He drew her left hand to his lips and kissed it. “Where was I? Oh, yeah. We arrested Vishenko yesterday, along with New York’s junior senator and a half dozen others. And that’s just the start. Vishenko’s not talking—surprise, surprise—but the senator sang like a canary. Guess being a former FBI agent, he knew when to cut his losses and cut a deal.”
She searched his face. “So it’s all over?”
“I wish. The agency and the FBI have put together a task force. As soon as you’re well enough, you’ll be on it—Holmes was damned impressed with what you’d uncovered, and he pretty much insisted.” He laughed softly, shaking his head. “He’s a little suspicious about how you came across certain FBI documents, but I’m sure you’ll manage to gloss that over.”
Keira laughed a little at that, too. “I’ll think of something,” she said.
Cody’s expression turned serious again as he toyed with her fingers. “Part of me would like to ask you never to do this to me again, but—”
“You can’t,” she interrupted, trying to pull her hand away from his. “You can’t ask me to—”
“I’m not,” he told her, firmly retaining her hand and letting his respect and pride shine through his eyes. And his concern. “I’m not asking you to be less than you are.” One corner of his mouth twitched into a half smile. “But I wouldn’t be human if I didn’t want to protect you from everything. Don’t ask me to be less than the man I am.”
“Oh.” Color rose in her cheeks, and Cody was satisfied they understood each other.
“We’ve got a long road ahead of us building our case,” he said, as if the conversation had never detoured into their personal lives. “And there are more arrests in the works. We still don’t know who was following me, or who set the bombs on the East Coast or in Denver. Danvers couldn’t tell us. But he and his brothers are the ones who rigged Callahan’s SUV, and they’re the ones who killed Tressler, on orders of the man who was their go-between with Vishenko—he’s one of the ones we arrested yesterday. If we can get him to roll on Vishenko...we’ll have to see about that. And the trials could take years, so I’m not holding my breath.”
“But you’re safe now? You, Callahan, Trace and D’Arcy?”
A muscle twitched in his cheek. “Safe is a relative term. Without Vishenko bankrolling things...yeah, we’re safer. But I won’t lie to you—we’ll never be safe as long as we live. There’s always the chance that...” He left it at that, knowing he didn’t have to fill in the details. “How’s the injury?” he asked, changing the subject as he leaned against the side of the hospital bed.
“It’s there,” she said dryly. “You should know—you went through it yourself.”
Cody chuckled. “Yeah, but the body doesn’t remember the pain—just the idea of the pain. And thank God for that. Otherwise, no woman would ever have a second child.”
Their eyes met. Cody caught his breath at the sudden yearning in Keira’s face, and he had the answer to the question he’d wanted to ask her the night they’d made love. She wanted his child...his children...with an intensity that equaled his.
“It’s a risk,” he warned her, touching her cheek with fingers that trembled slightly. “Callahan calls them hostages to fortune.”
“But Mandy doesn’t,” Keira told him firmly. “She took that risk for the man she loves. And I will, too.”
Cody’s heart contracted in love and pain. “Are you sure, Keira?” he asked. “I’m willing to risk it if you are, but I couldn’t bear it if someday in the future...if something happened and you blamed me...and stopped loving me...”
She shook her head, and her left hand reached for his right one. “Life is a risk. Love is a risk. We just have to trust in ourselves and each other that we will do everything in our power to keep our children safe.”
Cody swallowed the lump in his throat, remembering all the things he’d told himself he would say to her...if only she survived. Love me. Need me. Marry me.