One last kiss, and I shoulder my duffel, heading for security. But something pulls me back—a prickle on my neck, like eyes on me. I glance over my shoulder, scanning the crowd.
And freeze.
Mom.
She's standing there, twenty feet away, looking older than I remember—silver streaking her dark hair, lines etched deeper around her eyes. But it's her. No doubt. The woman who raised seven rowdy Hawthorne boys after Dad vanished. She hasn't traveled in years, not since the funeral-that-wasn't. What the hell is she doing here?
"Mom?" The word comes out rough, disbelieving. I drop my bag, striding toward her. Indigo's eyes widen behind me.
Mom steps forward, her gaze steady but shadowed with something I can't place. Worry? Fear? "Mack. We need to talk. Now."
My gut twists. "How did you know I was here? What's wrong?"
She glances around, lowering her voice. "I heard from Nash. The mission. Chasing after your father..." She swallows hard, her hand clutching her purse like a lifeline. "Don't go. Don't chase him. Please."
I stare, the world tilting. "What? Mom, we've got leads. Proof he's alive. After all these years?—"
Her eyes fill with tears, but her voice is steel. "He's not worth it. Trust me, Mack. Let him stay dead."
The announcement for my flight crackles overhead. Indigo's hand slips into mine, squeezing. But Mom's words hang like a bomb, unexploded. Why? What's she hiding?
I board the plane in a daze, her plea echoing. Hours later, I touch down in the dusty airstrip where my brothers wait—Nash at the wheel of a beat-up Jeep, Crewe scanning perimeters, Sin leaning against the hood with that wild grin, Banks tapping on a laptop, Jace and Colt unloading gear.
"About time," Sin calls, clapping my back. "Ready to hunt ghosts?"
I force a nod, but my voice is tight. "Mom showed up at the airport."
The group stills. Nash's eyes narrow. "What'd she say?"
"Not to go. To let Dad stay dead."
Silence. Then Sin straightens, his grin fading into something darker. "Why?"
"I don't know." But as we pile into the vehicles, heading into the unknown, her words gnaw at me. What secret has she been keeping all these years?
And what the hell are we walking into?
