“Thank you,” she said quietly.“For telling me this.I’ll talk to Pierre about chartering a plane to Bangkok.”
Feirn bowed slightly, understanding in his eyes.
She pulled out her phone and scrolled to Pierre’s number.He didn’t pick up, but she left an urgent message for him to return her call.
She then texted Connor that she was coming to support him—and was startled to seeMessage undeliverablecome back.
Something must have happened to his phone.Hopefully he’d reach out soon.She’d try contacting him in the protected chat room they used online.
She had four days to save a man who’d once saved her.Four days to find her mother and close a chapter she’d thought was already written and ended.
As she turned away from the window, the harbor sparkled in the morning sun, peaceful and deceptive as the calm before a storm.
24
SOPHIE
Sophie stoodin her kitchen with a cup of coffee, watching her children eat breakfast the next morning.Momi carefully arranged her Cheerios into patterns on the table, while Sean wore more yogurt than he’d eaten, babbling happily to himself in a mixture of English and Thai that only Armita fully understood.
Feirn sat beside the toddler’s highchair, eating a bowl of oatmeal and chopped fruit mixed with protein powder with swift economy.Sophie wished she could make herself do the same; she needed fuel for the day ahead—but her stomach revolted at the thought.
“Mama, where you going?”Momi asked, her voice accusing.She had that perception some children seemed to possess.“You just got back from a trip.”
Sophie’s throat tightened.She’d rehearsed this moment during the sleepless night before, but the words were still hard to find.“Mama has to go help a friend.Just for a few days.”
Ginger, Sophie’s yellow lab, whined softly from her bed in the corner, sensing the tension.Anubis, Connor’s graceful and well-trained Doberman, hopped up from his dog bed to nose her thigh, as if sensing her distress.Then he paced, moving between the kitchen and the hallway leading to the front door as if already guarding the family in her absence.
Armita joined them, dressed in her usual plain black clothing and braiding her long hair.She’d been with them since Momi was born, had seen Sophie through Jake’s death, through the dark months that ended brighter with Sean’s birth.Her wise eyes took in the travel duffel in the hall, the way Sophie gazed at her children’s faces.“Don’t worry.I’ll take care of them,” Armita said in Thai.“You do what you must do.”
Sophie came over and hugged her, murmuring thanks into Armita’s ear.“I will count the hours until I’m back.”
Her phone buzzed with a signal that Pierre had arrived; he’d insisted on driving them to the airport where an unregistered private jet awaited.
It was time.Sophie hugged the children fiercely, breathing in Sean’s baby shampoo scent, feeling Momi’s small arms tight around her neck as she kissed her goodbye.“Mama loves you more than all the stars in the sky,” she whispered, as she said in their nightly bedtime ritual.
“And all the fish in the sea,” Momi whispered back, completing their call and response.
Sophie’s heart squeezed painfully as she touched her daughter’s nose and gave a watery smile.“See you very soon.Be good for Armita.”
Both dogs walked Sophie and Feirn out to the car.In the driveway, Pierre waited beside a black SUV, its engine running.
“This is a mistake,” Pierre said without preamble as she approached.“Whatever debt you think you owe Connor?—”
“You already said all you had to say last night.Do not strain our friendship with a repeat,” Sophie said.“And, for the record, it’s not about debt.At least, not entirely.”Sophie placed her bag in the trunk; Feirn did the same.“He would come for me.Has come for me.If the situation were reversed.”
“That was before.You have children, responsibilities ...”
“My mother is out there, Pierre.”She met his serious brown eyes; her own gaze was fierce.“And Connor could die.I won’t go into the compound, but I have to give him what support I can while trying to find Pim Wat.”
Pierre’s expression changed, softened; he pulled her into a quick embrace, surprising her.
Their bodies pressed close; she smelled sandalwood soap, and shut her eyes, feeling his breath on her neck, her ear.Sensing the longing coursing through him.She leaned into his arms, shocked by the answering desire he’d sparked, until he set her back and away abruptly.
“The plane is fueled and ready.I worked with a contact in Interpol to make sure your flight plan shows a charter to Los Angeles, then mechanical problems requiring an emergency landing in Bangkok.”He pressed a satellite phone into her hand.“For emergencies only.Your most important numbers are already programmed in, including mine.Be careful when you use it—the CIA has ears everywhere.”
“Thank you.”Her body buzzed; her lips tingled as if they’d kissed.
The ride to the airport passed in silence with Pierre at the wheel.At the private terminal, a Gulfstream G650 waited on the tarmac, its white hull gleaming, sleek wings tilted up at the ends like a bird in flight.Feirn exited the back passenger seat as Pierre unlocked the trunk remotely.
