She knows. Before I’ve let myself know. She knows he’s not coming back unless I go get him.
The sun climbs. The Ozarks rise in front of us. I drive, and the family sleeps in the back, and my wolf holds what’s inside me like the last warm thing left in the world.
Chapter 25
Garrett
I wake before dawn to the sound of a vehicle leaving the compound. Dawes collecting the family from the bunkhouse and driving them to the rendezvous point.
I stand at the window of my room and watch the headlights move down the road. The family is inside that vehicle. Somewhere in there, the children. The parents holding them. Heading north, carrying the word of what happened here.
When the taillights disappear, I turn from the window and dress in working clothes. Boots. The wallet with the Forrester identification I’ll need to present. Nothing else. I leave the phone on the dresser.
Downstairs, Ellis is in the kitchen. Coffee in a chipped mug. He nods when I come in and pours a second cup without asking. I take it.
“You’re moving today.”
“Yes.”
“You serious about making Jessie alpha?”
I nod. “She’ll do fine. Whether I come back or not.”
He doesn’t respond to that. Drinks his coffee. I drink mine. For a minute, we stand in the kitchen like it’s just a regular morning.
“Where,” he says finally.
“I’m calling the contact this morning. Setting up a meeting. Wherever they want it.”
“And you walk in.”
“I walk in.”
“You want a crew nearby. Backup in case it goes bad.”
“No.”
“Garrett—”
“No, Ellis. No crew. No backup. Not a single Forrester wolf within fifty miles of wherever they tell me to go. If the Syndicate thinks we’re playing them, they’ll hit the compound anyway. The whole point is that I go alone and they see I’m alone and the deal holds.”
He doesn’t like it. He doesn’t argue. He knows when I’ve made a decision that I’m not unmaking.
“What do you need me to do?”
“Help Dawes. Keep Jessie supported. Don’t come after me.”
He nods once. Slow.
I finish my coffee, rinse the cup in the sink, and set it on the drying rack. Ellis watches me do it, the domestic habits of a morning that should be ordinary. He doesn’t say anything about the ordinary.
“Ellis.”
“Yes.”
“If I don’t come back, get word to Brenna Corvus. She’ll handle what needs handling from there.”
“Specific message?”