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Mia stared at the flowers suspiciously. Finally she leaned over, slid them onto her lap, and dug around the stems. She came up with a burner phone sealed in a Ziploc. She considered the bizarre sight for another few seconds.
Then she pulled the phone free and answered. “Hello?”
Evan had thought he’d never hear her voice again. Hearing it under these circumstances seemed a particularly nasty trick of fate.
He said, “Mia.”
He watched her magnified in the lenses. Her face contorted as if in a sob, but she made no noise. She pressed a knuckle to her mouth. Smoothed out her expression. When she spoke, her voice was steady. “Mr. Danger.”
“Sorry for the subterfuge.”
He had little choice. If the government discovered the connection between them, anyone else could as well. Every last enemy he’d made in every last country.
“Beats one of those singing get-well cards,” she said.
He watched her stroke the petals. Sensed the heaviness passing across the line, him to her, her to him. Outside of an operational setting, he’d rarely felt in sync with someone else like this.
“From what I’ve come to know of you,” she said, “you’d be here if you could.”
“Yes.”
“Hell or high water.”
“Yes.”
“For you not to be here …” She moved the phone from her face, covered her mouth. Her cheek was glittering. Deep breath. Phone back to face, her voice steady once again. “It would have to be something huge.”
“Yes.”
“Life or death.”
“Yes.”
“For you.”
“Yes.”
A long pause. “And potentially for me and Peter.”
“Yes.”
She was crying silently, privately, in breaks from their conversation. He gave her the time, tried to unknot the twisting in his chest. “After Roger died, my shrink warned me that I might gravitate toward unavailable men.” She was smiling now. “But, Evan? You really take the cake.”
A soft noise of amusement escaped him. For a moment they smiled together and apart.
She tilted her head to the ceiling to stop the welling tears. “Peter said you looked after him.”
“I tried.”
“Thank you,” Mia said.
He wasn’t sure how to reply.
She nodded a few times. “Okay,” she said. “See you around.”
She was waiting, but he couldn’t generate the right response. No matter how far he’d come, this was still beyond the scope of his training, his expertise, a language he didn’t speak fluently.
Lowering the phone to her lap, she severed the call.
