Garnet nodded. “Yeah. How bad is it out there?”
“Not as bad as it could be, but not great.”
Garnet hugged him tight before she stepped back. He kept his hand on her, needing the connection. The reality that he’d almost lost her hit hard.
“We need to clean up some stuff,” Bean said.
Link nodded. “It’s a mess out there. But thank goodness you two are safe.”
Ansley nodded. “I’m glad he didn’t come in here. Our hiding place was good, but not great.”
“It was Jack Pearson,” Garnet said. “At least I think it was.”
Bean nodded. “I think so. Someone still needs to identify him, but we believe it was Pearson.”
Garnet shook her head. “I can’t believe he was behind everything. I guess he must have been watching me or something. But I never talked about it. Maybe something was said, and I didn’t deny it, but I don’t know for sure. I was at work with people who had clearance. I thought I could trust him.”
“Don’t worry about that for now. We’ll deal with it later.” Bean was sure there would be no blowback on Garnet. She wouldhave to be debriefed, but he couldn’t imagine it going bad for her. She’d survived, that was the most important thing.
They still had to get the guy in Europe, but that could wait. They would eventually take the guy into custody, and maybe then they would have a good idea how this all came about.
Chapter 34
Garnet stood in the den,amazed by the mess. There was glass everywhere. The carpet would have to be replaced, along with some furniture.
She hadn’t asked what happened to Pearson, but based on the lack of blood inside, he hadn’t died in here. They were alive, which she was very happy about. Pearson could have come in here and killed them both, or just Ansley. Garnet turned her head and met Ansley’s gaze. She moved at the same time Ansley did, and they were hugging and crying.
After Link contacted the insurance company and snapped photos and a video, they started cleaning. Three of the guys started moving furniture out of the front room, where the carpet had to be replaced. Brady swept up the glass in the entryway, piling it in the corner so no one stepped on it.
Ansley still had her arm around Garnet as they watched the men work. It could have gone so much worse.
“We survived,” Ansley said.
Garnet nodded as she blubbered out a laugh. “We did. I’m so sorry about your house being shot up.”
Ansley waved off the apology. “It’s not a big deal. I mean, now we have a great story to tell because we survived.”
“Thank goodness you both survived,” Link said as he moved into the kitchen to grab a trash bag.
“Yeah, and I didn’t like that carpet in the front room anyway,” Ansley said.
Link stopped beside them. “You know it’s funny, we talked about buying new carpet for that room last week.”
Ansley giggled. “Glad we didn’t make any decisions.”
“True. Now we can get new carpet, and the insurance company will pay for some of it.”
Ansley reached out and squeezed Garnet’s arm. “Maybe we should do pizza. We’ve got a lot of guys here.”
Garnet nodded. “I’ll place an order now. It might take a while for them to get the entire order made and delivered.”
After checking with Brady, she placed the order. Garnet intended to pay for the pizza, but the guys tossed cash at her, telling her to keep it. She felt guilty, but none of Brady’s friends seemed to hold it against her.
She spoke to the police and the MPs. Her boss called, and she knew other government agencies would get involved now that Pearson had played his hand. She had no idea how she could explain this all away without telling some version of the truth. She just hoped they believed her story.
Somehow,a window company had been able to make it to Link’s house, so they had new windows installed, and their house was secure before nightfall. They’d taken the damaged furniture to the dump and gotten rid of the carpet.
Link and Ansley said they were happy with the progress they’d made. Garnet said she felt bad, but neither of them hadbeen injured, and that was the most important thing out of this whole mess.
