doctor and had my wrist re-set. Then began the repetitious round of Q&As from

the locals, who were rather pissed about shots being fired at a mall and hospital

under their jurisdiction.

Loopy from the painkillers the doctor had pumped through my veins, I’d

been happy to let the rest of the team do the talking. Not that they did much talking. Kayden had stood front and center, legs braced, arms crossed over his chest, and an intimidating scowl darkening his face, as he snapped out terse answers to the blustering police lieutenant. Then Delacourt and feds showed up.

“If I forgot to mention it, Shaw, you sure have some fancy moves on you.”

His inquisitive rumble indicated he wasn’t following my train of thought, so

I clarified. “Your dance with the locals, pretty impressive.”

His chest rose and fell with a sigh. “Sometimes it sucks not being able to lay

it all out straight.”

“True, but who’s going to believe the truth?” I deepened my voice, “Look, Lieutenant, staging the gunfight in the garage was our only chance at luring out

the sociopathic telepath so he couldn’t get his hands on the top-secret flash drive.” I let my voice go back to normal and continued in a more serious tone,

“You told him what he needed to know without putting the team at risk. We protected the public from the imminent threat Ellery and Bosch presented. That’s

your job. Yours and the team’s. Just because you didn’t mention the psychic aspect, doesn’t make what you told him any less true. To lure Bosch out, he had

to believe I had the drive, killed Ellery, and presented a threat to the team.

Otherwise, he would’ve disappeared back into whatever pit he crawled out of.

We did what we had to. Count it as a win.”

Kayden tucked me closer to him. “For now. We still don’t have a solid tie between Bosch and Falcon Security.”

“Chances are we won’t, not unless we get someone on the inside, or we get

our hands on one of their people.”

“They’re slippery bastards,” he said.

I tilted my head back and studied his worried profile. “Hey.” When he looked

down at me, I reached out and cupped his jaw. “You and I both know how it works, babe. We take them out one at a time as they come at us. We can’t save

the world, just bits and pieces at a time. We’re not superheroes.”

His eyebrow arched. “I don’t know, my red cape still fits.”

Warmth blossomed in my chest and leaked out of my grin. “Yeah, it looks good on you.”

He chuckled.

I resettled against him. “Thanks to Jinx, at least you don’t have to visit me in

jail.” Whatever she did resulted in Tito’s death being attributed to Bosch and left

me completely uninvolved.

“Yeah, she’s good at keeping things smooth.”

That was one way to put it. The girl had some serious mojo going on. I’d never even heard of anyone being able to cast illusions so real as to fool most people. It opened a whole realm of possibilities and made her an invaluable asset

for a covert team. “Speaking of which, is she still around? I owe her a big thank

you.”

“She and Rabbit were headed to Vegas this morning. Delacourt wants them

to hook up with Tag and Risia before they head back.”

After his call to me on Friday, Tag had gone dark and remained out of touch

until a couple of days ago. I wasn’t sure what happened, but whatever it was must have been huge, because Tag was bringing Risia back to the team’s

headquarters in California.

Kayden and I were heading out in a couple of days as well, per Delacourt’s

orders. I promised myself when Tag checked in, I was cornering his ass for worrying me, then I’d pry out every detail of what had gone down.

Kayden and I fell quiet, basking in the peace surrounding us.

It was strange to think that in a couple of days my life would once again change. This time, hopefully, for the better. The heavy chains of resentment and

guilt had slowly unraveled as I picked up the pieces of my life without Kelsey.

Her absence helped me put things in perspective.

Life was too short to waste worrying about what had been, or what could be.

Kayden helped me box up her personal things from her condo and break the

news of her death to her friends and Terrance. Jinx and Rabbit stepped in to help

me arrange her memorial.

It was difficult packing her things up at the condo. Memories snuck in