“Her name is Rose. After my mom,” Brian said, settling the little girl on his lap. “So. We were thinking of showing Grace around town to maybe jog her memory. What do you think, honey?”

Bobbi shrugged. “Let’s give it a shot. What could go wrong?”

* * * *

Adare finished loading the new explosives in the back of his vehicle as darkness began to fall and the dropping temperature turned the snow to ice. The metal doors of the storage units around them creaked from the cold.

Jacki handed him the last box and stretched her back, rolling her neck and tossing her tawny hair. Her car was parked beside the opposite units, gathering snow across the windshield. “You know, one of the things I always liked about you was your sense of loyalty,” she said.

“Thanks.” He tucked the box into a gap, wedging them all in so they wouldn’t detonate, even if Benny drove.

“But don’t you deserve to be happy? How can you be when you’re mated to a woman, an actual human, whom you don’t love? How does that make sense, considering you might live forever?” Jacki’s tenacity could be an asset sometimes, but right now, it was grating on his nerves.

He shut the back hatch. “I don’t love you, either.” It was time for harsh truth. “It’s not in me to love anyone.”

Jacki snorted, apparently not insulted in the least. “You’ve cut yourself off, and that makes sense, but you can love again. Stop being a moron and let yourself.”

He’d forgotten how direct she could be, a fact he’d once appreciated. “I have more important concerns right now than love.” Like not dying on the raid he and Benny were planning.

“Good point.” Jacki leaned against the vehicle with the snow falling softly onto her hair. “If you survive, which I could help you do, you should think about it. Grace seems like a nice woman, but she doesn’t challenge you. She’s like milk toast in a spicy enchilada world.”

Milk toast? Grace was sweet and honest, and she needed to be protected. Although she had an impressive sense of calm and strength that he hadn’t realized until the fight with the Kurjans. “I have enough challenges in my life,” he muttered. “I made a vow to her, Jacki, and that’s final.” It made zero sense to think about what might’ve been, because reality always won in the end.

“You kept your vow, and she’s alive. Now it’s time to move on,” Jacki pushed.