Page 234 of The Rules

She took a steadying breath and turned away from both men. Her fingers moved with surprising steadiness as she pulled out her phone and dialed.

One ring.

Two.

"Kath?" Bianca answered quickly, voice tight and sharp.

"Is everything okay?"

"No." Katherine didn't flinch. Her voice was steady. Cool. "There's a problem. Lisa was followed."

The words hit the air like a slap.

"That means this isn't just about me anymore," she continued, already moving across the room. "You and Lisa need to leave. Now."

A heavy pause.

No gasp. No questions.

Just silence.

Then—Bianca's voice, lower, but firmer: "Where are we going?"

That one response was enough to make Katherine's throat tighten.

No panic. No fight. Justtrust.

She exhaled. "A man is coming for you. He's a friend.

Lisa will already be in the car by the time you're picked up."

She paused, then added, sharp and clear, "Pack light. Essentials only. He'll give you new phones. Leave yours behind."

Bianca didn't argue.

"How long?" Bianca asked, her voice stripped of emotion, practical to the core.

Katherine swallowed, the reality of what she was asking settling heavy in her chest. Sending her family away—hiding them—felt like failure. Like surrender. But she knew better.

This wasn't surrender. This was strategy.

"As long as it takes," she said, the words coming out stronger than she felt.

Another pause stretched between them, filled with all the things they'd never needed to say out loud. The understandingthat had always existed between them—mother and daughter forged in the same fire of necessity.

Then—Bianca's voice softened. "The car's here. I see Lisa already in the back seat. We'll call you when we land."

Katherine closed her eyes for half a second. A tiny moment of stillness in the storm raging around her. One breath where she allowed herself to feel the weight of it all.

"Tomorrow night," she whispered. "No sooner."

The line went dead. She lowered the phone slowly, letting the weight of the moment settle across her chest like armor. This wasn't weakness. This was protection. This was what her father would have done.

She became aware of eyes on her. Ben and Julian were watching with matching intensity, though the emotions behind their gazes couldn't have been more different.

Julian leaned back against the edge of the table, arms crossed, his smirk lazy and full of something that might actually be respect.

"And to think," he drawled, "five minutes ago you looked like you were about to pass out."