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The overcast sky muddled the details of the profiles moving past the windows to the backdoor. As he neared, the floatplane’s single engine sounded its departure and gravel crunched behind him.

He slowed his pace. “Tony, who’s here?”

Jogging to catch up, she adjusted a large tote on her shoulder. “Nathan.”

Though Jay had told her not to come, he wasn’t surprised she did and was even less surprised she’d want her lover there, too. Neither he nor Tony had seen Nathan in two weeks.

The backdoor swung open, and Nathan ran out, tugged her bag to the ground, and pulled her to his chest in an adoring kiss.

A storm of hunger and loneliness twisted brutally inside Jay. No way would he be able to share the house with the two of them. He swallowed thickly and forced his feet to move.

“Jay.” Nathan joined his side, his tone hushed with pity. “I’m sorry. That was…insensitive. Listen. We need to talk.” He put a hand on Jay’s arm, staring at it as if the world might come crashing down.

There wouldn’t be any detonations. The triggers were gone, and Jay was already standing on ground zero. “Can this wait, Nathan? It’s been a long trip.”

“No. It’s—”

The drone of a familiar two-stroke engine rumbled in the distance, growing rapidly louder, closer.

Jay set down his bag and guitar and moved to the side of the house in the direction of the sputtering. “Who’s on my dirt bike?”

The caretaker was in the house, so it wasn’t him. Jay glanced over his shoulder and caught Nathan’s thinned lips before they relaxed. Tony’s eyebrows pinched together, her eyes narrowed on Nathan.

What the hell was going on? The croak of the engine labored under whoever was racing it through the forest. The two-stroke was his most reliable bike. He’d had it shipped the twenty-two hundred miles from L.A. the night Roy swallowed the bullet. Three long days ago. “Who’s here, Nathan?”

Theput-put-putof the exhaust popped over the hill, snapping Jay’s head toward it. The orange fender flashed through the woods on the zigzag trail. The rider swung the bike right to left, narrowly missing trees and shrubs, the foliage giving glimpses of a small frame, blue jeans, red hair…Red hair…Oh God, Oh god…Red hair.

He stopped breathing. A stinging sensation numbed his skin. He clutched his chest, strained his eyes, and realized he was lurching along the path through trees, sprinting toward the bike.

The rider rocketed around the bend ahead, the wind whipping the tangle of red hair behind huge blue eyes. She skidded to a stop, sliding the bike sideways along the trail.

“Oh my God. What the fuck is this?” His lungs burned with his whisper, and his tongue felt heavy, numbly expressing his confusion. “Are you real?”

She let the bike fall as she scrambled off it and launched at his chest. He stumbled back, breathless, dazed, arms around her too-thin waist, and tripped over a branch. His back hit the ground, her body draped over him.

Then her lips fell upon his, moving desperately, urgently, wet and salty with tears. She scattered kisses across his face, his cheeks frozen in shock. “I didn’t expect you until tonight.” She kissed the corners of his mouth, his chin, his nose. “I’m so sorry, Jay. I’m sorry. I missed you so much.”

He traced the smatter of freckles on her cheekbone, the satiny skin warm with life. “I don’t understand. How is this real?” He slid his hand through the hair draping her face and watched it fall through his splayed fingers, mesmerized.

She sat upright, straddling him, her jeans hanging from her bony hips. “Let’s go inside.” Climbing to her feet, she bent over the bike.

“Leave it.” He missed her weight instantly, slight as it was, and desperately needed it pressing against him to validate his sanity.

As they walked back to the cabin, he intertwined their fingers, staring at her, unable to look away for fear she would disappear. “You haven’t answered me.”

A smile lifted the edges of her mouth. “Colson didn’t know about the custom hatch in the bus?”

He tripped over something beneath his feet, his eyes locked on hers. “No one knew.” It was a hiding place for his gun, and no one outside of the security team carried one. “You hid in the storage compartment?”

“I escaped through it with a gas mask, thermal imaging goggles, and a fire extinguisher.” She held up her arms, his hand still laced with hers. “Didn’t even get a burn.” She smiled, lowered her arms. “Though I wouldn’t have minded matching scars.” She brushed her ear where the bullet had grazed her. Then she reached for the backdoor and held it open. “I worried if Colson knew about the hatch, Roy would figure it out.”

He followed her inside, the tingling in his body residing, though he was far from lucid. “The remains…they removed a body.”

“Wasn’t the first time I framed her death.” Nathan stepped out of the kitchen and walked through the living room, approaching Jay slowly with his hands in his pockets. “Borrowing a charred cadaver was one of the easier tasks, especially since it didn’t need to be placed at the crime scene. Its existence was for you and Roy only. Though I may never be able to repay all favors I owe from this little venture.” He shrugged.

Jay’s emotions rocked from confusion to elation, landing in a blood-boiling rage. His teeth snapped together, and his muscles quaked. “You knew? You fucking knew all this time?”

She slipped between them and held up her hands. “Jay, calm down. This was my idea. It was the only way to end it.”