Chapter 42 #2
She met his eyes. “Lucien Vos. And… someone else. A woman. Older. She was seen with him, in Prague.”
Reid went still. He didn’t speak, just stared at her.
Claire’s breath felt like glass in her lungs. “The ID was run three times. It’s credible. It was… my mother.” The words tasted like ash.
Reid’s fingers closed around hers. “She’s Michigan’s Senator. What is she doing there?” His reaction was automatic, the way people respond when reality breaks logic.
“I have a lot to tell you…” She didn’t finish.
“Go ahead.”
Claire leaned in close. “I need to tell you… before it spreads. Before it turns tactical. Because I won’t hide things from you.”
Reid studied her face, then he reached up, cupped the back of her head, and pressed his forehead to hers. “You tell me where to stand,” he said. “And I’ll be there.”
She closed her eyes. The door clicked open behind them with a knock. Patrick. Seth. Tuck. His medical team. His family.
Reid sat on the edge of the bed, Tuck on his left, Claire just beside him, her hand wrapped around his. Her thumb hadn’t stopped moving. Small circles rolled across his palm like she could draw courage into him that way. But it wasn’t courage he lacked. It was memory.
He remembered fragments: the hallway, the voice on comms, the sense that something wasn’t right. The name Vos hung in his mind like a sword not yet dropped.
Claire said it. She confirmed the name, that the footage and the woman beside him was her mother. There was more to it, he could tell. Reid asked for the truth with no edits and no redactions.
The door clicked open without warning. Julian Dupart stepped into the suite, carrying confidence in his shoulders, not the stride.
Reid looked up at the sound and froze. “Sir.” He remembered the CEO of Chase San Diego.
Julian pulled Reid into a solid, unhesitating hug. “Mon gars,” he murmured, Cajun drawl soft and full. “Damn glad to be doing this in person.”
Reid’s arms gripped tighter. His throat worked around too many words at once.
Julian clapped a hand on Reid’s back and pulled away just enough to look at him. “You look like hell,” he said with a crooked grin. “But better than a man in a grave.”
Reid laughed once, breath shaky. “How’s your family?”
Julian’s smile eased, but his eyes stayed sharp. “Good. I told Sadie and JT to give you a little time.”
Reid’s Adam’s apple bobbed. “Tell them I didn’t forget them.”
Julian nodded. “I’m in town meeting with Lincoln.
” He leaned forward, arms resting on his knees as he turned serious.
“Reid, your request for the raw feed of your attack triggered an automatic restricted-access alert to the entire executive board. This rule’s been in place since they rolled you from the OR.
If you ever asked, the board decided it would take at least two members and a medical officer to clear it.
And with the first sightings of Vos and Heather, you seeing it makes sense.
Linc and Hedges signed off. Since I was already here, I co-signed the release. Kieran and Ian also signed off.”
Julian studied him closely. “It’s ready. But before we log in… I need to hear it from you. Are you sure you want to see this? Once you do, there’s no taking it back.”
Reid felt Claire’s breath catch beside him before he saw her turn.
Her eyes found his, tight with worry, her throat working as if she wanted to speak but couldn’t.
He knew what she was thinking. She wanted to pull him back, to shield him from what waited.
But she understood he needed to see it. Until he did, there would be no rest, no peace.
And the look in her eyes told him she hated that almost as much as she hated the footage itself.
“Good,” Reid said evenly. “Then let’s go.”
Julian looked at Claire. “He doesn’t want you in the room.”
She didn’t flinch.
“I didn’t say that,” Reid snapped. “I didn’t know I’d have access until now.”
Julian held up a hand. “You didn’t have to. But I will. She’s pregnant. I’d be out of my mind to let her watch this. It’s not tactical; it’s personal slaughter.”
Tuck nodded reluctantly. “He’s not wrong.”
Claire turned to Reid. “You decide.”
Reid met her eyes. “I want you near when I come out. Please.”
She nodded, jaw tight, then leaned down and kissed his forehead. “I’ll be right outside the room.”
He stood slowly, walker steadied by Tuck, and followed Julian out.
SECURE VIEWING SUITE
The room the kind of quiet that pressed against the skin. Reid sat forward in the chair, eyes fixed on the glow of the screen.
Julian said, “I need to tell you something first. When they scraped you off the floor, an entire team was focused on you staying alive. No one more than your uncle. You know how big that scar runs. In addition to the physical attack, you were poisoned.”
Julian continued as Tuck sat silently beside him, “Your heart stopped. Your Uncle Tuck straddled you on the table, and for over three hours, he compressed your heart, keeping you alive.”
Reid swallowed hard, pushed up to standing and opened his arms. Tuck stood and met them with his own open arms. Reid tucked his head into his uncle’s shoulder. A hoarse “thank you” was followed by and some tears. “I love you. I never say it enough.”
Tuck lifted Reid’s chin. “I love you too. When you watch this, remember how much love you’re surrounded by.”
And then it began.
Reid didn’t hear his own voice so much as felt it, reverberating in his chest, tinny through the speakers. Movement. Shouts. Then silence. His jaw locked. His hand tightened on the armrest until his knuckles blanched. He forced himself not to blink, not to look away.
Pain bloomed across his cheek as though memory alone could split the bone again.
The pain in his ribs made his breath shallow.
He could almost taste the iron. A blade.
A name. His own scream cut through him harder than anything else, a sound both familiar and foreign.
His stomach turned, but he didn’t flinch. Not once.
Then it ended.
Julian froze the screen. Silence filled the room again, heavier than before.
Reid swallowed hard, forcing air into his lungs. The image burned behind his eyes, raw and merciless. He hadn’t realized he was gripping the chair so tightly until his fingers ached.
“Is that all of it?” His voice came out steady, sharper than he felt inside.
Julian’s answer was low. “Yes.”
Reid let out one hard breath. “Good. Because I needed to see it. I needed to know what I was before…” His words caught, then steadied. “Before everything broke.”
Julian held his gaze. “You didn’t break.”
Reid forced himself to meet Julian’s eyes, the screen’s ghost still burning behind him. “I did,” he said quietly. “But now I know what I’m rebuilding for.”
Claire stood when the secure room door hissed open. Reid walked out under his own power. No walker. Tuck walked beside him, Julian behind. His pace was unsteady, but his eyes were sharp and somehow changed.
Claire met Reid halfway down the hall. The space between them was filled with everything she couldn’t ask out loud.
He answered anyway, “I remember.”
Her breath hitched. “All of it?”
Reid nodded once. “Every second. Every breath. Every failure.”
Her hands reached for his face, framing it gently. “There was no failure.”
His jaw clenched. “They were in my house, and they did that to me.”
“You survived.”
Reid reached for her now, fingers resting just above her hip. “I won’t need saving next time.”
She stepped into his arms, into the storm he’d brought back from the screen. And he held her tightly and steadily, one palm drifting instinctively to her belly. No words. But everything spoken.