Page 135 of The Dangerous Dance

The car is quiet.

He is very still for a moment — the specific stillness of someone receiving something they've been waiting for and are now making sure they have it correctly.

"I know," he says. Then: "Say it again."

"I love you," I say.

His arm tightens fractionally around my shoulders.

"I know," he says again. And then, quieter, in the specific register that isn't for the car or the driver or anything else: "I love you too. I've been in love with you since a warehouse floor in November and I've been calling it something else and I'm done calling it something else."

"Security concern," I say.

"Terrible security concern," he says. "The worst I've ever had."

I almost laugh.

We ride through the city.

The evening bag with the tracker is on my lap.

The gala is behind us.

The week is ahead.

I close my eyes.

I'm out.

CHAPTER 35

Liam

The call comes on a Saturday morning at half past eight.

Conor. Which means it's already past the point where someone else could have handled it.

"Mackenzie and Ailish," he says. "They were together at the farmers market in Carroll Gardens. A team came for Nadia — she wasn't there, she'd gone to the early studio session, they must have missed the schedule change." A pause. "Mackenzie and Ailish were in the way."

The room goes cold.

"How bad," I say.

"Ailish has a concussion and a broken arm. She's conscious, stable, furious." He pauses. "Mackenzie has a significant shoulder laceration. She fought back. One of Viktor's men is going to be feeling that for a while."

My twenty-two-year-old sister fought back against Viktor's men.

"Nadia," I say.

"They went to the studio when they realized she wasn't at the market. Petya locked herself in the back. By the time we got there⁠—"

"Gone," I say.

"Yes."

I am already moving.

Declan is in the hospital corridor when I arrive. He has been there long enough to have developed a relationship with the standing. He looks at me and puts his hand on my shoulder and says, "They're both going to be fine." Not reassurance. A fact he has confirmed personally.