Chapter 20
BEA
“You holding up okay?”
As Indy reaches above my head to hold the door, he throws another concerned glance at me. “Do you need anything?” he continues. “Tissues? Chocolate? Ice cream?”
Once we pass through the doorway, he releases the door and wraps his arm around me again. I loop my arm around his waist and lean my head against his shoulder. “I’m okay. A little sad, but okay.”
Then the rest of what he said hits me. “Chocolate? Ice cream?”
“Yeah.” His lips press to my hair. “I know cooking makes you feel better, but you can’t exactly do that in the hospital parking lot. Same with watching Top Chef. So I was trying to think of something else. Eden always wants chocolate when she’s upset. My mom likes ice cream.”
I imagine a younger Indy rushing out to the grocery store to stock up on piles of chocolate and cartons of ice cream for his mom and sister.
Maybe even biking to the store, since he wasn’t even sixteen when his dad passed away.
Carrying bags of groceries with one arm while he steered the bike with the other, his focus set on doing whatever he could to help them feel better.
Because that’s the kind of man Indy is. Give him a problem, he’ll try to come up with a way to fix it.
“No chocolate or ice cream?” he asks. “Do you want something different to eat? Or we could stop at that fancy cooking store you told me about. Buy something to go in your new kitchen.”
A happy bubble expands inside me, pushing aside the lingering sadness.
My new kitchen. In my new apartment. In Newberg, just a short drive from Blade and Arrow.
In just about a week, I’ll be starting my new life on the West Coast. Living in a short-term rental to begin with, since Indy and I both agreed it was probably better to take that part of things slowly.
“I love being with you,” I explained when we first talked about the specifics of my move. “And it’s not that I don’t want to live with you. But I need to be okay with being on my own again first.”
Part of me—the part led by my emotions—wants to move in with Indy right away.
That part wants to know that Indy will be there whenever I have a nightmare or a strange sound sends me into a panic.
That part insists that I won’t feel safe without Indy around to protect me.
That I’ll feel empty and scared without him there.
But that’s also why I think I need some time on my own.
As much as I love Indy, as much as I love being with him, I don’t want to lose my independence. I don’t want to be some frightened, broken woman who needs her man to keep her together.
Because I’m not broken. And I have no reason to be scared anymore.
Manny’s in jail. So is Mack. And in the two days since our escape from the mine—which was in West Virginia, just as Indy suspected—even more evidence has been found tying the two brothers to their crimes.
In Mack’s apartment in Wilkes Barre, they found files on each man on the hit list, along with elaborate plans for how to kill each one of them. Black Cobweb featured heavily in each plan, along with detailed schedules, medical records, and family members that could be used as leverage.
The police also discovered vials of Black Cobweb, presumably stored as backup in case Manny ran out of it. They found a dupe of my old phone and a program on Mack’s computer that allowed him to hack my implants.
And tucked far in the back corner of Mack’s bedroom closet, they discovered photos and documents that explained everything else.
So now we know the dark truth of the brothers’ background.
We know that Mack is four years younger than Manny, and their mother was pregnant with him when their father died.
She took off into the woods of West Virginia to raise the two boys by herself, eschewing everything she considered to be part of the traitorous government who covered up her husband’s wrongful death.
Aside from the day Manny was born, she didn’t bring her sons to the doctor once.
Mack was born in their little cabin, which is why there were no birth records linking him to his brother.
No doctor visits, no immunizations, and she never enrolled them in school.
Eventually, the brothers moved away as adults—Manny to Scranton and Mack just a half-hour away in Wilkes Barre—but there was nothing to link them together.
And with a last name as common as Davis, there was just no way for anyone to have ever seen the connection.
I’m sure Tyler’s feeling guilty about it, anyway. He shouldn’t, but that’s just who he is.
When I get to my new place, I’ll make Tyler cookies and bring them to him. German chocolate with coconut, which I discovered is his favorite. And I’ll tell Tyler he has nothing to feel guilty about and how grateful I am for everything he’s done for me.
He’ll probably still feel guilty. Just like I know Indy does about what happened with Mack.
Neither of them have any reason to, of course.
Not Tyler, who might be a computer genius but can’t find everything, no matter how much he’d like to.
And not Indy, who was put into an unwinnable position. With a syringe filled with Black Cobweb only centimeters from my neck, he couldn’t have fought back. All he could do was what he did—go along with Mack’s insane plan while biding his time, waiting for an opening.
At the time, I wasn’t sure the syringe actually contained Black Cobweb or if it was all a ruse. But now I know it was. Enough to stop my heart and lungs in under a minute, just like Mack promised.
One wrong move, and I could have died.
And Indy could have just as easily died, too. Mack could’ve shot him right there in my kitchen. He could have injected him with Black Cobweb in the van. He could have killed Indy when we got to the mine.
If things had gone differently in one of a hundred ways, I might not be here. Indy might not be here. We both could be gone.
But we’re not.
We won.
Mack and Manny can’t hurt anyone again.
The FBI is working on tracking down the manufacturers of Black Cobweb, along with Blade and Arrow’s help.
And tomorrow, me and Indy are starting out on a road trip that’ll take us first to Philly, to visit my friend, Fiona, then Pittsburgh to see my parents, and finally, across the country to my new home.
Will it all be easy? No.
Living on my own won’t be easy, though I know it’s the right thing to do. I need to learn how to rely on myself again and how to handle being scared on my own. I need to find the strong woman I’ve always prided myself on being.
Saying goodbye to everyone at the hospital wasn’t easy. That’s why we came today—to pick up the things I left behind in my office, to fill out exit forms with HR, and to say a final farewell to the place I’d happily worked for years.
I didn’t have to come. I could have had them mail my things. I could have filled out the forms virtually. But I needed to do this. I needed to prove to myself that I wasn’t scared to come back, even for an hour or so.
“What do you think?” Indy asks. “The fancy kitchen store? How does that sound?” He scans the parking lot before looking down at me.
“We could buy one of those pots. The expensive ones that come in all the bright colors. Even though I still don’t understand the difference between those and the ones you buy at the discount store. ”
Laughing, I reply, “Le Creuset Dutch ovens are supposed to be the best. Or at least, that’s what they say on the cooking shows. I wouldn’t know since I don’t own one, but—”
Indy brightens. “So you do want one? We can go there on the way back—” He stops. A tiny grimace pinches his lips. He’s not thrilled about staying at my apartment after everything, not because it’s not safe, but because he’s worried about it triggering me.
But it won’t. Not with the extra security he added practically the second we got back from Fallport. Now there’s no way anyone could break in, skilled with computers or not. The alarms went off last night when a moth brushed the window. So I’m not terribly worried about anyone getting in.
“We don’t need to spend hundreds on a pot,” I tell him. “The Dutch oven I have is just fine. And don’t mention Le Creuset to my mom while we’re there. She insists that the fifteen-dollar one she got forty years ago is better than any of the expensive ones.”
“Okay. No talk of expensive cooking equipment. Got it.” But Indy has a thoughtful look in his eyes. And regardless of what I said, I have a feeling I might be getting a new Dutch oven sometime in the future.
Before we cross the next aisle of the parking lot, Indy tugs me to a gentle stop and looks both ways. It’s clear, which isn’t a surprise since we’re in the employee lot and it’s between shifts, but he doesn’t move right away.
Turning to me, he asks, “Are you sure you’re okay, Bea? I know that was hard for you. Going back there after everything.”
After thinking for a few seconds, I reply, “I was more nervous before than during it, honestly. I think I was expecting people to be mean. Or just ignore me. But they were nice. Most of them, at least.”
Indy nods. “They did seem nice. Especially the people you share your office with. Hailey and Jonas.”
I smile at the memory of Hailey hugging me hard enough to crack my back and Jonas announcing firmly, “I never thought you did it, Bea. I just knew you couldn’t have.”
“Yeah,” I say. “They’re two people I’ll miss.”
“They know your heart, Bea. They know you couldn’t hurt anyone.” Indy takes my hand and gives it a little squeeze. Then he kisses my cheek. “Just like your patients.”
Before leaving, we ran into Derek, and like Hailey and Jonas, he said he always believed I was innocent.