Merry Christmas, Alex Cross

CHAPTER 12

“Excuse me, gentlemen. I’ll be right back,” I said as I broke away from the group, and Bree entered the shelter.

“Hey,” I said, going to her. “What’s wrong?”

She drew back her hood.

“Wrong?” Bree asked in a whisper. “When I left the house, Nana was crying her eyes out, sure that you were going to die on Christmas Eve.”

My stomach churned. “Look, I’m fine. You can see for yourself. I’ll call her.”

“She’s gone to bed.”

“Which is where you should also be.”

“Do you think I could possibly sleep, Alex?”

I sighed. “Bree, you of all people know how this works.”

“I know how it works for you,” she said. “I can say no to the job but you can’t, Alex. That’s not good for you or your family. Especially at Christmas.”

“Sometimes you can’t say no, even if it is Christmas,” I said. “Sometimes you have a lunatic meth head who decides that the holiday is a perfect time for him to take his ex-wife, their three kids, and her new husband hostage.”

Bree hugged herself, looked away, and said, “You have a family who all feel like other families in a crisis come first for you.”

“That’s not fair, Bree.”

“Maybe not,” she said, looking back at me. “But I thought it was important that you know that your children think that.”

My head felt heavy. So did my chest. I said, “I am sad beyond words to hear that, Bree. And there is nothing I want more at this moment than to go home right now and then get up in the morning tomorrow and unwrap presents. But I honestly don’t know how I’d live with myself if I did that and then heard that this guy murdered his entire family when I might have been able to prevent it.”

Bree gazed at me; she reached up and touched my cheek with her chilled fingers. “You’ve got to do what you’ve got to do. I just want you to remember that there are consequences to everything.”

I nodded, wondering if our relationship was starting to suffer the consequences of me being me. “I love you,” I said. “And I have to go back to work so I have a chance of being with my family on Christmas morning.”

My wife’s eyes were filled with a mixture of understanding and resignation. She touched my cheek again. Then she turned away and left the shelter. I went out into the storm and called after her, “Be careful driving.”

She called back over her shoulder, “I’ll pray for you, Alex. It’s all I can do.”