Cold Light of Day (35 page)

After a couple of minutes of listening to Angel cry, Rooney put her arms gently around her and moved her away. Scarlett wanted to go to her friend, but Matt wouldn’t let her. “Not until after you’ve both made official statements.” The area was a crime scene. Everything had to be left as untouched as possible.

It was over.

It was finally over.

Bright, pink sunlight streaked the horizon.

Scarlett turned to face Matt. “I need to go to Mom and Dad. I have to see them. I have to tell them the truth about everything that happened.” Tears burned. She also wanted to stay here with Matt, to make sure he was safe and didn’t get into trouble for helping her.

His eyes shone as his hand smoothed back her hair. He kissed her, and she rose up to meet him. Then he pulled back and rested his forehead against hers. “You have to go. But I have to stay. For now.”

She grabbed his hand. “Promise we aren’t over? Promise this wasn’t one of those adrenaline-based flings that burns out as soon as the danger is over?”

He kissed her again. “I fell for you when I thought you were a politician’s daughter. I fell for you again when I thought you were the daughter of a spy. I don’t think I’m going to have a problem staying in love with a super-smart scientist. Trust me.”

She did trust him. Had almost from the start. “I still owe you a boat.” Emotion made it hard to talk. “Will you come meet my father? As soon as you’re able?”

Matt glanced at his boss. “I’d be delighted and humbled to meet your father, Scarlett.”

Frazer nodded. In the distance sirens droned through the air. “I’m sending Rooney and Parker with you to Colorado, Scarlett. I’ll have a jet at Andrews waiting for you in thirty minutes.”

“Good,” Matt said firmly.

“Rooney can take your statement on the way.”

Scarlett knew she should feel great. She was alive and she’d done everything she’d set out to do. Proved her father wasn’t the spy he’d been convicted of being. She started to walk away from Matt and Angel, but a well of sadness started opening up inside her with every step she took. She stopped moving. Parker turned and looked at her expectantly. “Actually,” she said to him. “You and Rooney should head back to West Virginia as planned. I’m going to wait for Matt. We’ll go to Colorado together.”

Matt’s eyes looked suspiciously damp when she turned around.

She ran and threw her arms around his neck and hung on tight. She’d already waited a lifetime. She could wait a few more hours.

Parker checked his cell, then reached into Mrs. LeMay’s Mercedes to switch off the signal jammer, using his shirt sleeve over his hand, presumably not to disturb fingerprint evidence. A moment later, Frazer was on the phone, talking to someone high up if his posture was anything to go by.

“Give me your phone,” she urged Matt.

He handed it over. She dialed a number and closed her eyes as Susan Stone answered.

“Hi, Mom? Is Dad okay?” She sagged a little against Matt as her mother told her that her father had woken up and even said a few words. “We did it, Mom. We found the real spy.” She caught Frazer’s gaze. “I think Dad’s going to be exonerated.”

Frazer nodded.

“We’re going to make sure he gets the best treatment possible,” Matt said into her hair.

Scarlett spoke for a few minutes, then said goodbye and hung up. “I don’t think she really believes me.”

Frazer squeezed her arm. “She’ll believe it when the Attorney General turns up this afternoon to offer his sincere apologies and a presidential pardon.”

Scarlett nodded. “Good. Thanks. We need to get the questioning over with as soon as possible. Matt needs to go see his mother before we both head to Colorado tonight.” She held Frazer’s blue eyes. “It has to be tonight. Please, the FBI can come with us and question us en route.” Her hand dipped into her pocket and brushed against the transmitter. She held it out. “I almost forgot… Hopefully it recorded Clarkson’s and Valerie’s confessions. They were lovers, and Dorokhov blackmailed them into working for him when he found out.” She shuddered and Matt’s arms wrapped tightly around her. Frazer took the bug and tossed it to Parker.

“Now Valerie’s signal jammer is turned off the audio file should have jumped on the cell phone signals and been sent to my email account. At least that’s the theory.”

The cops came screaming along the lanes of the quiet cemetery. She tensed as they got out, hands on weapons. Frazer, Rooney, and Matt had their gold shields out and were trying to explain the two dead bodies.

Scarlett couldn’t believe the weight of sadness that had lifted from her chest.

Matt glanced over at her and smiled. Even as grim sadness surrounded them, she knew with sudden clarity that everything was going to work out. She’d asked for one miracle and gotten two.

“How much are sailboats?” she asked Parker, who’d come to stand beside her as the cops tried to figure out jurisdiction.

“One like Lazlo’s? About ten grand.”

Oh, boy.
Thankfully she had some savings.

Parker looked over to where Rooney was comforting Angel. “Tell Lazlo he owes me a twenty, by the way. I cracked his password.”

Scarlett huffed out a laugh. “Really? While everything else was going on, you took the time to hack his password?”

“TOEDWY—all uppercase.” His grin made his face come alive.

“TOEDWY? I don’t get it.” Scarlett’s teeth chattered.

“The Only Easy Day Was Yesterday. SEAL motto.” Parker winked, then walked away as a bunch of FBI agents arrived, Ridley Branson amongst them. He stood in front of her, and Matt was suddenly miraculously back at her side.

The chief of counterespionage hung his head. “I don’t know what to say, Dr. Stone. I am beyond shamed by my own personal failures.”

“Don’t say it to me.” All the anger that had kept her going for the last fourteen long years hit her hard again. “Go say it to my father, right now. Today. Beg
him
for forgiveness. Not me.”

Branson nodded and walked away. Emotions she’d thought she’d controlled started fizzing inside her again.

Matt took her hand and squeezed her fingers. “Did I tell you I loved you, without yelling at you, yet?”

She blinked away all the stupid tears that wanted to come. She wouldn’t let them. “I could get used to you saying that, you know.”

“You better.” He turned so they were face-to-face. “This is it, Scarlett. That whole love at first sight cliché? We’re it. Living proof.” The gold in his hazel eyes glowed. “It’s going to take a while to figure out the mechanics of us being together, but don’t doubt the sentiment. I love you. That isn’t going to stop.
Ever
.”

“I know.” She looked up at him. Touched his cheek. “I think I’ve been waiting for you my whole life.”

“Promise me one thing.” His eyes scanned her face. She spotted an agent over his shoulder who was obviously waiting to take him in for questioning or debriefing or whatever they called it.

“What?”

“No more taking the law into your own hands.”

“That’s an easy promise to make.” She laughed. “You have to promise me something too.” She rose up on tiptoe and whispered in his ear. “It involves having sex in the shower at every possible opportunity for the next twenty years.”

“Only twenty?” He pulled back.

“I didn’t want to scare you with too long a commitment.”

He narrowed his gaze. “Okay. We can reassess in twenty years.”

The FBI agent stepped closer.

Matt’s eyes got serious. “You should go to your dad, you know. I promise I’ll get there as soon as I can.” He threw a look over his shoulder. “This could take a while.”

Scarlett nodded. “I want you with me.”

“I am with you, Scarlett.” He touched his heart and was finally led away.

She found herself pulled against another male chest offering comfort.

“Come on.” Alex Parker took her hand and led her through the patrol cars and uniformed officers. “It’s almost over. And then the good stuff begins.”

One month later.

S
carlett stood in
the living room of her childhood home, waiting for the car to arrive. She’d cleaned the house literally from top to bottom. People crowded the streets outside; the press was camped out ten-deep.

“Relax.” Matt pulled her into his arms for a kiss. She savored the taste, the warmth, the solid reassurance of the man. He was everything she’d imagined when she’d first seen him, and more.

His mother was still in a coma, which had been the only thing that hadn’t changed over the last few weeks. It was heartbreaking, but Scarlett tried to keep him company as much as possible when he went to visit. It was all they could do. Congressman LeMay had stepped down. Scarlett had been to see Angel, and they’d talked for hours about everything that had happened. Angel wasn’t the same person she’d been before the kidnapping, but Scarlett no longer held herself completely responsible—Dorokhov had kidnapped her in an attempt to control Valerie. Angel was getting help. Scarlett would be there if she needed her.

The feds were still trying to figure it all out.

The fact Raminski had been the one to shoot Dorokhov didn’t seem to be in doubt. It had stopped a major incident turning into all-out war. As far as the rest of the investigation went, none of them were really sure what was happening. They’d all been excluded from it; reprimanded for not following protocol on one hand, applauded for solving the case on the other. Frazer had told them it was bureaucracy versus politics, and for once politics was working in their favor.

She’d been back at work for the last two weeks as her father had continued to recover and receive treatment at one of the top hospitals in the country. Today he was finally coming home.

“I have something for you.” Matt held out a jeweler’s box—too big to be for a ring, though her heart sped up at the thought. She chided herself.

Matt had spent three full days being questioned by the FBI. Even Frazer’s clout hadn’t been able to make the wheels turn any faster. They’d missed their first Christmas together.

“What is it?” She grinned, taking it from him. She had a present for him too, but it wouldn’t fit in a box.

He’d met her father and they seemed to like each other. Easier now that her father had been given a public, presidential pardon and his conviction quashed, which Matt had helped make happen.

She opened the box and inside was a key on a silver chain. She frowned. “What’s it for? Did you buy me a Ferrari?”

“It’s for my house.”

“But you don’t have a house.”

“I do now, or rather,
we
do. In Arlington, assuming you want to, you know…live together?” His confidence slipped as he took in her expression. “Oh, crap. I moved too fast, or too slow, I—”

She caught his hands. “No. No! I just…” She bit her lip. “I had Alex help me find you a boat. We had it delivered to the marina yesterday.”

He grinned. “You were gonna live with me on a boat?”

She nodded tentatively. “Assuming you wanted me to.”

“Of course I’d want you to, but trust me, a house will be easier.” He crushed her lips to his and by the time they came up for air she’d forgotten there were a thousand people outside the door. “I can teach you to sail.” His grin turned wicked. “I can teach you all sorts of things.”

She shivered with anticipation. Then she heard the sound of a car pulling into the drive. Matt heard it too and took a step back.

Scarlett grabbed his hand and opened the door. A motorcade worthy of a president lined up along the driveway and down the street. FBI agents held back the press and crowd as everyone tried to get a look at the man who’d been the victim of a terrible miscarriage of justice. Ridley Branson himself opened the door for her father to climb out of the limousine. Her dad looked pale, but much better than the last time she’d seen him in the hospital a week ago. He’d gained weight and could move around without wincing in pain. Scarlett almost couldn’t believe the sight. Her mother walked around the car and took her husband’s arm. Scarlett noted the tilt of both their chins, high and proud. Ignoring the blinding cameras, she ran down the steps and hugged her father tightly, careful not to knock him over in her enthusiasm. Matt came out too and they stood aside to watch Richard Stone walk back into the house he’d left fourteen years ago, thinking it was just another ordinary day at the office.

“Welcome home, Agent Stone,” Ridley Branson said, loud enough for the crowd to hear.

Her father nodded, graciously in Scarlett’s opinion, and began to climb the steps without anyone’s help. Emotion expanded in her throat until she couldn’t speak. Matt rubbed his hand down her back. “Breathe. You did it, Scarlett. You cleared his name.”

She smiled and kissed him, in front of the entire world. “
We
did it. We cleared his name. Together.”

Thank you for reading
Cold Light of Day
. I hope you enjoyed it. If you did, please help other readers find this book:

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