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Nineteen
Aria didone last search around the living room and then headed to the terrace to make sure she hadn’t forgotten anything. She paused for a second at the edge, taking in the sea extending into the distance like a brilliant bluecarpet.
Any melancholy she felt was attributed to her leaving. She owed Locke forthat.
She’d expected Greece to be fraught with psychological danger. Had expected to experience at least some residual PTSD from her imprisonment inAthens.
Instead, Kythnos had been a peaceful and healing refuge, so different from the apartment where she’d been held in Athens that she hadn’t experienced a moment of fear orsorrow.
The weeks when she’d been separated from Damian, when she’d wondered if she would ever see him again, felt a lifetime away, separated by more than the water between the mainland and the island that had been their home for the pastweek.
She’d spent hours on the terrace working on the computer, taking breaks to lift her face to the ocean breeze. She’d grown used to the sun, the calm waters of the Mediterranean caressing her body when she swam. It had been what she needed — and not just because Damian had killed StefanoAnastos.
“Goteverything?”
She turned to find Nora walking out onto the patio, her black bikini visible through a sheer cover-up.
“I think so,” Aria said. “When will Braden gethere?”
They’d gotten word the night before that Braden had finished his mission in Algeria. Locke had insisted he make a stop in Greece while Nora was there so they could take advantage of the empty house onKythnos.
Nora hadn’t put up a fight. Her face had taken on a whole new level of luminescence since she’d gotten the news that Braden was on hisway.
“Later today, I think,” Norasaid.
Aria grinned. “Havefun.”
“Oh, I intend to,” Nora said. She stepped closer to Aria. “I’m really going to missyou.”
“I’m going to miss you,too.”
Aria realized how much she meant it as Nora wrapped her in a warm embrace. She would miss Nora’s straight talk and wit, the strength that emanated from her like an electromagneticfield.
Nora pulled back to look at her. “You’re going to beokay.”
For the first time in a while, Aria believedit.
She drew in a breath. “I know. Thankyou.”
Nora met her gaze. “Tellhim.”
Aria nodded, thinking about the baby growing inside her. “Iwill.”
But notyet.
Nora laughed. “And then text me or something to let me know how itgoes.”
Aria smiled. “You’ll be the first toknow.”
“Good,” Nora said. “And if you ever get tired of dirt and noise, come to LaJolla.”
Aria scoffed. “If you ever get tired of smog and tofu, come to NewYork.”
They bothlaughed.
Nora was yet another new person in her orbit, another welcome and unexpected consequence of her love for Damian and his association with theSyndicate.
She was only now beginning to realize how isolated she’d been with Primo. It would be easy to blame it on him, on his business, but she had slowly started to see the ways she’d kept people at bay, too. She’d built up walls around herself to avoid being hurt, to avoid beingvulnerable.
