I’ve never thought about how it must be for those people who have to go into witness protection with no notice. Having to leave your entire life behind with no planning is both terribly difficult and incredibly easy.

I wasn’t allowed to call anyone. To tell anyone. To pack hardly anything. One small suitcase, and that’s it. But when you’re leaving your heart behind, what do clothes matter?

I exhale on a long breath and watch as we pull out of the warehouse for the last time.

No beanie. That’s how I know this is for real. Kane doesn’t care if I know where the warehouse is because I’m not coming back.

I’m never coming back.

My chest freezes and my stomach tumbles its millionth somersault of the day.

Temperance Ransom, life as you know it is over.

At other times in my life, I would have been thrilled to have someone say that to me. Now, I’m devastated. I’m just starting to figure out who I really am. What I really want. Who I really want.

And now it’s all being snatched away because my brother did something stupid.

At least we’re all going to be safe. I remind myself that it’s the only thing that really matters. None of us are going to end up tortured or dead.

I can live with anything . . . if we just get to live.

I lift my gaze and find Kane watching me in the rearview.

“You okay?” he asks.

“Don’t ask me that.”

His jaw tenses and he rephrases. “You holding it together?”

“Barely.”

“You can do this. All you have to do is take one step at a time. I’ll be right next to you.”

Until I get on a plane and never see you again.

“I can do this.” I say it to appease him, and because I need to hear it myself. What choice do I have? None, according to Kane and Mount.

I look down to see the minute hand on Keira’s watch moving ever closer to seven o’clock, and wonder if that’s how a prisoner on death row feels watching the clock count down to midnight on the day of his execution.

Morbid thoughts.

I push them away.

Kane will find me. He feels this too. He’s just being noble. We’ll have a future. Somewhere exotic and beautiful. Maybe a beach house in paradise.

In the middle of all the pretty lies I tell myself, I realize I never asked about our destination. It didn’t seem important beyond the fact that it wasn’t here.

“Where are we going? The jet, I mean?”

Kane meets my gaze in the rearview again. “I can’t tell you that. I’m sorry.”

“But you know?”

He shakes his head. “Safer if I don’t know. Safer if no one knows.”

“What about a flight plan?”

He tilts his head to the side. “Mount has his ways.”

We fall into silence again, and I realize I’ve completely forgotten to pay attention to where the warehouse is located. Not that it matters anymore, I suppose.

When we arrive at the private airport, I see a few people coming and going, but nothing like the hustle and bustle of the regular airports you see on TV. I’ve never even been to the New Orleans airport, so TV is all I have to compare it to.

Kane parks the car right up front, rather than in the parking lot.

“Are you allowed to do that?”

He turns and looks over his shoulder. “Everything’s allowed when you’re Mount. Are you ready to be Keira?”

Again, my answer is clearly no, but that’s not what Kane wants to hear. “As ready as I’ll ever be.”

“Good. It’s go time. Don’t bow to anyone. You’re a queen now, princess.”

His nickname almost breaks me, but I find my last reserves of strength and force iron into my spine. I don’t have any steel left in me today.

Kane exits the Maybach, and a moment later, he opens my door.

I do my best to walk like Keira. It’s not hard, especially when you consider how long I’ve been imitating her confident stride.

I didn’t even get to say good-bye.

Pushing the gut-wrenching thought away, I adjust my sunglasses and stay next to Kane as he leads me through the sliding doors of the airport.

The inside is open and airy. Instead of being jammed with people, the lobby is almost empty. A woman waits in a leather side chair, and a man speaks to an employee behind a large wooden desk. Out the big glass windows ahead of me, I see small jets parked on the runway. There’s a sleek black one directly out the next set of sliding glass doors with a red carpet leading to the steps.

“Is that it?” I whisper. “The plane?”

Kane nods. “Yes.”

“And where’s—”

He reaches out to grasp my elbow and gives it a quick squeeze, reminding me not to say Rafe’s name. I go quiet and search the lobby for any sign of my brother, all the while feeling like my heart is cracking in my chest.

Then I remember he’s going to be dressed like Mount, because we’re impersonating them.

Kane squeezes my arm again and silently indicates I need to turn around. I follow the command, and my heart thuds to a screeching halt when I see a man in a three-piece suit walk with a swagger through the sliding glass doors.

I’ve never seen my brother so dressed up in his life. Or with neatly trimmed facial hair. He almost looks upstanding, which is ironic considering who he’s impersonating.

I take a half step toward him, but Kane’s fingers clamp down tighter on my arm and I freeze.

As soon as Kane drops his hand from my elbow, he looks at me, his expression stricken. “I’m sorry. This was the only way.”

One moment his hand is empty, and the next, he’s holding a gun and it’s pointed at Rafe.

He pulls the trigger.

Chaos explodes as a deafening shot echoes in the lobby of the airport. Everything goes quiet in my mind when I see Rafe grab his chest, a look of shock on his face.

I can’t hear myself screaming.

I can’t hear anything.

Another gunshot shatters every dream I had for the future as my brother’s body jerks again and he collapses, lifeless, on the carpet.

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