I look down at the blister pack in Eli’s palm.
“Just an extra precaution,” the earl says.
I meet his gaze, then Bolan’s, as a tiny sliver of sadness slashes through me. “You … you don’t want kids? With me?”
“I’ll fuck as many kids into you as you want,” Bolan says, quietly fierce. “We all will.”
“Not me,” Eli says gently. “Not with the possibility of passing on the wasting sickness. But I will very happily raise all of our children.”
I glance between them both again. “But … not now.”
“It’s your choice, Mirth,” Bolan says. “But Eli’s research says that even on regular birth control, the intensity of the bond clicking in for all of us at once might, like … override it.” He glances at the earl.
“Yes. Perhaps nullify it,” Eli says.
I understand why Eli is sensitive to this subject, watching a parent waste away from an illness he might pass on genetically …so I take the blister pack from the earl, popping the first pill out and into my hand.
“Do you have our timeline all worked out in among your plans and paperwork, Earl?” I ask, trying for teasing but still feeling oddly sad. Or maybe disheartened.
“You don’t have to take it, Mirth,” Eli says a little stiffly. “But yes, I was thinking … five years.”
“Five years?”
He nods. “That will let the soul bond settle between us, and it will allow you to focus on Kitty and Tommy.”
My eyes snap up from the pill in my hand to meet the intensity of Eli’s gaze. “What have you uncovered?” I ask him, heart suddenly in my throat. “Their mother …?”
“Packed,” Bolan practically spits, dumping the rest of his coffee in the sink, then putting the mug in the dishwasher.
“Packed?” I echo, confused.
Eli sighs. “There is evidence that Gail Walsh received a large sum of money the afternoon before the kids were taken. She then transferred that sum into an account that she immediately drained and closed. She bought train tickets. With cash.”
“Two,” Bolan adds. “One adult, one kid. Coda caught Gail on camera at the bank and the train station while initially trying to track the kids.”
“According to Greg, who was at the apartment during that first search for the kids, Gail Walsh appears to have emptied her closet, plus packed a bag for Tommy,” Eli says. “The bag for Tommy was still there.”
I feel a little light-headed. “Kitty did say that Tommy wasn’t supposed to have been taken. But I still hoped … I hoped … maybe in the panic of it all, that the kids might have been mistaken about …” I shake my head, swallowing the rest of my useless words.
“I don’t think the payout was for Tommy,” Eli says, his cool tone only a thin veneer for the anger I can feel simmering underneath. “I think he got in the way. And whatever sniffer they sent to verify that Kitty was awry got a whiff of Tommy when he tried to get Kitty away from them. He was a late addition to the auction. Maybe the cage was set up for Kitty. Or maybe, as Christoph assessed, the plan was to … let her mature into her power before selling her.”
My stomach churns hopelessly even as I remind myself that we got to the kids …
“And their mother?”
“Used one of the tickets,” Bolan says caustically. “Then at one of the stations way before the destination, she got on a different train, then another without a ticket. Maybe she got her hands on other ID, or maybe she disguised herself so well that even Coda couldn’t keep track of her. But the trail is cold. For now. She’s gone. For now.”
I look at Eli. “Or … or someone already went after her …”
Eli frowns. “Why would they …” Then he puts it together. “First-generation awry blooded …”
“She passed it on to Kitty. Plus the cath palug shifter gene to Tommy. That makes her too valuable to just walk away.”
“Coda will keep looking,” Elias says.
Bolan rubs his brow. “The kids …”
“We should tell them,” I say quietly. “But … maybe we give it a little time?” I glance at Eli, then at Bolan. They both nod. “Let’s get settled at Lake Thun, but … before they head off to school. We should have more information by then. Or more clarity, at least. And if the elder Mertons are deeply involved in the Möbius Group, then having Isla dismantle it all from within might … give Coda more leads?”
