“What do you think he’s going to do?” I asked.
She shook her head. “How the hell should I know? I don’t even know who Bob Ackerman is anymore.” She held up the handwritten page. “I never did.”
“Sapphire, this isn’t on you.”
She folded the note carefully and put it back in the box. Then she shifted in her seat, angling her shoulder toward me and her face away.
I hated myself for lying to her. I pushed the speed up and reached for the UHF handset. “Koolaroo homestead, this is Kayden. Mitch, you on channel?”
Sapphire spun toward me. “What are you doing?”
The radio crackled. “Kayden, where the hell have you been? You okay?”
“I’m fine. Listen, I need you to get everyone together. Sapphire has found something you all need to hear.”
“What is it?”
“I’ll explain when we’re on the ground. Hey, has Bob been out to the property at all?”
“Bob? No. Why?”
“We’ll tell you when we get there. We’re about forty minutes out. Get everyone in the homestead, and we’ll need food. It’s going to be a long night.”
“Kayden—”
“Just do it, Mitch.”
A beat of silence followed on the other end. “You don’t sound fine.”
“I said I’m fine.”
“Okay. Okay. We’ll be ready. See you soon.”
“Over and out.” I clicked off and set the handset back.
Sapphire was watching me. Not angry exactly. Something more complicated than that.
“I’ll make sure we tell you everything, Sapphire. Okay?”
She turned back to the window without answering.
But she didn’t argue either. That was enough for now.
She slid the Chivas box off her lap onto the cabin floor between her boots and pulled her laptop out of her backpack in the same movement. I kept my mouth shut and let her work.
The countryside stayed black beneath us. I pushed the chopper to its limit and watched the GPS readout tick down through the kilometers to Koolaroo, trying not to think too hard about what was waiting at the dining table.
I’d never called a family meeting in my life. That had always been Mitch or Cassidy’s job. Frank had sometimes, on the rare occasions Frank had bothered. Tonight was different. Tonight, I wasn’t just calling a meeting. I was going to have to lead it, and if we were going to get through whatever was coming, we needed to work together. We needed Sapphire. She was sharp, and she missed nothing. She’d probably see things in those notes that none of us would.
The blue glow of the laptop lit her face from below as her fingers moved fast across the keys, the screen jittering against her legs with the vibration of the rotors. Each time something new flickered up, and she leaned in to read it, I thought she’d share it.
She didn’t.
She clicked through more screens. Stopped. Read. Her expression gave nothing away.
I clenched my jaw and kept quiet. I’d already done enough damage for one day.
Ten minutes to go on the GPS readout. It was going to be a long ten minutes.
