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Chapter Fifteen

“ W e’ve got a hit!” Kira shouted.

The four half-sisters of Lexi Stoltz and their husbands had gathered at Nick and Toni’s sprawling Victorian.

The women wanted to stick together until they found their missing sister, and the men didn’t like being away from their women.

Toni’s place was the biggest, next to Cait and Dylan’s mansion, but that was in Maine, so the upstate New York Victorian it was.

Toni’s young sheepdog, Ralph, was delighted by all the company, and had personally slobbered each and every one of them with love.

They’d all been working the case in one way or another, trying to find Lexi and her abductor.

Or rescuer. Or whatever former FBI agent Connor “Molotov” Romano was.

So it had been busy, and the energy was tense and worried.

But in all of that, there’d been beautiful moments.

Laughter. Tears. Secrets shared. Trust built.

Everyone gathered around Kira, who was stationed at the kitchen island with her laptop. “They took a flight to Dulles, used their own names.”

“What does that mean?” Cait asked. She had the prettiest blue eyes, Kira thought. She hoped Cait’s baby had eyes like those. Her niece. Yeah, she was gonna be an auntie this summer. Imagine that. Being Auntie Kira, alongside her sisters, Aunt Toni, Aunt Joey, and if all went well, Aunt Lexi, too.

Toni said, “It might mean they think it’s over. That they’re safe.”

Kira’s husband and fellow DEA agent Michael was looking at his phone. “Stryker is in the D.C. office, but says he doesn’t know anything more than we do. He hasn’t heard from Romano in months.”

“We have to go down there,” Joey said. “I don’t mean we ought to, I mean we have to. Lexi needs us.”

She wasn’t just giving her opinion. She knew something. Kira had left her doubt about the existence of ESP in the dust since spending time with Joey.

“Let’s go then,” Kira said.

“Caitlin, you should stay here.” Toni probably didn’t realize she was holding her arm out, kind of crossing it in front of Cait when she said it.

“I’m coming. I won’t do anything to put the baby in danger, but I …” She looked at the others. “I want to be with you guys … when we find her. I want us to be together.”

“Yeah. I get that.” Kira looked at the women.

Delicate Caity, so obviously from a different world than the rest of them.

Born rich, still rich. Like stupid rich, not just well off like Kira’s own family.

Cait was trying hard to be just one of the girls.

But she had the kind of class that showed right through her strategically ripped jeans and button-down boyfriend shirt.

Her architect husband Dylan went cow-eyed every time he looked at her.

Joey was funny and smart, and that thing she had made her feel like the oddball of the bunch.

It was cool, though how everyone accepted her.

Besides, it wasn’t that weird. She was intuitive.

Okay, she was way beyond intuitive. And it was a little weird, but she was so much more.

She rode a motorcycle everywhere she went from May to November.

Her husband Ash was a hotshot journalist who’d been a lot of help chasing down leads and sniffing out clues.

Toni was the most like her, Kira thought.

And the least. Her kick ass-ness had come from necessity.

She had street in her. She’d had to get tough early.

Kira wouldn’t have wanted to tangle with Toni.

Yeah, she was a famous writer. She could walk with the elite.

But she wasn’t part of them. She was a lioness, walking with the zebras.

She knew it, and more importantly, the zebras knew it.

Her husband Nick was a cop, and he was almost as hot as Kira’s own husband.

Toni, clearly thought he was even hotter.

Her sisters, Kira thought. A little while ago, she’d been the most isolated person on the planet. The most alone. She hadn’t even had herself.

Now … well … now, just look at this family she’d found.

“We’ll all go,” Kira said softly. “We can look out for each other, especially our mom-to-be.”

“I’ll have to find someone to stay with Ralph,” Toni said. “But that won’t be hard. He has a dog-sitter waiting list.”

Connor and Lexi were in a hotel room in Washington D.C. It wasn’t where he’d wanted to bring her. Everything in him, every cell in his body was urging him to take her home.

Home, since the explosion that had taken his family, was a houseboat, bobbing serenely off a tiny island in St. Lawrence County, on the New York/Canada border. It was an easy place to isolate himself. But he found he didn’t want to be alone anymore. He wanted to be with Lexi.

Hell, that idea had been taking shape in his mind for hours now. He wanted to take her into his home, into his life … and he wanted to ask her to stay. He wanted to tell her that he wasn’t sure he could ever be a whole human being again, but being near her made it feel possible.

Maybe it wouldn’t be fair to ask her to stick around.

He didn’t think he’d be able to get past the loss of his little boys.

Not ever. There was a huge part of him that had died with Justin and Jackson.

He didn’t think he’d ever get that part of him back.

But there was another part of him, a vital part, that was beginning to heal, and he knew that was because of Lexi.

Selfishly, he wanted that healing to go on.

He wanted to keep her close. He wanted to try … God, he wanted to try to love her.

Sometime during their flight, he’d seen the possibility of a future for him; a future that included Lexi. It hovered in the distance like a glimmering beacon of light at the end of a black, lifeless tunnel.

That glimpse of light, of hope, had only lasted for a short time. It was shattered when he answered his phone and heard Darren Wade’s three clipped words. “White is here.”

His grip on the receiver tightened painfully. His gaze followed Lexi as she sat in front of a mirror and ran a brush through her long hair.

“Did you hear what I said, Romano? He’s here, in Washington. He must have followed you.”

“I hear you, Darren.” Romano’s voice was strained. He tried clearing his throat while his ideas about trying to make a future for himself and Lexi dissolved like sugar in hot coffee.

“You still have the formula? It’s safe and in your possession?”

"I have it.” He’d texted his boss as soon as they’d got off the plane to let him know he was back, but no details had been discussed. He’d been waiting for and expecting this call.

“What about the Doctors Stoltz?” Darren went on. “We need to take them into custody, and it?—”

“No.” At the force he put into the single word, Lexi turned from the mirror to stare at him, searching his face. He shifted in his chair but couldn’t break the hold of her gaze. “Elliot Stoltz is dead," he explained, more calmly. “And his daughter had no knowledge of his crimes.”

“No investigation. I want it clear, right now, Darren. No charges against Lexi Stoltz. Give me your word, as a friend, or I won’t bother bringing in the damned formula at all.”

“We shouldn’t bring it anyway,” Lexi said, loud enough so Darren could hear her too. “We should destroy it.”

“Romano, we need the formula in order to create the antidote. We don’t know who else might already have it.”

“If anyone else had it, White wouldn’t be wasting his time chasing me. Anyone else would be an easier target.”

“We can’t be sure of that.” Darren swallowed hard, then took a long, slow breath. “All right, okay. You say the daughter’s innocent, she’s innocent.”

“She is.”

Lexi laid her brush on the dresser and stood up.

She came to him while Darren was still speaking, and the sight of her slow approach made him lose his hearing for a moment.

Darren’s voice faded to nothingness as she ran one palm over the side of his face and mouthed the words “thank you,” her eyes brimming.

He closed his eyes at the emotions her touch evoked. And even then, couldn’t stop himself from turning until his lips touched her palm.

Her smile was tremulous, maybe uncertain. She mouthed the word “Shower,” and then went into the bathroom and closed the door.

“—if she’s that important to you, you’re not going to want her at risk,” Darren was saying. “I want her in custody.”

Connor shook himself. “Risk of what?”

“Try listening this time, Romano, this is vital. White is here. He obviously knows you still have the formula. He’ll try to get to you before you have the chance to turn it in.

And that means tonight. We need to take some precautions.

If we don’t, you and the Stoltz woman might both end up dead, and that formula in the worst possible hands. ”

It was true. If White was in D.C., then he must be planning another attempt. And he’d kill them outright this time. He wouldn’t risk being bested again.

“I can bring it in right now,” Connor suggested.

“White knows enough to have the building staked out. He might try to take you before you get inside. But it shouldn’t be hard for me to slip out of here unnoticed. You can turn over the formula, and then you and the woman come in with me. We stick you in a safehouse with armed guards?—”

“Protective custody.” Connor grimaced at the thought.

“Just until we manage to let White know it’s too late. We’ll try to pick him up before he skips the country again, but this way, even if he gets past us, he’ll still have no reason to bother you or the Stoltz woman again. She’ll be safe.”

“You know what I’m gonna say. You, of all people, Darren, know exactly what my answer is. You know me better than anyone alive.” Darren started to speak, but Connor went on. “I’m not coming in.”

“Romano—”

“It’s not up for debate, Darren. Come to me tonight, and make damn sure you’re not followed. I’ll give you the formula, and you can take Lexi to a safehouse. Guard her with your life. She means something to me.”