I hate seeing her look like someone else.This isn’t how I’ll remember her, I vow. I’ll remember her with her back arched as she screamed my name. I’ll remember her sound asleep in my bed. I’ll remember her laughing and drinking bourbon on my couch. I’ll remember her with an angle grinder in her hands.
No matter what, I’ll remember her.
“No. Yes. I don’t know.” Her voice shakes, and I hate the uncertainty in it. She pulls off the sunglasses and turns to me. “Are you sure there’s no other way?”
I shake my head. “This is how it has to be.”
She inhales a shaky breath. “Then I guess it doesn’t matter whether I’m ready or not, because it’s happening.”
“I’ll get the door.” I open the back of the Maybach. This is the car that V usually drives Keira in, and while I’m not quite as big as Mount’s mountain of a lieutenant, I’ve chosen a boxier suit and used my skills of disguise to come as close as I can to his look. It’s not my first rodeo.
Temperance slides into the back but latches a hand around my wrist before I can close it. “Please find me. Promise me you’ll find me.”
I can’t lie to her. “If there’s a way, I’ll find it.”
She nods. It may not be what she wants to hear, but it’s all I can offer.
I close the car door and move to the driver’s side, catching my reflection the mirror.
It’s showtime.
42
Temperance
I’ve never thought about how it must be for those people who have to go into witness protection with no notice. Having to leave your entire life behind with no planning is both terribly difficult and incredibly easy.
I wasn’t allowed to call anyone. To tell anyone. To pack hardly anything. One small suitcase, and that’s it. But when you’re leaving your heart behind, what do clothes matter?
I exhale on a long breath and watch as we pull out of the warehouse for the last time.
No beanie. That’s how I know this is for real. Kane doesn’t care if I know where the warehouse is because I’m not coming back.
I’m never coming back.
My chest freezes and my stomach tumbles its millionth somersault of the day.
Temperance Ransom, life as you know it is over.
At other times in my life, I would have been thrilled to have someone say that to me. Now, I’m devastated. I’m just starting to figure out who I really am. What I really want.Who I really want.
And now it’s all being snatched away because my brother did something stupid.
At least we’re all going to be safe.I remind myself that it’s the only thing that really matters. None of us are going to end up tortured or dead.
I can live with anything ... if we just get to live.
I lift my gaze and find Kane watching me in the rearview.
“You okay?” he asks.
“Don’t ask me that.”
His jaw tenses and he rephrases. “You holding it together?”
“Barely.”
“You can do this. All you have to do is take one step at a time. I’ll be right next to you.”