Page 118 of Twilight Tactics

The words punched her. “What? Mom came back?”

But Iris didn’t answer, her eyes closing as consciousness slipped away.

Elena held her sister until her father returned. She looked up at him. “Iris said Mom came back?”

“She did. And I helped her leave again. I even told Iris to go with her.” His throat worked. “But she turned me in. I was the one who went through the reeducation.”

For a moment, Elena could only stare at the man. “Then why didn’t she come find me if we weren’t hiding from you anymore?”

His shoulders slumped. “Because you were hiding from Iris at that point. And LaRoche.”

Headlights swept across the little parking lot as multiple vehicles arrived simultaneously—sheriff’s cruisers, FBI SUVs, two ambulances. Elena kept pressure on her sister’s wound, her mind reeling from Iris’s revelation. And her father’s.

Men shouted orders. Flashlight beams cut through the darkness. “Here!” Elena shouted. “We need a medic!”

Paramedics rushed over, quickly taking control of Iris’scare. Elena stepped back, her hands covered in her sister’s blood. She watched numbly as they worked to stabilize Iris, loading her onto a stretcher.

“She needs to live,” Elena told them. “She’s my sister.”

A paramedic nodded. “We’ll do everything we can.”

He passed her a cloth and some alcohol. She did what she could to clean her hands. It was oddly symbolic washing her sister’s blood from her hands.

They were wheeling Iris toward the ambulance when a familiar voice called her name.

“Elena!”

She looked up to see Sully running toward her, his face a mixture of relief and concern. He reached her, and without a word, he pulled her into his arms, holding her against his chest.

“Thank God,” he murmured into her hair. “Thank God you’re safe.”

The warmth of his embrace broke something inside her. Tears spilled and her body shook with the sobs she couldn’t contain.

“I thought I’d lost you,” Sully said, his voice rough.

When he pulled back slightly, his eyes searched her face. Then he lowered his mouth to hers. The kiss was gentle at first, then deepened with relief and longing. Elena clung to him, anchoring herself in his strength.

When they finally separated, Sully pressed his forehead against hers. “Don’t ever do that to me again.”

“I’ll try not to make a habit of it.”

Sheriff Donovan approached. “Elena, we need to get you checked out by the medics. And we’ll need your statement.”

Elena nodded, reluctantly stepping back from Sully’s embrace. “My father—where is he?”

“We have him in custody,” Donovan replied. “He surrendered without resistance.”

“He saved my life,” Elena said. “Iris was going to kill me, I think, and he shot her to stop her.”

Sully’s arm tightened around her waist. “We’ll sort it all out. Right now, you need medical attention.”

She really didn’t but caved to his wishes. As they walked toward a waiting ambulance, Elena spotted her father sitting in the back of a police cruiser. Their eyes met through the window. He gave her a small, sad nod—an acknowledgment of all they’d lost and all that might have been. And no regret that he’d saved her life.

“Iris said my mother came back for her two years after we escaped. Why didn’t I know that? Why didn’t she tell me that?” She said the words aloud, and the truth was, she might never learn the answers. In the two months they’d had together before her death, her mother hadn’t said a word about going back to find Iris, so maybe that was just the way it was supposed to be. Or her mother knew what Iris had become and wanted to spare Elena from that knowledge. That seemed most likely.

“One thing at a time,” Sully said gently. “Let’s get you patched up first. Then we’ll find the truth. All of it.”

“Maria. I need to go back and find the girl who was in the cells with me.”