Abigail resettled against her shoulder. ‘Can you read to Papa now?’
Mercy toyed with the bands holding the girl’s braids in place, tugging them off. She ran her fingers through the plaits, stroking the hair she’d freed. Like Mama used to do for me. ‘How about I read to both of you?’
Abigail yawned. ‘What book do you have? I read Ramona the Pest at the library. I started to read the next book, but then Irina came. And then the FBI.’
‘Let me check.’ One-handed, Mercy opened a browser window on her phone and searched for the next ebook in the series, finding it easily. ‘You started this one?’
Abigail sucked in a breath, her finger hovering over Mercy’s screen, afraid to touch. ‘Yes. It’s in your phone?’
‘It will be in a few seconds.’
Abigail was staring at the phone. ‘How does it fit?’
Mercy tried to think about how to explain data to a child, but she was way too tired for that. ‘Can I explain it later? For now, all you need to know is that you can fit a lot of books on a phone.’
‘How many?’
Mercy blinked. ‘Thousands, at least. Rafe?’
‘At least.’ He did a search on his own phone. ‘Twenty thousand books, give or take.’
Abigail’s eyes were like saucers. ‘Really?’
‘Really.’ Mercy glanced at Rafe while she purchased the book, then downloaded it, grateful that the ICU had lifted its rule against cell phones. ‘You want to read or do you want me to?’
Abigail looked over at Amos. ‘I want to. I want him to hear me. Can I hold your phone?’
‘Of course.’ Mercy showed her how to swipe, amazed at the child’s ability to absorb new things so quickly. Cuddling her close, she kissed Abigail’s hair and listened as she read to Amos with a strong, steady voice.
Gradually, though, Abigail’s voice grew softer, sleepier, and Mercy had to rescue her phone when it slipped from the little girl’s small hands. ‘I need to get her back to your parents,’ Mercy murmured to Rafe, before realizing that he’d fallen asleep, too.
‘We’re here,’ Irina said from the doorway, Karl at her side. ‘We were waiting for her to finish before we took her home.’ She aimed an affectionate look at the sleeping Rafe before coming in to crouch by the chair. ‘Abigail?’ She gave the child’s shoulder a light shake. ‘Time to go home with me and sleep in a real bed, okay?’
Abigail murmured something unintelligible, snuggling into Karl when he lifted her into his arms.
‘You can come back tomorrow,’ Karl whispered, then gave Mercy an unsteady smile. ‘How are you doing?’
‘I’m okay. Sore, but okay.’ She glanced at Amos, who was unchanged. ‘I think it’ll start sinking in soon, but right now, I’m okay.’ She realized she’d said ‘okay’ three times. ‘Well, maybe not so okay.’
Balancing Abigail on his hip with one hand, Karl cupped Mercy’s cheek with the other. ‘You did well today. You stood up to Ephraim, faced your worst fear, and you won.’
She looked over at Amos. ‘At what price?’
‘He will pull through,’ Irina said stubbornly. ‘You must have faith, lubimaya.’
‘What does that mean?’ Mercy asked. ‘Lubimaya?’
‘Beloved,’ Karl answered. ‘It means you are loved.’
Mercy’s eyes stung. Not again. She would not cry any more. So she forced herself to smile. ‘Spasibo,’ she said, pronouncing it the way she’d found online, then stood to hug Irina. ‘Thank you.’
Irina beamed. ‘You said it right the first time. Now, I suppose you will stay here tonight.’
‘Yes, ma’am. I don’t want him to wake up and be alone.’
‘Then Rafe will stay with you,’ she said. ‘I won’t even try to wake him up. He won’t leave you anyway.’
She and Karl left, taking Abigail with them, but no sooner had they left than Gideon arrived. She hadn’t seen him since they’d all given their statements to Molina’s second-in-command.
Five agents were dead: four SWAT members and Agent Schumacher. All shot by DJ Belmont. Who was still out there, free as a damn bird.
She hadn’t really allowed herself to think about DJ yet. She didn’t have the mental energy now, so she shoved thoughts of him into the box in her mind and visualized herself hammering down the lid. One thing at a time. Deal with Amos first, and then she could focus on DJ, because the bastard was still out there and he would be back. But not tonight, at least. The FBI had posted guards in the ICU, so she didn’t have to worry that DJ could get to them. For now, she could just worry about the people she loved.
Poor Gideon hadn’t been allowed that luxury. Molina’s second-in-command had kept asking questions about DJ and had Gideon filling out paperwork for hours. He hadn’t had a moment’s peace.
‘Hey,’ she said to Gideon. ‘You want to sit here?’ she asked, pointing to her cushioned chair, because her brother looked just awful, his face drawn and haggard.
He pulled up a plastic chair and sank wearily into it. ‘No, you sit. I can’t stay long. I just wanted to see how he’s doing.’ He nodded toward Amos.
‘The same. The doctor said that they were able to repair the damage to his artery, but they don’t know if he has any nerve damage. It missed his spinal cord, thankfully. Another fraction of an inch and he’d be dead. They’ll do more tests when he wakes up.’
Wake up, Amos.
Gideon blew out a breath. ‘I swear, I thought he’d fired the shot that took out Ephraim. The last thing I said to him was to accuse him of shooting that SOB.’
‘He’ll understand,’ Mercy said, confident of that, if nothing else. ‘How is Molina?’
‘Hurting,’ Gideon murmured. ‘She’ll be out for at least a few months. He shot her in the leg and nicked a bone. And she’s angry.’ He winced. ‘But not at us. Not really. She’s pissed off that we took you with us to Dunsmuir, but we gave her all the information as we received it, so we’ll probably just get smacks on the wrist – Tom and me, I mean. She’s mostly angry because she’s in pain. And that DJ got the drop on them. And wants to know where he was trained.’
‘Where was he trained?’ Mercy asked quietly. ‘He took out eight federal agents, Gideon. Molina and two of the SWAT guys will live, but he incapacitated them. He killed five agents.’ He’d shot them all with a sniper rifle, apparently from the trees. ‘He had to have been trained by someone. He isn’t a mercenary with any large organization, because he can’t leave Eden, except when he makes deliveries.’ Oh. ‘He’s making deliveries to drug dealers. Did he learn how to shoot like that from them?’