Page 167 of What Remains

“What better way to draw a man back from the dead,” I say after a few quiet seconds pass, “than to endanger the one woman he died for in the first place.”

“Because of course I would come for you,” Julian rasps, drawing a hand through his dark hair. “I would never let you go to London when the bait was dropped for you. I would go myself.”

The truth was in front of us all this time, but we had a veil over our eyes and couldn’t see it.

“What do we do now?” My words are nothing more than a whisper as Easton squeezes my hand in support.

“What we won’t be doing is forgiving you,” Dad says flatly to Zoey. “You handed my daughter over to these people. Everything that’s happened since you told my wife to take Gwen out of the hotel is on you.” He stabs the air, his tone escalating from dry to ready to kill in the blink of an eye. “You let your desire for revenge cloud your judgment. You picked revenge for a dead man over those still alive and here—over people who cared about you—and placed them in danger.”

A quiver cuts across the line of Zoey’s mouth as she visibly trembles.

I hate her, but I also feel sorry for her. She lost the love of her life, and that hurled her into the deep end, where nothing remained but the ghost of him and their memories. She clung to her desire for retribution like a life raft, the only thing she had to hold on to to keep her going. But none of this changes the fact that Dad’s right.

“We need to find Molly as soon as possible so we can put all this behind us,” Easton says in an even-toned voice, pulling us all back to the task at hand.

“What do we do with Zoey in the meantime?” Hollis asks, eyes sharp on Zoey.

Now I know why Gideon and Tristan aren’t here. I don’t think they would have held back on unleashing their wrath on Zoey the way Julian and Hollis are able to. And thank goodness Zoey doesn’t even know Tristan exists, or we would have even more problems on our hands considering she ran her mouth to Molly about Julian.

“Zoey stays under guard for now,” Carter decides, jaw flexing. “We’ll deal with her later.” He turns toward me. “Molly can’t stay off grid forever. She’ll use the CCTV nuke to cover her tracks.”

“And when she does,” I murmur, “we’ll find her.”

CHAPTER 60

Easton

SINGAPORE - TWO DAYS LATER

“The fact we’re here . . . in this place of all places,” Gwen whispers, palm pressed to the window overlooking the skyline. “Either Molly knows we’re onto her, or she came here because she’s just that big of a see-you-next-Tuesday. I mean, forgive my language—but damn.”

I cross the hotel suite and rest my hand at the small of her back, inhaling her perfume. While I would rather we be on the coast of Italy, I’ll take anywhere in the world as long as it’s at her side, and she’s safe. Got the by-her-side part covered, and we’re on the verge of the safety part. Any minute now, in fact, and this nightmare will be over.

She leans into my touch and tips her head to rest on my shoulder. “This really feels like a full-circle thing. Julian saved Falcon from a plane crash here, and now . . .”

Right. I stare out the window at Singapore. From this height, the bay is like a dark mirror reflecting towers of light.

When she faces me, I follow suit, wasting no time to kiss her. We’ve yet to go beyond having a few stolen moments in the last forty-eight hours, but I’m dying to whisk her away when this mission is over. To take things slow—or fast, that’s always an option, too—and just be with her.

At the sound of a phone vibrating from a notification, her lips freeze against mine before she straightens and tilts her head in mild confusion. “That’s my mobile. Can’t be Carter. He’s supposed to call you when it’s go-time.” She grabs her phone from the nearby dresser, and a small smile crosses her lips. “Elaina texted. Checking in.”

“Is she still upset we kept her in the dark?” I ask as her fingers race over the screen to respond.

“She’s a teenager. She’s upset about a lot of things,” she says with a light laugh. “But she’s just relieved we’re all okay, and that Camila was able to help without consequences to her health.”

Thank God for that.

While I wait for her to wrap up texting, I go back to the window and set my hand on the glass. My eyes land on the brown and black leather bracelets. Gwen bought them from a pop-up shop on the street earlier. Pure impulse buy. I may not be a jewelry guy, but if it makes her happy, I’ll go to my grave wearing them. Just, not anytime soon.

I still have Constantine’s St. Michael medal, too. He insisted I keep it. Apparently, he told Juliette about it, which prompted her to call me yesterday, and we wound up having a pretty good talk about faith and forgiveness and all the things. She gave me a lot to think about. After all the evil I’ve seen in my lifetime—let’s just say I’ve decided to make the jump into believing what Juliette does, and I feel at peace with that.

“Annnnd now my mum’s blowing up my mobile,” Gwen grumbles. “She can wait.”

“She must be relieved your name has been cleared.”

Thankfully, POTUS and her grandfather moved fast in that department. They also resolved things with the Aussies, Brits, and Swiss without disclosing the truth about Falcon Falls or the president’s secret SEAL teams.

That leaves wrapping things up with Molly, who must know by now we didn’t die in Switzerland and her team failed in England. But she’s so arrogant and cocky, she thinks she’s safe from being found by us.