"Kev?" Daniel asked. Alex put her hand firmly on his forehead when he twitched like he wanted to sit up.
"Danny?" Kevin nearly shouted. Volkstaff snorted and rolled onto his side.
Kevin pulled himself up, wincing.
"You probably shouldn't move..." Alex began, and then, when he completely ignored her, "Hey, at least keep off your feet!"
"I'm fine." Kevin grunted.
"You're an idiot," Val said harshly. "Just stay put for two seconds."
Val was out of the strange, avant-garde-runway sari-thing and in sweats and a T-shirt now. She strode out through a door marked LOBBY. Kevin waited, puzzled, kneeling on the linoleum with one hand braced against the wall. She was back almost immediately, pushing a wheeled office chair, her expression set in angry lines. If Alex had any energy left, she would have sighed with envy. Val looked absolutely ridiculous for someone in a ponytail and no makeup who'd gotten no more sleep than the rest of them.
"I'm fairly sure they don't keep wheelchairs here, but this ought to work for now," Val said. "Sit."
Though her voice sounded deeply annoyed, she offered both hands to pull him up. He hissed and staggered when the soles of his feet touched the ground, but as soon as he was seated, he was trying to use them to roll himself closer to Daniel.
"Ugh, stop it," Val complained. She guided the chair across the room while Kevin held his feet gingerly a few inches off the floor. Val stopped when Kevin was right beside Alex. Alex shuffled over a step to make room.
Kevin stared at Daniel's open eyes and good color with shock. Carefully, he patted Daniel's hair, obviously afraid to touch any other part of him.
"Looks like your poison woman got it done," Kevin said in a gruff voice. "I'm not sure about the balding Swede thing you've got going on, though."
"Val's idea."
Kevin nodded absently for a moment. "You shouldn't have come in after me. I didn't want you to do that."
"You would have done it for me."
"That's different." He shook his head when Daniel started to protest. "But you're going to be okay?" Kevin looked up at Alex for the answer.
She exhaled through her nose and nodded. "He looks like he's going to be totally fine. I don't know what it is with you two. Are you sure your mom didn't have a one-night stand with a genetically engineered superhuman?"
When Kevin's hand darted toward her, Alex's first instinct was that she'd crossed the line with the mother comment. But before she could brace for a blow, he'd grabbed her roughly and yanked her into an awkward bear hug. She found herself half on his lap, her arms pinned under his, and there was nothing she could do when he decided to kiss her full on the lips with a wet, resounding smack.
"Hey!" Daniel protested. "Get your face off my poison woman!"
Alex wrenched her head to the side, finally feeling something again--nausea. "Ugh, get off me, you psychopath." She heard Val laughing.
Kevin managed to spin the chair in a complete revolution. "You're a genius, Ollie. I can't believe you did it."
"Go make out with Volkstaff, he did half the work."
He wouldn't free her. It was like he didn't even notice that she was trying--violently--to wriggle away. "What a performance! I can't believe you just walked in there and busted me out! Never tell me you aren't black ops--honey, you're what black ops dreams about being!"
Einstein whined and Alex felt his jaws close lightly around her wrist. He yanked, trying to help her escape. Kevin didn't seem to notice.
She knew where Kevin's worst injuries were. She'd use that knowledge soon if she had to. "Let me go!"
"Kevin," Daniel said, his voice measured but icy. "If you don't set Alex down right now I'm going to shoot you with her gun."
Finally Kevin dropped his arms. She ducked free and they both spun anxiously to Daniel.
"Don't move," they said in unison.
Alex breathed again when she could see that Daniel hadn't actually tried to reach for the gun.
"Volkstaff?" Daniel asked. "I know that name... where are we?"
"You remember Dr. Volkstaff," Kevin said. "He saved my best friend's life in fifth grade--after he got caught in the bear trap. You can't have forgotten that."
Daniel blinked. "Tommy Velasquez got caught in a bear trap?" he asked, bewildered.
Kevin smiled. "Tommy wasn't my best friend." He stroked Einstein's head, and the dog rubbed his face against Kevin's leg, still delirious with joy.
"Wait... Volkstaff?" Daniel repeated, finally putting it together. "You took me to the vet?"
Alex laid a hand on his forehead. "Shh. It was the right place to go. Volkstaff is a rock star. He saved your life."
"Now, now," Volkstaff's gravelly voice broke in. "I was merely the assistant, Dr. Alex. Don't be trying to give me the credit for saving Danny."
Volkstaff was sitting up on the couch, patting the unruly tufts of white hair that were arrayed in a jagged halo around his head. It made her think of Barnaby, and she realized why she'd felt so comfortable working with the friendly old man who was apparently still quite devoted to the Beach family.
"It was an honor to work beside you, Doctor," Volkstaff continued as he tottered over to them. He appeared frail with age now, but he'd shown no feebleness during the long night. He smiled down at Daniel. "Good to see you awake, son." He dropped his voice into a stage whisper. "You've found a winner, kid. Don't mess things up with this one."
"Oh, I know it, sir."
Alex frowned. She hadn't said anything about her feelings for Daniel, and Daniel had been unconscious. How were they always so obvious?
Volkstaff turned. "What a gorgeous shepherd. This can't be Einstein, can it? It's been years."
"His grandson, actually," Kevin told him.
"Isn't that something!" He reached down to caress Einstein's ear. "Such a beauty."
Einstein licked his hand. The dog was full of goodwill for all mankind tonight.
"Now, Kevin," Volkstaff said, straightening, "would you like to walk again? Because if so, you'll need to get those feet elevated, and all of you needs to rest. Don't you dare give me that look, young man. You can use my couch over there. Er, Miss..." Volkstaff's eyes bugged a little as he took in Val for the first time. Alex had warned Volkstaff that the fourth member of their party would show up later, but he clearly hadn't expected a Victoria's Secret model.
"You can call me Valentine," Val purred.
"Yes, thank you, well. Miss Valentine, could you push Kevin over to the sofa and help him onto it? Exactly--thank you."
Alex watched, feeling numb again, her head disconnected from every part of her body, while Val half shoved Kevin from the chair to the couch. Her expression was irritated, her hands rough, but Alex saw her duck in suddenly to kiss his forehead.
"And you, Doctor..."
Alex turned slowly to look at Volkstaff.
"There are more couches in the waiting room. Go use one of them. That's an order."
She hesitated, swaying in place, staring at Daniel.
"Yeesh, you two," Val said as she stalked back across the room. "Sleep before you collapse, Alex. I've had a few hours. I'll keep an eye on him."
"If anything at all changes on his monitors, the slightest variation--"
"I'll drag you back in here by your much-improved hair," Val promised.
Alex bent down and kissed Daniel softly. "Volkstaff and I went through a lot of trouble to put you back together again," she murmured against his lips. "Don't screw up our work."
His lips brushed hers as he spoke. "Wouldn't dream of it. Be a good girl and get some sleep like my old family vet ordered you to."
"I'll have you know I'm in the prime of my life," Volkstaff objected.
"C'mon," Val said, suddenly right in Alex's ear. "Let's go while you can still walk. I'm sure I could carry you, but I don't want to."
Alex let Val guide her through the door and down the unlit hallway. She concentrated on moving her feet and nothing else. Her surroundings were just a dar
k blur. Val had to lower her to the couch, but Alex was sure she would have been just as happy on the floor. Unconsciousness took her while she was still falling.
CHAPTER 32
It was a strange morning.
For Alex, it was also a very late morning. It was peaceful in the empty veterinary hospital, and no one disturbed her. She learned later that Volkstaff had called his office team, canceled all the appointments, and put a sign in the window that read CLOSED FOR FAMILY EMERGENCY.
It was an odd place to feel so safe--an unfamiliar place, a place where she'd prepared no traps or defenses.
But things had changed. She'd only really thought of rescuing Kevin, but their actions last night had also shifted their position significantly.
Kevin was as energetic as ever, despite the fact that he was stuck in the rolling office chair again, his gauze-wrapped feet elevated on the wheeled stool. Val disappeared as soon as she saw Alex to take her turn on the couch. Daniel had had his eyes closed to ignore his brother but quickly "woke up" when he heard Alex's voice. Volkstaff was apparently out getting lunch. The others had left her a bagel and cream cheese.
As soon as Alex had finished her examination of Daniel--who was recovering more quickly than anyone who hadn't worked with Kevin Beach would believe--Alex grabbed her breakfast and the newspaper Volkstaff had brought in with the bagels. She read furiously while she chewed. They'd made the front page--though only the people in the room knew that.
"This all feels anticlimactic, Ollie," Kevin complained, using a broom to push his chair in circles around the room. "It would have been more fun to shoot him."
The big headline for the day was Wade Pace's fatal aneurysm. The journalists had barely paused for a moment of silence before they were on to guessing what President Howland's strategy would be for finding his new running mate.
"Well, you did get to shoot Deavers."
"I was too stressed about Danny to really enjoy it, though," he mused.
Kevin had been terse in his explanation about how Deavers had gotten the upper hand. Alex could tell he was embarrassed, but she didn't think less of him. How could anyone have prepared for the extremes that Deavers's paranoia had pushed him to? More than forty men, deployed into three perimeters, one more than a mile out from Deavers's position. Once Deavers hit the panic button, the perimeters had collapsed in. Kevin maintained that if he hadn't ignored his gut and brought a rocket launcher along, he would have made it out.
There was nothing else in the news, nothing about a violent shootout in an underground bunker on the outskirts of town. No word about a missing CIA deputy director. No mention of Carston, not even the relatively public kidnapping of his granddaughter. Maybe in tomorrow's news.
Kevin didn't think so.
"It'll be a gas-line explosion or something like that. That real story is all going to get buried so deep, they'll name Jackie Kennedy as the Dallas shooter before any of it gets out."
He was probably right.
They couldn't be 100 percent sure, of course, and they would continue to behave with caution, but the pressure was significantly decreased. Alex knew she would feel the lightness like a layer of helium under her skin, if she could ever convince herself to believe in their good luck.
After lunch, Volkstaff removed the stitches from Alex's ear and complimented Daniel's even hand when she gave him the credit. Alex was bemused by how much the white-haired old man took in stride. None of them had tried to explain their unusual injuries or even make up a cover story, but Volkstaff asked no questions and showed no obvious curiosity. He didn't comment on the fact that Kevin was supposed to have died in prison, though apparently--Daniel informed her in a whisper--Volkstaff had been at the funeral. He asked only about old acquaintances from their childhood and, more particularly, the animals they'd known together. Though Alex had just barely learned to recognize love at all, she thought she might be falling for Volkstaff just a little, too.
Still, they couldn't live in the animal hospital forever. Volkstaff had other patients. After a few minutes of discussing options, Val surprised Alex by volunteering to house them again, back in her palatial penthouse, now that it was safe. For a fee, naturally. Kevin seemed the most shocked at her offer.
"Don't let it go to your head," she told him. "I want the dog. And I actually like Alex and Danny. Almost as much as I can't stand you." Then she'd kissed him--long enough that it got uncomfortable for everyone. Volkstaff politely turned his back, but Alex just stared. She would never understand what Val saw in Kevin.
*
"SOOO..." KEVIN BEGAN.
Alex turned from her organizing; it wasn't quite packing yet. Kevin was lounging in the doorway of the room Alex and Daniel had always shared in Val's home, his left arm braced against the top of the frame. For one second, Alex was irrelevantly jealous of tall people in general. It wasn't an uncommon feeling these days, always surrounded by giants as she was. She put it away.
"So what?"
"So how did the appointment go today? What did you and Volkstaff conclude?"
He didn't have to ask where Daniel was now--Daniel's normal shower-serenade volume would have gotten him in trouble if the other tenants were any closer. The Bon Jovi phase hadn't passed yet; he was particularly fond of "Shot Through the Heart" at the moment. Alex didn't find it so funny, but she tried not to let it irritate her.
"The vet thinks Daniel's good to go. I concur. You Beaches are a charmed breed." She shook her head, still a little incredulous at how quickly and thoroughly Daniel had healed. "Also, he wants to look at your feet."
Kevin scowled. "My feet are fine."
"Don't shoot the messenger. I mean that literally."
His frown faded into his normal expression, but he continued to stand there in the doorway, staring at her.
"Sooo... ?" she echoed.
"So... do you have any ideas about where you're heading now?"
Alex twitched her shoulders noncommittally. "Nothing too specific yet." Like a coward, she turned back to her worn duffel and looked over her stowed chemicals again, checking that they were all appropriately protected from jostling. She might have been going overboard with the organization, she admitted to herself. They probably didn't need to be alphabetized. But she'd had a lot of time on her hands, and other than surfing the web for possible new digs, she was at loose ends. Daniel had objected to being examined more than four times a day.
"Have you talked to Danny about it?"
She nodded with her back still turned to him. "He says wherever I want to go is fine by him."
"He's planning to tag along with you, I guess."
Kevin's voice was casual, but Alex knew it must be a strain to keep it that way.
"I haven't discussed that part specifically with him, but, yes, it does seem to be the assumption."
He didn't say anything for a moment, and she really had nothing left to do with the bag. She turned slowly to face him.
"Yeah," he said, "I could tell it was going to go that way." His expression was indifferent. Only his eyes revealed the depths of his hurt.
She didn't want to tell the full story, but she felt guilty holding it back. "If it makes you feel any better, he seems to be assuming you'll be there, too."
Kevin's eyebrows eased back from their normal compressed position.
"Really?"
"Yes. I don't think he's envisioned any more splitting up at this point."
Kevin inclined his chin. "I can understand that. Kid's been through a lot."
"He's bouncing back pretty well."
"True, but we wouldn't want to traumatize him again. Don't want him to have a setback."
Alex knew where Kevin was going with this. She suppressed both a sigh and a smile, keeping her face neutral.
"True," she said in her serious-doctor tone. "It might be best to keep his environment as stable as possible, aside from all the unavoidable changes."
Kevin didn't suppress his sigh. He blew out a huge breath and crossed his arm
s over his chest. "It'll probably be an enormous pain, but I guess I can stick close until he's adapted."
Alex couldn't resist pushing back just a tiny bit. "I'm sure he wouldn't want you to put yourself out. He'll survive."
"No, no, I owe the kid. I'll do what I have to."
"He'll appreciate that."
Kevin met her gaze for one long second, his expression candid, and then suddenly sheepish. The moment passed, and he grinned.
"What's the general area you're looking at?" he asked.
"I was thinking maybe the Southwest or the Rocky Mountains. Medium-size city, settle in the suburbs. The usual."
No one was looking for them, as far as they knew, but Alex was always a fan of playing it safe, just in case. She'd have to use a fake name regardless--Juliana Fortis was legally dead.
Daniel's singing cut off, then picked up again, muffled by a towel.
"I know a town that might work."
Alex shook her head slowly. He'd probably already rented a house and set up the new identities. She'd choose her own name no matter what he'd done. "Of course you do."
"How do you feel about Colorado?"
EPILOGUE
Adam Kopecky sat today's files on his desk and reached for the phone with a smile already in place. He had the best job in the world.
Working as an assistant producer for a famous chef's reality road show could have meant many things, but for Adam, it meant flexible hours, a quiet little office, and a near-constant stream of positivity.
He was in charge of managing the visits to the various mom-and-pop eateries his chef would be featuring on the show, and while he was sometimes jealous of Bess and Neil, who were always on the road trying out every hole-in-the-wall they could find, he believed what he was doing suited his temperament better. Plus, Bess and Neil had to eat a lot of garbage to find the diamonds in the rough, and Neil had gained at least twenty-five pounds in this past year with the show; Adam had cobbled together a standing desk so that his more stationary job would not start to affect him the same way. And then, out of necessity, no one knew who Bess and Neil were, so no one was particularly excited to hear from them.
Thursday afternoon was Adam's favorite. Today he would call the chosen ones.
The show was heading to the Denver region in a month, and the lucky winners were a barbecue place in Lakewood, a bakery right in downtown, and then the outlier, a bar and grill that was closer to Boulder than Denver. Adam had been skeptical, but Bess insisted that the Hideaway would be the highlight of the episode. If possible, they should be there on a Friday night. The place was a local karaoke hot spot. Adam hated karaoke, but Bess was insistent.