The answer to Kate’s question wasn’t exactly simple. Especially now that she’d already expressed a desire to go home to New York. Where would we go? I could get us safely to Central America. Our new identities would ensure us safe passage out of the country. Otis had friends with properties trickled along the Pacific coast from Nicaragua to Peru. But what if Cybermark was still tailing us? Would any place be home for long?

My guilt went to war with my determination to keep Kate with me at all costs. When it came to planning our future, I’d taken complete control. I’d lived the past year unable to trust anyone. Not even Otis at times, out of pure self-preservation. But now Kate was here, by my side, seemingly ready for whatever challenges the future might bring. Maybe she’d been right to push back.

“Where do you want to go?”

She laughed weakly. “You’re asking me now? I thought you always had a plan.”

“Of course, I do.” I dragged a hand through my hair before meeting her eyes again. “But I’m asking you what you want. We’re in this together, like you said.”

She hesitated, gauging me with a tentative look, like she couldn’t believe I was really opening this door. I couldn’t completely believe it either, but I was committed to prying one hand off the steering wheel and sharing control of the partnership, even if the prospect scared the hell out of me.

“Tell me what you’re thinking, Kate.”

She parted her lips to speak, a subtle pleading in her eyes. “I was telling you the truth last night. I do want to go back to New York, but I won’t go without you. The thought of just running away from our life and never looking back terrifies me. It feels…wrong.”

Dread fell like a stone in my stomach. Going to New York was possibly dead last on my wish list of next stops. “You realize how many problems that would pose? I’m supposed to be dead.”

Her brows pinched a little, a tick that told me she was contemplating something.

“We don’t have to tell anyone. At least not right now. Chelle knows, but she’ll be away for a little while, anyway.”

I shook my head. “So…what? I hide out in our five-hundred-square-foot apartment for the rest of our lives and hope no one with malicious intentions notices? Maybe that’s a life for you, but that’s prison for me.”

She came to me and took my hands. “We wouldn’t need to hide for long. Maybe not long at all if we go public about what you found.”

Panic shot a thousand ice picks across my chest. “Jesus, Kate. It’s all speculation. I mean, even if you had any of my old files, I’m not sure there would be anything there worth bringing to light. I went to Zurich to dig deeper and find more. Obviously that plan was thwarted. I couldn’t ask anyone else to take that risk again.”

“I’m a journalist, and I’m not alone. I belong to a network of people around the world who are dedicated to finding and reporting the truth. We could bring this to the top of the Tribune, or tap some of my contacts at the Journal for a story that would publicize what happened. An exposé that would protect us. We could reach out to people quietly at first—”

“Kate, no. Just no.”

I couldn’t listen a minute more. I walked away toward our bedroom. I slammed the door behind me and stared out at the lanai, my arms folded firmly across my chest. What the hell was I thinking, having her weigh in? I’d shut down the conversation earlier, and here we were again, talking about New York. The worst possible place for either of us. Then again, just because I got her to stop talking about it in the throes of an orgasm didn’t mean she’d stop thinking about it forever. I could pretend she wouldn’t resent me if I led her down this road of life on the run, but that wouldn’t serve either of us in the long term. Shit, this was impossible.

I heard the door click quietly, and then the softest shuffle of her coming toward me.

She wrapped her arms gently around my waist. A minute or so passed with just sounds of our breathing, my loud thoughts dulling to a frustrated murmur in my mind.

“I wish you had more faith in me,” she whispered.

I closed my eyes with a sigh. “That’s not it. You’re brilliant, Kate. I just…”

How could I make her understand? She was always the one with the gift for words…whether she was soothing or seducing me with them or twisting them around mine to get her way.

“Price.” She pressed a warm kiss to my shoulder blade. “You’ve been running for a year. What they did to you and the choices you made afterward nearly destroyed us. This needs to stop. They need to pay for what they did. I’m not willing to sacrifice our life—the promise and security of our family—only for them to keep going on like nothing happened. What if you weren’t the only one? Who else have they made a victim?”

Kate gave voice to thoughts I’d had more than once. Nothing had ever seemed worth inviting more of their violence against me or the ones I loved. We were no longer off the grid, though. So much had changed.

I lazily caressed her forearms as she held me tightly. Together…for better or for worse.

As long as we were together, we could get through anything. I had to make myself truly believe it. After all, I’d taken our other vows to heart. I’d been as loyal to her as she’d been to me. I had to trust in the rest of those promises, even if the unknown terrified me.

“New York then.” My voice was barely a whisper.

Still, she’d heard me. I felt her nod against me. I swallowed back a curse and ignored the voice that screamed at me to run in the other direction.

“Okay, Kate. We’ll go to New York.”

---

As promised, Kate and I had left the villa and the island paradise of Leiloa inside of forty-eight hours. While Otis was on his way to the Vineyard with Chelle, I’d arranged a private charter boat to get us back to the Honolulu airport undetected. Kate had looked like she might be sick checking in with our fake passports to avoid any trace of our return. I’d been more worried about staying in the sky on the long journey to JFK. There was a reason I’d stuck to boats and ground transportation since the crash.

Ten hours later, I held the armrest in a death grip as the 747 suddenly dropped in altitude. Sweat collected on my forehead as we descended through the clouds. A blur of heinous unwelcome memories played out in my head.

My stomach in my throat as the nose of the plane tipped toward the ground. The twisted smile on the pilot’s face as he bid me farewell. The panic when I locked my grip on him, unwilling to accept death. The free fall. The full hour I spent dry heaving in the company of a dead man before I could find a way to treat my wounds. The beginning of the worst year of my life…

Kate covered her palm over mine, her sweet voice a salve over my rattled nerves. “It’s okay, baby. We’re almost there.”

When the sounds of the engine changed and the landing gear dropped, another wave of nausea hit. I closed my eyes and blew out a small breath, comforted only by the promise that in twenty minutes we’d be on the ground.

Kate squeezed my hand a little tighter. “We’re almost there. Almost home.”

Only a few more minutes and I’d be in New York again.

I’d be home.

---

The outskirts of the city were quiet. The chill in the air matched the dull gray sky. I knew the route from the airport to our apartment by heart, having taken it many times. Dozens of early mornings like this on the way to my next trip. Late night returns and the blur of city lights as I counted down the minutes until I could be with Kate again. This time we were coming home together, hand in hand, our hearts heavy with all that lay ahead.

Every mile, every step toward home was beyond surreal. The way our ascent to the third-floor apartment echoed loudly through the narrow stairwell. The yellowing paint on the railway that ended on the landing in front of our door. The bronzed “3B” nailed to the mullion. None of it seemed real.

As Kate searched her carry-on for the keys, I stared in silent disbelief and took in details I’d long forgotten. For everything that had been familiar—from the neighborhoods we passed on the way to the doorstep of our brownstone—somehow, I felt like a stranger, a fraud. I was supposed to be dead. How could I ever belong here again?

Kate bit her lip and turned the key in the lock, opening the door into my past. She shuffled in with her bags, and I followed. I had only a backpack slung over my shoulder, having learned to pack light on my travels. The smell of the apartment hit me first. That odd aroma that one notices in other people’s homes, made up of detergent and pets and furniture and the people who inhabit a place. I wondered quietly what ours was made of and why it seemed so foreign to me now.

When the silence crept up, I found Kate staring at me, her smile tight and her eyes wide and tentative. “Everything okay?”

“Sure. I’m good,” I said, trying my best to sound genuine, but my feet were frozen in place. Something about being here again had me paralyzed.

She shifted her gaze around the room. She chewed her lip again, her expression uneasy. “I’m going to grab a quick shower, and then I’ll make us something to eat and clean up a little, okay?”

“Go ahead. I’ll make some coffee.”

She went to the bedroom and then disappeared into the tiny bathroom we once shared. I held my place just beyond the doorway, attempting to acclimate to the shock of being someplace I never thought I’d be again.

The modest interior of our place hadn’t changed much. The furniture was arranged the same. A second-hand couch and my old worn recliner that I’d insisted on bringing from my apartment in college. A glass coffee table that we could never keep clean atop an ornate Persian rug her parents had bought us after their first visit. A few dead plants sat wilted on the windowsill. That’s when I really noticed the clutter. Every surface seemed to be covered with mail, old magazines, rolled up Sunday editions of the New York Times.

Only then could I move. I walked slowly to the bedroom. Again, not much had changed except Kate’s clothes were hung on every available hook and corner. Reminded me of when she couldn’t decide on an outfit before some big party or event. The room would be a tornado of discarded garments. But Kate had always been a neat freak, a trait I was grateful for after years of college living with frat-house standards. The only tidy area of the room now was the side of the bed that used to be mine. The bed sheets were only rumpled on her side, as if every night she lifted them and tucked herself in carefully. As if an invisible person still inhabited the other side.

Emotion prickled in my throat. What had I done to her? How could she ever trust me again? I dropped my bag, stripped my clothes, leaving them in a pile on the floor, and went to the bathroom. I found her in the shower, her hands on the tile, her head bent under the hard spray.

“Kate.”

She sucked in a breath and looked up. “Is everything okay?”

“Everything’s fine. Can I join you?”

“Sure.”

I stepped in and reached for the shampoo. “Have you washed yet?”

She cast her gaze low. “No, I was just thinking.”

I squirted some in my hand and nudged her to turn so I could lather it into her hair. Her shoulders softened and her hands fell limp to her sides. I smiled when the smell of grapefruit filled the tiny room.

“Dare I ask what about?”

She sighed before speaking. “You’ve had a plan for us up until now. It’s my turn to figure out what to do next. I know we have to be careful about who we approach and how.”

“We’ll figure it out, Kate. Tomorrow we’ll come up with a plan.”

I unhooked the sprayer and rinsed the shampoo until the water ran clear again.

She turned and gazed up at me, resting her hands on my chest. “You came here for me. I can’t let you down. We should go through your files tomorrow. That’s probably the best place to start.”

I silenced her with a deep kiss that had her melting against me. Then I reached for the loofa and the body wash. Letting the silence settle between us, I washed her from her perfect breasts all the way down to her manicured little toes.

We’d made love so many times, but I still felt like I needed hours to properly reacquaint with her body. The truth was I needed forever. I hadn’t even had a week.

Hell, she hadn’t even gotten a chance to fully enjoy the three-week getaway Chelle had promised her. We’d been going non-stop since I stepped onto the beach several days ago, and such a small portion of that time had been truly restorative. The day spent exploring Leiloa hadn’t been nearly long enough. I knew how to push my own limits, but I couldn’t let the stress eat away at both of us the way it now threatened to.

I finished washing myself, turned the water off, and grabbed fresh towels.

She wrapped herself in one, went to the bedroom, and paused beside the bed. “God, I’m sorry, Price. This place is such a mess.”

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll tidy up today. You should rest for now. We’ve been up for hours.”

I meant it. The fatigue from the extended day tugged at me too. But after ten minutes of lathering up her luscious body in the shower, my cock had other ideas. I embraced her from behind and sucked her earlobe in my mouth. “Unless you want to mess up the other side of the bed with me, of course.”

She smiled weakly. “It’s weird. I know.”

“Not at all.” I reached for the knot of her towel and tugged until it fell to the floor. Pulling her against me, I reveled in the sudden heat of her skin against mine. Suddenly I wished we were back on the island. In the heat where clothes were optional and life was a little simpler. If only for a moment.

“I’m starting to believe that somehow you knew I would come back.”

Her bottom lip trembled. “I wanted so much to believe that you would, even though deep down I knew it was impossible. The reality of you being gone forever was too painful to live with day after day. Sometimes I’d let myself fantasize that you were away on business. I’d pretend like I was just counting down the days until you’d come home again. I knew it was fucked up to think that way, but I couldn’t help myself.”

I grazed my hands over her warm skin until she shivered and pressed her ass back against me. Her damp hair dripped between us, making us slick as we pressed tightly together.

“I’ll always be here, Kate. Right next to you. Every night. Always.”

With a breathy sigh, she took my hand and guided it between her thighs. I found my mark quickly, stroking and toying with her clit until she was slick with arousal.

No way was I letting her rest. Not until I’d fucked her very thoroughly, the way I planned to every night for the rest of my life. How had I lived so long without the pleasures of her body, subsisting only on fantasies of how it had been between us?

She bucked her hips into my touch. “Price…I love the way you touch me. I missed you so much.”

Craving more, I slipped my fingers deep into her heat. She moaned softly and rolled her head back on my shoulder. The angle gave me easy access to her neck, so I kissed and nipped her there, all the while fucking her rhythmically with my fingers.

“Did you ever touch yourself like this, sweetheart?”

Her pussy tightened around my fingers in that moment. “I tried not to, but I missed you so much. Missed the way you felt inside me. Nothing could make me come the way you did.”

“What did you think about, sweetness? What was I doing to you in your fantasies?”

She was quiet a moment. “The last time…before you left. I don’t know why. That whole day is still so vivid to me. I remembered wanting you to take me so hard that I’d feel you for days after you’d left.”

I tugged her hips back against my erection with a groan. We’d fucked hundreds of times, but somehow our last time before the crash was indelible on my mind too. I wasn’t sure I wanted to reenact the memory that was tied to so much heartache for the both of us, but it was good inspiration at least.

“Up on the bed, sweetheart. Put your ass in the air for me.”

I withdrew from her cunt and slapped her ass as she walked away. She went without argument, situating herself in the center of our bed. She stretched her arms out in front of her and rested her head on the mattress as her hips angled upward in an erotic pose. I stroked my length a few times, pent up as ever at the sight of her perfect glistening pussy. I crawled behind her and pushed her hips higher so I could get easy access to all the places where I intended to pleasure her.

I caressed the backs of her thighs and spread her cheeks gently. She jolted when I slid two fingers past her quivering opening down to her clit. I teased her there a moment more before making the return journey, dragging her arousal up to the rosy pucker of her ass.

“Do you trust me, baby?” I added the faintest pressure against the tight muscle. Testing. Asking.

“Yes.”

Even as she said the word, I felt her tense slightly.

“Then let go. Let it all go.”

I bent my head and followed the path my fingers had taken with my tongue, once, twice, again and again until she writhed and pushed back against me with a needy cry on her lips. The tension in her body had changed. The tension was now made of need, the desire to be filled. And I couldn’t wait a second longer to take her.