Page 180 of Always: A Legacy Novel

“Kind of, but it’s uh, more for the Chicago syndicate. A trip down to the other side of Mexico.”

“I see. Well, she has her Lexus today.”

“Yeah, I had someone drop me off and take the Rover to my apartment, anyway.”

“All right, then.”

“Thanks,” Cross said, pulling the phone away to hang up.

“Pardon?” he heard asked.

Cross put the phone up to his ear again. “I said thank you.”

“There is a first time for everything, then. Have a safe trip, Cross.”

“I’ll try.”

“And make sure if you miss her birthday—you did say three weeks was a possibility—that you make it up to her,” Dante warned.

“Of course.”

Cross hung up the phone, and leaned against the hood of Catherine’s matte black Lexus. He watched the front entrance of the Academy’s upper school, waiting for that final bell. It finally rang ten minutes later, and shortly after, he caught sight of familiar dark hair and green eyes coming his way.

Catherine grinned at the sight of Cross, and didn’t hesitate to jump into his embrace the first chance she got. He turned them both around to sit her ass on the hood, tugging her bag off her shoulder and stealing a kiss at the same time.

“What are you doing here?”

“Something came up,” he said with a shrug. “I didn’t have much of a choice but to come, or I wouldn’t see you at all.”

Catherine frowned. “What? Why do you have a duffle bag on the ground?”

Cross didn’t answer her questions, instead asking, “Where’s your keys?”

“You want to drive my car?”

“Sure.”

Catherine handed the keys over, and Cross helped her off the hood. Once they were both inside the car and on the road, he started to explain what was going on when she realized they were heading in the opposite direction of her home.

“I have to head out of state for a couple of weeks, but maybe a little longer. A job came up, and it’s something I can’t say no to right now. I figured since my plane is going to be leaving tonight, and I need to be at the airport like three hours early just to get through security in time, you could go with me and drive yourself back.”

“A little longer?”

Cross sighed. “That’s all you heard in that, huh?”

“Well … yeah.”

Her sadness was as clear as day.

Cross felt like shit. “I can’t say no, Catty.”

“Or you don’t want to,” she said.

“A bit of both.”

The problem was, he couldn’t explain more than he already had. Too much information was a bad thing, and this was not the kind of business he should be talking about with anyone other than the men he worked for.

He sneaked a look at her, only to find she was staring out the window.