I Said I Was Coming Home

I moved when I saw Kane's hand, but not fast enough to avoid the shot.

Pain struck my shoulder. Miles pulled me behind the table as Kane tried to fire again. A shout came from the entrance. His men scattered instead of helping him.

My phone kept ringing.

I answered with my good hand.

"Summer?"

"Daddy, are you coming back?"

Charlotte said something in the background. She hadn't meant for the child to call during the meeting.

I pressed my hand against the wound.

"Yes, sweetheart. Give Mommy the watch for a minute."

"Connor?" Charlotte's voice sharpened immediately. "What was that noise?"

"I hurt my shoulder. Miles is here. Stay with Summer."

"You're hurt?"

"I'm awake. I'm talking to you. I'll call again as soon as I can."

I wanted to keep hearing her voice. I couldn't.

"Don't come here," I added. "I'll come to you."

Miles took the phone as the officers entered through the main doors. He kept Charlotte on the line, telling her what he could see while I stayed behind the table.

Kane had retreated toward the office.

The damaged stairwell groaned under him. Charlotte's warning returned to me just before part of the landing gave way.

He fell against the lower railing, his gun dropping beyond his reach.

For a moment, he hung there, one arm caught between broken metal supports. He looked at me across the warehouse.

"Reed."

I stood, ignoring Miles telling me to stay down.

"Connor," he said again. "Don't leave me here."

It would have been easy to watch him fall. After the years he had taken, the men he had sent, the window he'd pointed his gun toward through somebody else's hand, it would have been easy to call it the end he deserved.

I thought of Summer asking whether the man in the garage was bad.

I crossed the floor.

One of the officers reached Kane first. I helped hold the railing while they brought him down. My injured arm failed halfway through, and Miles took my place.

Kane lay on the concrete, breathing hard.

"You always were sentimental," he said.

I looked down at him.

"You're alive to answer questions. Don't mistake that for forgiveness."

They took him away in restraints.

I sat when Miles put a chair behind my knees. The pain had become harder to ignore. Blood had soaked through my shirt.

He returned my phone.

Charlotte was still there.

"It's over here," I told her.

"What does that mean?"

"He's been taken into custody. Nobody is coming after you from this place."

She let out a breath that sounded painfully close to a sob.

"And you?"

"I need a doctor. Then I need a ride home."

"You'll get both."

The medical treatment took longer than I wanted. So did the statements. Kane's people began contradicting him before the evening was over. Owen's records supported what we'd already supplied.

Miles spoke to the lawyer while I sat beneath a bright light with my arm secured against my body.

The message from the safe house arrived just after six.

Summer had chosen noodles.

Underneath it, Charlotte had written: Yours will be cold if you make me wait much longer.

I smiled at the screen.

Miles saw it.

"That's an improvement."

"The noodles?"

"Your face. You've been unbearable for years."

"You could have resigned."

"And miss this?"

He drove me home after the doctor allowed it. Charlotte was standing in the doorway before the car stopped.

She didn't run at me. She came close, looked at my face, looked at the bandage, and touched my cheek.

Then she kissed me so carefully that I nearly lost the composure I'd managed through the entire afternoon.

"You came back," she whispered.

"I said I would."

"Don't get proud. I'm still frightened."

"You can be. I'm here."

Summer waited inside with Nora. She looked at my bandage and immediately fetched a blanket.

"You need to sit."

"Your mother said the same thing."

"She's right."

I obeyed.

Summer climbed carefully onto my good side and asked for her little rabbit. I produced it from my jacket.

"He was brave," I told her.

"He's very brave."

She put him beside Beans, then touched my hand.

"You can stay on the sofa. I'll bring your noodles."

Charlotte intercepted the bowl before Summer attempted to carry it across the room.

We ate together. Nora left after checking that Charlotte had everything she needed. Miles stayed in the guest cottage.

For the first time in weeks, a ringing phone didn't make me think Kane had chosen another door to approach.

Before bedtime, Summer asked whether I would still be there in the morning.

I answered yes, then watched her look toward Charlotte to confirm it. Charlotte nodded. Only then did the little girl climb into bed.

I sat beside her while she chose a story. Halfway through it, she fell asleep with her fingers resting against my wrist.

Charlotte waited in the doorway.

"That question will come back," she said quietly.

"Then I'll answer it again."

"With more than words."

"With breakfast. School pickup. Whatever comes after."

She touched my good shoulder. We stayed there a little longer, watching Summer sleep, before either of us moved.

After Summer slept, Charlotte helped me upstairs. She unbuttoned the shirt carefully, frowning at the dried blood.

"I liked this one."

"You can buy me another."

She looked up.

"Are you finally accepting my allowance?"

"Only if it comes with a favorable review."

She smiled, then rested her forehead against my good shoulder.

"I don't care what people call you," she said. "I care what happens when she calls you Daddy."

I put my arm around her.

"I love you, Charlotte. Not because you brought me a child. I loved the woman who ordered me to stand in a kitchen and look useful. I just took too long to understand what I wanted to do about it."

She looked at me, eyes bright.

"Then stop taking so long."

"Marry me."

Her lips parted.

"You don't even have a ring."

"I'll get one. This part couldn't wait."

She laughed through the tears she had finally allowed herself.

"Yes," she said. "But I'm choosing the dinner venue."