Another long beat. “Leo says you’re off-grid. I don’t like it, cuz.”
“Since when have you liked anything I do?” I try for light, but it doesn’t quite land. “Call off the dogs and lock down the Vault. Keep Serena, Bella, and Alessia away from the streets. I’ll ping you when I land.”
A sigh escapes that I’m sure he doesn’t want me to hear. “Text me a tail number.”
“Done.” I end the call before he can change his mind. The car exhales into quiet, or maybe that’s me. The tires hum down the road, and Cat keeps her gaze forward.
“You know you don’t have to do this,” she finally murmurs.
“You know I do.” It costs me nothing to say because it’s the truest thing I have.
She nods once as if we just signed some formal agreement. “Donal will be at the airport. He thinks he’s the one flying me home.”
“Good,” I reply. “Let him come to us. We’ll take him out of play before we leave. I want him out of my city.”
Her gaze flicks to me. “How?”
“Simple, I put him to sleep.” I offer a smirk. “We strap him into a seat on the jet and dump him in Belfast.”
“He’ll wake up furious.”
“When he wakes… which could be a while. And when he does, he’ll wake on Irish soil,” I counter. “He’ll be far away from my family. And besides, furious is better than armed.”
Her jaw tightens, thinking it through. “Tiernan won’t like losing his favorite hound.”
“Then he’ll come for me himself, and I’ll be waiting.”
She stares at the road until rain returns in a soft sheet. The quiet lengthens. I can feel the question I’ve dragged like an anchor since Sicily try to climb up my throat.Our baby.I taste the shape of it and bite down until it bleeds.
Not now. Find her sister first.
“Monmouth. Almost there.” I point at the sign over the highway then slide us across two lanes and onto the exit. “It’s a smaller field, fewer eyes. We’ll clear the tarmac faster.”
She nods. “And Donal?”
“We text him from your phone that you’re coming in under an alias. Tell him to meet us at Hangar C. He’ll believe you over anyone.”
A humorless sound that almost used to be a laugh. “Or at least he used to.”
We solidify the plan for the next few minutes, and the calm settles in. We’ve hashed out the text she’ll send, the route around the perimeter road, and where I’ll park to keep the cameras pointed wrong. I call Leo on the burner to confirm he’s already onsite, and he grunts his assent. The man has saved my life since I was eleven. He’ll save it again tonight.
I can’t stop glancing at her hands. The way she flexes them when she’s readying herself for pain. The way her thumb grazes, just once, the hidden place beneath her collarbone. I look away before I let myself ask.
The road narrows and curls past a black field, then the chain-link perimeter rises out of the dark like a quiet warning. Blue runway lights bead into the distance. The smell of jet fuel floats on damp air.
Cat’s phone buzzes, but she doesn’t look at the screen. We pass a sign: Monmouth Executive Airport and then another: Authorized Vehicles Only. I flash a Gemini badge at a guard, and he waves us through with a yawn.
I cock my head to meet her eyes. “Last chance to change your mind.”
“Don’t insult me,” she bites back. And it all rushes back. There she is, the steel I fell in love with before I knew its cost.
We roll along the hangars, rain still dotting the windshield. At the far end, we pause beside a large one, and a service door clicks open to a yellow sliver of light. Leo’s silhouette. Past him, a sleek wing gleams under neon lamps like a promise I might be able to keep.
I kill the engine, and the world goes very quiet. “Text him.”
She types fast and presses send. Then she looks at me like the next breath is a battlefield. I reach for the door handlebefore I can ask about whatever it is that lies hidden beneath her breastbone. Her hand presses to it once again.
“Ready?” I ask.
