Owen meant to walk away without a word, one last dig to make it sting, but she was between him and the door. Of course she was.

Before he could stop her, she took his face in her hands and kissed him, sweetly, her elemental thrill tingling against his lips. He stood, stunned stupid. She pulled out of the kiss first and smiled into his face.

She sighed, a short, happy sound, and patted his charcoal lapels. Charlie was finally out of noise. She took up the handle on her roller bag and walked away.

The clip of her heels faded into the next surge of airport crowd and Owen was finally alone. Confused, but just slightly infected by her excitement, if not exactly kindly so, he flexed his wrists to settle his shirt cuffs and headed toward the parking deck, to find the car he used to love.

CHAPTER TEN

Nothing could have stretched an already desperate run of hours into an impossible grind like trying to get Miss June through her day. It should have been good—a cheerful, lucid granny and pretty weather. But Emma wanted to be anywhere else.

She tucked June into her recliner with her two blankets, three pillows, and tea, diluted just right. Emma switched on the television to a roundtable gossip show.

She wanted to be alone, to think. To rewatch the video. To decide what to do about it.

“Emma!”

She pulled back from her deep drift. “Yes?”

“You worried me, honey. You’re a million miles away. I called you. It’s like you didn’t hear me. I thought I’d died and was the last to know it.” June’s blue eyes sparkled in humor that disguised the slight tinge of the actual fear of confusion.

“I’m sorry! You called me?” Emma looked down at the phone in her hands.

“Called your name, for goodness’ sake.”

•  •  •

Marcelline Gossard had been answering to the name Emma O’Connor for nearly four years. She’d left her real name behind, shedding it unknowingly at first, in Owen Haig’s apartment. He’d made a magic trick of Marcelline Gossard. Her coworkers had seen her leave for the day. A few people, all now dead or fled, had seen her at the secret meeting to sell the Flinck.

Then poof. She vanished. First, from her own train of thought.