I suddenly cannot feel my face. It’s an insane reaction for someone who walks through crime scenes all the time. And yet somehow, even with my world falling apart, I calmly say, “And of course a phone won’t ping under water.”

“That’s right. Lilah, I checked and—”

One of the aviation crew I know walks by and I hang up on Tic Tac to grab the man, quite literally by the arm. He turns to face me, an older man with salt and pepper hair. “Lilah,” he says, and it’s in his face.

“Kane—”

“I’m not supposed to talk to you.”

“You will talk to me.”

His eyes bore into mine, and I don’t know what he sees, but he says, “Yes. Kane has tipped me enough over the years to put my kid through college. I’ll tell you what I know. And unfortunately, that isn’t much. We just plain don’t know anything yet.”

“Bullshit,” I snap, ready to explode on him.

“Hold up.” He holds up his hands to drive home that statement. “I mean beyond the basics. They made an emergency landing in the water and a landing is not a crash. We’re expecting to hear from the crew anytime now.”

“It’s been hours since he was supposed to take off.”

“I know, and we’re not sure why our team hasn’t checked back in, but I’ll go see if there’s more news now.”

“Yes. Go now.”

He hurries away. Jay steps to my side. “What’s going on?”

“Wait for that man to return. Find me when he’s back. I’m going to the bathroom. I need a minute.”

“Lilah—”

I turn to him. “They emergency landed. The crew that went to get them is MIA.” I try to turn away and he grabs my arm.

I lift a finger. “I need a fucking minute.”

“Listen to me. If Kane suspected an attack, he’d keep the rescue crew off radar to protect himself and them. He’s smart. He’s resourceful. He knows what he’s doing. Kit probably went to get him. His men, our people, went to get him, I’m sure of it. They didn’t tell me because I would have never been able to keep it from you. I believe that.” He releases me. “Now with that in mind, go take your minute.”

I do that. I walk away and hurry to the one-stall bathroom of the tiny airport and shut the door. Suddenly, I’m back in the past, living the hellish moment I found out my mother died.

I’m in the law school library, studying for a debate tomorrow morning, when an official-looking man in a suit suddenly appears, standing over me. “Come with me please, Ms. Love,” he says.

“Why? What’s happened?”

He’s tall and stone-faced. “You need to come with me.”