Chapter 37 Mara #2
“Thank me by staying alive. And take care of each other.”
Rook steps back, looking at me.
“And, Mara? They’re good men. Stupid as hell sometimes, but good.”
“I know.”
He nods once, then walks away, toward campus, with CJ.
I watch them both go until they disappear into the darkness.
Beck gets into the driver’s seat. “Dredyn, you navigate. Jasper, keep pressure on that wound. Mara, keep him conscious—talk to him. Don’t let him sleep.”
“I’m not concussed, just shot,” Talon protests weakly.
“Humor me. Blood loss can mimic head trauma symptoms.”
Beck starts the engine then pulls out of the lot with the headlights off until we’re a block away.
“Tell me about the island Jasper’s dad is flying us to,” Talon says.
Beck glances in the rearview mirror. “Private island. Southeast Asia. Small staff, very discrete. You’ll have a villa, and access to everything you need. Internet’s monitored but secure. You can stay as long as necessary.”
“How long is necessary?”
“Until the Syndicate stops actively looking. Could be months. Could be years.”
“Jasper’s dad is arranging cover stories—extended internship for Jasper with his father’s company, research fellowship for Dredyn, family emergency for Talon. Mara, you’re harder. The President’s daughter going missing will make national news.”
“Let my father explain why his daughter chose to disappear rather than come home. Let him deal with the questions.”
Dredyn turns in his seat to look at me.
“You sure about this? Once we get on that plane, there’s no going back. You’ll be giving up everything—your family, your name, your future.”
“I’m sure. I’ve never been more sure of anything.” I smile. “You three are my family now, my future. Everything else is just noise.”
“We don’t deserve you.”
“You’re right, you don’t. You deserve better, but you’re stuck with me anyway.”
Talon laughs, then winces. “Don’t make me laugh … Hurts.”
“Then don’t be ridiculous.” I brush hair off his forehead. He’s sweating—feverish. “We need to go faster. He needs that doctor.”
“Twenty minutes out.” Beck checks his mirror.
Finally, Beck turns off the highway onto a dirt road, toward the safe house.
The door opens before we’ve even stopped. A college-aged student opens the door with a bag in his hand.
“Get him inside. Quickly.”
They move Talon between them and I follow, holding his hand, refusing to let go even when the doctor needs space to work.
“Out,” he orders. “All of you except one. I need room to work.”
I stay as the doctor works in silence. Talon grits his teeth through most of it, only crying out when the guy probes inside the wound for fragments.
“You’re lucky. Another inch to the right and you’d have a collapsed lung. As it is, you’ll heal. Keep it clean, take the fucking antibiotics, and don’t call me again, Talon.”
Talon chuckles. “Best med student I know.”
“Yeah. Sure. Also, no strenuous activity for six weeks minimum.”
“Six weeks?” Talon protests.
“Unless you want infection, sepsis, and possible death—yes. Six weeks.”
The doctor finishes his work, packs up his supplies, and leaves.
Talon’s asleep now—the doctor gave him something for the pain—so I move into the kitchen where I find Beck, Dredyn, and Jasper. They’ve all cleaned up and are in new clothes.
“Plane leaves in three hours—private airfield, twenty minutes from here. I’ve got your documents, money, and new lives in a folder on the table.”
“And then what?” Dredyn asks.
“And then you disappear. You become different people. You live quietly, carefully, and hope the Syndicate has bigger problems than hunting down three kids who killed one of their leaders.”
“Do they? Have bigger problems?”
Beck considers this. “Edmund and the stranger will want revenge. But they also have a power vacuum to deal with. James’s seat is empty so there will be infighting, succession battles. It’ll buy you time. How much, I can’t say.”
“What about you? They’ll know you helped.”
“They’ll suspect, but I’m good at covering my tracks. And besides …” He grins, and it’s the first genuine smile I’ve seen from him. “I’m just a tech guy who likes a challenge. They’d have to prove I was involved. Good luck with that.”
He hands Dredyn a burner phone. “This has one number programmed. Mine. Use it only for emergencies, and I mean real emergencies—life or death. Assume every call is monitored.”
“How will we know what’s happening? With the Syndicate, with Edmund and the stranger?”
“I’ll send updates through secure channels. Nothing traceable. You’ll know what you need to know.”
CJ checks his watch.
“Two hours and forty-five minutes. I suggest you rest while you can. It’s a long flight.”
He leaves through the same back door the doctor used.
And then it’s just the four of us.
Dredyn sits at the kitchen table, head in his hands. Jasper leans against the counter, eyes distant.
And I’m standing in the middle of a safe house, about to board a plane to exile, with three men who killed for me.
“Come here,” I say softly.
Dredyn and Jasper both look up.
“Come here. Both of you.”
They move to me and I pull them both into an embrace. “We made it; we’re alive. That’s what matters.”
“One out of three,” Dredyn says against my hair. “We failed.”
“We survived. That’s not failure, that’s victory.”
“Is it? I killed my father, Mara. Shot him in the head while he was on his knees. I can still see his eyes, still hear the sound. That’s not victory. That’s… I don’t know what that is.”
“It’s freedom. It’s justice. It’s the price of choosing us over him.”
I pull back to look at him, at both of them.
“You did what needed doing—what no one else was brave enough to do. And now we get to live. Really live. Not under the Syndicate’s control, not in fear, not as someone else’s assets. We get to be free.”
“On a remote island, hiding from the most powerful criminal organization in the country,” Jasper signs.
“On a tropical island, building a life together,” I correct.
He almost smiles.
“We should rest. We’ve got two hours, then we fly. Then… Well, we’ll figure it out from there,” Dredyn says.
We check on Talon who’s still sleeping, then we collapse on a couch together, too exhausted to make it to actual beds.
Jasper’s on my left, Dredyn on my right, and Talon is recovering in the next room.
But all of us are alive—together, free.
And for now, that’s enough.
I close my eyes and let exhaustion take me.
When I wake, it’ll be time to leave everything behind.
But right now, in this moment, we’re safe.
And that’s all I need.