“We found Sal.”
At first, the words don’t compute. Then his brother’s urgent voice is saying, “Did you hear me, Luke? We found Sal.”
Found Sal?
Luke squeezes his eyes shut at the memory. The plane crash. Sal reaching over, reaching for his hand, her mouth moving around his name, and then she screamed.
Gone.
She was gone in a blink of an eye.
Then Luke’s brain pulls itself together. He understands what Seth means. His worst fear finally realized. All these months later, they pulled her out of the ocean. Jace and Seth—they’re here to identify the body.
Warm nausea comes in waves. “Christ, no,” Luke moans, thrashing his head, wanting it to be a dream.
Jace says something in an inaudible voice to Seth.
“Not like that,” Seth says as if suddenly understanding Luke’s train of thought. “Not how you’re thinkin’, Luke.” Seth gives him a shake, his voice fierce and steady. “Sal—she’s alive.”
A low curse comes from Mort, standing near the vending machines.
Luke snaps to attention. His hands curl to fists. “That ain’t fuckin’ funny.”
“It ain’t a joke,” Jace’s quiet voice breaks in. He stares at him with sad, sympathetic eyes. “He’s tellin’ you the truth.”
Luke struggles to pull away, to take a swing, to rage, to do anything but listen to his brother’s next words, but Seth only holds him tighter. To make him understand.
“Listen to me, goddamnit. You know how I feel about Sal. Would I lie about this? Would I hurt you like this?”
The answer’s obvious. No way. No fucking way.
His brother has a catch in his voice Luke knows all too well. The same tearful tone he used the night he called Luke to tell him that Sal had been in a car accident and had lost the baby.
It’s serious. It’s real.
Luke’s heart pumps like a kick drum. So loud he can hear it in his ears. Disbelief, hope surge upward to fistfight for the win. He doesn’t know what to believe. He wants to believe it all, but hope’s a dangerous wish. For months, his world had been ended.
And now—now he just got the jumpstart of his life.
“I’ve seen her. I’ve talked to her.” Seth’s deep voice jolts him back to the present. “It’s her, Luke. Livin’ and breathin’. It’s Sal.”
Sal.
Her name hits him like a bullet.
Luke goes down.
The world blurring black at its edges, Luke hits his knees, doubles over and reaches for his heart.
“Whoa ...” Steady hands grab onto Luke, surrounding him, stilling him.
“Easy,” Jace says as he and Seth haul Luke into a chair.
Luke sits with his head in his hands for a long moment. He closes his eyes as he struggles to get a handle on his emotions. Finally, when his breathing’s evened out and his heart pumps steady, he raises his face. He meets Seth’s eyes with determined ones of his own. “I want to see my wife. Now.”