techs cleared the house. While they worked, she called Hope, then her mom, then her dad to let them know that no matter what they might see on television, she was fine and their respective security details would ensure they were all returned home tomorrow.
An agent approached them. “Agent Malone. I was told to give this to you.”
Faith opened the folder. Inside was the translation of the conversation between David Lee and Mr. Park. From what they could piece together, David Lee had believed that Mi Cha had fallen in love with Thad. He’d killed Thad because he thought that was theonly way to ensure that she would never return to the States and to clear the way for her to fall in love with him, but he swore that Mi Cha’s death had been an accident. After that, he’d killed the bomb maker in Seattle and his friend, Jesse Thomas, presumably because they knew too.
