“Yeah,” she said.“Casey turned the almost-locked-down into a movie party.Popcorn, blankets, the whole thing.They know something’s up.Kids always do.But they’re not scared.Curious, yeah.Riley asked me if the ‘mean man’ was gone yet.”
“What did you say?”I asked.
She exhaled.“I told her some bad men were trying to mess with our family.That the grown-ups were handling it.That she and the other kids didn’t have to worry about anything but not spilling orange soda on Marci’s couch.”
“She believe you?”I asked.
“Yeah,” she said.“I think she believes it more than I do.”
I slid my arm around her shoulders and pulled her against my side.She came willingly, head fitting under my chin like it had always been meant to be there.
“We’re handling it,” I said.“One piece at a time.Roth, then Diaz.We’ll take him apart with the same methodical cruelty he used on everyone else, and we’ll do it without turning into him while we work.”
She snorted.“Listen to you.War speeches before breakfast.”
“Pancakes count as breakfast,” I said.“I’m covered.”
We sat there, watching the yard.Prospects moved fences.Someone tuned an engine in the garage.A dog I didn’t recognize trotted along the perimeter, nose to the ground, following some invisible trail.Life, again.
“Spade’s going to have a field day with those names.”She grinned.“He looked high yesterday when he showed me the map.”
“That’s how you know he’s in his happy place.”
“You think this is all going to work?”she asked.“The maps.The routes.The calculated hits.You think you can cut Diaz down without him burning the world on his way out?”
I nodded.“I think we have a better shot now than we did last week.We know where he’s vulnerable.And I think he doesn’t know yet how hard we’re willing to hit when we finally swing.”
Jade considered my words, her brow furrowing.“What if we miss some?What if you cut off his legs, but he grows new ones somewhere else?What if he escapes and someone worse fills the void?”
“We’ll handle the problem when the time comes,” I said.“The nature of war never changes.Another bastard always waits in the wings.Our goal isn’t to fix everything forever.We need to make our home safer for everyone beneath our roof.You.The kids.The town.One circle at a time.”
She pressed against my side.“You make everything sound doable.”
“Nothing about this will be easy,” I said.“The explanation merely sounds better.”
A genuine laugh escaped her lips.
She tipped her head back to look at me.“You really want me in this for the long haul?Even with the nightmares.The rage.The fact that I’m probably going to flinch every time the doorbell rings for the next ten years.”
“Yeah,” I said.“I haven’t run away from all that so far.I want you in this for as long as you’ll stay.”
“You’re sure you won’t look at me one day and see nothing but baggage?”she asked.
“Pretty sure,” I said.“You’re the one who rolled up here with a trunk full of problems and made me fall in love with you anyway.That’s a trick.I’m hanging on.”
Her eyes went shiny.“Say it again,” she whispered.
“I’m hanging on,” I said.
She leaned closer.“Before that,” she whispered.
“I love you,” I told her.
Jade inhaled sharply as though hearing the words for the first time, despite how often I’d repeated them to her.
“And I want you wearing my patch,” I added.“When all this chaos settles enough for us to catch our breath and get the stitching done.”
Her fingers found the edge of my cut, gripping tight.
