“Pete is closer with Hinds than I realized,” he said.
“So?” I crossed my arms. “Is that good or bad for us?”
“Good. For now.”
I nodded slowly, but then Alex lowered his voice a little more. “It turns out Hinds is Kate’s godfather.”
My eyebrows shot up. “You’re kidding.”
“No.”
I stared across the room at her again, everything I’d thought I understood about this deal suddenly looking completely different.
“He’s agreed to come to Chicago,” Alex said, raking a hand through his hair. “We’ll need to be ready.”
My head snapped toward him. “When?”
“He’s flying in first thing. We’re all meeting back here tomorrow for a formal discussion.”
“That’s fast.”
“It means he’s serious.”
Or it means something else entirely.
A tight knot suddenly formed in my stomach. I couldn’t name what had caused it, but it settled there anyway. Something about this didn’t feel right. Like I was playing a game I didn’t know the rules of anymore.
At the thought, my attention drifted back to Kate. She hadn’t told us that her family was quite that close to Abram Hinds, but if he was her godfather, there was more history there than we’d realized.So why didn’t she say anything?
Early evening sun filtered through the dining room windows, catching in her hair as she turned toward Jane again. Copper and gold threads were wound through the red, which was glossy and fluid as it slipped over her shoulder when she laughed.
The sound drifted over to me, and it was so much warmer and more genuine than any other laugh I’d heard from her that it caught me off-guard. I’d truly never seen her like this, and although I would have given anything not to feel it, heat raced through me as I watched her.
Jane reached out to touch her arm and Kate’s grin widened, her head dropping back on another unguarded laugh. For some absurd fucking reason, the sight sparked the same irrational flare of jealousy I’d felt watching her joke with Will days ago.
My mind tangled instantly. Kate was standing there, radiant and infuriating, and somewhere in the background, Emma’s words from her last email echoed, gentle and steady. The distance between those two realities suddenly felt vast, Kate’s presence somehow making Emma feel even farther away.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Alex asked, very real confusion thickening his voice. “These last few days, you really haven’t been acting like yourself. You keep zoning out. Do I need to send a doctor over to give you a checkup?”
I tore my gaze loose and shook my head at him. “No. I’m fine. We’ve just got a lot going on, but I’ll be here tomorrow.”
“Good.”
I grabbed my coat from the back of my chair. Slipping it on, I headed toward the foyer. Halfway there, instinct pulled my attention over my shoulder one last time. Kate was already looking at me, not smiling now but watching from the door leading into the dining room.
For a split second, the noise of the house faded, the entire hallway narrowing to the space between us. Something flickered across her expression. I just couldn’t tell what it was.
I gave her a brief nod, the closest thing to acknowledgment I trusted myself with. Then I turned and walked out into the night, the unease in my chest following me all the way to the car.
CHAPTER 10
KATE
Mom was stirring her coffee like she was trying to drown something in it. She hadn’t looked up at me for at least the last five minutes, which meant something was going on with her.
“Are you planning to drink that or interrogate it?” I asked, spearing a strawberry from the plate between us.
She smiled, but it arrived late, almost like it had gotten lost somewhere between her brain and her face. “Iamdrinking it.”
