Page 122 of Till Death Do Us Part

She laughed. “Of course that’s the first thing you’d say. Vera’s just fine, sweetheart. She had a bad injury, but we have the best doctors, the best facilities, and one damn hardy patient. How are you feeling?”

I wiped the tears on my face that I’d only just realized were there. “I’m feeling… tired. Everything aches. But we’re… safe now, aren’t we?”

She squeezed my hand, but she didn’t get to say anything before a knock came from the door, and it slid open, Vera coming inside with crutches that she maneuvered quickly on, rushing over to my side.

“Elaine!”

“Hey—what do you think you’re doing, running around like that?” Jenna said. “You slow down and take it easy, young woman.”

Vera ignored her, and I sat up laughing incredulously, tears in my eyes as she got over to me and draped herself on the edge of the bed, pulling me into an embrace.

“You scared me half to death,” Vera said, her voice shaking.

“No,” Jenna said flatly, “you were stabbed half to death. And you need to take your recovery more seriously if you want it to heal up correctly!”

“I’m okay,” I laughed through the tears, running my fingers through Vera’s hair, holding her close to me. “I’m okay. We’re okay.”

“You took a bullet for me,” she said thickly.

“And you took a knife for me. Well… and a bullet. And a knife again.”

“This is what I’m saying,” Jenna said.

“I promised I’d protect you,” Vera whispered.

“You did. We’re alive because of you. And I want to keep you safe, too. You’re my wife, Vera. And I love you.”

The door banged open again, and Jenna looked up with exasperation as Petra came into the room. “Vera Farkas!” she shouted, and Jenna put her hands up.

“You are not fighting her right now.”

Vera glanced back at Petra. “I could take you even like this. The crutches make for a nice weapon.”

“I don’t know which of you is worse,” Jenna said. I laughed thickly, holding Vera closer to me.

“I’m not letting you hurt my wife.”

“Dammit,” Petra said. “Shame you’re both so cute, I can’t beat Vera up when she’s like that. You’re okay?” she said, coming over to my other side. “What the hell happened in there?”

“We walked into a trap,” I said. “Glenn and Quayle were waiting for us in the archive.”

Petra’s expression hardened. “Quayle… you had to fight him?”

“He killed Glenn,” Vera said. “Elaine was negotiating with him, and Quayle didn’t like it. Put a bullet through his head and would have done the same with me if Elaine hadn’t jumped in front.”

The door opened again, Caitlyn coming in with her eyes flooded with emotion seeing me, and Yulia came in behind her, her expression unreadable. Caitlyn hurried over to my side, and I hugged her. “Oh, God, Caitlyn,” I gasped. “Are you okay?”

“Am I okay? You’re the one who got shot!”

“You’re my little sister, I just worry about you!”

She laughed, squeezing me. “Everything’s safe. It’s okay. I’ve been working nonstop, so I’m exhausted, but I’m not hurt. It’s been a battle nonstop against their hacker, trying to track us down, but I managed to hold them off long enough that they had to give up when the complex went down. Their systems are scrambled, and without headquarters, they’re locked out of half their own logistics networks.”

“And,” Yulia said, standing opposite me with her arms folded, “with Glenn dead, leadership will have collapsed at the same time. Down their leader, their best operatives, and all their networks, the Blackbirds are out of the picture.”

Petra gritted her teeth. “You killed Quayle?”

Vera let out a short laugh. “It was two against one, after all.”