“Okay, go ahead,” Jace said as he stepped back, aiming the gun at Nolan. Thankfully the safety was still on and Jace’s finger was a mile from the trigger, but still…
Nolan nodded and withdrew his phone from his pocket. He speed dialed their command center and put it on speakerphone.
“What the hell did you get yourself into?” Jordan asked immediately. It would be obvious since he wasn’t using his comms that other people were likely listening in. So the boss was careful not to give too much away.
“Laurel’s apartment. Want to say hi?”
James broke in, talking a million miles an hour, without much more training than his sister or Jace. “Seriously? You’re not fucking with me right now, are you? That would be an awful joke, even for you, Good Hair.”
Laurel snorted at the nickname, and Nolan frowned, resetting his do into its place. Hey, no one could blame him if it was a little unkempt after the night he’d had so far. “See for yourself.”
Nolan tapped the camera button, then turned the phone so James could see Laurel and she could see him. Instantly, her face softened. Could she recognize his trademark bright green eyes as easily as Nolan had spotted hers, even at night?
“Is it really you, James?” Laurel asked, stepping closer as if she wanted to hug the phone to her heart.
“Yeah. Yeah, it’s me.” He burst into tears even when Laurel managed to hold it together. Jordan was there with his strong hand on James’s back. “I’ve waited so many years for this moment. Are you okay? Where have you been? Can I help you at all? Please, let me make up for all the time I didn’t know….” James hiccupped. “I didn’t know.”
“Where are you?” Laurel asked.
“Nolan will bring you here,” James promised. “You can have faith in anything he tells you. He’s one of the good guys. I swear on your doll with the floofy blue dress and blond hair that you gave me when you saw how much I loved it. I still have it, you know. I kept it for you.”
Laurel shocked Nolan when she motioned for him to stand, caution evaporating, as if she couldn’t wait another second after being separated from her little brother for decades. “Let’s go.”
“Pack a bag,” Nolan told her. “Your essentials, in case you decide to stay for a bit. It’s about a four- or five-hour drive from here.”
She looked to Jace. “You’re coming too, right?”
“Do you really have to ask?” He laced their fingers, cementing their relationship in Nolan’s mind. “I’m not about to make the same mistake twice in one night. I’m with you.”
Nolan sighed. What would it be like to have that kind of commitment? That kind of connection?
Someday he hoped to find out, but discovering the right pair of people to make his wildest dreams come true seemed about as unlikely as James being reunited with his long-lost sister instead of finding out that she hadn’t made it or—maybe even worse—never knowing what had happened to her.
Except, that was about to go down.
Maybe sometimes miracles could be real.
5
Laurel tapped her foot on the floorboard. The repetitive motion wasn’t enough to get rid of the nervous energy making it tough to draw in a full breath. It had been this way since they’d left their apartment, the only safe haven she’d ever known.
They flew through the dead of night in a black SUV with tinted windows. Even if they weren’t in the middle of fucking nowhere, she doubted she’d be able to see much except for the pinprick starbursts of occasional passing headlights.
Jace scooted closer from where he sat beside her, Dottie’s cage taking up the far side of the bench seat. He looped his arm around her shoulders and drew her to him so he could murmur in her ear. “You okay? I’ll have them take us home or drop us off at a motel somewhere if you want to think more about this.”
They’d been driving for hours already. Out of the industrial city perched on a polluted river not too close to the town she’d grown up in. It was the first time she’d been beyond its limits since Draven had imported her there. Even so, she’d been surprised when they’d turned onto the highway in the opposite direction from her hometown. Apparently James had moved west and that’s where they were headed. There had been plenty of time—far too much, honestly—to mull over whether or not she was making a giant mistake.
Nolan didn’t interrupt Jace or try to persuade him to stay the course. The woman with long brown hair swept into a tight ponytail and bright red lips who was driving, Sola, didn’t so much as tap her brakes, but Laurel was sure they were listening for her response as eagerly as Jace.
Deep down, she believed if she told them that’s what she’d chosen, they’d do it. And that made the decision for her.
“No. I want to see my brother. I’m just…anxious.” Laurel didn’t whisper. She couldn’t say why, but she wanted Nolan’s opinion on the matter. He seemed to know James pretty well, and there was something about him that fascinated her. His massive hands were capable of snapping her neck like a twig. He could have killed her earlier. Could have fought back when Jace jumped him. Could have turned the tables on them in their kitchen and done whatever he liked, she was sure of it.
The cut muscles of his core had rippled against her as he’d detained her firmly, but not roughly, and ushered her into the woods. At the time, she’d been terrified. Now she was curious about the kind of man who would do what he did. Stand up for what was right, even at the risk of his own safety. Against all odds, she wanted to have faith in him. Hope that there could be people that good and selfless—not to mention drop-dead gorgeous—in the world.
Which made him lethally dangerous to her.
Laurel had learned a long time ago not to let anyone sneak below her radar, especially not when they seemed to be doing her a favor, because the price was always greater than she cared to pay in the long run. Well, it had been with everyone but Jace. Their relationship was more reciprocal and, while completely fucked up, the closest thing she’d ever had to normal.
Peering at her in the darkness, he took her hand in his and chafed it. “What are you scared of?”
“What if I’m not what James expects?” She sighed. “It’s been so long. I’m sure as hell not some naive girl anymore.”
“You’re right, you’re not. You’ve been through enough to know that if he doesn’t see you’re a badass survivor, he doesn’t deserve a place in your life, not even for a second to catch up. You say the word and we’ll bail.”
She nodded, then leaned on Jace, like she always did. The smell of his faux-leather coat reassured her, and she nuzzled his neck. Half of her wished they’d never seen that news report earlier while the other part remained optimistic that this could be the change they’d both been looking for lately. It had taken everything they’d had to scrape out of the pit they’d been thrown into as kids.
Somehow though, they’d done it. They’d endured, evolved, paid their way from under the phony debts Draven claimed they owed, then started putting together a new life. Hell, they hadn’t had their electricity turned off in a couple years at least, and they even had a bit of savings for emergencies.