I, Alex Cross

Chapter 113

SHAKEN AND EXHAUSTED, I got home around four thirty that morning, maybe the last of my vampire hours for a while. If Bree wasn't already up, I was going to wake her and tell her what had happened -

But she wasn't even there. Bree wasn't anywhere in the house.

I realized this as soon as I saw Aunt Tia's big knitting bag on the floor by the kitchen table. Tia had come to stay with the kids, and Saint Bree had gone to cover my overnight at the hospital. Of course she had. She wouldn't have wanted Nana to be alone any more than I did.

I almost got back in the car, but it made more sense to spell Bree first thing in the morning and let Tia go home then. We were stretched thin as it was.

So I went upstairs and lay on top of the covers, wide awake and buzzing with everything that had happened, not just tonight but in the past few weeks. The scope of it all was going to reverberate for months, even years, I was sure. We still didn't know how many others like Caroline there had been, and maybe never would. Nor did we know the extent of the cover-up for Zeus, or who had been doing the covering. Theodore Vance had been a successful and very rich businessman on his own. He'd had the resources to do whatever he wished or fantasized about. Apparently that's exactly what he had done.

Later in the day, I'd have to call my sister-in-law, Michelle. I'd also have to decide how much of her daughter's story I was going to tell her. Some of the details had no place in a mother's memory. Sometimes I wonder about the place they have in mine.

It hadn't been half an hour since I'd gotten home, if that, when the phone rang out in the hall.

I jumped up to catch it before a third ring. Considering the events of the past twenty-four hours, it might have been any number of people looking for me.

"Alex Cross," I answered in a whisper.

And just like that, life changed again.

"Alex, it's Zadie Mitchell calling from the hospital. How soon can you get over here?"

Chapter 114

I RAN.

I ran out to the car in the driveway.

I ran my siren all the way to St. Anthony's, and I ran up four flights of stairs to Nana's room.

When I came in, Bree was there with tears streaming down her face. And next to her, in the bed, with eyes like slits – but open – was Nana Mama.

Regina Hope Cross, the toughest person I've ever known in my life, wasn't done with us yet.

Her voice was just a crackle, static almost, but it nearly bowled me over. "What took you so long?" she said. "I'm back."

"Yes, you are." I was beaming when I knelt down to kiss her as gently as I could. She still had two IVs and the A-V line to her heart, but the vent and feeding tubes were off, and it was like seeing someone I hadn't laid eyes on for weeks and weeks.

"What did I miss?" she asked.

"Nothing much. Hardly a thing. The world stopped spi

"Very fu

Zadie and one of the cardiologists, Dr. Steig, were in the room monitoring Nana's condition. " Regina 's going to need what we call an LVAD," the doctor said. "A left ventricular assist device. It's the next best thing to a transplant, and it'll help get her home sooner rather than later." He put a hand on Nana's shoulder and spoke up a little. "Looking forward to anything in particular, Regina?"

She nodded groggily. "To not being dead yet," she said, and I laughed with everyone else.

Her eyes fluttered closed again.

"She'll be in and out for at least a few days," Steig said. "Nothing to worry about."

He took a few more minutes to go over the care plan with Bree and me, and then gave us some time alone in the room.

As we sat together by the bed, Bree told me she'd seen the overnight news. All the major cha

"So, is that really it?" Bree asked. "Is it over?"

"Yeah," I said, thinking more about Nana than about Teddy Vance. "As much as anything ever is. Zeus is dead. That much we know for sure."

Epilogue. PHOENIX RISING

Chapter 115

THE HOLIDAY SEASON flew by this year, and I'm not kidding. Damon came home for Christmas break, and by New Year's Eve, Nana was mobile enough to do a whole crown roast for the family, with a little help from her friends. It was a perfect way to say good-bye to the year, just the six of us – even if Ali and Nana didn't quite make it to midnight.

New Year's Day started quietly too. I listened to a few chapters of Ha Jin's A Free Life with Nana in her room, made brunch for the kids, and then asked Bree if she'd take a drive with me in the afternoon.

"A drive in the country would be perfect," she said. "Good idea. I'm in."

It was just below freezing out, but perfectly climate controlled inside the car. I put on some John Legend, pointed north, and watched the world sail by for an hour or so.

Bree didn't even notice where we were headed until I got off 270 in Maryland.

"Oh, goody."

"Oh, goody?"

"You heard me. Oh, goody. Goody, goody gumdrops. I love this place!"

Catoctin Mountain Park is something of a sentimental favorite for us. It was the first place Bree and I ever went away together, and we'd gone camping there a few times since, with the kids and just the two of us. It's beautiful year round – and closed on New Year's Day, as it turned out.

"No big deal, Alex," Bree said. "It's a beautiful drive here, anyway."

I pulled over at the big stone gate outside the main entrance and turned off the car's engine.

"Let's go for our walk. What are they going to do, arrest us?

Chapter 116

A FEW MINUTES later, Bree and I had the Cu

"Got any resolutions?" I asked her.

"Sure," she said. "Work too much, stop going to the gym, and eat until I'm fat. How about you?"

"I'm going to stop recycling."

"Good plan."

"Maybe spend a little less time with the kids."

"Definitely that. Great idea."

"And I want to see if I can't get the woman I love to marry me."

Bree stopped short – I would have hoped for no less. I took advantage of the moment and pulled the ring out of my pocket.

"It was Nana's," I said. "She'd like you to have it too."

"Oh, my God." Bree was smiling and shaking her head; I couldn't quite read the expression. "Alex, so much has just gone down in your life. Are you sure this is the right time for you?"

If this were some other woman, I might have thought it was code for letting me down easy. But this was Bree, and she doesn't do code.

"Bree, do you remember the night of my birthday?" I asked her.

"Sure," she said, a little confused. "When everything started. All the gunk. That's the night you first heard about Caroline."

"And up until that phone call from Davies, it was supposed to be the night I asked you to marry me. So if we can't have that back, I'd say right now is just about perfect. Will you marry me, Bree? I love you so much I can't stand it."

The wind kicked up, and she reached inside my coat to put her arms around me. Then we kissed for a long time. "I love you too," Bree whispered.

"Then yes, Alex," she finally said. "I do love you so much. Yes to you. Yes to your amazing family -"