My phone vibrates in my pocket. I check the message. The investigator has sent the coordinates. I forward them to the men we have in Boston and dispatch a team to Detroit with instructions to detain my targets. Then I call the pilot and tell him to get the plane ready.
Ulysses returns with Noah as I exit the bedroom after taking a few seconds to pack a change of clothes. Alarm widens Noah’s eyes as he looks at the overnight suitcase in my hand.
I walk over, put the suitcase down, and crouch to put us on eye level. “I have to go away for a couple of days.”
His voice is thin. “Where are you going?”
“I have to take care of business, but I’ll be back.”
He sticks his thumb in his mouth, watching me without complaining or tears but with the sad, disturbing acceptance of someone who’s used to unpleasant situations. He’s not even five, and he’s already learned to deal with disappointment. I’ve done some pretty gruesome deeds in my life, and none of those acts have shaken me. Not even a bit. But that look on his face? It fucking breaks my heart.
“Come here.” I pull him closer. “I won’t be gone long. I have to travel from time to time. It comes with the job. Understand?”
I don’t think he does, but he nods.
“Noah.” I pause, searching for the right words. “I’ll always come back to you. Got that?”
He nods again.
Taking his hand, I pull his thumb from his mouth. “You’re the man while I’m gone. Take care of your mom, buddy.”
I smooth a hand over his head and press a kiss on the top.
He simply watches me as I walk through the door, not even asking if I’ll be back in time to let him watch television during the weekend.
The forlorn look on his face nearly kills me. The only motivation that drives my feet forward is getting information that will enable me to keep my son and his mother safe and avenging the wrongs those fuckers inflicted on Tatiana.
Chapter
Eleven
Tatiana
* * *
My mother bends over me, smiling through her tears. The cold air from the AC blows wisps of blond hair around her angelic features. The crow’s feet on the outer corners of her blue eyes don’t deter from her beauty. If anything, her softly lined face gives her a more vulnerable and delicate look.
Mom?
She pushes the silver chain with the cross in my palm and wraps my fingers around it, cupping my hand in both of hers as she kisses my forehead.
Her melodic voice carries over the steady beeps that fill the room. “You’ll find everything you need there.”
My lips are too dry to speak. They’re stuck together. My eyelids are drooping even as I try to cling to her, but when she releases my hand, it falls like a dead weight on my chest, the silver chain buried beneath it.
No, Mom. Wait.
The overhead light forms a bright white halo around her head. Her face moves out of focus when she straightens.
I want to reach for her, but I’m paralyzed.
Mom!
Trying harder, I push sounds through my raw throat until a whisper forms on my cracked lips. “Don’t go.”
Her smile turns sadder. Her voice reaches me from somewhere farther off. “I love you, Tiana.”
“Mom.”