Kane barks out a laugh. “I’m not going to dignify that with an answer, little goddess. We would have let you in on the plan, but you’re not fluent in Ari’s language.”
“I know enough,” she snaps.
Kane gives her a pointed look, then grabs her around the back of the neck, and I watch his fingers fly through gentle presses—a novel of things he wants to tell her. The movement is too subtle for me to follow it with my eyes. Which was the whole point.
He waits a beat, then pulls his hand away. “Do you understand now? You’re not fluent, and we couldn’t say a word out loud.”
She has no choice but to accept this, but I know as well as anyone in this car she’s not going to be happy about it. The silence drags on the further Ari drives, and I can see Alice trying to figure out where we’re going, but that won’t be possible. Even I haven’t been out that way before.
My time with these boys has been one of mostly peace—of quietly building our system of revenge against Guido. Alice has only ever known this chaos, and I wish I could assure her that it gets better.
I just don’t know that she’d believe me.
“We’re not getting married,” she says flatly after a good fifteen minutes.
I startle, but Kane seems to have been expecting that question because he just lets out a slow breath. “Not today.” He reaches for her, and it says something that she leans into his touch instead of pulling away from it. “I wasn’t lying when I told you before that you deserve better than some sloppy courthouse shit, little goddess. You’re my fucking bride. You’re my queen.”
“Our queen,” I say, unable to help myself. I reach for her, lifting her hand to my lips to kiss her soft knuckles. “You think we’d let him get away with something like that?”
Alice sighs, like all the fight has been ripped from her, and she lays her free hand over her stomach. “I don’t know if I’ll be able to stay on my feet for some big, showy…thing.”
“We’ll take care of you,” I remind her, my lips moving against her skin. I kiss the inside of her wrist, then down her arm until she sags against me. I press more kisses to the tips of each finger, and then I curl my arm around her as she settles back and finally relaxes.
“None of us wanted to keep this from you,” Kane finally says, his rumbling voice filling the car. He’s watching me hold her with a look on his face that seems like wonder, but even after these years, sometimes he’s hard to read. He doesn’t look angry, though. Maybe grateful? “If we’d had more time, we could have found a way, but I’m not risking anyone getting hurt. Not again.”
As if on cue, my shoulder throbs from the bullet, and like I’ve been doing since I got hurt, I ignore it. “Now that we’re safe tospeak, we’ll be coming up with a plan of action,” I say, repeating Kane’s silent words to me earlier in the week. “You included.”
Alice murmurs something annoyed, but I can tell she’s slipping. Kane shifts a little closer and starts to stroke her hair, and as though it was a magic touch, I feel her body go limp as she succumbs to sleep.
“Are you worried about her?” I ask quietly.
Kane, not looking away from her, shakes his head. “All of her tests have come back normal. Pregnancy isn’t like the movies.”
“I don’t think any of us would actually know,” Phoenix says with a snort, and I can hear Ari’s huffing laugh.
“I think the adrenaline knocked her out,” Kane goes on. His gaze fixes on the horizon ahead. “We can take the evening to unwind, and I’ll need to clean up a few messes. Tomorrow, we can begin.”
I stare down at Alice’s face, finally peaceful as she sleeps, and for just this moment, I allow myself to hope that someday this will all end in our favor.
Chapter 10
PHOENIX
Not beingable to get on the grid is driving me crazy. It’s one of the few times I’ve truly felt blind, and while technology has been the bridge to my being able to live and work again, it also feels like a crutch. But my AI is linked to our home network, tapping into security feeds and satellites, which allows me to have a constant description of where I am and what’s in front of me.
I don’t have that now.
I’m thrust back to the dark ages, as I call them in my head. Those early days when I couldn’t walk more than ten feet without stumbling over something.
I’m forced to learn this space with my cane and shuffling steps and my hands. The memories of my old orientation and mobility lessons are rusty and stuffed with cobwebs and make me feel like my heart is going to beat out of my chest because I don’t know where I am.
I try my best to hide it, of course. I’m not ashamed of needing help, but looking vulnerable is still a big, bitter, chalky pill to swallow.
The others know better than to do anything unless I ask, and they know better than to gawk at me like I’m some circus animallearning a new trick. So while I make my way around the house and try to memorize everything as best I can, they disburse.
Ari makes his way into the kitchen because cooking calms him, and he can definitely use that today. James takes Alice into one of the bedrooms, and Kane slips outside with his burner so he can make all the necessary calls. From the low, easy tone I can hear just outside the front window, shit hasn’t hit the fan.
It will, but with any luck, we’ll have a plan in place when it does.