Body of Lies

by Deirdre Savoy

  Williams used the opportunity to take off in the opposite direction. It wasn’t much of a bridge, maybe fifty feet. Williams had made it halfway to the other side by the time Zach followed. But Williams skidded to a stop. Zach immediately saw why. Smitty and some uniforms were making their way up the stairs on the other side.

  “Give it up, Williams,” Zach said. You’re not going anywhere.” Zach’s gun was trained on him and it occurred to him that he should just shoot him and get it over with. Put a few bullet holes in him as Alex urged, only half joking. There would be no trial, no chance of parole, no fear that he might get out one day and come after her again. It also occurred to him that he’d be exercising his own brand of justice, just as Williams had.

  But Williams wasn’t going to go down that easy. He was near enough to the other side, the part unprotected by the dome, to grasp the lamppost that stood next to the stairs and hoist himself on top of the fence.

  Zach knew what he intended to do. It was a bit of a drop down to the northbound side of the New England Thruway, but there was also a fence he could grab on to to break his fall. He hoped to gain a few seconds’ advantage, since no one in their right mind would follow his route. Williams himself teetered trying to get enough balance to jump.

  Before Zach could say a word, a semi rumbled underneath the bridge blasting its horn. Williams lost his balance and fell backward.

  Zach rushed forward, hoping to grab maybe a piece of the man if he could. But he was too late. Rather than landing on the shoulder of the road, Williams tumbled into traffic, landing on the hood of one car, rolled off, and was struck by the SUV behind it with such force that he flew in the air to land twenty feet away.

  Zach pushed past Smitty and the others who had just gained the bridge, and hurried down the stairs. He scaled the chest-high fence and dropped down on the other side. Williams still lay facedown and motionless in the middle lane of the highway and traffic had come to a dead halt.

  Zach checked for a pulse at Williams’s throat. Finding none, he turned the man over. Williams’s eyes were open and unfocused, his mouth slack and bloody. He was dead. He couldn’t touch Alex anymore. That’s all that mattered. For a moment, Zach closed his eyes and focused on drawing much-needed air into his lungs.

  Then an equally winded Smitty came up beside him. He clasped Zach on the shoulder. “What lesson have we learned here today, boys and girls? Those who live by the car die by the car.”

  Laughter rumbled up in Zach’s chest. “I thought you were supposed to be watching Alex.”

  “Actually, you told her to stay by me. I convinced her that wasn’t such a good idea. She’s with Craig.”

  Zach glanced across the highway to where Alex was.

  Smitty nudged him again. “Go to her. The rest of us can handle the cleanup.”

  Zach didn’t argue. He needed to be with her, to hold her and tell her it was all over. Then that fresh start they talked about could begin.

  Thirty-three

  It wasn’t until a couple of hours later that Zach and Alex ended up at South Shore Hospital in Westchester where Barbara had been taken. Jon and Dana were the only ones in the waiting room on the floor. Jon sat with his legs stretched out in front of him, Dana had her head on Jon’s shoulder and they were holding hands. Both of them looked asleep or on the verge of it.

  Jon was the first to notice their approach. He sat up and pulled his legs under him. He turned to Dana and whispered something that made her rouse. By the time Zach and Alex reached them, Jon was on his feet. “What are you two doing here?” Jon asked. “I thought you’d be home sleeping it off by now.”

  “You heard what happened?” Zach asked.

  “There were a couple of officers in here before. I asked them to let me know what they heard on the radio.”

  Dana stood and wrapped her arm around Jon’s waist. “You must be glad it’s over,” she said to Alex.

  “Very.”

  He had his arm around Alex’s waist. He hugged her tighter to him, hearing a variety of emotions in that one softly spoken word. “How’s Barbara?”

  “She made it through the surgery fine. How that will affect her long-term prognosis no one knows yet.” Dana, like Joanna, was a registered nurse.

  “Can we see her?” That came from Alex. Dana told them what room to go to and gave them directions. As they walked, Alex added, “Did you see the size of the rock on Dana’s finger?”

  He had, and it hadn’t been there the last time all of them were together. Jon must have finally decided to bite the bullet and not wait any longer despite whatever turmoil there might be in the family. The thought of it brought a smile to Zach’s lips. “My baby brother must really be in love. I’m not trying to say Jon is cheap or anything, but he used to live in the South Bronx just to save on rent.”

  That wasn’t exactly the truth of it, but he appreciated the benefit his white lie brought him—the sound of Alex’s laughter.

  When they reached the room, Alex took a peek through the glass panel in the door and took a step back. “Maybe we should wait until tomorrow to see her.”

  Wondering what caused her to say that, he took a look through the glass himself. Adam was sitting in a chair beside the bed holding Barbara’s hand. Barbara was turned toward him. The body language of the moment spoke of an intimacy he didn’t want to disturb either.

  He glanced at Alex, who smiled back at him in a way he didn’t understand. “What?”

  “Barbara told me earlier that she wished Adam would stop worrying about who to blame and just appreciate the time they had left together. I think she got her wish.”

  Zach thought so, too. And something odd stirred in his chest, something he hadn’t felt in a long time: hope. He looked down at Alex. “Let’s go home.”

  Later, after a shower that was mostly rinsing the grime of the day from their bodies, they lay in bed together. After all that had happened, Zach figured he should be contented just having her there in his arms, whole, freshly clean, and relatively unscathed by Williams’s actions, but he wasn’t. Maybe it was seeing Adam with Barbara tonight that fueled in him the desire not to put anything off. But there was something he needed to know from her. He doubted, despite his exhaustion, if he’d get to sleep without it.

  He rubbed one hand up and down her arm. “How are you holding up?” he asked.

  She sighed and burrowed closer to him. “I was almost asleep, thank you very much.” He chuckled at her disgruntlement and she smacked him on the arm. “Please don’t tell me you want to rehash all this now.”

  No, he didn’t want to rehash anything; he just needed an answer. “What if I wanted to tell you I love you?”

  “I would have to tell you I knew that already and humbly request that you go to sleep before I do something terrible to you.”

  “You wouldn’t have something you wanted to say to me?”

  She leaned up using an elbow braced on his chest for leverage. “What do you think I’m doing here, Zach?” she said in a quiet voice. “Notwithstanding the fact that I have no home to go to, I’m not without resources. I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t want to be.”

  That’s not what he was talking about, and she knew it. “For how long?”

  “Damn it, Zach. What did you think I meant when I was talking about starting over? I meant us.”

  He knew that, but she still hadn’t answered the question nagging at him. “Do you love me, Alex?”

  “I’ve been in love with you since I was fifteen years old. And if you want to know how I know you love me, I could give you my standard shrink’s answer that I’m trained to know such things. The truth is, you’ve shown me in every way but with words. I trusted you meant them, even if you didn’t say them.”

  That was the crux of his problem right there. It had been a long time since he’d trusted in anything, and in an odd way, least of all himself. He thought back to what she’d said to him a long time ago about an optimist being nothing but a pessimist who thought he’d f
ound the way. Had he found his?

  All he had to do was look at her face to know the answer. If he hadn’t made so damn many mistakes in his life—with her, with Sherry, with his family—there wouldn’t be a question in his mind. But the truth of it was, no force existed in heaven or on earth that he would let stand between them again.

  He cupped her face in his palms. “Come here, baby,” he urged, wanting to draw her down for a kiss.

  She resisted. “About this baby business. I never gave my official okay on that.”

  There was laughter in her eyes and a teasing smile on her lips.

  He liked seeing her like that, carefree and playful. He wanted to see more of it, a lifetime’s worth. He winked at her. “Give yourself a little more time to think about it. In the meantime ...” He trailed off as he leaned up and took her mouth. She melted against him, as he hoped she would. In a short while, neither of them was thinking much of anything at all.

  About the Author

  Native New Yorker Deirdre Savoy spent her summers on the shores of Martha’s Vineyard, soaking up the sun and scribbling in her many notebooks. It was there that she first started writing romance as a teenager. The island proved to be the perfect setting for her first novel, SPELLBOUND, published by BET/Arabesque books in 1999. SPELLBOUND received rave reviews and earned her the distinction of being Romance in Color’s first Rising Star author and Best New Author of 1999. Deidre also won the first annual Emma award for Favorite New Author, presented at the 2001 Romance Slam Jam in Orlando, Florida.

  Since then, Deidre has published 11 books and two novellas, all of which have garnered critical acclaim and honors. Deirdre has been featured in a variety of publications, including Black Issues Book Review, Romantic Times, Affaire de Coeur, and Blackboard Bestsellers List. Many of her titles have been issued in hardcover by Black Expressions.

  Deidre is the president of Authors Supporting Authors Positively (ASAP) and the founder of the Writer’s Co-op writer’s group. She lectures on such topics as Getting Your Writing Career Started, Taking Your Writing to the Next Level, and other subjects related to the craft of writing. She is listed in the American and International Authors and Writer’s Who’s Who, as well as the Dictionary of International Biography.

  Deirdre lives in Bronx, New York with her husband of ten-plus years and their two children. In her spare time she enjoys reading, dancing, calligraphy and “wicked” crossword puzzles.

  Dear Readers,

  When I started writing Body of Lies, I didn’t intend to include any information on children being abducted by predators from the Internet. It was an element that grew out of the story, my own concern as a parent of teenage children, and a special I saw on TV about the subject. What shocked me was the number of predators that seemed to ooze out in response to the possibility of exploiting children.

  As a parent, I monitor as best I can what sites my children visit and who they maintain contact with on the Web. I also make sure my children know that meeting anyone in real life that they’ve met on the internet is a dangerous prospect, one they might not survive intact. I also try to let them know they are valued so that they don’t go seeking validation elsewhere. Most of all, I pray.

  For the parents out there, I hope I’ve given you a little bit of insight as to how these predators operate or at least a reminder to be vigilant.

  I’d love to hear from you. Please contact me at aboutdeesbooks@aol.com or write to me at:

  P.O. Box 233

  Baychester Station

  Bronx, NY 10469

  Also please join my list for readers: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ladiesinred. This is the place for discussion of my books, giveaways and much more. Hope to see you there.

  Wishing you all the best,

  Deirdre Savoy

  DAFINA BOOKS are published by

  Kensington Publishing Corp.

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  New York, NY 10022

  Copyright © 2006 by Deirdre Savoy

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the Publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.

  If you purchased this book without a cover, you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the Publisher and neither the Author nor the Publisher has received any payment for this “stripped book.”

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  ISBN: 978-0-7582-8808-0