“For sure.”
“Look at this house where we live now! I can’t believe this is real!” Boxes were stacked everywhere she looked, but who cared about that when they had so much space to call their own—at the same price they’d paid for an apartment that was a tenth the size of the first floor alone. Their friends had cut them one heck of a deal.
“We need more furniture.”
“We’ll get there. For now, Alex can ride his tricycle in the house.”
“Oh, he’ll love that.”
Tommy set her gently on the bed, which hadn’t yet been made but felt like heaven to her aching back. The bedroom was full of boxes, too.
“I might stay right here until the morning.”
“That can be arranged.”
“Come snuggle me.”
He crawled onto the bed and fell into her outstretched arms.
“Mmmm, that’s what I’ve been needing since I saw you last. I never even asked how you are after what happened at HQ today.”
“Rattled but okay. Four people killed and the chief is injured. Jeannie was trapped for a time and went into early labor. She had her baby—Ava Joy McBride Wilkinson—six weeks early. Thankfully, they’re both okay.”
“Oh my God! Poor Jeannie—and Michael. They must’ve been terrified.”
“I’m sure they were.”
“Wow. Did you know the people who were killed?”
“Just to say hi to. I haven’t had much contact with Processing and Records in a while. Patrol usually handles processing, but I knew June, the librarian.”
“I’m sorry for the senseless loss of your colleagues and the reporter who died, too.”
“Thank you. I am, too.”
“What are you hearing about the chief?”
“He has a concussion and a broken wrist, but otherwise, he’s okay and apparently already jonesing to get back to work.”
“He needs to be with his people after something like this.”
“We think the Russians were behind the bombing.”
Christina sighed. “They were, and it’s all related to the murder of Sergei Ivanov.”
“Yes, that, too.”
“What a mess Henderson has created for Nick and the rest of us.”
“What’s the tea on that?”
“Apparently, Ivanov is an old friend of hers from Oxford and had been spending nights at the Naval Observatory in recent weeks.”
“Whoa. And she never said anything about it at work?”
“Nope. She said she didn’t see what the big deal was. He’s an old friend.”
“Who was working feverishly to topple the Russian president. She never mentioned that she was hanging out with a Russian?”
