London

The Virginia skyline is seamed in shades of gold and pink as my plane touches down in DC. The last time I was in the capital, I was speaking at a conference on criminal behavior. I barely saw the city.

Despite what Agent Nelson believes, I won’t be seeing it now, either.

I de-board the plane, and Sadie greets me at the gate. She’s wearing her usual jeans and T-shirt, a gun snuggly holstered at her hip. I smile as I take her in, comforted by her consistency.

“I finally got you back on my turf,” she says. “Where’s your bags? I’ll grab them then we can—” Sadie breaks off as she searches my face. Not a minute into our meeting and the behavioral analyst has already detected my hesitancy.

“I know this isn’t a social visit,” she says, lowering her voice. “I’ve been following the news. So tell me why you’re really here, and how I can help.”

“God, Sadie. You’ve already helped me so much…” I look at the tarmac through the glass. I’m a terrible liar when it comes to her, and she deserves my honesty.

“London. What is it?”

I meet her vibrant green eyes. “I need you to purchase a plane ticket for me.”

But that’s not all, and she further scrutinizes me. My dressed-down appearance. The jeans and T-shirt I changed into on the plane. The green contacts concealing my brown irises. Realization opens her pursed expression.

“Christ,” she mutters.

“I need this, Sadie. I can’t ask anyone else.”

“Are you in trouble?”

I shake my head. “I just need two days. Two days where no one knows where I am.”

“Like that FBI agent who’s attached himself to your hip?”

I smile. She doesn’t miss anything. “Exactly.”

She silently thinks it over. I can practically hear the gears turning in her head. “Are you meeting him there?”

“No,” I say honestly. I know she’s referring to Grayson. He was the center of my last session with her. “My patient is not in Ireland, but I am going there for him. It’s the only way I’ll get the answers I need.”

After a moment of critical observation, she nods toward a more private area of the busy airport. We find a bank of vacant chairs near the massive, domed windows that line the whole level. The high vaulted ceiling is painted in creams and pale yellows. The ambient light makes the interior look as if it’s leafed in gold.

“What made you decide to return to the DC area?” I ask, taking the heat off myself for a second. “Are you working Arlington again?”

Sadie sighs. “Not really. I’m here as a consultant. Helping my old partner out on a case. That’s all.”

I raise an eyebrow. “So you secure a long-term rental in DC just for a consultant gig.” She told me before I arrived that she’d rented an apartment, and I was welcome to stay with her for as long as I needed.

“Also, my mother…” She trails off. Sadie has never been one to go into detail about her person life. “I need to keep a place close by to her. But on the job front, let’s just say that I’m leaving the option to return open.” She directs her focus out the window. “It was the only place that actually felt like…home.”

This is a deep profession from Sadie. My college friend has never harbored a connection to any one place, or person. Her previous career had her traveling around Virginia state, profiling criminals. For her to even consider settling in one place means she’s found more than a significant other; she’s formed familial bonds with other people.

A near impossibility for my friend.

“I’m happy for you,” I say, and I mean it.

Her fleeting smile confirms my conclusion. “When we last spoke, you were struggling with countertransference with your patient.” And like that, Sadie is all business. “With all that has happened, tell me why—truthfully—you’re making this trip.”

All that has happened. Inferring to my abduction. Psychological torture. Discovery of my kidnapper and biological parents and sister… All at the hands of Grayson—my patient.

If I was in Sadie’s place, I would seriously consider having myself committed rather than allowing me to leave the country.

I look into her eyes, holding nothing back. “I need the last piece of the puzzle.”

I’m not seeking to uncover lies—Grayson has been truthful. I believe that. But it’s what’s been omitted from his story that will reveal the whole truth.

I’m seeking to discover why Grayson chose me from the start.

“I feel like I’m teetering on a pendulum,” I confess further. “Swinging back and forth between two counterparts. Both equally vital, and equally damaged. The pendulum can’t swing forever, and when it stops, I need to make sure the right person prevails.”

She assesses me closely, that penetrative gaze peels back layer after layer. For once, I’m not afraid of what she’ll find. Sadie is the one person I can trust with my secrets.

She nods solemnly. “When is your departure?”

I check my phone. “Less than an hour,” I say, reassured. “Nine hours to Dublin with the layover in Boston. Quickest and most expensive flight I could find.”

“All right.” She stands.

“Where are you going?”

She swivels around briefly. “To get my passport.”

I hold back a smile as relief crashes over me. While Sadie’s gone, I make quick work of gathering my bag and checking online for updates. Foster is out of critical care but remains hospitalized. Agent Nelson’s presence has been documented from Bangor to Portland. My brow furrows as I fact check the Portland report. What’s in Portland?

Sadie returns as I’m starting to feel anxious. “I’m not sure this is any reassurance,” she says as she places an envelope in my hand. “But it’s unbelievably fortunate that our descriptions match. Hair color. Height. The only marked difference is eye color, and you’ve taken care of that with contacts.”

I consider just how fortunate it is. “I had the contacts already,” I admit. “My doctor offered them to me and I accepted, regardless that I never planned to use them.” I smile and shake my head. “Grayson would say that it’s not a coincidence or luck. That we design our life on purpose. Set things into motion long before we understand that purpose.”

Her eyebrow quirks. “A believer in fate?”

“It’s more like we gravitated to each other early on because our subconscious determined we’d be of value to one another at some point in our life.”

She laughs. “I’ve missed you, London, but not the brain cramps that come with having you as a friend.”

I offer her a sincere smile. “Touché.”

She moves in close and lowers her voice. “I put my driver’s license in the documents, as well as a burner phone and credit card. Ten-thousand limit. Do what you need to do, and we’ll worry about everything else later. Now give me your phone.” At the confused draw of my eyebrows, she says, “So you’re not traced.”

I hand her my cell. “Thank you.” Her trust in me secures my decision. This is the right path. I unearth my wallet and hand her a credit card. She tries to wave it away. “It’s to plant my whereabouts. No limit. Go crazy.”

As she accepts the card, she says, “Well then. Maybe I’ll get my hair done. And a new wardrobe. So I can prance around the city as the distinguished Dr. Noble.” She shakes her hair back, nose in the air.

“Are you mocking me?”

She places her finger an inch apart from her thumb. “Only a little.” Then a serious expression settles over her face. “Be careful.”

I bring her into a hug. I’m surprised when Sadie hugs me back. “I will,” I promise.

I leave then, with my new identity, and only a vague starting point once I arrive in Dublin. Trusting that Grayson and I—that our design—is merely an inevitability and not ill-fated.

My swinging pendulum might be metaphoric to his literal design—but both were set in motion long ago.