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When Maria releases her, I don’t miss the tears in her eyes, which she tries to wipe away before anyone can see.
Kavanagh gives Star a quick hug and a kiss on the cheek, then he and Zak walk Tommy out to the car while Roxanne says goodbye to Star.
“Star—”
“No goodbyes, Roxy. I don’t do goodbyes. Besides, you’re going to see me tomorrow.” Her voice falters on the last bit, and Roxanne steps forward, wrapping her up in a bone crushing hug and ignoring everything Star just said about goodbyes.
“This isn’t a goodbye. It’s a ‘catch you later’ hug. Jess and I do them all the time,” Roxanne says, trying to disguise her blatantly obvious ‘in case I never see you again’ goodbye as nothing more than a casual see ya. “Fuck. I’ve got to go. I love you, Star,” she whispers, and without waiting for a reply, she turns and walks away. She pauses at the door, as though she wants to say something, but Smithy speaks.
“With my life, Sarg,” he calls to her, and she continues out the door like he never said a word.
I kiss Maria and Star, then I offer Smithy my hand.
“Stay safe,” I tell him as he grips my hand.
Roxanne is waiting beside the bike with her helmet already in place and pacing like a caged animal. I check Zak and Kavanagh are set with Tommy in the back, who is now wearing a pair of sunglasses. From a distance, dressed as he is, he can easily pass for Star and that’s all we need.
I ignore Roxanne’s pacing and instead, pull on my own helmet, climb on and start the engine, revving it a couple of times while I wait for Roxanne to get on behind me.
As soon as she’s set, I shoot out of the garage and down the drive with Zak behind me. Ten minutes later, my cell rings, and I answer it through the Bluetooth.
“Did it work?”
“Like a dream. He’s three cars back. Connor is going in now to clear the way for Smithy and Star to leave.”
So far so good.
En route, Bowser calls to say that everything is set. He and Ripley will now wait for my call.
Roxanne is quiet all the way there, and I let her have this moment because I know how hard it must have been for her to say goodbye to her sister after only just getting her back.
When we said goodbye to Roxanne that night, I knew we’d see her again. Regardless of what Theo said, there was no way either of us could stay away. So, although we’ve been apart for ten years too, we at least knew she was alive. Roxanne has lived in limbo every day for the last ten years, following leads and even going to identify dead girls’ bodies if they matched Star’s description. Roxanne interrupts my train of thought.
“How much longer, Maddox, ‘cause I need to pee?”
“Another ten to fifteen minutes. Can you wait, or do you want me to find a garage?”
“I can wait. It will be safer.”
“You won’t want me to tell you about this beautiful waterfall that I read—”
“La, la, la, shut the hell up, shut the hell up.” There’s humour in her voice, and I’m satisfied that she’s okay.
Laskin is set to meet with Bonner later tonight, by which point Tommy will have made his call to Rogers about Bonner going behind his back and meeting Laskin. If it all plays out right, Rogers should turn up at the meet with Laskin and Bonner, and we’ll be there waiting too.
As for where James and Noah will be and what they’ll do, that’s an unknown entity just now. Which is a worry but short of calling Noah and risk blowing his cover, we just have to watch and wait.
ChapterTwenty-Seven
Roxy
We drop back and let Zak go ahead of us as we turn onto the small lane where the house is. The main reason being that they need to get Tommy in the house unseen by our little tail, and we don’t have the luxury of a connecting garage here.
My bladder is screaming blue fucking murder and there is a very real fear that I might piss myself if I don’t get to a toilet in the next five minutes.
Maddox slows almost to a stop, and I growl down the mouthpiece and fidget on my seat.
“Stop wriggling, Roxanne,” he growls back at me.
