Naomi slings an arm around me and squeezes. "Oh dear. Oh my." She rests her cheek on my shoulder. "We aren'tfriends. We’re…"
"Sisters," Anjalee says.
"Comrades-in-arms," Annika says.
"Every time the men go out on another mission to save one of the others, or one of us, or whatever, we're how we get through it. We're a little band of soldiers’ wives." This is Terra, with her thick Boston twang and her bright scarlet hair. "We're family."
"I don't have that either," I say.
"Neither do most of us," answers Annika. "This is found, family."
Sophia doesn't say or do anything, but somehow, all the women turn to her as if they know she's about to speak. It's weird and impressive. "Brys, listen to me. I know exactly howyou feel. I held myself apart from them for a long time because of it. I didn't think I knew how to interact with them, didn't think they'd want to. One of the nicknames my father's men gave me was 'La Reina de Hielo.' Do you speak any Spanish?" I shake my head. "It means the Ice Queen. I was also known as La Víbora—The Viper. That should tell you what kind of a person I was."
"TheViper?" I echo. "Really, that's…honestly, that's pretty fucking badass."
She just shrugs. "You just have to let us in. Let us know you."
"And really, you don't have a choice," Terra says. "You're stuck with us."
"Isn't that just endearing?" I deadpan.
Tatiana speaks for the first time. "I was so concerned as you were when Nico introduced me to the others. And I suppose you may understand, hmm? I saw them laughing, and how close they are. I had friends back in Croatia. But I was Stjepan Juric's daughter. The friendships were…it was hard to know if they were genuine, no? Do they like me for me or because my father is who he is? How do you know? I thought these ladies would not like me or think I talk stupidly, because of my accent. Or—oh, I had many fears. But now we are family."
I nod, absorbing, and then glance at the men. They're all clustered in the back around a tablet—plans, maps, who knows. Men stuff, I suppose. "And them? You're family with the other men?"
“Oh yes," Tatiana says. "I trust all of them with my life. Truly. If any one of them asked me to…Oh, I do not know. Jump off a building, let us say. I would."
I boggle at this. "No questions asked. Just…jump?"
She nods immediately. "Yes."
"How? How do you trust them like that? The men who aren't Nico, I mean."
"Nico trusts them.” She shrugs, as if that says it all. “They have saved each other’s lives many times. They are closer than brothers, as only men who have combatted together can be. But I have been out there with them." She waves at the wall, meaning the world at large. "I have seen them fight. I have fought with them. If they asked me to jump off a building, I know they would not do so without a reason and without a plan."
"Youfought?" I ask.
She nods. "The man you encountered, Pugli. He and Sophia's ex-husband sent a small army of their soldiers to kill and kidnap us. We fought them off."
Damn.
These people have been through someshit.
"I…" It's hard to find the right thing to say. "I can try. I want to. I want to be a part of…" I look around at the jet, the people in it. "All of this."
"Good news," Terra says. "You already are."
Oh.
But…I have a life in New York.
My god, New York. I just vanished. The board, Charles, Celia, my assistant, and Dorothy, my secretary. Lonnie the door guy at my condo.
I just vanished.
I think about New York, then. My life there, my career. My condo. The Met. Brunches with the Uptown set.
And I find myself wondering if I really want to go back to all that. I watch Jakob, still conferring with Nicolae; he winces now and then, touching his wound and tentatively stretching it.
