Chapter 11 - THE SECOND FUNERAL
“DADDY!”
Logan screamed.
David hit the floor.
Mercer stumbled backward as Alessandro tackled him.
The gun slid beneath a pew.
Agents flooded the church.
“Hands!”
“DOWN!”
“DROP IT!”
Mercer fought until three officers pinned him.
I didn’t care.
I ran to David.
Blood spread across his shirt.
“No.”
His eyes opened.
“Cat.”
“Don’t talk.”
“Logan?”
“He’s okay.”
Logan dropped beside us.
“Daddy, wake up.”
“I’m awake, buddy.”
His voice was weak.
Rachel pressed her hands against the wound.
“Ambulance!”
David looked at me.
“Catherine.”
“Stop.”
“I need to say it.”
“No.”
“I’m sorry.”
Tears blurred my vision.
“You are not apologizing while bleeding out in a church.”
He almost smiled.
“That sounds like you.”
“I’m serious.”
“So am I.”
His face tightened with pain.
“I thought disappearing would save you.”
“It didn’t.”
“I know.”
“You don’t get to die now.”
He looked at Logan.
“I don’t plan to.”
Paramedics rushed inside.
They lifted him onto a stretcher.
I followed.
Alessandro stayed behind with Mercer.
As the ambulance doors closed, Mercer shouted from the church steps.
“Ask him about Philadelphia!”
I turned.
“What?”
Mercer laughed as agents forced him into a vehicle.
“Ask your husband what happened in Philadelphia!”
The ambulance doors slammed.
David had heard him.
His face changed.
I stared.
“What happened in Philadelphia?”
“Not now.”
My stomach dropped.
“You have got to be kidding me.”
“Catherine—”
“You get shot, we reunite, our son gets kidnapped, and there’s still another secret?”
David closed his eyes.
“Yeah.”
I almost laughed from sheer exhaustion.
“Fine.”
At the hospital, doctors rushed David into surgery.
Four hours.
I sat with Logan curled against me.
Rachel paced.
Alessandro appeared around dawn.
This time wearing actual clothes.
I stared at him.
“Do you own a teleportation device?”
“Fast driver.”
“How are you alive?”
“Stubbornness.”
He sat across from me.
“Mercer is in federal custody.”
“Good.”
“Russo too.”
“Better.”
“And your files were verified.”
I nodded.
“What happens to you?”
He smiled slightly.
“That depends how generous the government feels.”
“You’re still a criminal.”
“Yes.”
“You’re not going to pretend you’re secretly innocent?”
“No.”
I appreciated that more than I wanted to.
Alessandro leaned forward.
“David helped me because Mercer murdered my brother.”
I looked at him.
“Your brother was innocent?”
“No.”
Again, no excuses.
“But he was still my brother.”
I understood that more than I wanted to.
A surgeon entered.
I stood.
“Mrs. Winters?”
“Yes.”
“Your husband made it.”
My knees buckled.
Rachel caught me.
The surgeon smiled.
“The bullet missed his heart. He was lucky.”
I started crying.
Logan cheered.
“Daddy’s not dead!”
Several people in the waiting room stared.
I laughed through tears.
“No, baby.”
Not this time.
Hours later, David woke.
I sat beside him.
“You owe me answers.”
He looked exhausted.
“Philadelphia.”
“Yes.”
He stared at the ceiling.
“Six months after my fake death, I tried to come home.”
I froze.
“What?”
“I made it as far as Philadelphia.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“Because Mercer sent me a video.”
My stomach tightened.
“What video?”
“Logan sleeping in his crib.”
My blood went cold.
David turned toward me.
“There was a man standing beside him.”
I covered my mouth.
“I understood.”
“Understood what?”
“If I came back, Mercer wouldn’t kill me.”
David’s eyes filled.
“He would kill you and Logan.”
I sat there shaking.
Then David said quietly, “But that isn’t the worst thing that happened in Philadelphia.”
I stared.
“What is?”
May you like
He swallowed.
“I killed the man Mercer sent to follow me.”
