Chapter 3

Catherine climbed the hill next to Vincent up to the knoll where Cameryn Teague's body lay hidden and buried. It was nothing more than a windblown hillside, now, where little evidence remained that there'd ever been a grave there at all. They both held a small spray of flowers.

"Was Tess able to confirm anything?" he asked, speaking of Michael Reynolds.

Catherine nodded. "She verified both the flight and the passenger list. It was definitely his plane. The pieces of wreckage still have to be pulled from the water, but they honed in on the flight deck recorder and it's at the bottom of the sea. There is a search party still combing the area, but it isn't an easy area to search. They found no survivors. Vincent, do you think he's really gone?"

Vincent looked off into the distance and shrugged. Could fate be so cruel to have taken the only remaining parent she had? Was a rogue Muirfield agent responsible? Or, and this was probably the most logical scenario, could Michael Reynolds have put the slip on all of them? He'd seen stranger things. "You think he faked the whole thing?"

"Maybe. To make it easier for me."

He pursed his lips. He couldn't know. "You know, there are still bad people out there." And if there was— "And I'm still here." And now there would be no reason for him to leave.

She leaned into his strength. "I have no grave to go to for him."

The him, Vincent understood, being Reynolds. Nor would she ever, most likely.

They would never know, and perhaps that was best. That was a question for another time. He swung his arm around Catherine and they moved to the spot where Cameryn and her father lay.

"Do you think we could move her sometime, both of them?" Catherine asked. At least they were together.

He nodded. "Possibly." Further down the road. When he was sure it was safe. "She saved me. Again. Post-mortem. JT said without the infusion of her blood, the adrenalin wouldn't have worked."

"And for that I'll be forever grateful to her." She looked down at the rock that marked the grave and placed the flowers there. "You may be gone," she whispered to the earth, "but I swear, as long as I live, you'll never be forgotten."

"No, neither of us will ever forget," Vincent agreed, "because 'death shall have no dominion."

*End*