Chapter 13 - The Ring Comes Back.
Victor dragged Emily backward through the darkness with one arm locked across her chest.
The muzzle of his pistol pressed against her ribs.
Her incision tore with a hot flash of pain.
She nearly collapsed.
"Walk," he hissed.
Red laser sights moved across broken walls as tactical officers searched for a clean shot.
Victor kept Emily between himself and every doorway.
Rachel screamed from the floor where Reed had cut her chair loose before the lights failed.
"Let her go!"
Victor fired once toward the sound.
The bullet struck steel.
Everyone froze.
"Next one isn't a warning."
Alex entered through the eastern loading bay just as backup lights flickered on.
He saw Emily immediately.
Victor saw him too.
"Perfect."
Alex stopped twenty feet away.
"Take me instead."
Victor smiled.
"You always did think rescue was a personality."
"You want the evidence."
"I want everyone who can authenticate it gone."
Alex looked at Emily.
Her face was white from pain.
Blood had begun soaking through the lower edge of her hospital dressing beneath the coat.
His training screamed at him to move.
His experience told him movement could kill her.
"Emily, look at me."
Victor pressed the gun harder into her side.
"Don't coach her."
Emily met Alex's eyes.
He saw fear there.
He also saw calculation.
Her left hand was closed around something.
The diamond ring.
She had put it back on before entering the warehouse.
Now she twisted it loose.
Alex remembered the elevator.
The way she had placed the ring in Ben's glove when she believed she was dying.
A promise passed between them without words.
Emily dropped the ring.
It struck concrete with a bright metallic click.
Victor's eyes flicked downward.
Only for an instant.
Emily drove her heel backward into his shin.
Alex moved at the same time.
He slammed into Victor's gun arm.
The weapon fired into the ceiling.
Emily fell sideways.
Reed lunged from behind a pillar and dragged her clear.
Alex and Victor crashed onto the wet concrete.
Victor struck Alex across the face with the pistol.
Alex rolled away as another shot exploded.
Ben reached Emily first.
"Your incision is bleeding."
"Rachel."
"She's alive."
"Alex?"
Ben looked toward the fight.
Victor had Alex pinned against a steel beam.
Reed raised his gun but could not fire without hitting Alex.
Emily saw Victor's dropped weapon near her hand.
She reached toward it.
Ben stopped her.
"No."
"He'll kill him."
"Ortiz has the angle."
A shot cracked.
Victor jerked backward.
Detective Ortiz had fired from the loading doorway.
The round struck his shoulder.
His pistol fell.
Alex drove him to the ground.
Officers swarmed them.
For several seconds, the only sound was Victor screaming that everyone was making a mistake.
Then handcuffs closed around his wrists.
Emily began shaking uncontrollably.
Alex broke away from the officers and dropped beside her.
"Are you hurt?"
"I'm fine."
Ben snapped, "She's not fine."
Emily looked at Alex.
"Rachel?"
"She's safe."
"Grace?"
"Still safe."
Alex touched her face with both hands.
"And you?"
Emily laughed weakly.
"Apparently terrible at following medical advice."
His forehead touched hers.
For one second, the warehouse, the police, and the blood disappeared.
Then Reed stepped toward them with his hands raised.
Ortiz immediately covered him.
"Captain Marcus Reed, get on your knees."
Reed obeyed.
Alex looked at the man who had trained him.
"Why did you come tonight?"
Reed stared at the floor.
"Victor said he'd kill Rachel if I didn't."
"You could have called us."
"After everything I've done, who would believe me?"
Alex's voice was quiet.
"I would have listened."
That hurt Reed more than anger could have.
Ortiz handcuffed him.
Before officers led him away, Reed looked at Emily.
"I'm sorry about your daughter."
Emily held his gaze.
"Sorry doesn't repair what you signed."
He nodded.
"I know."
"Then tell the truth. All of it."
Reed looked toward Victor.
"I will."
Paramedics loaded Emily into an ambulance.
Alex climbed in beside her this time.
No captain stopped him.
No trapped civilians waited upstairs.
No secret meeting pulled him away.
Emily held his hand during the entire ride.
At St. Matthew, surgeons confirmed that her incision had partially reopened but there was no major internal bleeding.
She was repaired and returned to recovery shortly before dawn.
When she woke, Alex was asleep in a chair beside her with his head against the mattress.
Her ring sat on the bedside table.
It had been cleaned, but a small scratch remained across the band.
Emily picked it up.
Something glittered beneath the diamond setting.
She frowned.
A tiny dark edge was still visible.
"Alex."
He woke instantly.
"What?"
"The card."
"Police have it."
"Not all of it."
She turned the ring beneath the light.
Wedged inside the damaged setting was a second sliver of black plastic.
Alex stared.
The microSD card had cracked when she pulled the ring off in the elevator.
Ben had recovered only one half.
May you like
Emily whispered, "Victor never knew there were two pieces."
GIVE THIS TO ALEX
