Chapter Thirty-Five
KNOX
The flight from Hanover was uneventful if you ignored Adam's enjoyment at his first plane ride. Lily shook her head in wry amusement, murmuring, “He's going to be spoiled, thinking this is what flying is usually like.”
Lily had boarded the plane without asking our destination, taking in the luxurious interior with wide eyes as she settled Adam with a coloring book and crayons into one of the leather seats.
Our company plane was a luxury we could have done without. As a line item expense, it was hefty, but our clients paid for the extra layer of security it provided. In cases like this, it was ideal.
We took off from the small, private airstrip in Hanover after filing a flight plan for Atlanta. An hour into the flight we diverted, with no one to answer to but the tiny airfield where we landed.
The flight to Tennessee wasn't long. Adam only had to use the bathroom twice, less interested in emptying his bladder than an excuse to unsnap his seatbelt and explore the plane, testing out the sink, the seats, the lock on the door and everything else he could get his hands on.
Griffen met us at the airport with a Sinclair Security SUV and a house key. He'd even remembered a booster seat for Adam. We exchanged few words as he took our place in the plane and we took his in the SUV. A few minutes after we'd landed, we were on the road to our destination.
Lily waved to Griffen but didn't say anything until we were belted in.
“Okay, where are we? I know this isn't Atlanta.”
“The middle of nowhere in Tennessee. Close enough to get to Atlanta quickly if we have to, far enough away that no one will think to look for us here.”
“Okay.”
And that was it. Okay. Her trust meant more than she could know.
I followed our GPS to the small cabin I'd borrowed from a friend.
I wanted this business with Tsepov resolved. I wanted answers about Adam from LeAnne Gates. I wanted a normal life with Lily and Adam by my side.
Normal life would have to wait. The next best thing was having Lily and Adam all to myself. No Deputy Dave, none of Tsepov's goons, no nosy friends to interrupt. Just the three of us, safe and secluded.
The cabin was rustic, but it sat in the center of a hundred and fifty acres on the side of a mountain. A stream bisected the property, carrying water that was biting cold and crystal clear.
A stone's throw from the cabin, the stream ran into a pond big enough for swimming and fishing. It was a far cry from the modern monstrosity Trey had built on Black Rock Lake. I wondered if Lily would mind. The cabin was better than sleeping in a tent, but not by much.
Lily and Adam piled out of the SUV. Adam started for the water. I caught him with a hand on the shoulder and redirected him toward the cabin. “Let's get settled in, bud. Then we can check out the lake.”
Lily stood in front of the porch, taking in the small, A-frame cabin.
Built of pine stained dark brown, with a covered porch that looked like it had been tacked on as an afterthought, the cabin was unimpressive at best. I braced for Lily to climb back into the SUV and ask me to take her anywhere else.
I shoved my hands into my back pockets. “It's basic, I know, but it has everything we'll need. It's completely off the grid. Solar panels, no Internet.”
I climbed the steps to the porch and opened the door, wincing at the wave of stale heat. The cabin had been closed up for weeks, the air inside musty. Lily followed me in, taking in the main room.
Old, patched couches surrounded a cast iron wood stove we wouldn't need this time of year. I flipped a switch by the door. The ceiling fan hanging from the peak of the roof spun lazily to life. It didn't do much to clear the stuffy air.
I made my way around the room, opening the windows and inserting the screens left leaning against the walls. This high in the mountains a good cross breeze would make it bearable inside, even in the first week of August.
Lily found the narrow hallway off the kitchen that led to the small bedrooms. One had a set of bunk beds. The other bedroom was almost completely filled by a queen-size bed.
Lily turned to look at me. “We're going to stay here?”
“It's nothing fancy, but—”
“How long can we stay? Will it just be the three of us?”
I realized Lily wasn't complaining about the accommodations. “We'll stay until Cooper gives us the okay to come back. At least a week, maybe more.”
Lily leaned into me, her arms wrapping around my waist. “We're safe here?”
“I'm going to set up the perimeter alarm we had at your parent's house and add some more security to the windows and doors. I don't want you and Adam going into town for groceries. But, yeah, we're safe here.”
“Sounds good to me.”
Adam ran down the hall shouting, “Can we go swimming?”
“Not yet, bud.”
It took the rest of the afternoon to get moved in. After we got the rest of the windows open and our things unloaded, Lily splashed with Adam on the rocky shore by the little dock. There was a canoe in the shed I promised I'd clean of spiderwebs and dead bugs. First things first.
Once I had the security bolstered by my equipment, I left Lily and Adam to run to town and stock up on groceries. I was only gone an hour and a half, but every minute was an eternity.
They were secure at the cabin, as safe as I could make them short of locking them up at Sinclair Security. I wouldn't be comfortable with them out of my sight until Andrei Tsepov was neutralized.
I returned to find them working on a puzzle laid out on the coffee table. Lily jumped up when I entered, taking the first set of grocery bags from my hands.
“There's a ton of things to do here. Piles and piles of paperbacks, puzzles, board games, cards.”
“So you won't get bored?”
“Between the pond, and the woods, and all those books and puzzles? Nope. Neither will Adam. What about you?”
“This place belongs to a friend. I've never made it up here, but he swears the fishing is great. There's trout in the river and the pond. I've got you and Adam and a fishing pole. Sounds like heaven to me.”
Lily beamed up at me. After we put the groceries away, I grabbed a beer and joined her on the couch to tackle the puzzle.
If I'd known how good those weeks at the cabin would be, I would have kidnapped Lily that first day.
You learn a lot about a person after three weeks of isolation. Without distractions, it doesn't take long to figure out how compatible you are.
I already knew Lily and I were a perfect fit in bed. Not much could top getting Lily naked. Day to day life with her was a close second.
Cooking. Washing dishes. Putting Adam to bed.
Take away the distractions of TV, cell phones, work, and there were no barriers. I'm not what you'd call a chatty guy. I could go days, and have, without talking to anyone.
I liked talking to Lily. Liked talking to Adam. What I liked more was knowing that we didn't have to talk at all. We could sit for hours, working on a puzzle saying barely anything, then pull out a board game and find ourselves talking half the night.
Between hiking, learning to fish, and swimming, Adam went to bed early every night, sleeping deeply, his nightmares a distant memory.
Once he was out, I had Lily all to myself. It was a good thing Adam slept like a rock, because our bedrooms weren't that far apart.
Lily and I made ample use of ours, and the rest of the cabin besides. I fucked her everywhere I could get my hands on her after Adam was asleep.
In the lake under the glittering moonlight.
On the dock.
In the hammock we'd found in the shed and hung between two pine trees.
Once in the canoe, though that ended with us both drenched and me dragging the canoe out the next morning, grateful we'd swamped it near shore.
Adam had almost grown out of naps, but the few times he fell asleep in the middle of the day we took advantage.
It was hot. August in Tennessee usually is. Lily and Adam never complained. We didn't spend much time indoors during the day, anyway. When it got too stuffy inside, we moved to the covered porch, taking our puzzle or board game with us.
On the few days when the heat grew too oppressive for the mountain breezes to chase off, we floated in the pond on cheap blow-up floats I'd grabbed in town. The pond was small, but the mountain stream running through it kept the water fresh and crisply cold, even on the hottest days.
I could have stayed at the cabin for another three weeks. I could have stayed forever.
After only a week in Maine, I knew I wanted Lily and Adam for my own. Hell, I'd seen Lily's picture in a file and known. Her face had tugged on something deep inside me, the answer to a question I hadn't known I'd asked.
The day she opened the door to the house she'd shared with Trey, I started to fall. By the time we arrived at the little cabin, I'd accepted all of that.
Those lazy weeks together still changed everything. I wasn't falling for her, I was long gone, in so deep I'd never be able to let them go. Life without Lily and Adam was unthinkable.
I wanted this, all of it. Lily. Adam.
Adam already felt like he was mine. It didn't matter that I wasn't his father. I was the one who taught him to bait a hook, steadied his hands while he reeled in his first fish. I was the one who helped him beat his mom at cards, smiling every time he cried out, “Go Fish!” with unabashed glee.
I could have stayed forever.
The end came far too soon.
I went to town every few days to check for messages on a burner phone. Every time, Cooper had nothing. We learned only two things in the weeks we were gone.
One, that the accounts Lucas tracked down were empty. Every cent was gone. Tsepov was looking for millions of dollars that had vanished into thin air. Or my father's pockets.
And two, the birth certificate on file with the state of Alabama was the one bearing Lily's name as his mother.
The original birth certificate, the one with his biological mother on it, was sealed, following Alabama's procedure for handling adoptions.
As far as the law was concerned, Lily Spencer was Adam's mother.
Bad news and good news, none of it enough to bring us home. Not until the morning I checked my phone after grabbing fresh donuts and saw Cooper's name on the screen.
If I'd known where his brief message would lead, I would have barricaded us in the cabin for the rest of eternity.
Even in my ignorance, I thought about it. I wouldn't abandon my brothers. Couldn't turn my back on my family.
Sitting in the parking lot of the grocery store in town—the only place I got cell reception—I read Cooper's message. Everything inside me wanted to erase it, to turn off my phone and drive back to the cabin, pretend I never read his text.
Gates and Tsepov surfaced. Time to come home.
I couldn't run from this. Lily couldn't run. Neither of us would be free until we talked to LeAnne Gates and dealt with Andrei Tsepov.
Wishing I could do anything else, I tapped out a message into the burner phone.
On our way. First thing tomorrow.
Then I went to tell Lily and Adam our vacation was over.
We weren't ready to face the real world, but the world was ready for us.