“Let’s talk about this.”
She doesn’t blink as she cocks the gun.
I move fast and grip the wrist of her shooting hand as I pull her against me, the gun now pointed away from us.
“I’ll take you,” I say at last, my nose inches from hers. “But we do it my way, and you won’t ever pull this shit on me again. After everything you put me through, I deserve better than a gun barrel pointed at my face.”
I let her go and walk away, then turn back, soaking her in. “And we’re going to talk on the way up there.”
She lowers the gun and shoves it back into her waistband. “It’s a long drive. I figured we’d talk. I have to call my job.”
She pushes her fingers through her long, dark hair and hurries to the side of the bed to pick up a cordless phone straight from the nineties.
She dials a number and waits for someone to answer.
“Hey, Chad, it’s Ally. Is Margie in? I was hoping to catch her. She’s not? Okay. Well, I’ve had a family emergency. I need to leave for a couple of days.” Her eyes well up again, and it tears at my heart. “Yeah, a death. I know we’re already shorthanded, and I hate to do this to you. I know. Family first.”
She lowers the phone from her mouth and wipes at a tear.
“Thank you, Chad. Really. I’ll call you if I’ll be out more than two or three days. Okay. Bye.”
She hangs up, and I can’t stand it anymore. I cross to her and gently pull her to me.
Elena’s arms immediately encircle my middle, and she buries her gorgeous face in my chest, allowing herself a good cry.
I rock us back and forth, rubbing circles over her back and crooning to her.
“It’s going to be okay, sweetheart.”
She’s got a death-grip on my shirt, and her tears rip at my heart. She’s clearly hurting, and the only way to help her feel better is to drive her to Seattle.
So it looks like that’s what we’ll do.
“I wish we’d left last night,” she says from the passenger seat, staring out at the pretty Oregon scenery.
“We both needed the sleep,” I remind her. She slept hard. I offered to take the couch, but she said that was silly and offered half of the bed.
I took it.
I only touched her once when she whimpered in her sleep, and I reached over to rub her back.
Now that I’ve found her, there’s plenty of time for the rest of it. I don’t even know how she feels about seeing me again. But she didn’t turn me away, and I’ll take that as a win.
“The funeral is tomorrow at two in the afternoon,” she says. “At least, that’s what the news said.”
“I can do a search to confirm it,” I reply. “But you can’t go in there like this.”
“Of course, not. I’ll buy a wig and wear sunglasses.”
I glance at her and scowl. “You might as well wear a neon sign that says, This is Elena, hiding from all of you.”
“Well, what do you suggest I do?”
“I’ve got this.” I reach for my phone and dial my baby sister’s number.
“I haven’t talked to you in weeks,” Amelia says rather than hello. “Where are you?”
“In my car. Hey, I have a special project for you.”
Elena grips my arm, and her eyes look panicked. She hisses, “No! Don’t drag your family into this!”
“Trust me,” I whisper.
“Who are you whispering to? What’s going on, Archer?” Lia demands.
“I have someone with me who needs a disguise.”
“Between you and Levi, I should go into the camouflage business. What do you need?”
“She can’t look anything like herself. She’s going to a place where if she’s recognized, it could mean her life.”
Lia’s quiet for a moment. “Archer, did you find Elena?”
I smile. “Yeah.”
“Oh, my God. This is so exciting. Is she with you? Can she hear me?”
“I can hear you,” Elena says softly.
“Elena! We’ve missed you so much. Don’t you worry, I’ll make you look so different, even Archer won’t recognize you.”
“I’ll always recognize her,” I say and link my hand with Elena’s, holding on even when she tries to pull away.
She won’t be pulling away from me again.
“You can’t tell anyone,” Elena says, her voice laced with urgency. “This has to be absolutely secret, Lia. Please.”
“I understand. Mum’s the word. When do you need me? I have to get some supplies. Are you still the same size?”
Elena and Lia discuss the specifics, and once I’ve hung up with my sister, Elena bites her lip, looking unsure.
“Talk to me.”
“This is a bad idea,” she says at last. “What am I doing? I’ve been safe in Bandon for years. And now you and your family know where I am, and I’m walking right into the lion’s den tomorrow. My grandmother would be so pissed.”
“You love her,” I remind her. “And you’re allowed to go to your own grandmother’s funeral. You’re allowed to grieve and be a human being, Elena. Besides, I know where you are, but my family doesn’t. And Amelia isn’t a snitch.”
“I know better than this.”
“What are you afraid of?”
She laughs, but it’s humorless. “Well, worst-case scenario? You and I are both killed.”
“That feels extreme.”
“You don’t get it. I’m the daughter of a mob boss, Archer.”
“A dead mob boss.” I glance at her and see her bite her lip again. “And I never got it because you always refused to explain it to me, E.”
“Doesn’t matter that he’s dead.” She shakes her head. “I have responsibilities that I walked away from. There will be punishment for that. Grandmother warned me.”
“Your father is dead. Who the hell would punish you?”
“Murdered,” she agrees. “But it doesn’t change the fact that I walked away from the family. That’s not okay. I knew I’d have to go back one day, I’m just not ready. And any one of them could punish me for leaving.”
I take a deep breath and decide that now’s as good a time as any to ask some hard questions.
“Anastasia told me the real reason why you broke things off.”
And learning that it was because her father had threatened my life was enough to almost destroy me.
“I wish she hadn’t done that.”
“So you’d rather I never knew the truth? That I remain clueless? I felt like a fucking fool, E.”
“I’d rather you be safe,” she stresses. “Your safety was always the goal. My father didn’t hand out idle threats, Archer. There was no way in hell I was going to allow him to harm you. So, I did what he asked.”
“And you never came to find me when he died.”
“You don’t get it.” She growls in frustration. “My father made it clear to everyone that if you came around again, looking for me, that you were to be taken care of. That directive didn’t die with him.”