Endgame Novella #2 Read Free

this?”
    â€œHe’s worried about you, Declan. He thought maybe you needed some time away, a rest—”
    â€œI know what he thinks,” Declan snaps. His father wants to send him back to the old country, for what he calls rehabilitation. But Declan has heard stories of the isolated camp in the Alps where faithless members of the line are sent. None of them ever come back. “He thinks I’ve lost my mind.”
    â€œYou’re not exactly sounding like a beacon of sanity right now, honey.”
    â€œEndgame is a lie, Lorelei. You know that.”
    â€œI know you believe that.”
    With those words, he knows he’s lost her.
    â€œCan we take a little time?” she asks. “Sleep on it, maybe talk more in the morning?”
    Declan gazes at her, this woman to whom he’s sworn his lifelong love. The woman he fell in love with the first time he saw her, hunched over a book in an uptown branch of the New York Public Library, strands of hair curling over her face. “Of course we can,” he tells her. “We can talk about it as much as you want. You’re right, we shouldn’t make a rash decision. We won’t do anything until we both agree it’s the right thing to do.”
    â€œYou promise?”
    He kisses her, takes her in his arms, and holds on like she’s a buoy in rough seas, the only thing that can keep him from drowning. “Ipromise,” he tells her.
    Then he waits for her to fall back asleep, and kidnaps their daughter.
    He tells himself it can’t be kidnapping, because Aisling belongs to him as much as she belongs to her mother.
    But he knows better.
    Declan drives all night with Aisling sleeping in the backseat. They can’t leave the country yet, not until he puts together a fake passport for the baby. But he can at least put as much distance as possible between himself and his family. He hears the Amber Alert on the radio, but by that time he’s ditched the car for a hot-wired Pontiac and is halfway to North Carolina. When he’s too exhausted to keep his eyes open, he checks them into a motel, paying in cash. He’s taken $5,000 from the safe at the back of the closet, which should get them through the first few hurdles of the journey. Declan has accounts in banks all over the world, accounts that Lorelei doesn’t know about, and he supposes he should feel proud of himself that he’s so prepared. But he’s not proud, only profoundly sad that he’s so good at keeping secrets from the woman he loves. This is exactly the life he doesn’t want for Aisling.
    He never wants her to learn not to trust.
    He plays with Aisling on the dingy motel carpet while the press conference plays on TV in the background. Lorelei has wasted no time calling the cops on him. He can’t blame her.
    He’s glad of it, actually, because he knows the High Council would prefer to conduct their search in secret. Having police bumbling around and getting in their way will only help Declan.
    Still, he can’t stand to hear the pain in Lorelei’s voice.
    â€œPlease, Declan, bring her home,” she says, before a crowd of eager reporters. Aisling looks up at the sound of her mother’s voice, reaching eagerly for the TV screen. “We can figure this out together, if you just bring her home.”
    He wonders what she’s told the police. Probably that her husband’sgone off his rocker.
    He hasn’t given up on her yet. Now that she knows he’s serious, maybe she can still be convinced.
    Declan gathers Aisling to his chest, trying to soothe her to sleep. He lets his eyes close, and he dreams of Lorelei’s tears.
    His training taught him to get by on only a few hours of sleep, so it’s not long before they’re on the road again. Declan has a contact in West Virginia who’s more than happy to make the baby a new passport, for the right price. While he’s waiting for it to be ready,