Chapter 11
Chapter
Eleven
It had taken longer than he would have liked to get there.
Lion felt an urgency pulsing through his system, leaving him unsettled. A feeling that said while he and his family had all made it out of the Delta Team mansion unscathed, with none of their perimeter sensors alerting them to the arrival of an intruder, something still wasn't right.
They weren't safe.
He didn't know how he knew that, he just … felt it deep in his bones.
After the alarm sounded this morning, he’d thrown the T-shirt back over Kate’s head and sent her off to get herself and Ariella dressed and packed with a few changes of clothes and essentials only.
Then he’d gotten dressed, grabbed his go bag, and met the others in the kitchen.
It had taken them less than thirty minutes to get out of that house and to the small, private airfield they used, where they all piled onto the private jet and took off.
Completely unaware that anything was wrong, Ariella was chattering away to her mother in the seats across from him.
She had her teddy bear on her lap, her iPad in her hands, and she was discussing which movie her mom wanted to watch with her.
Kate was doing a good job of pretending that nothing was going on, but he could see the strain in her eyes, hear it in her voice, and see that her entire body was taut, like if it had to endure one more burden it would snap.
Everyone was doing their best not to scare the little girl, and they’d told her they were just traveling to the city so they could run more tests and prepare her for the bone marrow transplant. Which wasn't entirely untrue.
If someone really had managed to link the remote Gothic mansion to him and his team, they weren't safe there. With the mansion potentially compromised, the next safest place for all of them was Prey’s headquarters in Manhattan, so that’s where they were going.
There were multiple apartments in the building, which meant that each couple could have their own space, but they’d still be together to support one another. With Dr. Gardner dead, it made sense that the only other person who might be after them was the scientist’s mother.
Which in and of itself wasn't a bad thing, since Whitney thought the woman was their best bet at possibly getting their hands on earlier versions of the drug that she could use to boost Ariella’s immune system and give the little girl the best chance at surviving.
But if the woman thought she was coming after them, she had another thing coming.
They were the hunters now. Not her. They were the ones with the power.
They’d already crushed Dr. Gardner’s entire network.
Not only was the man dead, but his labs were destroyed, along with all the formulas and notes detailing the drug’s creation.
Whitney was on their side. There was nothing River Gardner could do, but that could make her desperate enough to think coming after them was worth the risk.
“This has to be my fault,” Kate said softly as she slipped across the aisle to take the seat beside his.
The tension on the plane was high. Thunder was flying with Maya sitting beside him.
Although she had no idea how to fly a plane, she was there for moral support.
For her, for Thunder, for both of them probably.
The rest of the couples were sitting together around the private jet, all on edge, all shaken by the knowledge their safe place had been tainted.
Nowhere was that tension wound tighter than in Kate.
“We don’t know that,” he assured her, taking her hand in his and lacing their fingers together.
“It’s a safe bet. You’ve been safe there, hidden, for six years.
I show up, and four days later, it looks like someone found you.
It has to have been me. I'm sorry, I don’t know how I did it.
I didn't even tell anyone where I was going.
Well, I told our families I was going to look for you to see if you would donate, but I never gave them an address.
I swear I didn't, Leo. I wouldn't have done that even when I didn't know why you’d left. I don’t remember anyone following me, but maybe they did.
I mean, they must have, right? Eagle said not to give out the address to anyone, and I didn't. I thought it was a little weird, but I was too busy worrying about how you would react to seeing us and if you would reject Ariella. I guess I had to have been followed, but—”
“Shh, Katie-Bear,” he murmured, reaching over to haul her into his lap. “It’s okay. No one is blaming you. We don’t know for sure that you were followed, and I believe you that you didn't give out our address. Everything is going to be okay.”
“It’s not.” She sniffed, her eyes already red and puffy from crying, like every drop of emotion she’d held in for a decade needed to escape before it consumed her and had now welled with tears all over again.
“That place is your home. It’s where you felt safe, where you healed from what was done to you. Now that’s ruined.”
“It’s not,” he assured her. “Even if the address is compromised, and we do not know for certain that it was as of this moment, we already know Dr. Gardner has been hunting us for a decade. His mother likely has access to his searches and any progress he’d made.
She could have found us on her own. And even if someone was following you, that still wouldn't have made it your fault. You were my emergency contact when we got engaged, so you would have been on my military files. It’s entirely possible they’ve been watching you all this time, waiting to see if you knew where I was and would make contact. ”
Kate shivered in his arms at the revelation that she might have been unknowingly watched for a decade of her life, but he’d rather her be scared about that than blame herself.
The idea that she really might have had Dr. Gardner monitoring her all this time was just another reason to regret ever signing up for that program in the first place.
It had cost him so much, and while that wasn't something he could go back and change, he was going to make damn sure that he didn't lose his girls a second time.
“Everything is going to be okay, I swear to you.” His hands began to rub soothing circles on her back, wanting to calm Kate down before Ariella realized something was up and became upset.
“Even if they know that’s where we were, they didn't get us. Won't get us where we’re going. And even if the address is leaked on the dark web, we can always move somewhere new. Either with my team or just the three of us. But, Katie-Bear, you have to realize something. That place was my home, yes, but you are my true home. You and our daughter. As long as I have the two of you, I'm okay. I can assure you the others feel the same way. As long as they have the women they love, they know we can find another home. Because home is the people you love, it’s not a place.”
Her blue eyes searched his, and he allowed her to see the truth in them. “I love you, Leo,” she said softly, and when she pressed her lips to his, something shifted inside him. The peace of knowing he’d assuaged his girl’s fears.
Tangling his fingers in her hair, Lion cast a quick glance at Ariella, determined she was engrossed in whatever movie she’d chosen, and deepened the kiss.
Nothing he’d told her was untrue. While he’d be sad if they had to leave that house behind, they didn't know that would be the case. But he’d rather lose the house and keep Kate and Ariella than the other way around.
His two beautiful, blonde girls were his future. One day, he hoped to marry the girl of his dreams, raise their daughter together, and maybe grow their family with more little ones. That was what was important to him, not a building.
This.
The feel of his girl on his lap, her tongue dueling with his, her fingers fisted in his shirt, her love for him pouring out of her, mingling with his own relief and gratitude that she was able to find it in her to forgive him, to still want him.
For one beautiful moment, everything was perfect.
Until it wasn't.
“Something’s wrong with the engine,” Thunder’s voice suddenly sounded through the plane, and everyone froze. Even Ariella looked up from her iPad.
“How wrong?” Steel demanded.
“Wrong enough that we’re not going to stay in the air much longer.”
March 17th
8:28 A.M.
They were going to crash.
One second, she was kissing Leo, allowing him to soothe her fears that she was responsible for this mess, and the next, she was facing her impending death.
Not just hers, but her daughter’s, too, and the man she loved.
Because Kate loved Leo today just as much as she had when she was eight, and when she was eighteen and he finally saw her as a woman. Losing him all over again would devastate her, but then again, it wasn't like she was going to be alive to suffer the loss.
An hysterical giggle bubbled out, and Leo shot her a worried glance.
Quickly nodding at him to let him know she wasn't about to fall apart, even if it felt like she was, she crushed her mouth to his once again in what would almost definitely be their final kiss.
Then she pushed out of her seat, went to her daughter, and dropped to her knees in front of Ariella’s seat.
“Did you hear that, sweetie-pie?” she asked as she slipped off her daughter’s headphones and took the iPad from her hands, tossing both onto the seat behind her.
“Something’s wrong,” Ariella said. Her gaze darted between her and Leo, then swept through the rest of the plane, where everyone else was likely just as panicked as she was.
Or maybe not, given they were all so much stronger than her.
Lying right now would be stupid. Ariella would find out the truth anyway when the plane crashed into the ground beneath them. “Yeah, sweet girl, it is. The plane is going to crash,” Kate announced, deciding it was best to just rip off the Band-Aid and be done with it.
“We’re all going to die?” Ariella asked, her bottom lip wobbling.