“And you’re happy?” I ask.
“Yeah-huh.”
“Give me a second, sweetie.” I mute the mic, then turn to Rhett. “She wants to stay at Marshall’s until tomorrow.”
“Might be worth seeing if Marshall will take her for a couple of days,” Rhett muses. “It will make tomorrow easier if we know she’s safe and sound. Plus, we don’t have to risk returning and having Lucian follow us.”
“And you trust him?” I say. “Nothing bad will happen to her?”
“I swear, Elle. Right now, Marshall’s house is the safest place she could be.”
I let out a breath, then unmute the mic. “You can stay.”
“Yay!” Mira yells. “She said I could stay.”
In the background, I hear the boys yelling happily.
“Call me if you need anything,” I tell her. “Anything, Mira. And please put Marshall on the phone.”
A moment later, Marshall says, “Hello?”
“Have you got a spare room for Mira?” I ask.
“Yep. She’s going to have the guest room.”
“I can’t believe you got her to talk,” I say. “For a year, she’s been almost non-verbal. Then Rhett and now you…”
“She’s a good kid,” Marshall says. “When she started speaking again, it was so funny, so cute. She raised her eyebrows like she was shocked by the words coming out of her mouth. We’re happy to do this.”
“And you can…” I lick my lips. “Keep her safe?”
“I swear on my life. I’ll die before I let anything happen to her.”
I breathe shakily. “Okay, then. And thank you for this. Can you put her back on?”
“Sissy!” Mira yells.
“I love you,” I tell her. “And remember?—”
“Call foranything,” she cuts in. “Even pizza, right?”
“Especially pizza,” I say, laughing.
“Okay. I love you.”
She hangs up, but not before saying I love you. I stare down at the phone for a few moments, shaking my head.
“She’s a special kid,” Rhett says, reading me.
“After everything… She’s amazing, Rhett. I couldn’t have imagined her being like this before you came back into our lives. It’s like you changed something in her, flipped a switch.”
“She told me I brought the old Mira back somehow,” Rhett murmurs. “Not sure how, but hell, I’m not complaining. That kid deserves every good break she gets.”
“Thank you.” I squeeze his arm. “For everything.”
When we reach the cabin, he walks around to my side of the car and offers me his hand. “What now?” I ask as we walk into the house together.
“We prepare,” he replies. “We go back to your place and get it ready for the meeting. We’ll need to make sure we’ve got all the angles covered, and he can’t pull anything. Then we’ll grab him, take him somewhere remote, and…”
