“There’s going dark, then there’s disappearing off the face of the Earth. You’ve been distant for months.” Clark spit the words out, and they carried no small amount of concern layered with hurt. “Then you take off with Uranium and leave no word of your destination. You left everything, including your tracker.”
“You knew that might be part of the deal. He had to think he turned me, and if we were stealing away somewhere, why would we take our trackers with us?”
Clark sighed and shook his head. “You two better come up.” He made it one step before he turned and pointed a finger at Sam. “If you eventhinkabout sticking another knife in my back, I’ll have you shot where you stand.”
“Fair enough.” Sam had no quarrel with her brother. Not yet, anyway. “Just a note, though? Keep talking to your sister that way, and you’ll be picking your teeth up off the ground.”
“Sam,” Addison reprimanded him. She turned on her brother. “Stop. I mean it, Clark. Just stop.”
She followed it up by closing the distance between her and her brother to embrace him. It was a tentative display, one they both acted out so awkwardly, it was almost painful to watch. Sam turned his gaze away, allowing them a moment of privacy. From the corner of his eye, however, he watched Clark’s arms tighten as did Addison’s. They exchanged a few quiet words, then Clark reared back and stared at her.
“Are you nuts?”
“Manners.” She shook her head. “Sometimes, I wonder how we were raised in the same household.”
“I must’ve gotten all the brains, while you were learning all the manners.”
Sam gave him a moment to self-correct, because if he didn’t soften that particular statement, he was going to take offense.
Addison waved it off with dismissal. “Enough. I already explained why Sam did what he did. He tried to save your life. I’ve hated him long enough, and I’m with him now. I will finish this with you. We will make sure it is done, and I have not ever, nor will I ever abandon you, but please don’t make me choose.”
A certainty thrummed through Samuel, a certainty he couldn’t deny. For the first time—ever—he’d edged out her brother in her loyalties.
“Go on, give us a moment.”
She hesitated, looking from her brother to Sam, then back again. Her concern wasn’t for his reaction, but her brother’s. Sam promised to make peace, and he would. Clark gave her no such assurances.
“I’ll be inside.”
“We’ll be along directly,” Sam assured her.
The moment they were alone, Clark eyed him. “Give me one good reason not to shoot you.”
“It would make her sad.” It was the only reason he needed to do nothing.
Glaring, the other man swore. “If you ever hurt her—”
“I’d shoot myself first.”
“Good.” They shared a long look, until finally Clark nodded. “You better come up then. She wants you read in.”
Sam didn’t smile. “One more thing before we go?”
“What?” He really didn’t sound in the mood.
“Don’t talk to her that way again, am I clear?” He didn’t need to specify, her brother and him understood each other. Liking was a long way off, but Addison was their bridge.
“Does she know?” Her brother raised his eyebrows, his expression challenging.
“She knows everything.”
“Bollocks.”
What was he getting at? “Your point?”
Lifting his phone, Clark read, “The next Ian Fleming is…”
“Shut it.” He scowled. Apparently, her brother had done his homework. Good for him.