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“Oh?” I murmured as he stepped closer, slid the straps over my shoulders, and worked the hooks in the back, then slid his finger to adjust the band.
“He said it’ll keep us going until we find somewhere to settle.”
“Settle?” I turned around.
He met my stare. “For a while at least.”
I hadn’t thought of what would happen now. I knew The Order were going to look for us until they were given a reason not to. How long that was, I didn’t know. Caleb handed me my shirt and I slipped it on. I guessed our new life started with a new car to go with our new names.
“Promise me you’ll never forget me,” I pleaded, meeting his stare. “The real me.”
“Ryth, you’ll always be the real you to me, and to all of us. A name is just a name. Besides,” he gave me a wink. “You’ll always be our little sister.”
I laughed as I followed him out and pulled on my boots. My coffee was barely warm when we piled into London St. James’s car and pulled out of the motel parking lot. I ate, shared my bagel with Rebel, and finished my coffee as we pulled into the dealership’s parking lot.
I glanced around as I stepped out and found a row of shops across the street, then turned to Nick. “I’m going to be across the road, okay?”
Nick stopped, glanced across the street, and scowled.
“It’ll be okay.” T gave a shrug. “Buying cars bores the shit out of me anyway, and I could do with some new clothes.”
Nick gave a slow nod. “Not out of sight, okay, princess?”
I smiled, he was back to being the big brother. “Deal.”
He stood there watching as Tobias and I turned and walked away. T grabbed my hand as we crossed the road and headed for the stores. He was touchy, more than Nick and Caleb. His thumb ran the length of mine as we stepped up onto the sidewalk. “Where first, baby?” He glanced my way.
I scanned the shops and my gaze lingered on the internet cafe. “There.”
“You sure?” He cut me a look, one that said,careful.
“I’m not going to do anything stupid.”
One nod and he motioned me forward. We went inside and he broke away almost instantly and headed to the counter of the small yuppie cafe. He motioned to me, waited for the guy to start the timer for me to log on, and ordered us coffee to go. But I was never out of his sight. I sat down and pulled out the napkin Dad gave me. It kind of felt surreal now. Had that all happened? The gun fight, the terror…Dad handing himself over for the second time to keep me safe.
As I opened up the folded napkin, I knew every brutal second of it had been real.
My pulse thundered as I opened up the browser and punched in the bank ID number. A second later, I had the name Jericho Bank and a phone number for customer service, which I wrote down my own napkin with a pen someone had left behind. Tobias glanced my way as he grabbed the coffees and strode over.
“Do you think I can use your phone?”
“Sure, baby.” He handed it over, then glanced at the computer screen before he whispered. “I’m just going to be over there if you need anything.”
He took his coffee and headed to a bulletin board to give me a little space. I grabbed his phone, called the number listed, and waited for it to be answered. A few minutes later and a number of personal detail questions, I waited while she verified my answers and retrieved the information about the account.
“Ms. Castlemaine?”
“Yes?”
“Um, sorry for the wait. I had to verify the details of the account were correct.”
My stomach sank,please don’t tell me this money is tracked by the goddamn CIA.“It’s fine,” I muttered.
“Because there is quite a substantial amount of money in this account and I wanted to make certain you were who you said you were.”
Quite a substantial amount?“How much are we talking about here?”
“Fifty million dollars.”
