Page 127 of Play With Me
Nora’s eyes go wide. “We have to get it!” she says between her teeth.
I glance to the chopper, where Griff is leaning out, throwing his hand up at me.
“No time,” I tell Nora. I hold a finger up at Griff, then scan the crowd of women. I don’t see the one I’m looking for.
“Where is the sister with the face like this?” I ask Carolina, scrunching my expression up like an angry raisin.
Carolina pinches her lips. “Sister Ada. I am sorry if she was unkind to you.”
“Nah. She was fine.”
“She’s probably tidying something—she likes to clean better than she likes people.”
“Well, that’s perfect. If she tidies our room, tell her I left her a little present, would you? It might have rolled under the bed.”
Carolina is confused, but readily agrees. “I will.”
Nora’s looking at me with her whole jaw unhinged.
I grin. “Maybe it’ll soften the sourpuss up a little!”
Nora closes her mouth, but I can tell she’s trying not to laugh.
Griff shouts something I can’t hear, but clearly means get the hell on the chopper.
“Thank you!” we call to the sisters as we trudge through the snow to the bird. They all wave and shout their goodbyes.
When we get inside, Griff closes the door and hands us a pair of headsets, which we pull on. “Buckle up.” His voice is crackly over the speaker.
Nora hands him her camera while she gets everything on; he holds it like he might a newborn baby, which is to say like he’s afraid it might poop on him.
“Thanks for coming,” I say once we’re all settled. “It wasn’t necessary, but thanks.”
“It was necessary.” He points to a lump in the snow down below. The sisters are filing back into the convent, looking very tiny now as we rise fast.
“Shit.” He’s right. What would we have done if he hadn’t come to rescue us?
“It’s all right,” Nora says. “Farrah would have waited with Cap back at the hotel.”
She’s read my mind, of course. I feel like an idiot, but Nora’s hand slides over mine. “It was me who wanted to go just as badly as you.”
“And I gave you the information and didn’t warn you off of going. So quit blaming yourself for everything, brother,” Griff says, his voice hard enough that it doesn’t make sense to argue.
I run my hand over my hair. “The car’s a rental.”
“We’ll take care of it.”
I really don’t know what I’d do without Griffin. He’s so rarely around, but when he is, he just…takes care of shit. It’s hard to believe we’re related sometimes.
I nod a thanks, deciding not to question it.
“Where’s your guy?” Nora asks a few minutes later, her lens back on her camera.
“He’s in a safe place,” Griff says. “Classified.”
“They know about Plimpton?” a fourth voice chimes in. The pilot.
“They’re family,” Griff says. “You trust your family with your life, remember?”
