Always, never.He’d gotten that from her, because Gigi had told him once that she wasalways, nevercareful. But evenshehadn’t inserted herself into Oren’s strike force—a force oftwo, apparently.
“Jell-O.” Gigi spoke the word into the air, unable to even consider coming in from the roof. “So much Jell-O for you, Mattias Slater. And pudding! You are going to be fine, and you are going to come back, and you are going to wake up every morning for a week straight covered in Jell-O and squishing pudding out of crevices you didn’t even know you had.”
But as furious as Gigi was, she couldn’t stop rereading that note.You’re a force.She knew somehow that he meant that, that he hadn’t left her because he thought she was weak.This just isn’t my kind of mission.It was the kind, Gigi knew instinctively, where lines might need to be crossed.
The kind that might mean Code Name Mimosas came back with more marks tattooed on his arm—if he came back at all.
Eventually, Knox found her on the roof. “You okay?”
“Slate’s gone. Savannah’s gone. Grayson’s gone. So… not really.”
“Want to scream?”
Gigi shook her head. “Won’t help.”
Knox’s brow furrowed. “Want to hit me?”
“Why would I want tohityou?”
“I don’t know.” Knox threw his hands up in the air. “Most people seem to want to.”
“So you assume it’s therapeutic?” Gigi said incredulously, and then her phone buzzed.
Her heart jumped into her throat.Grayson? Slate?But when Gigi looked down at her phone, it wasn’t either of them.
The phone calling her—it wasSavannah’s.
Chapter 81
LYRA
Lyra was going to kill someone if the waiting didn’t kill her first. The worst part, theveryworst part was that when Grayson had texted her, she’d had a chance to tell him not to do it. He’d given her that chance, but Lyra had known damn well that if it had been her family in danger, she wouldn’t have held back. If it had been her mom or her dad or Cooper, if Lyra had believed she hadanychance of saving them—she would have taken that chance.
That was who she was, and it was who Grayson was, too.
“Call,” Lyra said fiercely, staring at her phone. “Right damn now.”
As if the universe had no choice but to obey, the phone rang—but it wasn’t Grayson. Lyra almost rejected the call, but she knew her dad. He’d only keep calling. Keith Kane might have been a man of few words, but he was also a man of conviction—and seemingly endless patience.
He was herdad, so Lyra answered. “I’m alive and well and kind of in the middle of something, Dad.”
“Can’t say I’m shocked.”
Something in Lyra gave a little just hearing her dad’s steady, no-nonsense voice. Seconds passed in comfortable silence with neither oneof them saying a thing. Lyra’s mom was the type to fill silences, but Lyra and her dad had always been able to sit with them for a bit.
“You eating okay?” her dad said finally.
“Probably a few too many cupcakes.”
“No such thing.”
“How’s Mom?” Lyra asked after a moment.
“Tying herself in knots.”
“Plot hole?” Lyra guessed.
“Something like that.”
