The room stills.
Every head lifts.
“Oh shit,” Mark says.
He’s already pulling his phone out. “I’m calling the marina. Dry dock. Locking everything down.”
Tony nods sharply. “I’m on it too. I’ve got connections in Boston PD. I’ll call Plymouth. We’re circling the wagons now, boys.”
His voice hardens.
“It’s go time.”
Around me, phones come out. Voices drop. Names are said. Calls made. Locksmiths. Detectives. Cops. Tony’s uncle. Someone mentions the local hospital—psychiatric intake. Someone else asks if anyone knows who her doctor is.
They’re not just protecting me.
They’re trying to save her, too.
That’s what hits me hardest.
Even now—after hearing her scream my name through the phone, after watching my life get torched from a mountain away—they’re still thinking:What if she needs help? What if this isn’t jail, but a ward?
I sit there, wrecked, held together by Tony’s arms, while the men around me move with purpose—quiet, decisive, fierce.
And for the first time since Sage came into my life like a wildfire and called it love, I realize something through the ache and the ash:
I’m not alone.
They’ve got my back.
Three days later, we land together.
Same flight. Same row. Same quiet.
No jokes this time. No one reaching for their phone the second the wheels hit the runway. We move like a unit—customs, baggage claim, rental car—Tony never more than a step away, like if he drifts too far I might fold back in on myself.
The drive north is gray and silent. Late winter. Dirty snow shoved into tired piles along the shoulder of the highway.
About an hour in, Tony clears his throat.
“Hey,” he says carefully. “Maybe this isn’t the best time.”
I glance over. His hands are tight on the wheel, knuckles pale.
“But you’re my best friend,” he continues. “I’d walk through fire for you. You know that, right?”
I nod. My chest tightens anyway.
“And when the time comes,” he adds, voice steady but real, “I want you to be my best man.”
For a second, I can’t speak.
“You serious?” I finally ask.
“Dead serious. I know the timings bad but I don’t want to wait much longer. I’m going to propose maybe Valentine’s Day. Then we’ll have a year engagement t0 be sure then start planning the wedding.
I swallow. “Yeah. Yeah. Of course.”
