“Okay. Just … calm down.”
“No, I won’t fucking calm down. This is ... This is bullshit.” She slapped Frank’s handwritten note.
“Yes. You’re right. And believe me, I’m on your side.” I flicked my gaze across the dark country ahead of us and back to her.
“Really?” She turned to look at me. “You spent most of today making my job as hard as possible.”
“Yes, I did. And I’m sorry.” I glanced at her. “I’ll talk to my brothers and Cassidy when we land and tell them you need to know everything.”
She turned back to the window. Her reflection looked back at me from the dark glass. Her jaw was clamped hard, and her gaze was cast somewhere far away.
“Sapphire, please.” Goddamnit. I’m such an asshole.
She raised her hand from her thigh. “Just …” She released a long breath. “Just give me a minute.”
The rotors beat a steady pulse above us. Dark country rolled beneath us, and I let the silence do what it needed to do.
She pulled her phone from her pocket.
“Who are you calling?”
She looked at me like I was a criminal. I shut my mouth.
She pulled one ear cup off her headset and held the phone to her ear. “Nate, it’s Sapphire. Have you heard from Bob?”
A pause. She frowned. Then she clamped her lips together.
“I’m working a lead.” Another pause. “Can’t say yet. Has anything come in tonight? Any calls out?”
She shook her head at me. Nothing.
“Okay. Don’t do anything until I’m back. And, Nate, keep this between us.” She nodded. “Soon.”
She ended the call. “He doesn’t know about Bruce and Wayne,” she said before I could ask. “And it seems none of William’s neighbors rang the police about the shots I fired.”
“Or maybe they did, and Nate’s lying to you.”
She squinted at me, then turned her gaze back to her phone and dialed again.
I wanted to ask who she was calling, but didn’t.
“Bob?” She said.
What the hell?
“Bob. Are you there?” She held the phone harder against her ear. “Bob, I know what you’ve done.” Her voice was steady and strong. “You need to hand yourself in. We can work through this. I can help you, but you need to come in before this gets any worse.”
She picked up Frank’s handwritten note and shook her head.
“Whatever you’re planning now, Bob, don’t do it.” A long pause. Her jaw tightened.
She lowered the phone slowly and clipped her ear cup back into place.
“What did he say?” I asked.
“Nothing.” She shoved the phone into her pocket. “Absolutely nothing.”
The darkness outside the windshield pressed into the cockpit like something solid.