This is where we are…
And I was beginning to think these answers weren’t worth escaping where I needed to be.
Blinking away tears, I nodded once. “How much?”
“Fern,” he warned. “We’re not—”
“How fucking much?” I yelled, and Barny shifted.
“Two mil.”
I glanced around his home, then at the shame disguised as a man in worn comfort attire, and laughed. It was wet, and I coughed. “Wow.” I stood and tucked my chair back in. “I’m sorry, too, because I’m worth more than two million, and I was fucking worth swimming in the dark for.”
“I know,” he said, tears on his cheeks once more. “I know, Cherub.”
Staring at the man who once told me fairy tales before bed, who made me princess bread and dug out splinters from my fingers after playing with driftwood in the sand, I smiled. “Don’t waste time looking over your shoulder. She wouldn’t do that to me.” Then I forced myself down the hall to my bag. “Have a magical life, Dad.”
I was on a return flight five hours later, and I didn’t wake up until it was nearly time to catch the connecting flight.
Feeling the exhaustion and a dire need for a shower, I cleaned up as best I could in the bathroom and then gazed out the window to the world hidden below the clouds until we touched down in New York.
A shower and a steak were at the top of my list of things to accomplish as soon as feasibly possible. Seeing my husband waiting for me in the airport was not.
I halted outside the baggage claim even though I had no baggage to pick up. I’d left most of it behind in Sydney. “Jude.”
“Red.”
Dressed in black jeans and a long-sleeved gray shirt that hugged his biceps, he stepped forward and took my bag. “Hi.”
“Hey,” I said, knowing I had to look like hell but too weary to care. “What are you doing here?”
“That’s not obvious?” His hand slipped over mine, and he led me to the gates that would take us to our plane home. “I’m picking up my wife.”
I couldn’t summon the energy to grill him anymore. In our seats on the small jet, I hugged my bag to my chest and stared up at him.
“Glean anything of use?”
“Enough to move on and close that door.” I was sure he knew enough about my parents, maybe not as much as me, but more than I’d known until these past forty-eight hours. Nevertheless, I didn’t want to talk about it, and we both knew it was not the place to do so anyway.
But there was one thing that refused to stay hidden. “January created some type of invisible bubble around me.” He knew exactly what I was talking about. “With the exception of Coraline, no one ever came near me.”
“My guess is she didn’t want your pure heart tampered with, but she also didn’t want you to hear any rumors, as untrue as they might be. Cory was safe, and she isn’t a spoiled brat, so that explains that.” Jude’s eyes drifted to the window. “And me?” His head tilted, as did his lips. “Well, I am. I wanted you, and so I didn’t care. I still don’t.” His eyes returned with his next statement. “We aren’t a door you can close, Red. I’ll stand there and block it for the rest of my days if need be.” Fingers fluttered over the hair tickling my cheek, shifting it behind my ear.
“The terrifying thing is”—I closed my eyes—“I think I might actually believe you.”
Pushing the armrest up, he pulled me into his side, and I drew what felt like my first full breath since seeing that address he’d given me. “Thank you.” I knew it had to cost him to ask his father for that intel, and that they were both risking a lot by giving it to me.
He squeezed me. “Don’t mention it.”
We landed just under an hour later, but instead of heading straight home, I said, “Please take me to Cory’s.”
Jude glanced over at me, but I kept my eyes facing forward. Flicking the turn signal on, he said, “Only if you’ll call me if she doesn’t answer.”
“Deal.”
It was near dark when he dropped me off outside the closed bookstore. I listened for the sound of his car pulling back out onto the road, but it never came.
Then I waited at Coraline’s door after banging the knocker. My legs ached. I was about to slump to the cracked concrete step when I heard a latch clunk and hinges squeak.
“You’d better have something tasty in that bag of yours.”
I smiled and raced inside before she could change her mind.
I ended up spending the night at Cory’s, unable to answer her many questions but hearing her and offering what comfort I could when she talked and cried and cursed.
When I arrived home the following morning, it was to an empty house.
I showered and washed my hair, then tossed the clothes from my bag into the washing machine. I ordered that steak I wanted as well as two extras for Silas and Jude, but neither of them came home.
I wrapped and put their meals in the fridge, then stole Jude’s current read from his nightstand and took it to bed with me. Another thriller. I was hoping he’d gone back to something more fantastical in my short absence. He seemed to binge one genre before needing to change things up again. He’d made a habit of leaving the books he’d finished on the living room coffee table, so if I wanted to read one, then I wouldn’t need to go into his room to steal it.
I didn’t want to wait. I wanted to feel close to him in some way while wishing I didn’t need to.
I was on chapter five when I heard the front door open and close, then footsteps coming up the stairs.
I knew he was staring at me from my doorway without having to look. I could feel him, taste his presence in the crisp night air. “Are you okay?” The question came from nowhere, falling into the world without my approval.
I lowered the book when he said, “You could say you inspired me to do something I should’ve done a long time ago.”
I bookmarked the page. “You saw your mom.”
Jude crossed the room but then paused, toeing off his boots.
I placed the book on my dresser in answer, and he continued before climbing into my bed next to me. “Are you liking it?”
I turned to face him. He tucked his hand beneath his cheek, his eyes a little bloodshot and his hair finger mussed. “Bored. The last one was better.”
He smirked. “You’ve done better than me.”
“I know,” I said, remembering where he’d placed the bookmark.
We stared for a while, his long lashes bobbing and curling up as he studied my face. “She asked how Henry was.”
“Yeah?” I said. “What did you tell her?”
“That he missed her,” he whispered. “That I missed her too, and that I was sorry.”
My teeth caught my lip, and I nodded, waiting.
“I was asked to maim her lover’s hand. I didn’t know who it was, only that he’d be at the location I was sent to, and no one else should’ve been there.”
“What if there had been others there?”
“They said he had a partner, but to continue if she was present. Otherwise, wait to get him alone.”