Page 44 of The Hijack

“I won’t,” she promised. “You have my word.”

“Then I won’t put a tracking device on you,” I teased.

She smiled. “You couldn’t even if you tried.”

“I know,” I responded, leaning over to give her a kiss.

She wasn’t particularly warm, but she didn’t push me away. I knew that by “morning,” she likely meant two or three a.m., so any kind of restful sleep was out of the question. But I hoped she would allow me to hold her, even if there were no romantic overtones. I could tell that she desperately needed reassurance, if only she would allow herself to receive it.

I left the room, hoping I would see her again.

Chapter 22

Theo

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CLARK DID WAIT FOR me. We slept together in the guest bed above the kitchen for a few short hours before leaving for good. I went to wake Nana up for a goodbye kiss and found her sitting on the porch, drinking in the cool night air.

“You really don’t sleep,” I exclaimed.

“Old age isn’t for the faint of heart,” she assured me.

Standing up, she circled me in a tender hug. I kissed her cheek, promising to come back and find her when it was all over.

“Don’t,” she said. “I’d prefer to stay hidden. I’m not the kind of grandma that comes around every Christmas for dinner.”

“I know that,” I said. “But will I ever see you again?”

“Maybe,” she responded. “But let me reach out to you.”

“But it could be dangerous up here on your own,” I argued, not wanting to lose the family connection I had just found.

“I have George,” she said, patting me on the forearm. “And at least a dozen people on the island who care about me. They don’t know my secrets, but they’ll take care of me in the event of a normal emergency.”

“What if New Dawn finds you?” Clark asked.

I sent her an angry look, which she met with resistance. She was right to ask the question, and I knew it, but it still wasn’t something I wanted to contemplate.

“I have George,” Nana repeated. “And I still have a few tricks up my sleeves.”

We wasted a few more precious seconds debating whether to leave her or not. Clark stood at the top of the stairs, giving me all the time I needed. She had made her peace with our journey but knew that I still had reservations.

“Go,” Nana said. “You’re burning dawn.”

We walked out to the pier where George had roped off another boat. It wasn’t nearly as big and expensive as Nana’s boat, but it would do. We climbed in and drove off to Viti Levu, the Fijian island that housed the international airport. We booked travel as two unaffiliated businesspeople, me on my fake passport and Clark on hers. The passports were provided by Nana, one of the tricks she still had up her sleeve.

As soon as we hit the airport, we stopped talking to each other. I drifted over to one side of the gate, and she took up residence on the other. I noticed her sipping a coffee and wondered where she had found the funds. Perhaps she’d just taken it and walked off, giving the appearance that the drink belonged to her. I considered doing the same thing but decided not to chance it. A single woman was much less likely to arouse suspicion than a single man.

We got on the plane and sat five rows apart from each other. Clark didn’t even look back. She was so practiced in the art of subterfuge that even I thought we were strangers.

The plane touched down at JFK, and we reconvened outside the airport. On American soil, all bets were off, and we didn’t have to bluff our way through immigration anymore. I gave her a hot kiss right before we stole a car and jetted off north to her family’s home.

We arrived at night, tired, hungry, and sweaty. I wanted a shower first and a meal second, but both of those things had to wait until we determined whether the Abernathy estate was a safe place to land.

Clark pulled right up to the front door and past it to a hidden garage. She stashed the car along with a dozen others, probably more than half of them stolen. We hiked back to the main building where Lukas, Z, and Jasmine were waiting for us.

Clark hugged Z, and tears flowed.