Lorna and I sat together in the penthouse kitchen waiting for the men to return from what she called the bat cave. After we all ate—together for a change—the three of them disappeared. Other than Patrick who was with me the rest of the day, I had the feeling that Sterling and Reid had been working on this since he and my mother left my office.

“I feel like there’s hope,” I said, sipping a glass of wine—the sweet stuff that Sterling disliked.

Lorna also had a glass of red in front of her, a thicker, more full-bodied wine than mine. She spun the glass, twisting the stem and watching the liquid slosh. “I can’t imagine all the changes you’ve gone through.”

“In the last month or my whole life?”

“Both, I guess,” Lorna said with a scoff.

“The last month has been...overwhelming. I’m glad Sterling has been with me...” I smiled at her. “...and all of you. I really feel comfortable here, more than I could have imagined.”

“You know, he’d been watching you for years. I wasn’t really supposed to know, but after years of his digging into your life, your name came up with Reid occasionally. When Sparrow decided the time was right, I was worried.”

“About?” I asked.

She inhaled and exhaled, her green eyes moving away from her glass and toward the now-dark windows with the lights of Chicago below. “We have a dynamic that I can’t explain. I wasn’t sure how adding another person to it, someone who Sparrow wanted and who didn’t know she was wanted, would be.”

“Has it always been the four of you since you and Reid married?”

“There was some tension at first. They weren’t used to having a woman around and then with Mason...”

My chest tightened at the mention of the friend Sterling had told me a little about when he’d explained the darker side of Sparrow and McFadden. “I don’t know much about him really. I know he was with Reid, Patrick, and Sterling in the army.”

“And afterward for a while.” She reached out and covered my hand. “It’s why I always tell Reid I love him. Things can happen in the blink of an eye. These three...” She lifted her hand as her eyes became glassy. “...have always—as long as I’ve known them—been inseparable. Three is a different dynamic than four. When there were four of them, they’d often branch out in twos. It was usually your man with Mason and mine with Patrick.” She shook her head. “That isn’t to say...”

My pulse had kicked up. “What can I assume about Mason?”

“Nothing. That’s Sparrow’s story.”

Getting up, she walked out the archway toward the back elevator. When she returned, she sat back down. “I know what they want me to know. One day, if Sparrow wants you to know the details, it’s up to him. I shouldn’t have mentioned it. His name is kind of off-limits around here. I’ve been thinking about your mentioning it a while ago. You even knowing it means that Sparrow trusts you more than you can know.

“For years he carried around this cloud.” She blinked away the moisture from her eyes as a smile bloomed. “It’s been gone since you arrived, not lessened, not intermittent. We’re all happier for him than you can imagine. I know this place gets weird. I understand better than anyone how you felt the other night. I just want you to know that having you here...the first time I met you, I knew immediately that I didn’t need to worry. It’s like you’ve always been meant to be with us—with him.”

I took a breath. “I can’t explain it, but it feels that way to me too.”

The sound of the pocket door caused both of us to turn toward the archway where Lorna had just been.

One by one, the kitchen grew fuller as all three men entered. No longer in suits, they were all casual. It was the one in the gray sweatpants and charcoal t-shirt who had my attention, the one staring at me as if he hadn’t just recently eaten and I was his dinner.

“What did you learn and decide?” I asked, ignoring the way my body twisted and nipples hardened under his gaze.

Stop it, Araneae. You’re in a room full of people.

That shouldn’t happen, yet it did.

“We might be on to something,” Sterling said.

Reid was holding the key, no longer attached to my bracelet. In his large hand, it appeared even smaller. “This is brass, covered in an imitation gold. That’s why it appeared to be flaking.”

“Do you think it can open something?” Lorna asked.

“I do. I’ve been researching keys and lockboxes all afternoon and evening. There are many that have a similar key. Most are antique or made to look antique. Based on the size, I think the lockbox is small, about the size of a letter box.”

“So my mother helped?” I asked.

“We hope,” Sterling said, sitting down at the table with us. Reaching for my wine glass, he took a sip and immediately his lips and nose scrunched. “Ugh. How do you drink that?”

I took it back. “I like the sweet stuff.”

“That size of box,” Patrick said, “one they couldn’t open, if it was at the church could easily have been moved or discarded. The only way to know is to look. Tomorrow, the church is going to be searched.”

“Really?” I asked excitedly. “I want to go.”

Sterling reached for my knee under the table. Similar to the night of the lockdown, I was wearing yoga pants, a t-shirt, and soft socks. He squeezed it gently with his large hand. “We’ll talk about it upstairs.”

My lips came together, physically stopping me from arguing, yet the words were right there. I understood he didn’t want to do it in front of others, but by God, we would be discussing this.

Less than an hour later, up in our room with my hand on my hip, I declared, “I’m going with you.”

“You’re the one who never wants to leave Sinful Threads,” Sterling said, “always concerned about taking time away.”

I stripped my shirt off, pulling it over my head and stepped out of my yoga pants. Sterling’s t-shirt was on the floor of our closet joining the pile of discarded clothes.

My eyes went to him, the way his sweatpants hung low, the trail of dark hair going down into the V created by his trim waist and hip bones. Making a concerted effort, I moved my gaze higher until it met his. “Don’t throw my own words back at me. This is about me. Besides, it’s a church in a small picturesque town in Wisconsin. It’s not like when you were headed down to Boulder in the middle of a kidnapping. We can leave and drive first thing tomorrow morning and be back before afternoon. We can both work after if we don’t find anything. I’ll let Jana know.”

Sterling shook his head. “Nothing to Jana yet. And we aren’t driving. It’s only two and a half hours, but we’re concerned...” He seemed to weigh his words.

“About what?” I asked, wearing only my bra and panties as I walked to the bathroom to ready for bed.

“What your mother said could have been a plant,” he said following me, “to throw us off. Or it could be a setup. There are too many possibilities.” He came up behind me, his dark eyes peering over my head at our reflection as he wrapped his arms around me. His jaw was tight and brow furrowed, his expression adding more warning to his words.

I spun in his embrace, my eyes coming to his bare chest. Placing my hands over his broad shoulders, I looked upward. “This is not a lockdown situation.”

“Sunshine—”

“No,” I interrupted. “Absolutely not. If that’s what you’re thinking, get it out of your mind right now.”

His chest inflated as he inhaled. “You have to trust—”

I laid a finger over his lips. “I do trust you. I trust you, Reid, and Patrick, just like you told me to do when we were at the cabin. It took me a while, but I understood what was happening when you went to Boulder. I didn’t like it. That situation was dangerous. This is where my parents were married. I want to see it.”

He kissed my lingering finger. “What about the other thing your mother said?”

That it’s also where I was buried.

“I’ve been thinking about that too. I want to see it.” When he didn’t respond, I went on, “I want to see it with you. It’ll probably be emotional, but remember, you promised to be with me when I learned good and bad. I’m not really buried there, but a child is. That makes me sad.”

“The three of us talked about lockdown,” he admitted.

My head shook.

“I want to trust your mother.”

“Me too.”

He ran his hand through his hair as he took another step. “If she’s sending us on a wild goose chase, it could be to make you vulnerable.”

“You said that McFadden agreed I was off-limits until Labor Day. We still have five days.” I followed him back into the bedroom. “Won’t I be safest with you?”

He spun toward me, the tall windows behind him. In the dark reflection of the glass, I saw the way the muscles in his back tightened. Facing me, his gaze darkened, raking over my body, both exposed and unexposed parts, and warming my skin. Lower, an erection was coming to life.

A smile came to my lips. “Aren’t I?”

“Not right now,” he said matter-of-factly.

My cheeks rose higher. “You don’t scare me, Mr. Sparrow.”

He came closer, running a finger over my cheek. “I never want you to be scared. I want you to always know you’re safe.” He reached for my waist and pulled me closer until his growing erection probed my stomach. “The only one to touch you is me.”

I craned my neck, looking up at him. “You’re the only one I want touching me. However, if you don’t agree that I’m going with you tomorrow, I’m going to give you a dose of your own medicine.”

“Oh yeah? What would that be?”

“What’s good for girls is good for boys.”

“Sunshine, I’m not a boy.”

“No, you’re very much a man. I’m also not a girl; nevertheless, if you’re not good...” I left the sentence open-ended.

He reached behind me, unsnapping my bra.

“Sterling.”

“You should know by now, I’m always good.”

I took a step back. “Promise me that I’m going to Cambridge, Wisconsin.”

All at once, I yelped as he lifted me, placing me on the edge of our bed.

“That’s not a promise,” I said, trying to ignore what his lips were doing, how they were kissing and nipping the side of my neck from behind my ear to my collarbone. “Sterling.”

He took a step back, his dark eyes closing before opening again. “Be ready by six. We want to get to the church before people are there.”

My head tilted as I smiled beneath veiled lids. “Now, where were we?”

His answer wasn’t verbal, though it did involve his mouth—all of it. His lips, tongue, and teeth.