I parked behind the stables. My car was recognizable, but I had to hope that no one on Seraphina’s payroll would care enough to comment on it. I had every intention of leaving before the first guy came to clean out the stalls in the morning.
I used to know the woods here well. There was a small window of time in my memory bank of being a child. A sliver, really. I ran through the trees, jumped over the creek, and caught crayfish with Seraphina. She was tiny then. She’d yell for me to let her catch up. It was more fun to let her chase me. To splash her. To hide in the woods from her. We did the things that kids do when no one is watching. We played like we didn’t carry burdens. We laughed like we were free. It was hard to believe we were kids once.
As I walked off the path near the equipment barn, a branch broke beneath my shoe. I stopped, waiting for the sound of another footstep. A sound that indicated someone was watching or following me, but it was quiet. I continued toward the cabin, carrying Kennedy’s dinner.
I stepped onto the porch, paused, and turned the key in the lock. Kennedy barreled into my arms and I almost dropped the bags of takeout I had brought her when I walked inside. She was warm and still smelled like the lotion she used after her shower. She wrapped herself around me.
“Hey.”
She squeezed me harder. “You came back.”
“Of course.” I leaned over to deposit dinner on the small table so I could wrap her in a full hug. “I wanted to be here sooner, but I had to pick up dinner at a restaurant not owned by the Castilles.”
She nodded against my chest. “We need to find him. He’s not like us. He’s barely a business
grad student.”
I held her at a short distance. “Where is this coming from?” There was a noticeable shift in her. I wondered what had happened in the two hours I was gone.
Her lashes fell over her eyes. “A stupid dream. But it felt real. And I don’t know that Crew can survive long. He doesn’t have survival skills. He’s not that part of my team. He doesn’t even carry a weapon. He’s not Kimble.”
“He has a reason to survive and that’s what will get him through it.” I tried to assure her.
“Seraphina?” she whispered.
“Yes. He wants to get back to her.” It was the crumb of hope I was clinging to, to buy us time.
“God, he has to. How was she at dinner? How did it go?” Kennedy was frantic with questions. I couldn’t blame her as long as she had been here with no way to use her phone.
“I’ll tell you all about it. How is your hand?” I asked, leading her to a chair in the kitchenette.
She shrugged. “The same.” I saw how she cradled it to her chest.
I started to unpack dinner from the paper bags. “I got nothing at the dinner.”
“Really?” She frowned. “Nothing at all? I don’t understand. They have to know something,” she insisted.
“The Castilles never flinched. There was nothing to play there.”
“How can you be so sure?”
I eyed her. “You know Louis and Margaret. I’m assuming you know them well. They have money. They have influence. They’ve never been master manipulators. They’re too focused on their grandchild. When’s the last time Louis took out a hit on someone?”
She pulled out a chair and sat. “Never. That I know of,” she answered.
“Exactly. It’s not his style. He’d rather hike up interest rates or accumulate properties to trade for debt. I don’t think he would have gone after you and Crew.”
“But Crew said…” she stopped. “What I mean is, what if this is about Seraphina? What if they discovered the affair? It’s all personal to them. That changes things. The humiliation after the kind of fuss they’ve made about the baby. I got a shower invitation delivered by someone who was holding a live stork. They have lost their damn minds.”
“It would change everything if they knew, but they don’t. I read that room tonight. They are living in ignorant bliss. So is their son. Right now, that’s a blessing for Seraphina. And for me. It means she’s safe tonight.”
Kennedy opened one of the white cardboard boxes. “I’m starving. I could eat all of this.”
“Good.” I smiled, watching her twist her fork in the pasta. She lifted it toward her lips. “Did you say a live stork?”
She giggled. It was the first time I’d heard her laugh since our morning meeting in the office. There was suddenly warmth and light in the cabin. For a second, I thought everything was going to be okay and we weren’t at the epicenter of a dark and sinister world.
11