Final Stand

by Lisa Phillips

  “I’m not going anywhere.”

  “So you’ve said.”

  “You think I’d leave you like this?”

  He saw her shake her head, his nose touching the glass. Saw the long exhale. “You have enough time to get to a safe distance.”

  Talia got back on the line before he could say anything. “The sergeant is on the line. He wants to know why you’re interrupting his bacon sandwich.”

  The laugh that burst from Victoria was like a single bark. Surprise. Amusement.

  “I’ll put him through.”

  “Working on owing me triple?” The voice that burst onto the line was gravelly, sounded like a grunt, and was clearly amused.

  “If I’m still alive in an hour, I’ll owe you big time. But I’m not watching your dog again. She’s mean.”

  He chuckled. “Biting means she likes you.”

  “I’d love to banter.” She paused. “I seriously would love nothing more than to shoot the breeze with you right now, but I’m in a situation.”

  She outlined everything. From some kind of altercation, a car chase in France with details Mark hadn’t been privy to, something about him having tied her up to get her back into the US, to the man behind it.

  “Oscar Langdon?”

  “He was the one last dirty FBI agent they were looking for.”

  The Sergeant let out a low whistle. “Got yourself in a mess. One Jakeman didn’t fully brief me on.”

  “Jakeman was left for dead. Langdon is dead.”

  More whistling.

  Mark said, “What we need your help with is a nuke.”

  Talia explained it was wired to sensors in the car that could tell if the doors or trunk were open.

  “Got someone that can look under the car?”

  “That would be me,” Mark said.

  “Can’t believe you let me go to Last Chance, Vic. I’d have helped.”

  “I know.” Her voice was quiet.

  Mark’s was not when he said, “Last Chance?”

  “Who’re you?”

  “FBI assistant director Mark Welvern.”

  “Huh.” The sergeant said, “We had a training op in Last Chance County.”

  “I grew up there, with Victoria.”

  “Guys.” She broke in. “The nuke?”

  Talia came back on the line. “Josh and Dakota found the scientist. He’s dead, and it was a mess. They think Langdon lost his cool.”

  Mark paced away from the car toward the stall door. It wasn’t a big space, but the barn wall rolled up like a garage door so the vehicles could be displayed or driven away. He said, “Tell me what I’m looking for on the underside.”

  While the sergeant told him what to look for, he thought it through. If Langdon was mad, and the scientist had been murdered…didn’t that indicate he might’ve failed to do what Langdon wanted?

  Maybe there was a bomb. Whether it was a functioning nuclear weapon, he wasn’t sure. At least, he couldn’t be convinced with any level of certainty.

  “That’s not what I’m seeing.” Mark traced the wires with his fingers, being careful not to loosen anything.

  “So it’s hidden.”

  Mark spotted something, high up by the wheel. “Hang on.” Yep. That was it. “I found the sensor mechanism for the rear side door.”

  The sergeant had him describe it. Then he said, “Do you have any wire clippers?”

  Mark pulled out the multi-tool he carried in his pocket. One Victoria had given him for Christmas after his old one was confiscated after he’d tried to go through airport security having forgotten it was in his backpack.

  Talia made him shine his flashlight camera to the mechanism. He didn’t need them all conferring over what to do, taking forever. Dragging it out. He said, “Be quick.”

  The sergeant made some comment about the wires. Talia replied. That techno speak he didn’t understand and had no desire to learn. It was like a whole different language.

  Mark gritted his teeth while they figured out what he should do. He was just about to remind them that the clock was ticking when the sergeant said, “Cut the red one. As far away from the mechanism as you can.”

  Mark didn’t wait around. He tucked the phone on his chest so they could see what he was doing, traced the wire away from the metal box, and cut.

  Two seconds later he exhaled. “We didn’t blow up.”

  “You should be able to open that door now.”

  “And the trunk?”

  “Slide the phone on the ground. I’ll look.”

  Once Mark had it in the right place, he got up and pulled the passenger door open. Victoria looked like she wanted to cry—and like she already had been. He crouched in the open door, wary of the pressure plate she’d told them about. “Hey, beautiful.”

  A flash of disagreement flared in her eyes. “It’s good to see you.”

  He wanted to kiss her. Would even that alter the weight pressing down on the seat by just one pound? He didn’t know.

  “Why did you—” A high-pitched beep interrupted her. “Guys!”

  Mark leaned in, holding onto the roof. The front windshield was now a display filled with four digits and a colon between.

  09:56

  09:55

  09:54

  “We’re counting down,” Mark said. “Nine minutes, fifty-three seconds to go.”

  “Yes.” Victoria whipped her head around to glare at him. Like that was going to work. “Good idea. Go.”

  “I need to get into the trunk, sergeant.” He moved away, headed for the phone.

  “Mark, will you just go!”

  He slid back so he could see her through the open door. “No way, honey. We do this like we do everything important. Together.”

  All in all, he was pretty pleased with that. It came out quite eloquently.

  “I’ve done plenty of important things without you.”

  Mark figured that was probably true. “Not one thing in my life that I’ve ever done without you has been anything even close to important.”

  “I don’t even know what that means.”

  “I’ll explain later,” the sergeant said. “After we get the two of you out of there.”

  “Victoria?”

  “Yeah?” She’d stopped yelling now.

  “I love you.”

  No one said anything. “I’d love you more if you left.”

  “Is that true?”

  “No.” She gave him that, but grudgingly.

  Mark smiled to himself under the car, ready to be done with this so they could figure a few things out. Like a serious change of relationship status.

  Talia said, “Everyone except the two of you are out of the blast radius.”

  “Copy that.” Mark laid back down on the ground. “sergeant?”

  “Mark, will you just go!” It sounded like she was crying now.

  Maybe it was because she was so happy that they’d finally admitted aloud that they loved each other, but he figured that was unlikely given the way it sounded. A guy could dream, though.

  He slid under the car and set the phone back on his chest, facing the underside. Similar mechanism. More wires this time. “Red?”

  “Only if you wanna die.”

  “Given I’ve finally just said I love you to the woman I’ve loved since I first figured out what that means…I’m going to say no. I don’t especially want to die now.”

  “The inside black one.”

  Mark shone the light on his fingers and counted along. “This one?”

  “Next one.”

  He took it. “Okay.”

  Victoria yelled, “Six minutes!”

  He cut the wire. “Done.”

  “Pop the trunk. Slowly. Look for wires.”

  Mark set the phone in his shirt pocket, facing out. Not perfect, but it would have to do. He pressed the button for the trunk, crouched, saw no wires, and lifted it up. The whistle couldn’t be helped.

  “Four minutes, fifty nine.”

  M
ark said, “I see that.”

  “Describe it.”

  “Huge bomb. On top is a laptop.”

  “Laptop?” Talia sounded excited now. “Get your phone hooked into it. Or will he have thought of that…” Her voice trailed off.

  “Talia, we’re under four minutes now.”

  Inside the car, Victoria whimpered.

  “Type this.” She rattled off a series of letters and numbers, keystrokes he had to type in that were given almost too quickly for his fatigued brain to figure out. Were it not for the adrenaline, he’d probably have been to slow. But also because of the adrenaline, he had to make sure he didn’t fumble a key and get something wrong.

  “Done.”

  “Press Enter. Then you get Victoria and run.”

  “One second.” Mark left the command on the screen and went to the car interior and snapped her free of the ties securing her to the headrest by her wrists.

  Then he moved back to the keyboard. He pressed Enter on the laptop. “Go!”

  Victoria dove out of the car, stumbling on her feet. He caught her around the waist, and they raced through the barn to the heavy door at the end.

  Mark slammed into the bar at a run.

  Outside hit them like a blast of air-conditioned air. The crisp night temperatures of winter, nature so still and calm, readying itself for the first prickles of ice to settle overnight.

  The explosion rocketed into the sky, breaking apart the barn as it enveloped it in a ball of deep orange.

  Mark grabbed Victoria and pulled her close.

  The force hit them.

  His world went black.

  Chapter 39

  Seattle, Washington. Wednesday 4.23a.m.

  Victoria came awake to the sound of beeping machines, dimmed overhead fluorescents, and the sound of heavy breathing. Her mouth tasted like old orange juice.

  She tried to move but was tucked in tight by a heavy layer of sheets and blankets.

  “Hey.” The voice was throaty, and she felt weight settle on her left side. Warm fingers threaded through hers and gave a quick squeeze.

  “Dakota.”

  “Yeah. The others are here, too. Talia and Haley. We just told them we’re all sisters...by adoption.”

  Victoria squeezed her eyes shut for a second.

  “I’ll explain it when you’re more awake. It was pretty funny.”

  A light in the corner blinked on, and Victoria saw Talia’s outline heading into the bathroom. She needed to pee but had the feeling there were medical procedures at work and right now she didn’t need to worry so much about that.

  “Are you in pain?”

  Victoria turned her head and saw Haley’s face. All the women were here, except…Allyson’s face came into view at the end of the bed.

  “Victoria?”

  “I’m…I don’t even know.” Her brain hadn’t exactly woken up yet.

  Allyson shot her a sympathetic smile. “You’ll get there.”

  Victoria lifted her right hand. A cast covered her arm from elbow to knuckles. She’d broken it. She raised her other hand. IV tube feeding medicine into her elbow. Abrasions on her wrist.

  She’d been tied to the headrest of—“The car.”

  Dakota shook her head. “You guys blew that sweet ride into tiny pieces, along with the building. All that’s left is the crater you both rolled back into. The one they had to dig you out of.”

  Victoria frowned, figuring that was enough for Dakota to know she needed more of an explanation.

  It was. Dakota said, “Took a whole day. By the time they found you…well, it wasn’t pretty.”

  “Josh?”

  “He’s awake. There’s a little movement, so they’re hopeful.”

  Victoria turned to Allyson and lifted her brows. The former ATF agent said, “Sal and I found Jakeman. He’s alive. He’s at the naval base in Bremerton in intensive care. His wife has been calling every couple of hours, asking for updates on your condition.”

  “So he’s okay?”

  “He will be.”

  That was enough, at least. “Thank God.”

  Dakota’s brows twitched into a frown, but she didn’t say anything further. “Niall and Haley located the scientist. Don’t know if you heard that.”

  Victoria couldn’t remember if she had or not. Where was Mark? Surely if he had been hurt too badly, they’d tell her, right? She would be the first to know.

  “Anyway it looks like Langdon was so mad he cut the guy all up and didn’t care about the mess.”

  “Unhinged.”

  “What did you see in him, anyway?”

  More than one of the women there shot Dakota a look. Talia gasped, as she headed out of the bathroom to the tune of the toilet tank refilling. “Dakota.”

  Victoria shook her head. “He wasn’t Langdon. He was Colin Pinton.” She couldn’t refrain from asking any longer. “Now someone tell me where Mark is.”

  “Next door. And that’s all I’m prepared to tell you until you hear the rest of it.”

  Victoria let out a long sigh and shut her eyes.

  Dakota chuckled. “I see you’re just going to pretend to fall asleep.”

  “Langdon is dead?” She didn’t bother opening her eyes.

  “Yes. Mark killed him.”

  Victoria’s eyes flew open as she started recalling details and she turned too fast to Talia. “Langdon stabbed Mason.” Her voice sounded strained, and she couldn’t hold back the moan at the end.

  Talia nodded. “Should I get a nurse?”

  “Just tell me how he is. First.”

  “Recovering. Just like Mark.” There was something in her gaze Victoria couldn’t make out because of the dim light. “I’ll get the nurse.”

  Victoria pushed out a breath through pursed lips. “I’m not sure I’ve ever felt like this. And I think I was blown up twice in one day recently.”

  Dakota shrugged.

  “I should actually check that record book.” Haley pulled out her phone.

  Allyson glanced between the two of them like she thought they were insane.

  Maybe they all were. Victoria kind of felt that way. “How is Mark?”

  Allyson said, “They’ll know more when he wakes up, but they think he’ll be okay.” She pressed her lips together for a second. “He was found on top of you, like he shielded you from the blast.”

  That was supposed to make her feel better?

  “He took the brunt of the explosion.”

  Victoria wanted to see him, but she wasn’t exactly sure she could move at all right now. She’d lifted each of her arms a moment ago and now felt like she really was going to fall back to sleep any minute now. No joke this time.

  “I’m pregnant.” Allyson blurted it out.

  Dakota nearly fell off the bed.

  Haley dropped her phone on the floor.

  “Sal didn’t want to wait.” She lifted both hands palms up. “It happened on the first go around.”

  Victoria smiled, feeling it overtake her whole face.

  Allyson smiled back.

  “Does he hate me?”

  Allyson shook her head. “If he did, would he have come here to find Jakeman?”

  “No.”

  “Would he have gone straight from dropping Jakeman off at the closest hospital to tracking down Langdon’s hotel room in order to secure the nuclear material with the help of some guy who goes by “sergeant” and says obnoxious things like, ‘tell Vickie she owes me big for this’?”

  Victoria said nothing.

  “He doesn’t hate you. He just doesn’t always agree with you.” Allyson shrugged. “But families work through that stuff. They work it out and, in the end, it makes the bond stronger than if they’d never weathered through.”

  “Congratulations.”

  “Thank you.”

  Victoria turned to Dakota. “How about you? I lied about what the task force was doing. I used all of you.”

  “Did you watch our backs?”

  “O
f course.”

  “Were we doing something valuable that saved lives?”

  “Yes, but—”

  Haley said, “Did you need each of us, and the skills we brought to the team?”

  Victoria looked at each woman in turn. “All of them.”

  The door opened, and Talia came in. A nurse with heavy makeup and pink scrubs followed her in and took Victoria’s vitals, shone a light in her eyes until that was all she could see and asked her a whole bunch of questions, including, “Who is the president?”

  “I should call him. Tell him I’m okay.”

  “Uh…”

  Talia waved a hand. “It’s fine. I hear he calls her “Vickie.” Her body shook with a giggle. “Vickie.”

  Victoria frowned at her, trying to look authoritative.

  Talia patted her. “I’ll make sure that’s included in all the reports.”

  “The doctor will be in shortly.” Nurse lady wandered out.

  Dakota shook her head. “She was a ray of sunshine.”

  Haley said, “Probably needs more coffee.”

  Allyson groaned. “Decaf for me if someone is going downstairs. I have to visit the throne room for a second, splash some water on my face.”

  “Do you need a mint?” Haley moved to her purse.

  “In a sec, please.”

  Talia squeezed Victoria’s hand. When she looked at her friend, Talia said, “I’m glad you’re all right.”

  Victoria turned her head to the side, showing Talia her cheek. She even lifted her chin a little bit. Talia leaned down and planted her lips there. “I guess you’ll just have to see the doctor with purple lipstick on your face.”

  “Wouldn’t be the first time.”

  . . .

  Two days later

  Dakota pushed Victoria’s wheelchair to the side of his bed. Victoria had to swallow the rush of emotion that stuck a lump in her throat.

  Now that she’d decided to forego being the kind of woman who never showed emotion and certainly didn’t need anyone else to be perfectly dialed in on what she was feeling, it felt like all the walls had come down. The emotion was flowing freely.

  Victoria swiped at the moisture that trailed down her cheek.