Silence settled again, thick but not entirely uncomfortable. It was sort of familiar. Like slipping into a memory that you weren’t quite ready to revisit.
A mile passed. Then another.
“Thank you for coming. I realize that you didn’t have to do this,” she said quietly.
He turned his head toward her. She could feel it without looking.
“Sure,” he said.
Her throat tightened. “Why did you agree to come with me? I know it wasn’t really because of the bachelor auction proxy winning bid.”
A beat went by. He said, “Because you asked.”
That hit harder than it should have.
Madelaine swallowed, focusing on the road stretching ahead in a long, straight line.
“I wasn’t sure you would say yes.”
“Didn’t think I’d still care?” he asked, not unkindly.
She shrugged to hide the flinch that question inspired. “I didn’t say that.”
“You didn’t have to.”
Another silence. This one sharper.
She needed to explain a little. Quell-don and the council wouldn’t like it, but she wanted to give him something.
“The thing is, the job I have now, well…it’s complicated.”
“That’s one word for disappearing and cutting off all communication,” he muttered.
Guilt stabbed through her.
“Honestly, I didn’t have a choice.”
Jack let out a short breath, something between a laugh and frustration. “You always had a choice, Madelaine.”
“No,” she said, more firmly than she intended. “Not this time.”
That shut him up.
For a moment.
“What is this thing?” he asked. “This errand?”
“I told you—”
“You told me nothing,” he cut in. “We’re driving sixteen hours to meet the Secret Keeper, maybe, if he even deigns to let us inside—which he might not, so be prepared for disappointment—and you won’t even tell me why.”
She almost smiled at that.
Almost.
“I can’t.”
“Can’t,” he repeated. “Or won’t?”
