Saving Grace

Prologue

This will be long, it takes place over the course of the three months that the last book skips.

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The Day of Briar's Death

Charlie's POV

"Mom!" I called down the hall of HQ. "We have to go to the hospital. I just got the call from Courtney!"

My mother, Marie Raymond, the supervising agent of the California branch of the Witness Protection Program, came rushing out of her office. I followed her out of the secret entrance in a downtown LA law firm and climbed into the drivers seat of my car.

Ever since I had overheard my mom talking about the Shay Singler case several months ago I had been begging her to let me quit college, which I hated, and intern at the Program. Finally, now that they had a use for me, I got my chance.

A couple weeks ago two men showed up at my dorm room and kidnapped me. At least I thought that they were. As it turns out my mom decided that I could help out after all.

I had been going through extensive background checks, questioning sessions, field tests, and written exams to see if I was CIA material. After I passed I had to go through strenuous briefing sessions about Shay's case.

Right when we got to the hospital Courtney came running out to brief us.

"She's going into surgery with our doctors now," she told us as we walked back inside. "They'll deliver the rest of the sedative and then she should be out in an hour or two."

"Am I the only one who feels weird talking about this?" I asked them.

"Of course not," Courtney said.

"So the bullet had enough of the sedative to do what exactly?" I asked my mom.

"It should make it seem like she's actually been shot. Obviously we don't want to actually kill her," she trailed off.

Courtney and I spun around and saw a group of eight people walking towards us. Courtney stood and walked over to hug each of them. Then she came over to introduce us. My mom stood up to hug who I'm assuming was Briar's boyfriend.

We sat there in silence until a nurse came in to bring Liam and Courtney back.

"How do you know Briar?" the blond guy asked. Niall I think his name was. I know that they're in some famous band, but I really don't pay attention to that sort of thing.

"We're old family friends," my mom answered for us.

"Courtney, Briar and I used to play together when we were younger," I told them, sticking to the story that we had been over countless times.

A few minutes later Courtney and Liam came back. Both of them looked genuinely depressed, but I knew that Courtney was just acting. The look on Liam's face, however, was enough to make me want to tell them that she was going to be okay.

"What's going on?" Perrie asked. I remembered her name because it made me think of Perry the Platypus.

"She's," Liam started but then his voice caught. "She's not going to make it."

Everything around us seemed to stop. Everyone of Briar'a loved ones deflated. Any shred of hope that they had for her survival was taken away in that one sentence.

"The doctor wants us to say our goodbyes," Courtney said, leading us all through the door and down to Briar's room.

My mom went in first, and then I went. Walking into the room I saw Shay in person for the first time.