The woman silently glides past us on her way to close the door behind us, though I don’t miss the way her gaze immediately snakes over my belly.
A chill runs through me, and I cover my stomach with my hand, as if to hide my baby from her gaze, as if she can see him already. Quickly, she returns to her place behind Kendra.
“So what are you doing here?” Kendra asks. “It’s been, what, seven years?”
“Give or take.” The way Nolan says it makes it seem as if he wishes it were longer.
Kendra must sense his discomfort in being here because her eyes narrow, though more in amusement than anything else.
She glances down at my finger, where my wedding band glints in the low light.
“So I take it this is a business-only trip,” she says, and my stomach turns over.
“As our trips have always been,” says my husband through gritted teeth, which I must admit, does make me feel some better. “You do still manage business, do you not?”
“Depends on whether I like the assignment.”
“And by that, you mean how much the client is willing to pay,” says Maddox.
Kendra flashes him a grin—one that tells me she rather enjoys looking at him.
“Well, you’ve never been short on coin, that’s for sure,” she says, glancing at Nolan. “So what will it be?”
“My wife, Wendy, is with child,” says Nolan.
“Ah, so you need me to make her disappear,” says Kendra, leaning over slightly to write something on a notepad on her desk. “Yes, I’m sure I have a safe house I can arrange. One where you won’t have to worry about enemies kidnapping your beloved or your child. It’s rather nice too. On a beach. You’ll like it,” she says, glancing up at me. Where I expect disdain in her eyes, there is only practicality.
“It’s not Wendy who needs to disappear,” says Nolan.
There’s a scrape—the sharp edge of a quill against parchment. Kendra blinks, then slowly looks up at Nolan before glancing between the two of us.
“Well, this is new,” she says, scratching out what she’s already written. “I’m afraid I’ll need more details.” With that, she leans back again and crosses her arms, though this time, the posture appears more wary than confident.
“Once my wife gives birth,” says Nolan, “the child and I will need to disappear.”
Kendra’s tongue sticks out the side of her mouth, ever so slightly pinched between her teeth. Again, she glances at me. “How often are you hoping to visit your husband and child?”
A needle pierces my gut at the question, and my mouth goes dry. I fight the urge not to stare at the ground as I say, “They need to disappear from me, too.”
Kendra looks back at the silver-haired woman behind her, then back at us. Her easygoing nature has disappeared, replaced by a tension in her shoulders.
“You must understand this is quite an odd request,” she says.
“But you can have it done,” says Nolan. “You can make it happen.”
“Icouldmake it happen,” Kendra corrects, “with more information to help me make my decision about whether I want to make this happen.”
“If you can make it happen,” says Nolan, “I don’t understand what the difference is. It’s not really your business to deal in details, is it? Just to perform the service?”
Kendra taps her quill against the parchment, marring it with ink splotches.
“Yes, well,” she says, “it is also imperative to my business that I remain alive to operate it. And when the world’s foremost privateer asks me to make him disappear rather than his wife… You understand why I must ask questions. Whoever’s after you, I don’t particularly want coming after me.”
“Please,” I say. “Please. We have money.”
“Again,” says Kendra, “I’m told that coin doesn’t hold much worth in the afterlife.”
Nolan and I glance at each other. If Kendra is worried for her life, there seems little chance that once she discovers the truth of who we’re running from, she’ll be all that eager to help.
