Chapters (61)
“I understand that, but what good would it do to tell her about Mara? Kellen.” Max wrapped his arm around her. “She worries about you. If we tell her what Mara said—”
“Yeah. Right. It would blow all her circuits.” Which was true. “But I still feel guilty for not bringing Rae into the operation.” Which was also true.
“You have to stop thinking of Rae as a soldier. She’s not. She’s a child.”
Kellen remembered the children she had seen in Afghanistan, holding rifles, fighting in wars so old their distant great-grandparents had started them. She didn’t want that for Rae. “Right. You’re right. But Max, no matter how much we try to protect Rae, this disruption to her routine has really sent her into a tailspin.”
“This mansion and Ruby’s story are fuel for her imagination.”
“She knows about Mara’s grisly visit to the mortuary.”
“I wish we’d taken her phone sooner.” Max sounded savage.
“No, Max. She has to know what her friends know. But while this trip might be fraught, it’s not all bad.” Kellen cuddled with him. “Do you know what happened before dinner?”
“I cannot imagine.”
Kellen smiled into the darkness. “Rae wanted to know more about World War II. So I said, ‘The library,’ and we went there. You’ll never guess what we found.”
“A book on World War II?”
“The Encyclopedia Britannica, 1953 edition.”
His shoulder twitched under her head. “The Encyclopedia. Sure. Why didn’t I think of that? Did you show her how to look stuff up?”
“I did. She read about World War II, then she asked if I realized there’d been a world war before that, then she read about worms…”
He chuckled, warm and deep. “I used to do that. Look one thing up, then keep going. Living here is like being forced to return to, I don’t know, 1953.”
“I suppose that’s not bad except—” she hated to break the mood, but she had to ask “—do you suppose we’ve permanently lost Mara?”
“The report your Diana sent says she’s closing in on her.”
“She thought that last week, too. Is Mara playing her?”
Max helplessly lifted his hands. “I wish I knew. But what I do know is—if Mara dares come back to the US, she’ll be arrested and returned to prison. If she stays in Europe, she’ll be arrested by Interpol, returned to the US and returned to prison. We’re as safe here as it’s possible to be, so let’s hope for the best, expect the worst, and stick close to each other.”
Luna crawled a few inches closer to the head of the bed.
Kellen said ruefully, “I don’t know that we have much choice.”