“She’ll need someone.”
Sana glared at her. “Don’t you dare talk that way. I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”
“You can’t save me because I’m already a dead woman walking, Sana. You’re having tea with a ghost.”
“As you did once.” She lifted her cup and toasted Gina. “You only say that because you can’t feel the hope. But that is only temporary. I speak from experience. You brought me hope, my dearest friend, when I could not find it for myself anymore. You reminded me that there was a time when I was free and happy, and promised it would be that way again. And then you delivered on that promise.”
‘Not just me,” Gina insisted, waving her off.
“Exactly. Not just you. It was you and Lachlan and his team. No one survives alone,Regina.”
“I’m not meant to survive.”
“So you have stubbornly decided.”
“I have people to protect. You had no one.”
Sana blinked slowly and deliberately, her entire expression sayingare you kidding me?
“What in heaven’s name are youafraid of, Regina?” She leaned back in her chair and shook her head with her mouth open. “Because you are the closest thing I know to a superhero like in the movies and nothing scares you.”
“You’re wrong. Plenty of things scare me. I’m just good at hiding it.”
“So what is it this time? You’ve spit in the eye of evil over and over and this time is no different, so that’s not it. I ask again—what are you really running from?”
Gina found herself blinking back sudden tears. “They’ll kill him and I can’t lose him,” she whispered. “Not again. It’ll destroy me.”
“Then don’t lose him. Stop running away from Lachlan.”
“I never told you it was?—”
“Please. It’s more obvious than the sun in the sky.”
Gina covered her face.
“Let yourself live.”
“I don’t know how.” She dropped her hands into her lap.
“You’ve only forgotten how. It will come back if you let love in. Life will follow.”
She finally nodded. “He’s in my dreams. Lach is after me anyway. I can feel him.”
“He is.” Sana smiled and popped a macaron into her mouth. After she smiled she added, “I called him.”
Gina nearly spit out her tea. “You.What?”
“I did. Took some doing but I found him. Poor man was wandering around Germany following a terrible lead.”
“I can’t believe you…” She shook her head.
“One of us had to have some common sense.” She stood up and set some bills on the table. “We have a little time still. The olives at that stall across the way look good.” Gina got up and followed her across the street, still in shock.
Sana pointed out the olives she wanted and the farmer grabbed a box. “Let’s get some bread and cheese to go with the olives, and have them for dinner in the flat when Lachlan gets here. I’ll bring up a bottle of Mont d’Or from the bomb shelter. It doubles as a perfect wine cellar. Many Swiss buildings have them.”
But Sana’s voice had faded into the background as Gina felt the hairs rise on the back of her neck. Someone was watching them.
She looked around for the guards, who she’d been keeping track of while they had their tea. They were nowhere in sight and Gina tried to remember when she’d last noted them. Had it been two minutes? Three at most?
