by Tasha Black
“That sounds great, Jerry. Thank you,” Cordelia said, nearly swooning with relief.
Cordelia quickly loaded Jess into the van. They followed their police escort away from the parking lot toward the hospital.
When they were halfway there, Jess broke the silence.
“What do you think Mallory meant when she said West’s limbs have been failing for a while?” her clear voice asked from the back.
Cordelia glanced in the rear view mirror. But Jess was looking out the window, her face curtained by long red hair.
“I don’t really know,” Cordelia admitted. The phrase had been haunting her as well.
“If he knew they were hurting him, why didn’t he just take them off?” Jess asked.
“I don’t know that, either,” Cordelia said. Though maybe she had a better idea about it than she wanted to admit to herself.
West had just put his life on the line to protect Jess.
He had been searching for Jess.
Apologizing to Cordelia to bring her close, for what he must have known would be the last time.
Burning away his life for the both of them.
Dear god. What had they done?
She finished the drive, almost numb with guilt. She parked the van and got Jess out.
Dalton was waiting for them at the hospital entrance.
Cordelia noticed absent-mindedly that she hadn’t felt that prescient wave of awareness that he was near this time. The last few times, actually. Whatever connection they’d had must have been wearing off.
“Come this way,” he told them.
She and Jess followed Dalton to a waiting area.
“Mallory is in there,” he informed them. “And so is Dr. Chowdhary, the one who operated on him after the fall. He’s in the best hands he can be in. There’s not much you can do, except wait. Do you need anything?”
Cordelia looked to Jess, who shook her head.
“It’s good to see you, pipsqueak,” he told Jess. “If it’s alright with you two, I need to go pay someone a visit. I know the timing is weird but I’ve had a change of heart about something important.”
He looked to them, as if waiting for them to ask for a better explanation.
Cordelia spared him the trouble.
“That’s okay, we have a lot to talk about,” she said, smiling at Jess.
In an unusually relaxed manner, Dalton reached down to hug them both in his arms.
Then he rose and half-jogged down the corridor.
Cordelia looked after him until he disappeared out the doors.
She turned to Jess, who was studying her with bright eyes. So eager to share her adventure, so worried Cordelia wouldn’t approve.
At least it would get their minds off everything else for a while.
Cordelia made a mental note to listen, and not to judge.
“So, you made a new friend?” Cordelia asked.
46
Dalton strode down the overgrown path to the old zoo administration building as the sun set over the glacier.
Crickets chirped. The hoot of an owl sounded in the distance. But the human sounds were absent.
The whole place felt truly abandoned. The troops’ presence had somehow been palpable before. They were out in the city, now. It was lonely here.
Today had been the kind of day when you put things in perspective. When you forgave the people in your life for being fallible, and fell to your knees in regret for pushing them away.
West was lost.
Mallory’s talk of reviving him was just the sound and the fury. Her way of saying good-bye, by doing what she did best. But West was fried, like a burned out light bulb. Nothing was bringing him back.
It made Dalton think. Who were the important people in his life? West had been one. And Cordelia, and Jess. And Elizabeth Sterling.
He and Elizabeth had both been damaged by their experiences with Alpha Division. They would always understand each other in a way no one else ever could.
Sterling had made her share of mistakes, but in the end, she had done the right thing.
At the risk of losing her own life, she had saved the men.
They had a tough road ahead of them if they wanted to find peace. But he knew her true colors now. And Edward Dalton was a patient man. He could protect her, even if it meant leaving the city behind.
And maybe they would love each other again one day.
He found his way through the high grass to the office door.
It was partially open.
Some part of him knew right then.
He pushed it the rest of the way and slipped inside.
Two bodies greeted him.
Gibson and Anatoly.
Their lips were sewn shut.
Roman Panchenko.
Doling out retribution for the sour deal. And carrying on his grandfather’s gruesome tradition.
That bastard should have died in the burning car.
For a moment Dalton allowed himself to hate West for trying to be a hero. Real heroes knew you had to compromise sometimes.
But there was no point being angry.
He explored the rest of the office, bracing himself. But there was no sign of Sterling.
She would no longer have been an asset to Panchenko. She had no money, she had no men.
Which meant one of two things was true.
Either Sterling was dead, strapped to a cement block at the bottom of the deepest part of the lake.
Or she had run, far and fast. And these guys had been left behind by Panchenko to remind her what would happen if she ever returned.
In any case, Edward Dalton would never see her again.
“Good-bye, Silver,” he whispered into the still air.
He slipped out the back door and into the night.
The evening breeze cooled his burning lungs as he began to run.
47
Cordelia rode the elevator up to the Worthington Enterprises board room alone.
Dalton had called her to an emergency board meeting this morning. She wondered what it could mean. Cordelia was not, and had never been on the board of Worthington Enterprises. Though she’d probably carried ten thousand trays of coffee up there.
It was odd to be in the building again. She hadn’t been back since she’d walked out on Peter after retrieving that recording device from under his desk.
That was the day she had found her sister. And lost the man she loved.
For a moment, she was transported back.
48
Dr. Chowdhary walked slowly out of the operating room, the expression on her face telling Cordelia exactly what had happened.
She didn’t even need to ask.
Jess had dozed off in her chair after hours of waiting in the small, antiseptic-scented room. She lifted her head at the doctor’s approach.
“I’m sorry,” the older woman said to them.
Those two words tore through Cordelia more surely than a bullet, cut her deeper than any blade.
She buried her face in her sister’s neck, and wept like child, abandoning all her illusions of control. In her mind, she begged and pleaded to whatever higher power might be listening to make it not be true. In her heart, she promised she would never question their love again, if she could only hold him one more time.
The doctors called the time of death at 8:33 PM, just as the sun set over Glacier City.
49
The elevator dinged, snapping Cordelia back to the present, and she stepped out into the bright foyer.
She heard him before she saw him. The steady hum of the electric wheelchair he operated with his remaining hand telling her he was near.
West rolled around the corner and into view.
His legs and right arm were gone. A patch covered his right eye.
And his smile still made her feel like her heart might burst. Every single time.
He died on the table that night.
West had been past the power of miracles, lost to the hope of lov
e.
But he hadn’t been beyond the reach of Mallory Pruitt.
Even after the other doctors had walked away and washed West’s blood from their hands, Mallory refused to give up. Dr. Chowdhary had tried to remove her from the room, but it was clear she wasn’t going anywhere without a fight. So they let her stay behind to work out her issues in private.
No one knew exactly what happened when Mallory was alone with West. She’d never spoken a word about it. And Cordelia was pretty sure she wouldn’t begin to understand, even if Mallory decided to share.
It didn’t matter.
She leaned down and kissed West’s warm, smiling mouth, lingering a moment, until the bad memories were brushed away like cobwebs.
“I was wondering where you got to this morning,” she said quietly. “Didn’t expect to see you here.”
“I had some things to take care of,” he said lightly.
He had that mischievous spark in his eye.
What was he up to?
“Come on, let’s not keep them waiting,” he teased.
They headed into the boardroom together.
It was odd to come in and see the exact same faces as the last time she was here. She shuddered, thinking of how Peter had forced his way to the head of this room. And how he had pushed West out of the boardroom, as sure as Palma had pushed him out of the lab window.
Tarek and Andrews sat on either side of Peter at the head of the table.
Edward Dalton stood in the far corner. When he saw her enter, he gave her a warm smile. She returned it immediately.
She sometimes still felt a whisper thin connection with Edward, even though the bite mark had faded away at last. She had never asked him to help her understand it. Maybe she never would.
It was no longer the strong bond that had linked them for a time, but simply flickers of emotion she knew belonged to him.
Whether the connection strengthened or faded, he would always be a dear friend. One of those few people in the world she would trust with her life, and whom she would protect without question in return.
Right now, she sensed the same mischief in Edward she had seen in West.
Peter coughed loudly.
She turned to find him gazing at her with an insufferably smug expression.
“Now that we’re all here, perhaps you’d like to tell us what this important company business is, Mr. Worthington?” Peter drawled.
“Dalton,” West gestured to Peter and Andrews.
Dalton placed a folder in front of Peter and another in front of Andrews.
“What’s this?” Peter asked.
“A transcript of a very interesting conversation between you and Major Andrews,” West replied. “A conversation that the rest of the board has had time to review very carefully.”
The recording.
She’d heard the damning conversation for herself, but had no idea West had shared it with the board.
Cordelia saw the exact moment when Peter’s eyes got to the good part of the transcript, his face going pasty white.
A second later, Major Andrews leapt to his feet and slammed the folder on the table.
“Who the hell do you think you are?” he blustered at West. “This is outrageous. I won’t sit here and be subjected to this nonsense.”
Andrews spun on his heel and began to walk away.
But Dalton had already taken up a place in front of the door.
“Sit down, Major,” Prince Isaam said from the table, his tone icy.
Andrews appeared to consider his options for a second, and then returned to his seat, looking at the folder on the table like it was a venomous snake.
Peter was still silent.
“I’m sure you can imagine everyone’s reaction when they learned the real purpose of the troops you decided to test here in Glacier City,” West said in a crisp voice that barely covered the anger beneath. “Prince Isaam was especially disappointed when he discovered that many of your men were going to be deployed in his own homeland.”
Murmurs of assent circled the table.
“So it probably comes as no surprise to either of you that the board has reconsidered its choice of interim CEO,” West finished.
“You can’t…” Peter trailed off.
“It’s already done,” West said, with just a hint of a smile. “Mr. Dalton, would you kindly escort these two gentlemen to the lobby? I believe there are some federal agents waiting there who would very much like to have a word with both of them.”
The two left in silence, as the board looked on.
When they were gone, the attention in the room went back to West.
“Now let’s get this company back under the leadership it deserves,” he said.
There were now two empty seats at the table.
West would be back where he belonged. And Cordelia would be back at his side, as valued member of the team again, not some coffee fetching lackey.
West rolled over to the table, but paused, eying the chairs in the way.
“Tarek, would you mind?” he asked.
“It would be my pleasure,” Prince Isaam replied.
Tarek rose and walked past the chair at the head of the table, to move the one Andrews had been sitting in.
West rolled his chair to the side of the table.
What was going on?
“The board voted late last night. We just need to finish the paperwork to make it official,” West said.
He gestured to the empty seat.
“Ladies and gentleman of the board, the new CEO of Worthington Enterprises, by a unanimous vote, Cordelia Cross.”
What?
Cordelia was frozen. All eyes were on her.
She waited for them to laugh. Or maybe she would look down and see she was only wearing her underwear, and then she could wake up.
Instead, they all looked back at her encouragingly. Deb Fields gave her a warm smile and a wink.
“But I…” Cordelia couldn’t even find the words. She was trained as a zoologist, experienced as an assistant.
“Have been running this company for the past year? And have done a better job in that short time than I ever did in the years before it?” West asked.
Her jaw dropped.
He was right in a way, in several ways, really. But on what planet did hard work get a person recognized in a board room?
West smiled and motioned to the chair again.
As if in a dream, Cordelia crossed the room and took the seat at the head of the table.
Familiar faces looked at her expectantly.
How the hell was she supposed to do this?
Panic gripped Cordelia. She felt as though the floor had vanished from beneath her. Like she was free-falling.
She put a hand on the table to steady herself.
West reached over and gave it a squeeze.
Just like that, the nervousness vanished.
Cordelia Cross could do anything.
And West would never let her fall.
“Now, for the first order of business,” West said, producing a slim stack of papers. “We’re going to need the CEO to sign off on our next project.”
“What’s this?” she asked, unable to help the smile that crept onto her face.
“The plan for Worthington Enterprises to rebuild and reopen the Glacier City Zoo,” he said, smiling back at her.
50
The fresh spring air and exercise had warmed Cordelia to her toes. She put down her trowel and looked around.
Everything at the Glacier City Zoo was in bloom.
Gone were the weeds, the waist-high grass, and the rotted decking. The zoo was more beautiful than it had ever been.
Flowers reached toward the sun, the breeze carrying their honeysuckle scent to every corner of the place.
Across from the garden bed where Cordelia had been working, Jess and her friend Pan were eating a lazy lunch by the new duck pond. In truth, it looked like more of the food was going to the ducks than into themselves.
It hadn’t taken them long to put together the pieces of who Jess’s friend was.
Ionna Panchenko.
Daughter of Roman Panchenko, the new heir to the biggest crime family in the city.
West and Dalton had nearly lost their minds at the revelation. But Cordelia had set them straight about it.
It filled her heart with joy to see Jess laughing with a friend, no matter who her family was. And no one was going to interfere with that. Ionna was in charge of her own destiny, and she seemed like a kid who knew how to make good choices.
West had tried to argue, but when Cord had reminded him about how he’d felt, living in the shadow of his own father’s mistakes, he’d relented. Dalton followed his lead, although she suspected Dalton still kept a close eye on both of the girls.
Jess saw Cordelia looking, and waved to her.
Before she could wave back, a group of small children, carrying flowerpots paraded past. Their nursery school teacher followed behind, calling out instructions.
“Caroline, I like the careful way you’re holding your pot with two hands. Look at Caroline, everyone,” she belted out, nodding at Cordelia on the way by.
It seemed as if the entire city had rallied around the project to rejuvenate the zoo. As soon as Cordelia had made the announcement that Worthington Enterprises was going to break ground, other businesses in Glacier City started lining up to donate materials and manpower, and to sponsor attractions.
The zoo had gone from a discarded reminder of better times to a symbol of hope.
For Cordelia in particular, it felt like old times were coming back in spades.
A couple of boys from the local scout troop stepped off the path to let the nursery school children through. These boys had been here every Saturday for a month, working on their Community Beautification badges. Cordelia couldn’t help but notice how they followed West with their eyes whenever he was around, anxious for him to recognize their hard work.
She couldn’t even imagine how they might react if they ever found out they were working with a man who had once been a real live superhero.
West, her West.
