It took the Foundation too long to send agents to Foxborough to help James and Gabriella. After a few seconds of stunned silence, Amelia had broken onto the line, saying she was getting the Foundation on the phone now. Her voice had been flat and stunned, but James heard her talking to someone a few minutes later, and that was when it sank in that they were done.

James technically handed over the case to them at that moment, giving them all the information and asking Amelia to contact Zach and let him know things were over. Part of him felt like he should be the one to call Zach, but the idea of doing anything but looking down at Janis’s body, which Gabriella had draped with a seven hundred dollar white dress, seemed impossible.

He left Jeremy’s body where it was, not wanting to disrupt the scene too much before the Foundation got here with the police. He wished there was a dignified way to cover Jeremy as well, but anything he might try to drape over the man’s body as he hung from the clothing rack would just look ridiculous.

They didn’t deserve to look ridiculous.

As they waited for the few people who were left in Boston to make their way down the highway to Foxborough, the two of them stood guard over the bodies. Gabriella watched the entrance while James stayed where he was. This wasn’t his first time dealing with death on the job. Not by a longshot. And he was pretty sure it wasn’t Gabriella’s either, even outside of their final encounter with Robin. But all he could think of was how much of a goddamn waste all of this was. So much death for nothing. The rich motherfuckers weren’t going to learn the lesson that these two desperate, rage-fueled nobodies had died to teach them.

And what the hell were the two of them doing here alone? They could have been killed and apparently, the Foundation had security details for days. Bradley’s comments about the Foundation cutting them further and further down echoed through James’s head as he stood over the blank-eyed corpses while Gabriella guarded the door.

Someone came and tugged on the locked door handle, a Christmas customer with a frazzled look on her face. Gabriella shook her head grimly, and the woman flipped her the finger before storming off. Gabriella turned to see James watching.

“Whatever,” she muttered.

Forty minutes later, the Foundation was on site, along with the local police. The two officers in charge of the scene looked scared in a way that was both satisfying and infuriating to James. He stood aside with the agent who was actually in charge and gave him all the details of what had happened.

“What a fucking waste,” the agent, a fifty-something man with a stout frame and a long beard, said, shaking his head as the bodies were wheeled out the front door.

“They made a deal with a conjurer,” James said. “I tried to keep her safe, I swear.”

“I know, man,” the agent said. “You did what you could, but you can’t save people from themselves. Now we need to find this Polly Grace character. I’m surprised the Foundation didn’t have this information already. Where did you say you heard about her?”

“A friend.”

The man waited for another second, then nodded knowingly. “Alright, alright, I can respect an anonymous source. You did good today, Captain. I’m sure McGovern’s going to want to talk to you when you get back to your headquarters, but I’m all set with you for now.”

James nodded his thanks, then got Gabriella and walked out of the store. It had already been dark when they arrived, and now he had no idea what time it was. Late. But the mall was still open, despite the fire trucks and ambulances parked haphazardly outside of Delinsky’s. The parking lot was crowded and people tossed curious looks at the door before walking along to the next entrance.

“Drop you at home?” James asked Gabriella.

“Are you going home after?”

“I wish,” he said. “I need to meet with McGovern first. But come on, I’ll bring you home. I know you’re on in the morning.”

She could argue that he was too, but she just nodded and followed him out across the lot. As they got into his car, a pickup truck stopped to let them out and claim his parking space.

“I don’t feel good about this one,” Gabriella said as they pulled onto the highway a few minutes later, after updating Madelyn on her cell phone.

“I know,” James said.

“Do you feel any better about it?”

“No.”

He didn’t even want to think about it. Absolute fucking waste, everywhere he looked in this case. He wanted to go back, have his meeting with McGovern, write the final report, and never think about it again.

“What about Polly Grace? She got away.”

“Obviously. It’s not like we had a net we could catch her in.”

James surprised himself with the harshness of his tone. Apparently, it was obvious to Gabriella as well, because she glanced at him in surprise. He shook his head.

“Sorry,” he said. “I shouldn’t talk to you like that. I didn’t mean–we’re not equipped to deal with her. Not right now. We need a whole lot more time to figure out what she’s capable of, and we need more than holy water and Latin. But we’ll figure it out.”

“Sure.”

They drove quietly the rest of the way back toward home. James got off the highway a few exits after he normally did and followed Gabriella’s instructions to her apartment.

“Nice place,” he said as they pulled up in front of a renovated boarding house with cheerful Christmas decorations on the front.

“Thanks,” she said. “I really like it so far.”

“You gonna be okay?”

She shrugged. “Of course. I’m going to go order Chinese food and take a hot shower. This is our job, right?”

“Right. Good night, Gabs.”

He waited until she was safely on the other side of the front door before he began driving back toward Leominster. Madelyn and Graham were expecting him back soon, so he got on the highway and went straight there rather than meander the back roads with his thoughts like he wanted to. Any other time, McGovern could wait for him. He had to do enough waiting on the Foundation’s behalf that maybe it was time they waited on him. But James wasn’t about to do that to his team.

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CONTINUE TO CHAPTER 25