To her surprise, there were tears welling up in Christopher’s eyes. He raised his hands to her cheeks, pulled her close, and kissed her deeply and passionately. Her heart felt like it was going to pound out of her chest. She wasn’t sure what was happening, but for just a moment, the despair lifted, and she felt alive. Letting that feeling and that moment wash over her, she kissed him back for what felt like an eternity.

Then he pulled away and stood up. His eyes were still wet with tears. He stroked her cheek and said, “I wish that someone like you would have found me when I was a boy. Maybe my life would have turned out differently.”

He excused himself and headed for the bathroom. She sat there a moment, unsure how to feel. The last thing she was looking for was a relationship, especially with a man who worked for Mobius. As she thought of all the dark deeds that Christopher had likely carried out for the crime boss, the euphoria of the moment faded. The despair of reality came crashing back down onto her shoulders. She picked up the files and started going back through them for anything that could help, but in the back of her mind, a thought sprung to life: What if she could save Christopher from this kind of life?

What if they could save each other?

Chapter 65

Sam Carter felt something like fatherly pride every time he watched August Burke do his thing. Not just seeing the young doctor ask questions or present an idea—the real work, Carter knew, took place entirely within Burke’s mind.

Once Burke had arrived back on scene, he got a rundown of everything he had missed. Carter had explained about the breach and the suicide vest and the disappearance of the other terrorists. Carter no longer had a problem thinking of these people in the same category as Osama bin Laden and ISIS; they had far surpassed the descriptions of thieves and hostage-takers. Carter never felt hatred like this toward thieves. He didn’t have a sense of self-righteousness toward criminals. They were merely people who had made harmful and unacceptable choices. But the giant and his female partner had graduated to a whole other level for him. These people had to be caught, had to be stopped, by any means necessary.

He had explained those feelings to Burke as he had described the poisoned hostages and the murdered SWAT officer. Burke had simply nodded and said that he needed a quiet place to think that had a Wi-Fi connection. Deputy Chief Edgar had moved his people over to the triage unit set up at the Walmart where they were coordinating with doctors brought in from St. Rose Hospital while they awaited experts flying in from Fort Detrick and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That left the Henderson PD’s comm center unoccupied. Sgt. Ortiz was out coordinating the manhunt and search of the surrounding area. They had people reviewing the footage of every security camera within a mile of GoBox and detectives and officers from neighboring communities poured in to help. All-in-all, it was a fast and efficient operation that covered all the bases and did everything right. And so far, they had turned up absolutely nothing.