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When the last of them was gone, Conor and I left the meeting room and walked out of the Holloway mansion for the last time. We slid into my car and drove to town without so much as a glance back as we headed to where Jessica waited in the apartments.
Beck and I had rented them when we’d been sure we were so close to this moment and would need a place to escape to before we made bigger plans. And then everything had gone south with Dare.
We’d kept them mostly empty, only going to them when absolutely necessary. Like when I’d needed to track someone or hack into Mickey’s servers at his office.
Today we’d worked on pure adrenaline, clearing out the guesthouse and our three rooms at the mansion so there wasn’t a trace of us, filling the apartments with everything until we figured out what we
were going to do.
We had time and we had money, thanks to Mickey.
Thanks to Beck.
The smell of Chinese food hit me as soon as I opened the door to my apartment. A second later, Jessica was in my arms, her legs curling around my waist as she buried her head in my neck.
I wrapped my arms around her tighter, savoring the feel of her against me. Savoring this moment that felt so surreal and so normal.
I wanted a lifetime of moments like this.
Pressing my mouth to the top of her head, I walked deeper into the apartment and over to the kitchen table where she had the food laid out next to my computer.
Conor followed us in without a word, his shoulders and head hanging low.
Other than telling Jessica how the meeting had gone, none of us spoke. It’d been that way the entire day. Our grief was too fresh and too heavy for conversation. But I kept her in my lap, needing her close to me as we ate and sat in our mournful silence.
When the alarm sounded on Conor’s phone, signaling an hour had passed since the meeting ended, I looked at his pained expression and asked, “Are you ready?”
He nodded, his eyes flicking up to mine. “Do it.”
I shifted Jessica to the side and leaned forward to wake up my computer. And with a few brushes of the keys, the anonymous e-mail was sent.
I’d thought this moment would feel different. More liberating.
But the heaviness pressing down on the room robbed us of the gratification that came with finally being free.
I looked at the two empty chairs, wishing more than anything that Aric and Beck were filling them. That we could celebrate this moment that had been years in the making. That we could spend the night imagining futures that consisted of freedom we’d only dreamt of.
But the freedom was lacking.
Those chairs would remain empty.
And nothing would ever fill that void.
I choked back the emotion tightening my throat and said, “It’s done.”
Kieran lifted his hand, but paused, a breath of a laugh leaving him.
I squeezed his other hand tighter and stepped closer to him. “What is it?”
“I’ve never knocked.”
I wasn’t sure if it was the weight of what we were about to go into, or the stress of the last few days—the last weeks—but a laugh bubbled up my throat.
Because I wasn’t sure if I’d ever knocked either.
He looked back at me, a strained smile on his face. With a brush of his lips across my forehead, he faced forward and knocked on the door.
Kieran tensed seconds before I ever heard anyone on the other side, and then the door was swinging open to a livid expression.
