It wasn’t until they’d returned to Budapest that Walt had been able to take an X-ray of Jakob’s arm. Dimitri had delivered the portable machine from the conference room in headquarters to Nikolett’s home at Walt’s request. It had been the second time in as many days that Walt had made use of the portable X-ray machine. As he’d hoped, the bone in Jakob’s arm—like Annalise’s—was fine, no fractures or breaks.
Walt felt like he was running on fumes, waiting for the next catastrophe to strike. And given the way Annalise walked over to the couch like a zombie, dropping down heavily, he’d say she felt the same way.
“Fuck me,” Annalise muttered.
Jakob followed her, his arm, like hers, in a matching sling. He joined her on the couch, the two of them mirror images in damaged bodies and weary expressions.
If Walt weren’t so damn tired, he might have had enough energy to make a joke about the slings, but like them, he’d been ridden hard and put away wet. So he merely claimed the chair across from them, rubbing the palms of his hands into his scratchy, dry eyes.
Annalise broke the silence first. “It’s been a challenging few days.”
“So much crazy,” Jakob murmured. The three of them were still shaken after hearing about Ava’s mother’s death, and Walt was particularly disturbed by the fact Ava, the serial killer, was a trained orthopedic surgeon. He was struggling to understand how she’d been able to hide her psychosis all through medical school.
“Nikolett wants us back at her place tomorrow early. She’s asked me to continue leading the questioning,” Annalise said after a few quiet minutes.
Jakob sighed. “Are you okay going back in there? Talking to Ava? No one would blame you for stepping aside after everything that happened with Axel.”
She gave Jakob a soft smile. “I’m fine. Truly. It’s a bit like playing chess. I’m not used to being the primary investigator, so it’s a different way of approaching the suspect. A different style of questioning. It’s challenging.”
It wasn’t until that moment that Walt realized how much Annalise had changed over the course of the past week. When they’d first met in her office at the university, she’d seemed a bit like a caged puppy, one who’d been kicked a few times too many, and was torn between cowering or biting back.
None of that was apparent now as he was seeing the reemerging of Annalise and the forensic psychologist she’d been before Axel had come into her life and slowly, insidiously, ripped it to shreds.
No. Walt changed his mind. He’d bet his entire life savings this was a totally new Annalise. A woman who was much wiser and stronger after unspeakable mental abuse. She was just now coming out on the other side of hell, and he was blown away by the confident, intelligent woman sitting across from him. She rocked his world.
As did the man sitting next to her. Jakob hadn’t hesitated to race off to rescue a woman he’d never met yesterday. He’d risked his life to save Zasha. But that shouldn’t surprise Walt. Even after a short acquaintance, he’d come to know Jakob as the type of man who’d throw himself in front of the speeding bullet. Jakob faced down danger with nothing more than his courage and his strength and his need to protect.
They were incredible people, and Walt felt grateful to be sitting here with them. He’d had no idea when Eric had stumbled into his field hospital in Libya, covered in blood, that his life would be so irrevocably changed in such a short time.
He stared at them in silence for a few minutes, trying to push away the dark thoughts starting to close in on him. When that failed, Walt leaned his head against the back of the chair and closed his eyes, debating whether or not to ask the question that was on everyone’s mind, the big-ass elephant in the room.
The serial killer had been found and Annalise’s stalker was dead. Their reasons for being together were at an end, but the idea of returning to Libya to continue his work with Doctors Without Borders held very little appeal to Walt right now, something he’d never experienced before. With him, work had always come first.
Before he could speak his concerns, Jakob beat him to the punch. “What now?” There was no denying from his tone Jakob was afraid to hear the answer.
Just as there was no denying the thought of leaving these two, knowing they could never be together, killed Walt. He had never expected to feel a tighter bond between three people than the one he shared with his brothers. And while this bond was different, it was definitely just as powerful, as strong.
The clinical, practical part of him tried to explain away the closeness he felt. After all, they’d shared a life-or-death experience that—coupled with their obvious attraction—could have Walt seeing and feeling things that weren’t there.
But he discounted that instantly. He might be relatively inexperienced when it came to romantic love, but he knew enough to understand that this was it. The real deal.
Walt’s eyelids lifted as he captured Jakob’s gaze and decided he couldn’t leave them. Not yet. “I still have some time before I’m due back at my clinic. I could come back to Frankfurt with the two of you for a little while.”
Jakob considered that, and then turned to look at Annalise.
“I have some time before the semester starts. And perhaps I could also take additional time off,” she said. “In truth, I think it is time to do more than teach. I’d like to return to the Kripo.”
Jakob gave her a sad smile, sighing. “Damn. I was afraid you were going to say that.”
Annalise reached out and grasped his good hand with hers. “Your job is just as dangerous, you know. I lost ten years off my life yesterday when I saw that knife in your arm. We’ll have
