Page 179 of Always: A Legacy Novel

Cross sat a bit straighter at that. “Sounds like my whole week just got a lot better.”

His step-father smirked. “Yeah, I thought it might.”

“When?”

“You’ll need to head out tomorrow night.”

Cross hesitated. “Head out to where, Cal?”

Calisto’s gaze darted fast to Cross, a warning flashing behind his familiar irises. Cross realized his mistake quickly enough, and corrected it.

“Boss,” he said.

“That’s better,” Calisto replied. “You’ll head to Chicago, but where Theo will want you to go with his guys after that is on him. All I know is he has a run that needs to be made from Chicago down deep into Mexico, and it’s all driving. They were going to use bribed eighteen-wheelers, but someone got word the officials are doing random stops for the next month on those. It’s a risk he doesn’t want to take, I guess. But they do have some backroad routes that will work, just not with vehicles that large.”

“Yeah,” Cross said, “I get that.”

“You don’t sound as excited as you did a minute ago.”

Cross blew out a breath. “How long am I going to be out of state?”

“As long as it takes. Two weeks, maybe three. The guns are supposed to get into Chicago by the end of the week, and they need to be unpacked, checked, repacked up, transferred over into whatever he’s supplying to run them, and driven to the drop. Theo wants my guy in Chicago leading up to it, so he’s got the rundown on everything that’s happening, and the rules to follow. The run will depend on a lot of things, but I know he will want them moving fast once it starts.”

He still stayed silent.

“What is it?” Calisto asked.

Cross cleared his throat. “Catherine’s eighteenth birthday is the first week of April. If the run lasts three weeks, I’m going to miss it.”

“It’s one birthday, and there will be many more.”

Yeah, except he also hadn’t left Catherine on her own for … shit, the summer, fall, winter, and now going into spring. He didn’t want to up and go, only to push his girl into some kind of relapse of her old behavior. Sure, he worked a lot, she had school, and that kept them at a distance sometimes, but he dropped everything—when he could—when she called.

She was doing fine.

He wanted her to keep being fine.

Wolf glanced up from the cash in his hands. “Cross, this is something you’ve wanted to do since you were twelve, and you finally understood what gunrunning essentially was. Explain to me why you’re sitting there like you actually have to consider whether it’s a good move for you or not because of a girl. Thank your father—your boss—who offered his unmade man to be in on something like this, and go book your fucking ticket before I shove my boot up your ass.”

Calisto hid his smile with the rim of his cup. “He makes a good point. This is a door opening, Cross, you’re supposed to take it. Remember?”

“Yeah, I know.”

“So take it.”

“Catherine is going to be a little late today,” Cross said into the phone.

“I beg your pardon?”

Dante did not sound pleased.

Cross tried to keep his attitude in check, but it was hard. “Catherine won’t be home right after school, and I wanted to give you a heads up about it.”

“Why?”

“I’m heading out of state for a bit—maybe three weeks or so. I have to leave in a couple of hours. Figured she might like to drive me to the airport.”

Dante was quiet for a long while before he asked, “For your father?”