“Figured as much. We’ll be ready when you get here,” Dante says.
I hang up the call and exhale a heavy breath.
Nova will be safe. She, Luca, and Nikki will be locked away in the panic room the minute Dante hangs up the phone.
There are protocols to follow. It doesn’t matter that it’s the middle of the night for Nova and Luca. They’ll be pulled out of their beds and taken into the panic room to sleep.
“Now what?” Paige asks. She glances in the side mirror as a set of headlights are creeping up on us from behind.
It’s not uncommon for others to be out on the road at this hour.
It’s summer.
There are plenty of tourists traveling up to Glacier. The national park isn’t that far from Breckenridge, and we get quite a few RVs driving through town.
But another glance in the rearview mirror, and it’s not an RV.
The headlights are lower and closer together.
It’s a car, but it’s too dark and far away to ascertain any more information.
I hit the gas harder, revving the engine and rolling out the gears as we hurry back toward the compound.
If it is Vance, he’s not coming without an entourage.
* * *
We hurry back through the main gate, and I usher Paige inside the house and up to the panic room. The entrance is hidden away in Dante and Nikki’s master bedroom, inside the closet.
I punch in the code, and the door slowly swings open. “Get inside.”
“Where’s Nova?” Paige asks. She spins around on her heel, staring up at me.
“She’s asleep in here,” Nikki’s soft voice answers from inside the panic room.
Does she honestly think I’d usher her inside and forget my daughter?
“What about you?” Paige hesitates. Her hand grips my arm, and I feel the slight tremble in her touch.
“I’ll be fine. Someone has to protect you girls and the kids.”
I lean down, stealing one more kiss in case the opportunity never comes again. I’m not sure whether Vance is on the way or not, but he didn’t show up in Spring Valley at a club Dante owns by accident.