Good. The poor guy deserved to be happy, after what he’d been through. Separated from his brothers for years. Raised by a cult to be an assassin. Then being rescued by Kian and his other brothers and finding out his whole life was a lie. Sometimes, when you looked at him, you could see the weight of all the stuff he’d done weighing down on him, and he still had moments when he just froze, reliving some memory of his cult days. I was glad he’d met someone who could make him smile. “How’s Stacey doing?” I asked as I put the car into gear.

“She’s still trying to figure out what she’s going to do in Mount Mercy,” said Bradan. “She had a whole business in LA, a whole chain of bakeries to run. And you know Stacey, she has this energy…she walks into a room and when she comes out, everything’s alphabetized. She needs to be doing something. She can’t just be sitting around, waiting for us to come home.”

I nodded. And found my eyes going to Erin in the rear view mirror. I’d never been one to write love letters, or make mixtapes, or anything hand-crafted and romantic like that. But seeing Stacey’s gift made me want to do those things for Erin. And thinking about Stacey waiting at home for Bradan made me think about how it would be to have Erin waiting at home for me.

I forced my eyes back to the road before someone noticed. Gabriel and Gina were right, JD would kill me. For the good of all three of us, I had to forget about Erin.

* * *

Ten hours later, we entered the outskirts of Berlin. Everyone was a burned-out, grumpy mess. We’d changed cars five times, had one near miss sneaking across the German border and were running on snacks and energy drinks from vending machines because we didn’t dare walk into a store or even show our faces at a drive-thru. But we’d made it.

“We’re going to need somewhere to stay,” said JD. “Anyone know anybody in Berlin?”

“I knew a guy,” said Colton. “But he moved to Frankfurt.”

“I know someone,” said Gabriel. “But he’s doing time.”

JD turned to me. “What about Katharina?”

I froze. Yes, she was still in Berlin. And yes, she’d help us. But I couldn’t go there. Not now. Not with…. I glanced in the rear view mirror at Erin, who was dozing in the back row.

But we didn’t have a choice. “Okay,” I muttered.

And I turned towards Katharina’s apartment.

47. Danny

47

DANNY

It was three in the morning when we arrived at Katharina’s apartment block. We didn’t want to stand around in the street while we buzzed her and hoped she was home, so Gabriel picked the lock and we slipped inside.