“I’m sure I won’t,” he assured her. “Take care of yourself,” he said kindly, and they hung up. She sat staring out the window after that, thinking of Mike, with tears running down her cheeks.

Chapter 15

The DGSE agents got her past the security lines and onto the plane before anyone boarded. She and Patrick settled into their seats. First class had been fully booked, and she didn’t care how they got there. She would have flown coach if she had to. She texted Martine once she was on the plane, and thanked the DGSE agents before they left. They waited just outside the plane to observe the other passengers boarding, and would stay there until the doors to the plane were closed and the flight took off. They had already shown their badges and credentials to the cabin crew, who had been notified that they had a VIP on board, with special government protection. They texted ahead to New York to be sure she got VIP service when she disembarked. The captain had been advised too. He recognized the name and knew who she was.

She reclined her seat immediately after takeoff, and lay wide-awake, thinking about Mike, willing him to live. This couldn’t happen to him, and to her again. They had only been together for four months, but he had become an integral part of her life in a surprisingly short time and had turned a tragic time into something she could live with. He made her happy. She would have sacrificed anything if she could make a deal for his life now, even give her own.

She couldn’t sleep and didn’t watch a movie, and she declined the meal when they offered it to her. The flight would take eight hours and arrive at ten p.m. New York time. She knew it would be too late to see Mike at the hospital. The other patients would be settled in for the night, although the ICU never slept and tended to their critically ill patients round the clock. They had told her she could come to see him at nine a.m., so it would be a long night once she got to the hotel around eleven-thirty. She knew Martine would have arranged a car and driver for her and advised Patrick. All Theo had to do was get to the hotel and to the hospital the next day. She had read somewhere that people in comas could hear you speak to them, and all she wanted to do now was sit next to him and hold his hand and tell him how much she loved him.