‘Why?’
‘Because I got you...’She cuts herself off sharply, anger icing over into control so fast it almost looks painful.Blaire always seems furious with herself for feeling things at all, let alone showing them.Staring hard at the wall ahead, she says, quieter now, ‘You’re already far too involved with them.The more people you love, the less your own wellbeing matters to you, I fear.’
He doesn’t know what to say to that.
Silence bubbles between them.
After several tense beats, he says, ‘I can’t do this without you.’
Blaire closes her eyes.‘I know.’
‘I never wanted to upset you.’
‘It’s fine.You need to prepare.We’ll talk when you get back.’
?
Vasily gets to stay behind.
‘Take care of Mimi.’Lachlan gives Vasily’s shoulder a light squeeze.‘We’ll be back in four days.’
‘Of course I will,’ Vasily says with a small smile.The kid gets more colour in his cheeks every day he spends here, becoming at ease with himself.‘Tell Roman I said hi.’
‘You got it.’
Mimi is with Blaire in herTower.
Lachlan knows better than to say goodbye, it’ll be too hard for them both.He’s wearing the leaf necklace under his shirt, nestled under rig wires.
He’s briefed Carrigan.
He’s given Danya one of two satellite phones.
He’s leaving the Estate and not only for a few hours.
Jules goes with his father in the helicopter, rotor blades turning lazily overhead while Lachlan performs the final exterior checks around the aircraft.Hands over seams and panels, eyes scanning hydraulics, landing gear, fuel lines.He doesn’t climb aboard until he’s satisfied everything is exactly as it should be.It feels strange to buckle up.
Lachlan hasn’t been inside a helicopter for years and this one hardly resembles the last.Soft leather seating, polished cabin gleaming in the early morning sunlight beneath the slow rotation of the blades overhead.
Jules sits opposite beside his father.
The helicopter is a short forty-five-minute journey that takes them to Penhalyx’s private airfield where a jet waits on the runway.Lachlan refuses champagne on the flight and goes over the security packet again, still unhappy with what he’s been given.Just as the bodyguards of guests at the Estate were informed only as necessary, now Lachlan finds himself in the same role.
Jules sits with his father once more, the pair quietly talking.
Lachlan can’t hear what it’s about, but it’s only a short flight besides.
They land after three hours at an even smaller airfield on an island that isn’t Sable Key, but is, in fact, astaging island.The layered security makes sense to Lachlan, who instantly approves of this deliberately unremarkable transit point for handling arrivals before access to the real island is granted.
A conversation with the harbourmaster reveals that a crew boat brings the Sable Key staff here from the mainland whenever the island is occupied.
So far, it’s not too bad.
Lachlan’s focus is drawn naturally back to Jules as they await transport to the island directly.Every time Lachlan looks at Jules, he seems absolutely mesmerised by the dazzling marine-blue water, likely desperate to touch it, but Alistair keeps Jules close with his entourage for now.From the staging island, they take a private launch across dazzling marine-blue waters.
Barely five minutes into the crossing, Sable Key rises into view all at once.
Bottle green treetops and a sugar-white shoreline.
