CHAPTER TWENTY SIX
The antiseptic smell of the hospital room burned Riley’s nostrils as she slipped inside, her body heavy with fatigue.
Dawn light filtered weakly through the half-drawn blinds, casting Bill’s face in a pale glow that accentuated the violent purple bruising around his neck.
She had visited twice already during the night, but each time he had been sleeping, his chest rising and falling in a rhythm that had reassured her even as she’d silently retreated.
Now his eyes were open, finding hers as she closed the door behind her with a soft click.
“You’re awake,” she said, the words catching in her throat.
“So are you,” he whispered, his voice ragged. “You look terrible.”
Riley laughed—a broken sound that was half-sob. She moved to his bedside and lowered herself into a chair , her hand automatically reaching for his.
“The doctor says your larynx isn’t permanently damaged,” she told him, her eyes cataloging the dark circles beneath his eyes, the raw abrasions where the rope had dug into his skin, the lingering pallor. “But you need to take it easy after …”
Riley couldn’t finish that sentence. The memory of finding him hanging there, the noose cutting into his throat, his body limp and seemingly lifeless—it would haunt her for years to come.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I’m so sorry, Bill.”
His brow furrowed, confusion evident in his gaze.
“For what?”
Riley swallowed hard. “For what I said to Leo. For telling him I chose Jilly over you.” Her voice broke on the words.
Bill’s hand tightened around hers. “Riley,” he began, then paused to swallow painfully. “You said what you had to say.”
“But you heard me. You were conscious when I made that call. You heard me choose Jilly’s life over yours.”
Bill shook his head slightly, wincing at the movement. “What I heard,” he said, “was you playing Leo while you figured out how to save us both.”
The simple truth of his words warmed her. He understood. Of course he understood. This was Bill, who had stood by her through a hundred impossible choices, who knew her better than anyone else.
“He wanted to break us,” Riley said after a moment. “To force us to relive our failures. Chen. Pope. All of it.”
“He nearly did.”
“I felt it happening,” she admitted. “The doubt. The way I started questioning everything—even us.”
“Me too.” Bill’s thumb traced small circles against the back of her hand. “But we’re still here.”
Those four words contained a universe of meaning. Still here. Still together despite Leo’s best efforts to tear them apart.
“You should have seen the startled look on his face when I kicked in that classroom door,” Riley said with grim satisfaction. “He really thought I’d do exactly what he expected—choose Jilly and abandon you. His arrogance blinded him to any other possibility.”
“That’s what brings the smart ones down,” Bill whispered. “They can’t imagine being outsmarted.”
Riley nodded, remembering the genuine surprise that had flashed across Leo’s handsome features when she’d burst in, weapon drawn. He’d never anticipated that she would find out where he was.
“ShadowCipher was the wild card,” she said. “Leo’s egotism alienated the ally he couldn’t afford to lose.”
“The hacker?”
“Yes, two massive egos colliding. Apparently Leo treated him like an underling, and ShadowCipher didn’t appreciate having his expertise taken for granted.”
“Lucky for us.”
“Lucky for us,” she agreed.
A comfortable silence settled between them, broken only by the steady beep of the heart monitor and the distant sounds of the hospital awakening for the day. Riley studied the bruises on Bill’s neck again, imagining the rope digging into his flesh, cutting off his air.
“How did you do it?” she asked suddenly. “How did you keep fighting? Leo took the stool away … you were hanging there before I reached you.”
Bill’s gaze drifted to the ceiling, as if seeing that classroom again. “I didn’t want to die,” he said simply. “And I couldn’t let you find me dead … blaming yourself.”
“I should go,” she said, suddenly aware of the strain speaking was placing on him. “You need to rest.”
Bill’s fingers tightened around hers. “Come back later?”
“Try and stop me.” She leaned forward and pressed a gentle kiss to his forehead. “Sleep now.”
His eyes were already drifting closed as she rose from the chair. Riley stood watching him for a moment, the steady rise and fall of his chest a reminder of how close she’d come to losing him forever.
As she slipped from the room, the weight of the last few days hit her once more. But something else accompanied it now—a sense of hard-won victory. They’d faced Leo’s twisted game and emerged battered but unbroken. Together.
*
When Riley left the hospital, the morning sun had fully risen. She felt her exhaustion as she slid into her car, but there was one more thing she needed to do before she could go home to her daughters.
She needed to see Leo Dillard face to face—needed to look into the eyes of the man who had nearly destroyed everything she loved. With hands that were steadier than she felt inside, she started the engine and pulled away from the hospital, heading toward the Rappahannock Regional Jail.
The drive gave Riley too much time to think.
Images ran through her mind: Susan Martinez’s throat opening beneath Leo’s blade; Bill suspended from that noose, his face hidden beneath that hood; Jilly stumbling toward her in the darkness outside the abandoned school.
Each memory carried its own burden of guilt and fear and rage.
By the time she reached the jail’s parking lot, Riley’s resolve had hardened into something cold and immutable.
She wasn’t here for closure—she knew better than to expect that from a man like Leo.
She was here to see him contained, to assure herself that the danger he posed was, for now at least, neutralized.
The facility loomed before her, all concrete and steel and institutional indifference.
Riley badged her way through the initial security checkpoint, her FBI credentials earning her more deference than questions.
But at the administrative desk, the officer in charge—a stocky man with skeptical eyes—pushed back.
“Agent Paige, I understand your involvement in this case, but Dillard hasn’t even been processed for arraignment yet. Normally, we wouldn’t allow—”
“This isn’t a normal situation,” Riley cut in. “I’m not here in an investigative capacity. This is personal.” She held the officer’s gaze, allowing him a glimpse of what the past days had cost her. “He took my daughter.”
After a moment’s hesitation, he nodded. “I’ll have someone escort you. Ten minutes, no more.”
“Thank you.”
A younger officer led her through a series of security doors, each one sealing shut behind them with a definitive clang of metal on metal.
They reached a separate wing that housed high-risk detainees.
“He’s in a cell by himself,” the officer explained.
“Given the nature of his alleged crimes, we’re keeping him isolated from the general population. ”
The cell was at the end of a short corridor. Leo was sitting on the edge of a narrow cot, looking relaxed, almost meditative. He wore the standard orange jumpsuit.
“You have ten minutes,” the officer said, unlocking the door and stepping aside to let her enter. “I’ll be right outside.”
Leo looked up as Riley stepped into the cell, and a smile spread across his face—the same charming, confident smile she remembered from his days in her classroom.
“Agent Paige,” he said, his tone warm as if greeting an old friend. “I was wondering when you’d come to see me.” He gestured to the empty space beside him on the cot. “Please, sit. We have so much to talk about.”
“I’ll stand.”
He shrugged, unbothered by her refusal. “As you wish. Though I must say, you look exhausted. The past few days have been quite taxing for all of us, haven’t they?”
“You’re going away for a long time, Leo,” she said flatly. “Kidnapping. Attempted murder. Murder, in the case of Officer Martinez.”
Leo’s eyebrows rose in an expression of exaggerated surprise. “Those are serious charges indeed. But entirely false, I assure you.”
“False?” Riley couldn’t keep the incredulity from her voice. “We caught you in the act. You had Bill Jeffreys hanging from a noose. You had abducted my daughter.”
“Did I?” Leo tilted his head, his expression thoughtful. “That’s not how I remember things at all. And I’m afraid there won’t be any evidence to support those wild accusations.”
“What about Officer Stanley Pope? I suppose you didn’t abduct him either?”
“A tragic misunderstanding.” Leo’s voice was smooth, reasonable. “Officer Pope approached me for help with a personal matter. I was merely providing assistance.”
Riley studied him, unable to tell if he actually believed the lies he was spinning or if this was simply the opening gambit in a legal strategy. Either way, it demonstrated a strange disconnect from reality.
“And Susan Martinez? You cut her throat right in front of me.”
“A terrible tragedy,” Leo agreed, his expression somber. “But I was nowhere near that waterworks facility when it happened. I believe you’ll find the evidence quite inconclusive.”
Riley had expected denials—most criminals protested their innocence. But there was something different about Leo’s denials. A certainty. A complete absence of the fear or desperation that usually accompanied such claims.
“I’ve retained an excellent attorney,” he continued, as if they were discussing a minor legal inconvenience. “Thomas Yardley—perhaps you’ve heard of him? He’s confident that these charges will be dismissed for lack of evidence.”
“Lack of evidence?” Riley repeated. “Leo, we have eyewitnesses. We have forensic evidence. We have your digital trail.”
He waved a dismissive hand. “All circumstantial at best, fabricated at worst.” His eyes met hers, sincere and earnest. “Once it’s cleared up, we can resume where we left off. I very much enjoyed our conversations in class.”
The full extent of his delusion hit Riley then.
This wasn’t just legal maneuvering or defiance in the face of capture.
Leo genuinely believed he would beat these charges, walk free, and continue his obsessive pursuit of her.
His arrogance had crystallized into something bordering on psychosis—a complete inability to recognize the reality of his situation.
“That’s not going to happen, Leo,” she said quietly. “You’re never going to be free again. The only question is whether you’ll spend the rest of your life in prison, or on death row.”
For the first time, a flicker of something—uncertainty? anger?—disturbed his composed expression. But it was gone almost instantly, replaced by that same confident smile.
“We’ll see.” His tone was almost indulgent now, as if she were a child who didn’t understand how the world worked. “I look forward to proving you wrong, Riley. As I’ve done before.”
She turned away then. “We’re done here.”
“For now,” he called after her as she knocked for the guard to let her out. “But this isn’t over between us. Not by a long shot.”
The metal door clanged shut behind her, cutting off whatever else he might have said.
Riley followed the guard back through the maze of corridors, her mind churning.
Leo’s absolute confidence in his eventual release was disturbing on a level she hadn’t anticipated.
It wasn’t just the grandiosity of a narcissist—it was something more fundamentally broken in his perception of reality.
Outside, the September morning sun was high and warm against her skin. Riley stood in the parking lot for a moment, breathing in the fresh air.
Leo had forced Bill and her to relive their worst professional failures—Chen’s death, Pope’s shooting, Lucy’s death. Those wounds wouldn’t heal quickly, if they ever truly healed at all.
But she had survived. Bill had survived. Her family was intact. And Leo Dillard was behind bars where he belonged.
That was enough. For now.