Larkin’s fingers smoothed over the red gold of the Montblanc fountain pen atop the glass conference table on the seventy-ninth floor of The Ashford Building. The weight of it balanced easily between her thumb and index finger. Only now, she had no one to aim the pointy end at. A smile tickled her lips. Her gaze slid around the table from woman to woman.

Cornish wasn’t the monster she’d hoped he’d been, but he’d been an old-fashioned asshole who didn’t belong on her board. Benjamin had respectfully withdrawn from the board after the whole murder and mayhem debacle. It worked out for the best. Brice was in a foreign prison awaiting trial for his crimes, along with his son. It forfeited his position on the board.

The vacancies allowed four New York businesswomen to join Marlis and Genevieve on the board. Each raised their own companies on the back of hard work and their inability to accept the word no. They weren’t multi-millionaires, and they didn’t have Ivy League pedigrees, but each of the women was brilliant in their own right. The promise they held for Duo and Ditto’s growth, the promise Larkin’s company gave their own career lit a fire in her soul for her work that she hadn’t experienced since the inception.

“Thank you, Darah.” Larkin stood. “That’s a heartening forecast.”

“Heartening? It’s fucking amazing.” Genevieve danced a jig in her seat. Larkin was shocked her friend didn’t actually climb on top of the table and start a strip tease. After all, her investment portfolio had doubled in the past two months thanks to the astounding amount of stock she’d bought into Duo and Ditto. She’d known that before Darah’s treasury report because it was fucking amazing.

Larkin had made enough money that she started a nonprofit that with Beckett and her dad’s help would change the world, ten disadvantaged children at a time. Move over Bill and Melinda. She really hoped the guys weren’t recruiting for the CIA and Base Branch. After all, the first kid they’d selected started MIT in the fall. Another would enter the Citadel mid-semester.

“Whoop! Whoop!” Lenna lifted her hands to the sky and joined in Gen’s seat dance.

The room erupted in laughter and cheers.

Larkin clapped. “Your confidence and support over the past four months has been invaluable. I cannot thank you enough.”

“We’re learning a lot from this experience,” Kaitlin assured her.

“I’m thrilled.” Larkin beamed.

“On that note, I move to close the meeting.” Marlis grinned too widely.

“Second,” Darah saved Mar’s hide.

“Meeting adjourned. Thank you, ladies.” Larkin walked around to Marlis and propped a hip on her friend’s coat that was draped across the table. “What’s his name?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Mar stuffed her laptop and phone into her bag without looking up. She grabbed her coat and tugged. Larkin didn’t budge and neither did the coat. Her friend’s gaze shot up and narrowed on Larkin’s butt. “Marshal Gentry. He’s not married. I double checked.”

“Meeting at a neutral location?”

“Yes.” Mar yanked on her coat. “Can I have my coat now? I’d like to change before I meet him.”

“Is your driver taking you?”

“Yes.” Marlis smacked her butt. “Gosh, you’re as bad as Libby these days.”

“After what I went through, I’m hyper cautious. You should be too.”

Mar kissed her cheeks. “I am. I’ll text you when it’s over.”

“Okay.” Larkin lifted her chin and released her friend.

The other women hurried to catch the elevator with Marlis.

“Want to catch a quick bite with us?” Darah pointed at her and Lenna.

“I have to get the kids so Danny can catch his flight,” Kaitlin explained.

“Thank you, but Beckett gets back tonight.” Larkin couldn’t hide her smile. It’d been three weeks without a word. She trusted him to be here tonight. If he wasn’t … she’d try her best not to worry. It wasn’t easy, but it was worth it.

“Enjoy!” Darah waggled her brow.

She waved them off and looked for Genevieve. Gen was usually the first one out. Court hours didn’t cater to her needs. Her friend hunched over her phone. Gen didn’t hunch. Her posture was impeccable, just like her comebacks.

“Gen?”

Her friend slapped the air for Larkin to be quiet. Also not like Gen. Larkin stood and walked slowly to the other side of the table. Genevieve held the phone to her ear so tightly the smooth screen might leave button grooves on her cheek. Larkin listened intently without a word but heard nothing from the other end of the line. Gen was muting every tone with her ear.

Several more minutes gathered one atop the other. Nervousness she’d become too accustomed to after the Lucas incident bubbled to the surface.

“Yes. I’ll be there.” Genevieve dropped the phone into her lap and stared at Larkin without seeing her. She gave a thousand-yard stare. Her pale cheeks turned the color and consistency of chalk. Like one puff of air would blow her away.

“What?” Larkin begged.

Her head shook. No words left her parted lips.

She should wait. She should give her a minute. “Genevieve?”

“I have to go.” Gen stood and grabbed her purse. Her phone tumbled to the ground, and she looked at it as though she’d never seen it before.

Larkin scooped it off the floor and held it out to her friend. “Let me call Douglas. He’ll drive you.”

“No. I can’t wait.” Gen snatched the phone and stuffed it into her purse. “I’ll get a cab.”

“A cab?” The Genevieve she knew would rather walk twenty blocks in heels than take a cab. She Ubered everywhere she went or rode with her or Marlis. “What’s going on?”

“That was the office. Perry’s family …” Tears welled in Genevieve’s eyes. She covered her mouth and breathed deeply. Her hand shook. A tear spilled over the edge of perfectly applied liner and mascara before she blinked furiously.

Larkin didn’t know Gen’s boss, the man who owned Carter, Cleary & McMellon. If he passed her on the street, she might not recognize him. She didn’t have anything invested, but the word family and the tear from her rock-solid friend created a pit of dread that seeded deep in her belly.

Gen’s chin lifted, and her shoulders straightened. Every hint of sorrow fled her about-business expression. “They’ve been murdered in their home.”

“Oh, my God.”

“He wasn’t there to protect Pam or Claire. Not his precious namesake either. And now, the police are taking him to the station for questioning.” Gen’s heels made the floor her bitch with each strike she landed on her way to the door.

“He requested you as his counsel?”

“Yes.” She grabbed the doorframe as though it was the only thing keeping her afloat.

“But Gen, you don’t defend. You prosecute.”

“I know,” she said without looking back. “Perry knows that too.”

“Let me go with you.” Larkin’s gaze slid to her things at the far side of the conference room.

Her friend’s red hair shook.

“Why not? I’m ready. Let’s go.” Larkin headed for her purse.

“They won’t let you back at the station.”

“I’ll wait out front.”

“With the men in cuffs, addicts, and sex workers. No.” Gen drew a breath and rushed through the door. The sound of her heels faded.

Larkin sat on the edge of the table and stared through the open door. Just when things settled for her, the world shifted on its axis for her friend. Of course, the only sure thing about Larkin’s life was vulnerability. Going public had exposed her business. Things were good now, but there were no guarantees. Loving Beckett exposed her heart. She trusted he would never voluntarily hurt her, but his job bathed in danger. It suited him perfectly. It also gave no guarantees.

She grabbed her phone and dialed Beckett’s number, the same number that had gone straight to voicemail for the past week. He’d warned her that he might be out of contact. Three weeks without a sound had broken her. Him not answering the calls aimed to destroy her.

The line clicked open.

Breath lodged in her throat.

A ring sang through the speaker.

Hope soared.

It rang again and again and again.

Each ring shot a hole in its wings. Hope’s nose tilted toward the ground and gained speed. It increased with each shrill sound. At least the voicemail let her hear his deep, gravelly tone.

“You couldn’t wait, could you?”

Larkin pulled the phone from her ear and stared at it for a second. Had she conjured him?

“Sweetheart? Larkin?” Beckett’s voice bellowed through the line.

She put the phone to her hear. “I’d throttle you if I could get my hands on you. Wait? I’ve waited long enough and patiently, I might add.”

“Not too patiently, I hope.” She loved the laughter in his voice.

“Not at all.” Larkin held the phone to her cheek, wishing it were his cheek touching her skin. “How much longer?”

“Five minutes.”

“Seriously?” The squeal squeed from her throat unchecked and unabashedly.

“Meet me on the roof in five.”

Larkin ended the call and bolted for the stairs. She’d be there, eyes open, arms wide when he arrived. First, she wouldn’t be the one holding up their reunion. Second, and most important, she wanted to know how in the hell he got to the roof after she had new “un-pickable” locks and mammoth doors installed at all the access points.

A devilish grin stretched her mouth.

The thunder of her heels rumbled up the steps and down the hallway. Her lungs burned. She pushed harder to the ladder and scrambled up the rungs to the hatch.

“No, Larkin.”

She heard him before she saw him standing over a table with a white linen cloth tied around each leg with what looked to be some heavy-duty cord. He held a bag of takeout in one hand and a flaming lighter to a low-profile glass jar.

“You were supposed to wait five minutes.” He set the bag on the table and slid the lighter into his pocket. A tiny flame flicked and swayed in the breeze.

Love exploded inside her, leaving her a damn casualty of the never-ending war. It shot tingles to her toes and heated her hands that had been just a little cold since he left.

Larkin lifted herself out of the manhole, then ran at full tilt. To his credit, he opened his arms, crouched, and caught her midair. Her hands traveled up his shoulder and smoothed over his face, his scarred, stunning face. She pressed her cheek to his. Her fingers slipped into his hair.

Contentment smoothed her every rough edge. It soothed the pain of her past. It brightened the future.

A rumble started deep in his chest. “Sweetheart, I never knew I wanted this. Now, I can’t imagine life without you.”

“Don’t go getting sappy on me.” She smothered kisses down his neck to the beat of his pulse. “I might not let you leave again.”

“I’ll always come back,” he promised something he couldn’t promise.

“No one can keep that promise, but I’m okay with that. I’ll love you with all of me for all of my days.”

He pulled her in close. “And all of mine.”