The Power Couple - Alex Berenson Page 0,140
her up and threw her over the side.
She rolled through the air, landed hard, stung her shoulder and head against the water. The water was warmer than she expected, none of the shock of diving into the Atlantic. She found her bearings, lifted her head, took a breath. Had a moment to wonder whether he would run for the helm, speed off—but no—
He jumped down. Grabbed her shoulders. Pushed her under.
So he planned to finish the job himself.
* * *
She closed her eyes against the blackness. The water churning over her, clammy, enveloping, pushing at her from every side like it wanted to take her in. Which, of course, it did. Brian’s hands helping, heavy and firm, squeezing her shoulders. Pushing her down.
She let him. She didn’t fight. She didn’t panic. All those years as an FBI agent had drained the panic out of her. She’d been working on her swimming too. Every day. As soon as Brian brought up the trip. She knew just how much time she had. Ninety seconds at least, if she didn’t thrash around. Probably two minutes.
Everything had brought her here.
Now she knew who he was. What he was.
Now she knew.
She knew, and she could act. He was stronger, he was bigger, but she had one great edge, the one that beat all the others.
She reached down. The bandage had already come off. She’d used tape that wasn’t waterproof.
Underneath, her leg was unburned.
And a single spring-loaded syringe was taped tightly to her thigh, halfway down.
The trickiest part. But she’d practiced this too. Practiced in the dark. Practiced wearing goggles and weights. She wished she could have practiced with someone attacking her, but that would have raised too many questions.
Two hands now. No mistakes. She’d decided not to wear two syringes, she was worried about hiding two. Which meant she had one chance. If she dropped it, if it slipped from her hands into the deep, she’d die. She could already feel the pressure building in her lungs.
She peeled off the tape with her left hand, took the syringe in her right. Made sure she had a firm grip.
The syringe was medium-gauge, surgical grade, spring-loaded.
Inside, five milliliters of 50 mg/ml epinephrine solution. Two hundred fifty milligrams of epinephrine.
She could feel his legs brushing her ribs. He was hardly moving. He might be wondering why she wasn’t fighting. Maybe he thought she was too stunned to struggle, that she was saving her breath hoping to last as long as he could.
She’d never know. No matter. As long as he didn’t start thrashing himself.
He was pushing straight down on her shoulders. So her arms were free, a full range of motion forward and back. Measure twice, cut once. She made sure she could feel his leg.
She jabbed her arm up, putting the needle into the meat of his left thigh. Felt the spring release.
Felt the syringe surge into him.
Epinephrine is adrenaline. A typical adult dose, an EpiPen dose, runs one-third of a milligram. A lethal dose is eight milligrams. This shot was thirty times that.
Brian’s heart attack started moments after the needle delivered the dose.
His grip on her shoulders tightened so powerfully that she bit her lip not to scream. His fingers tore at her collarbones. Then his hands came loose and he thrashed, kicking wild and helpless, catching her in the ribs, the back. She swam now, swam toward the boat, away from him. The water no longer her enemy.
She surfaced. Opened her eyes. Watched him as he moaned, grabbed at himself. Tried to swim but his motions were rough and disconnected and she knew he had only a few seconds before he sank. His eyes wild and feral. Opened his mouth, to speak maybe. But water sloshed in. The water took him.
Until he disappeared beneath it. The end he’d meant for her.
Epilogue
Till death do us part…
I watched him die, yes. My husband. Watched Brian become him become it. And felt nothing at all. I plotted his death just as he’d plotted mine.
We had that much in common.
I swam around the Chris-Craft. Climbed aboard. Stood at the prow. I could still taste his seed in my mouth. Our last connection. After a minute his corpse bobbed up in the dark water. It frightened me, and then it didn’t. I watched the currents take him.
In a minute or two, or ten, I would have to make the distress call. My husband fell overboard, I think he had a heart attack, he’s not moving anymore, he’s floating away. I tried to get him back in the boat but I’m not strong enough.
But still I waited. Alone.
Truly alone, I saw, for this secret I could never share with anyone, not even Kira, especially not Kira.
The night air on me, the smell of the ocean in my hair.
And I wished I could stand there forever.
FIN
Acknowledgments
I have the rare chance to thank editors from two publishing houses in this note. Though Putnam didn’t publish The Power Couple, Mark Tavani and others there offered wise feedback on an early outline. But the pros at Simon & Schuster, Jon Karp and Sean Manning, not only did the same but turned that outline into reality. Jon has given me the chance to write both fiction and non; Sean deftly kept me coloring inside the lines. I am deeply grateful to both. Dominick Montalto is the copyeditor every writer should have.
Thanks to Deneen Howell and Robert Barnett at Williams & Connolly for their dealmaking and their great advice; to CAA for taking me back; and to Neil Nyren, who read the first draft (quickly, as always!) and offered his approval.
Finally, thanks to Dr. Jacqueline Berenson, who’s taught me more than I could have imagined about love, marriage, and family.
More from the Author
Tell Your Children
About the Author
© CRAIG GELLER
ALEX BERENSON is a former New York Times reporter and award-winning novelist. He attended Yale University and joined the Times in 1999, where he covered everything from the drug industry to Hurricane Katrina and served as a correspondent in Iraq. In 2007, The Faithful Spy, his debut novel, won the Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for Best First Novel. He has since written twelve more novels and a nonfiction book, Tell Your Children. Currently, he lives in the Hudson Valley with his wife and children.
ALEXBERENSON.COM
@AlexBerenson @AlexBerensonAuthor
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ALSO BY ALEX BERENSON
Nonfiction
The Number
Lost in Kandahar
The Prince of Beers
Tell Your Children
Fiction
JOHN WELLS SERIES
The Faithful Spy
The Ghost War
The Silent Man
The Midnight House
The Secret Soldier
The Shadow Patrol
The Night Ranger
The Counterfeit Agent
Twelve Days
The Wolves
The Prisoner
The Deceivers
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2021 by Alex Berenson
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First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition February 2021
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Interior design by Kyle Kabel
Jacket design by David Litman
Jacket artwork: Woman by Ezequiel Nicolas Gimenez Appelhans/Eyeem/Getty Images; Man by Lightfield Studios/Shutterstock
Spine photograph by Kickers/Getty Images
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Berenson, Alex, author.
Title: The power couple : a novel / Alex Berenson.
Description: First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition. | New York : Simon & Schuster, 2021. |
Identifiers: LCCN 2020018866 (print) | LCCN 2020018867 (ebook) | ISBN 9781982103699 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781982103705 (paperback) | ISBN 9781982103712 (ebook)
Subjects: GSAFD: Romantic suspense fiction.
Classification: LCC PS3602.E75146 P69 2021 (print) | LCC PS3602.E75146 (ebook) | DDC 813/.6--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020018866
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020018867
ISBN 978-1-9821-0369-9
ISBN 978-1-9821-0371-2 (ebook)