Saving Faith

by David Baldacci

  She smiled in a resigned fashion. "Liar. I look like hell. I can't even bear to look at my chest. God!" She said the words in a joking manner, but Lee could sense the anguish behind the light tone.

  He very gently touched her face with his hand. "I'm not lying, and you know it."

  She put her hand around his and gripped it with amazing strength.

  "Thank you."

  ""How are you really doing? I want facts, nothing but."

  She stretched her arm slowly, the pain in her face so evident from such a simple movement. "I'm officially retired from the aerobics circuit, but I'm hanging in there. Actually, each day it gets better. The doctors expect a full recovery. Well, in the ninety percentile anyway."

  "I never thought I'd see you again."

  "I couldn't let that happen."

  He slid over to her, put his arm around her. She winced a little as he did this, and he quickly backed off.

  "I'm sorry, Faith, I'm sorry."

  She smiled and put his arm back around her, patting his hand as she did so. "I'm not that fragile. And the day you can't put your arm around me is the day I call it a life."

  "I'd ask you where you're living, but I don't want to do anything that could put you in danger."

  "Helluva way to have to live, don't you think?" Faith asked.

  "Yes."

  She leaned against him, resting her head against his chest. "I saw Danny right after I got out of the hospital. When they told us Thornhill had killed himself, I didn't think he was ever going to stop smiling."

  "Can't say I felt any different."

  She looked at him. "How are you, Lee?"

  "Me! Nothing happened to me. Nobody shot me. Nobody tells me where I have to live. I'm doing fine. I got the best deal of all."

  "Lie or the truth?"

  "Lie," he said softly.

  They exchanged a quick kiss and then a longer one. The movements were so easy, Lee thought, their heads turning at just the right angle, their arms going around each other with no wasted motion, like pieces in a puzzle someone was sliding together. They could be waking up at the beach house, the morning after. The nightmare never having occurred. How was it possible that one could know another person for such a short period of time and have it feel like several lifetimes?

  God would only let that happen once, if ever. And in Lee's case, God had taken it away. It wasn't fair, it wasn't right. He pressed his face into her hair, soaking up every particle of her scent.

  "How long are you here?" he asked.

  "What did you have in mind?"

  "Nothing fancy. Dinner at my place, a quiet talk. Letting me hold you all night."

  "As wonderful as that sounds, I'm not sure I'm up to that last part just yet."

  He looked at her. "I'm being literal, Faith. I just want to hold you.

  That's all. That's all I've been thinking about all these months. Just holding you."

  Faith looked as though she might start crying. Instead she brushed away the lone tear that had tumbled down Lee's face.

  Lee glanced in the rearview mirror. "But I guess that's not in Reynolds's agenda, is it?"

  "I doubt it."

  He looked back at her. "Faith," he said softly, "why did you step in front of that bullet? I know you care for Buchanan and all, but why?"

  She took a shallow breath. "Like I said, he's unique, I'm ordinary. I couldn't let him die."

  "I wouldn't have done it."

  "Would you have done it for me?" she asked.

  "Yes."

  "You sacrifice for people you care about. And I care a great deal about Danny."

  "I guess the fact that you had all the means to disappear-fake ID, Swiss bank account, safe house-and instead went to the FBI to try and save Buchanan should have clued me in on that."

  She clutched his arm. "But I survived. I made it. Maybe that makes me just a little extraordinary, in a way?"

  He cupped her face with his hand. "Now that you're here, I really don't want you to go, Faith. Like I would give everything I have, do anything I can, if you wouldn't leave me."

  She traced his mouth with her fingers, kissed his lips, stared at his eyes, which even in the darkness seemed to have the blinding heat of the sun behind them. She never thought she would ever see those eyes again; maybe the fact that she might, if she were to survive, had been the only thing that had saved her, had not let her die. Right now she wasn't sure what else she had to live for. Other than the apparently depthless love of this man. And right now it meant everything to her.

  "Start the car," she said.

  Puzzled, he looked at her but said nothing. He turned the key in the ignition, put the car in gear.

  "Go ahead," Faith said.

  He pulled the car away from the curb and the vehicle behind them immediately did the same.

  They drove along, the car following them.

  "Reynolds must be pulling her hair out," Lee said. "She'll get over it."

  "Where to?" he said.

  "How much gas do you have in the car?" Faith asked. He looked surprised. "I was on a stakeout. Full tank."

  She was settled against him, her arm curling around his middle, her hair tickling his nose; she smelled so wonderful he felt dizzy.

  "We can drive to the lookout spot off the GW Parkway." She looked at the star-filled sky. "I can show you the constellations."

  He looked at her. "Been chasing stars lately?" She smiled at him.

  "Always."

  "And after that?"

  "They can't keep me in Witness Protection against my will, can they?"

  "No. But you'd be in danger."

  "How about we'd be in danger?"

  "In a second, Faith. In a second. But what happens when we run out of gas?"

  "For now, just drive."

  And that's exactly what he did.