Page 48 of Crossed By the Stars
My stomach tightened at the thought of us on the news with our names twined. Not only must it be hurting his family but it was bringing this threat to his door. As if he knew I was doubting the wisdom of continuing to travel with him, Dax turned to me and said, “We’re leaving. You ready?”
I wasn’t ready at all. I felt the need to run, to hide away from every single person in the world that I cared about. Dawson… Violet… My throat closed.
“I want to talk with Violet and Dawson,” I said.
“One call, and then we leave the phones here,” Dax told me.
I looked at Cara and Cillian and said, “Can I have a moment with Dax, please?”
They exchanged a look and then left, taking our suitcases with them.
“I already know what you’re going to say,” Dax started with deep emotion in his voice. “You want me to stop demanding things and telling you what to do. Iamtrying, but I feel like…if I don’t push you, you’d just walk into the line of fire.”
“I’m not stupid or rash. Even though you keep insinuating it, I don’t have a death wish, and I certainly have no desire to commit suicide. I’ve been taking care of myself most of my life, and I don’t need you mansplaining to me the things I already know.”
He flicked the clasp on his watch.
“If I was ready to walk into the fire,” I continued, “I wouldn’t have agreed to go with you to Vanya’s.”
He nodded slightly.
I picked up my phone from the side table. I’d thought I was lucky it had been in the pocket of my workout pants when the penthouse had blown up, but now I would be leaving it behind anyway. It was a lifeline to the handful of people in my life I knew who truly cared about me. I wasn’t sure what I would do without it.
I dialed the satellite number I’d been using to contact my friends, and Vi picked up.
“Tell me you’re okay,” she said instead of hello.
“Bumps and bruises, but I may be arrested for murder if Armaud doesn’t ease up.”
“Not funny,” Violet said. “Not when you’re the one they’re trying to murder.”
Her voice shook on the last word, and my eyes stung with unshed tears.
“I’m okay,” I told her softly. “But we got another note today.”
“Another one? As in there was a first one? Before the bomb?” Dawson’s voice came through, and I realized I was on speaker on their end.
Violet’s voice rose an octave, “That’s why you were acting so weird! Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I didn’t want to ruin your honeymoon for nothing. I still don’t want to ruin your time together, but you have to be careful. This one said they’d come after Dawson if I don’t give them what they want in a week.”
Violet gasped, and Dawson mumbled a curse word.
“What do they want?” he asked.
“Me in a body bag.”
Only Violet’s sharply inhaled breath let me know they heard me, because there was silence on the other end.
After a long, painful moment, Dawson grunted out, “I contacted the FBI to have Malone call me, but they’re having trouble getting him a message with him deep undercover.”
Because my father was known for having men inside government agencies, Dawson had never fully trusted his FBI counterparts. The only person he’d truly put his faith in was Cruz Malone. Even to this day, he felt like someone had tipped them off that horrible night in New London.
“We’re leaving in just a few minutes,” I tried to reassure them. “They won’t be able to find me, but I’m…worried they’ll go looking for you in my absence.”
My voice shook, filled with emotions. I was more than worried. I was terrified. I loved these two people. They were everything to me. They’d given me more chances than I deserved. They’d believed in me even when I was at my very worst.
“We’ve loaded up the yacht with supplies and are heading out to the middle of nowhere. Even if they came for us, we’d see them coming,” Dawson responded as if he’d already known he’d be next on their list. Our past was finally catching up to us.
