Wolf nodded. “He pulled the Harvest’s GPS system, its radio, and the emergency location broadcaster. We will dump all three once we have deployed Capland’s LFTs and fly away from the gravesite. Then continue to Pinnacles National Park to drop our passengers off.”
O’Neill relaxed. The trawler’s original heading was miles from where it was now...where it would sink. Without a guidance beacon, nobody would find her.
Cosky glanced at him as silence fell again. “I hear you picked up a daughter.”
O’Neill’s eyebrows rose. “Her name is Gracie. You talk as if I purchased her from Walmart or some shit.”
He didn’t ask how the squid had found out. Since Rawlings had already figured it out and had quite the mouth on him, everybody on base probably knew about his relationship with Muriel and Gracie by now.
Simcosky hesitated, “Sorry about the other kid—the boy.”
Daniel...he was talking about Daniel. O’Neill’s son. His dead son.
O’Neill froze. It shouldn’t hurt. He hadn’t known the youngling, not really. Everything he knew about the boy, he’d learned secondhand—through other eyes, other ears, and other memories.
Yet still, the ache remained, throbbed through his chest in time to his heart.
It was the ache of loss: of lost possibilities, lost potential, lost chances. Not as intense as Muriel and Gracie’s grief. But sorrow all the same. One he could not lose himself in.
Not when he had a daughter waiting for him...counting on him. Offering him a second chance.
Day 37
Shadow Mountain Base, Alaska
Wolf pulled his cell phone from his tactical pants and grimaced.Anistaablazed across the screen. Apparently, she had tapped into the early bird grape vine and knew the Chinook had set down. He looked at the clock on his phone. 4:00 am. He frowned. This was early, even for her.
He was tired, hungry, and desperately in need of a shower. Even more in need of sleep. His finger hovered over the dismiss icon. But he couldn’t force himself to push it. With a deep, shuddering sigh, he accepted the call and lifted the phone to his ear. She was hisanistaa.He’d never ignored her summons before. He would not start now.
“Ho'cee!”She called, her voice sharp. “Come now.Hurry!” The line went dead.
Wolf broke into a jog while fumbling with his phone.Come? Come where?She’d given no location! He called back, but the ring went on and on. He grabbed the first elevator and got off at level three—the interim lodging level. It was early morning. Very early. Likely she was still in the quarters he’d assigned her.
Which proved to be the correct assumption. She yanked the door open at his first knock. He scanned her quickly. Rumpled hair, rumpled bathrobe, eyes with sleep crusted in the corners. Her face was...sly? Her eyes...satisfied...?
Odd. What was she up to?
“What’s wrong?” The question verged on a demand. Hisanistaawas not one to face company, even her son, in such a rumpled state. He looked over her shoulder, but hisanistaawas alone in the room. “Where is Jillian?”
Her lips quirked and her face folded into lines of gratification. “There is something you must see. With your own eyes.”
Turning, her bathrobe flapping behind her, she hurried down the hall, her slippered feet swishing against the carpet. Wolf followed, his heart thundering in his ears, his breath a fist in his throat. Hisanistaadid not appear distressed, but to call so early and demand his presence...something must have happened.
What had changed since four days earlier, when he last sat at their table? Jillian had seemed more aware, more engaged, willing to take the initiative. She bathed without asking, ate without asking. Had her progress reversed?
He caught up with hisanistaabefore the first bedroom, grasped her elbow, and drew her to a halt. “Tell me. What is wrong with Jillian?”
Hisanistaapivoted to watch his face. Her expression regal with a touch of frost.
“It is best you see for yourself.” The bedroom door was already open a crack; she nudged it even wider. “So, you cannot claim I lied to you.”
Lied to her...what in shadow’s name was she—
The hall light slanted across the room, washing the bed in golden radiance. His mind froze as his gaze fell on the two figures curled together in the bed. Not one, but two.
One human.
The other…not.
