Chapter Twenty-Five

Magnus

"You killed him, didn't you?"

Anderson glowered from the other side of his desk, his hands folded atop it. "What happened last night?"

I blinked, glancing at Jade's wide eyes. "Uh, no, we ran. We knew he'd kill the agents. Carlson and, er, Morgan. Right, Jade? If we hadn't, he'd have killed them for sure."

"So what happened to him?"

"How do we know?" Jade snapped. "We lost him, we kept running. Jeez, he's gotta be out there somewhere. Put out an APB or whatever it is these days."

Anderson leaned forward, his gaze intent. "You did something. Tell me."

"We, er, just did," I said. "We ran, lost him. You know, we saved your agents' lives. By running, you know. Arnaud lurked outside, ready to come in and kill."

"With what?"

I blinked. "What?"

"With what weapon ," Anderson roared, his face dark red. "What kind of weapon would he have killed my agents with?"

"Oh." I glanced at Jade, who shrugged. "A big gun. A rifle. Like, one of those military guns you see in movies."

"Yeah," Jade added, "a big honking gun."

Anderson leaned back with a huff. "You two are lying through your teeth. Where's DeLario?"

"I've no idea," I replied. "We lost him. Somewhere."

Jade chuckled, her hand in mine under the desk. "Last we saw of him, he was gasping for breath. Maybe all that exertion did him in."

***

It took a few days before Anderson calmed down enough to inform us of his investigation. As we had at our first meeting, we sat in the conference room. This time, our pals Morgan and Carlson sat with us. Whether they appreciated our efforts to keep them alive or were pissed that we escaped their custody, they gave no indication either way.

Anderson tossed a photo toward Jade and me. "There's your evidence. DeLario was indeed blackmailing that construction worker. Once we confronted him with it, he broke down. Made a full confession."

We studied the picture. An ordinary, slightly chubby man having sex with a girl young enough to be his daughter. I pushed it back. "What'll happen to him?"

"Whether his wife forgives him, I don't much care," Anderson replied. "He's facing jail time, but if he's lucky, the judge may be lenient. He's caught between a rock and a hard place defense."

"What about the blackmailed folks?" Jade asked.

"They'll pay their relative pipers, face the music, life will go on. The high-powered bribed individuals will deny it all, offer resignations, lose elections. Hopefully, those that replace them will learn that corruption stinks and it's not a perfume they should wear."

I chuckled. "You do explain things in an interesting fashion."

"Where's DeLario?"

"I thought you understood," Jade complained. "We don't know. Jeez, you're like a monkey with lice. You can't quit picking."

Morgan snorted laughter, then sobered after Anderson sent him a look.

"All right. I know you're lying, but without a body, I can't charge you with murder." Anderson smiled slightly. "Nor would I want to. I suspect you did the world a favor. Go on. Go home. We've got work to do."

Leaving the FBI building, I put my arm around Jade's shoulders. "He could charge us if he wanted to," I mused, "so why doesn't he?"

"Not worth the effort," Jade replied. "He'd spend taxpayer money trying to prove a case he really can't, and he admitted the truth. We did the world a favor."

Clicking the remote on our new Land Rover, I opened the passenger's side door for Jade. "How long does someone have to be gone before you can claim them dead?"

"No clue."

"I'm a wealthy man's son." I grinned down at her upturned face. "I think I can claim a big share of his money."

"You've earned it," Jade said with a smile. "We'll use it to pay for a trip to Greece."

"Sounds like a great place for a very long vacation."

I closed her door and walked around to the driver's side. I got in and found Jade staring at a small object on the console. "What," I began.

I, too, stared at the thing.

"He knows." Jade lifted her eyes to mine. "Anderson. He put that there to tell us he knows."

Picking it up, I looked closely at it. The miniature dragon was painted black with purple lines and brilliant blue eyes. "Doesn't look anything like me."

Jade laughed. "He knows because he's a dragon, too. Hot damn."

I placed the dragon on the dash, then started the Rover with the push of a button. "It's a souvenir of our adventure together."

As I drove from the lot, Jade took my hand. "And our love. I've come to believe in this fate shit. Because against everything that said we should be enemies, we fell in love with each other."

"Best thing I ever did," I commented with satisfaction. "Kidnap you."

"Yeah, yeah. Don't forget how scared I was."

Leaning toward her, I lifted her hand to kiss it. "I'll spend the rest of my life making it up to you for that. I love you, Jade."

"Good."