Lara’s eyes went big. “So you’re planning on staying up there all winter? I assume there’s hot water and heat and all that? It sounds isolated.”
They both laughed. “Not quite so isolated, Lara. But it is quiet and it should be a good place to spend a few months focusing on this story that’s been floating around in my head for nearly a year now.”
“Well, that actually sounds perfect. After all, who wouldn’t enjoy the chance to really get away from it all for a bit, right?” Lara responded.
And with that, they wrapped up the interview. When they cut to commercial, Lara and Kit turned their mics off and stood.
“Are you really doing okay?” Lara asked. “You still look a little pale.”
Kit wagged her head. “I’m still pretty tired,” she said, handing the audio equipment to an assistant. “But feeling much better, thanks. I do think some time away will be good for me,” she added, wishing it were true. Well, it was true that time away would be good, she just wished she were actually going to be able to have down time rather than using the next month or so trying to lure a war criminal into custody with help from two mercenaries and the CIA.
“And I wager you aren’t going to be totally alone?” Lara asked with a not-so-subtle nod in Garret’s direction. He was leaning against a post, ankles and arms crossed, watching them both.
Kit let out a little laugh.
“I like the sound of that,” Lara said as they made their way toward him. “What’s the story there?” she asked with a smile and small gesture of her head in Garret’s direction. When he noticed their approach, he straightened up.
“He does some security work for the UN; we met through my brother,” was all Kit said. Then decided to add that yes, he was coming to Vermont with her. To which Lara muttered something that sounded like “lucky girl” under her breath as they stopped in front of him.
“Garret, this is Lara Downey; Lara, this is Garret Cantona.” Kit made the introductions even as Garret held her coat out for her.
“Nice interview,” Garret said to Lara as Kit slid into her coat.
“She’s an easy guest—gorgeous, smart, and funny—my favorite kind,” Lara responded.
“You’ll get no argument from me,” Garret answered as he slipped his hand into Kit’s.
“So, are you headed up to Vermont soon?” Lara asked, walking them toward the studio door.
“Right now, actually,” Garret said. “My car is packed and waiting for us.”
Lara laughed, no doubt because she mistook the anxiety she heard threaded in Garret’s response for an anxiousness to get Kit away and have her all to himself. Garret smiled noncommittally and let Lara think what she would.
A few moments later, after Kit had hugged her friend goodbye and promised to stay in touch, she was seated in the passenger seat of Garret’s Range Rover heading north out of Manhattan. She stared out the windows as they moved through the borough, Garret expertly navigating the morning traffic. The life and energy of the city seemed to juxtapose itself against the stark reality of what was to come for them—the isolation of the cabin they were headed to, but also the secrecy of the actual plan they had just begun to execute. Kit let her head fall back and rest against the back of the seat as she thought about what they were doing. She wasn’t foolhardy enough not to be filled with anxiety, but she didn’t for a minute doubt herself or her decision. There were too many people who deserved to see Kašović tried and jailed for the crimes he’d committed during the Balkan War, what he’d done to so many men, women, and children. It was surreal that she was the one who was—hopefully—going to help bring about some sort of justice and possibly even closure. But if there was one lesson life had taught her, it was that opportunities to make a real difference in the world didn’t come along all that often and that, when they did, she needed to seize them.
“You okay?” Garret asked, reaching over and taking her hand. She rolled the back of her head along the headrest to look at him. And smiled.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” she said. Then, as if to prove her point, she closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep.
***
Kit pulled on her slippers, leaving her shoes behind in the entryway as she went into her house. They were stopping in Windsor on their way up to Vermont so she could pick up a few things she hadn’t needed in the city, like her heavy winter snow boots and her favorite big down coat that covered her nearly to her ankles. She also wanted to grab a few more items of clothing since, dishearteningly, she had no idea how long they would be up north.
She had barely pulled out a bag from her closet when the quiet alarm went off to notify her that someone was coming up her drive. Curious, she padded back to the kitchen to find both Garret and Caleb, who’d come up the day before, hovering over the monitor. Nudging them aside, she recognized Matty’s truck and caught a glimpse of both Jesse and Vivi in the double cab with her.
She wasn’t sure how they had found out she was home—she’d only been there for less than fifteen minutes—but Vivi quickly answered that question when the three women, and little Jeffery, came bundling in.
“Ian saw you guys pass him on the Taconic,” Vivi explained. “Since you’ve been gone for a while and none of us had set eyes on you recently, we decided to pay you a visit.” Welcome or not, was left unsaid. Kit gazed at the women standing before her—three of her closest friends—then shook her head and laughed.
“I’m fine,” she said. “There have been some unexpected issues that have cropped up, and I’m going away again, but I’m fine,” she answered. “Aren’t you supposed to be at work?’ she asked, looking at Jesse. Vivi and Matty had flexible schedules, but as the hospital administrator in Riverside, Jesse was usually at the office this time of day.
Jesse waved her question off, “I had the day off. Unexpected issues?” she pressed from her position next to Caleb. Kit’s tiny friend and Caleb made an odd pair, but for some reason, since the previous summer, the two had been close. As soon as she’d entered the house, Jesse had gone over to give him a hug.
“Ahem,” Matty cleared her throat and gave a not very subtle nod in the direction of Garret, even as she tugged her sweater further down over her growing belly.
“Matty, Jesse, Vivi, this is Garret,” Kit said by way of introduction. To his credit, he took their scrutiny well, nodding to each and not looking the least bit disturbed.
“Garret, what brings you here?” Matty asked as she sidled up the kitchen island and sat on one of the stools. “I hear you’re a friend of Caleb’s, who we all met last year. But if I recall, Kit’s the only one who met you,” she added. Her eyes twinkled at her reference to the conversation all the woman had had before Kit left for Europe—their conversation about just how much “meeting” Kit and Garret had done in those few short days.
Garret inclined his head. “I was a little preoccupied last fall, but it’s nice to meet you now.”
Matty grinned, then opened her mouth to say something that was cut off by the more discreet Vivi. “What kind of unexpected things?” she asked Kit.
Kit shot a glance at her brother and Garret whose expressions seemed to say it was up to her how much she wanted to say. She looked at Jesse and thought about everything Jesse had been through recently, then to Matty, her stomach growing each week with her twins, and then to Vivi, totting her almost-six-month-old on her hip.
“Don’t even think about protecting us,” Vivi spoke up as the other two voiced their consensus with that statement. “After everything we’ve been through and seen together, you should know better than to try to do that,” she added as the alarm from the driveway went off again.
“That will be Ian,” Vivi said. When everyone looked at the monitor then her, she shrugged. “You know how he is. He worries,” she added by way of a simple explanation.
A few minutes later, Ian had toed off his boots in the entryway and made his way to Vivi’s side. Giving his wife a quick kiss, he reached out for their son. Vivi handed Jeffery
over to his father, to the delight of the baby, who cooed and smiled before tucking his head into his dad’s neck.
“So, what’s going on, Kit?” Ian asked without preamble. “Where have you been and why do you look like you’ve seen better days?”
“Ian!” Vivi said, nudging her husband with her hip. He shot Vivi a look before returning his steady, all-too-knowing gaze back to Kit.
“Well, she does,” he pointed out. “And you all know exactly what I’m talking about, you’re just not mentioning it because you don’t want to hurt her feelings. But it’s obvious that whatever has run her down isn’t a beauty issue. Something else is going on. Isn’t it, Kit?” he asked.
She took a deep breath and let it out. With the exception of her brother, she may not have known everyone in the room for very long, but with everything they’d all been through over the past few years, they were all very close to her. And they deserved to know.
“Yes, something else is going on, and no, you aren’t going to like it. There’s more to it, which I’ll let Garret and Caleb fill you in on,” she said with a pointed look at Ian. She held up her hand to stave off the complaints from her girlfriends and continued. “I’ll fill the three of you in as I pack. Garret and I are leaving for Vermont in a little bit, and we want to get up there before it gets dark. But as for why I look like shit, which Ian was kind enough to point out,” she added, the humor in her voice taking the sting out of the words, “it’s because I was poisoned.”
“Poisoned!”
Kit wasn’t sure who had spoken, or more precisely, who hadn’t, when the word filled the kitchen. Again, she held up her hand. “First, I want to say it’s not contagious. I’m not contagious,” she said, nodding to both Jeffery and Matty as the two most delicate humans in the room. “But it was a weapons-grade meningitis that was administered to me through a tiny prick in my skin when a man who has been paid to kill me bumped into me on the street in the city a week ago.”
Silence. Complete and utter silence filled the kitchen at the end of her pronouncement. Ian, still holding Jeffery, fixed her with an expressionless look while her girlfriends all gaped at her. She let a rueful smile touch her lips; for the first time ever, she’d rendered all three of them speechless.
But of course, it was only a moment before they started hurling questions at her. She staved them off and directed the women to follow her; if she didn’t get to packing soon, she and Garret would never reach Vermont before dark. So, leaving Ian to interrogate Caleb and Garret, she led her friends up the stairs, down the hall, and into her room. All three of them plopped down on the bed and started firing questions at her as she packed.
She’d pretty much answered them all by the time she was done. And feeling tired herself, she decided to join her friends on the bed for a few minutes. Lying crossways by the pillows, she took a moment to register the fatigue thrumming through her body. She had no doubt that Garret would be facing another long, quiet drive on the way to Vermont; she knew she’d drift off to sleep as soon as they hit the expressway.
“You’re still not feeling well, are you?” Jesse asked sympathetically.
“I’m tired, mostly,” Kit answered. “I was really sore for a while. But now that’s just an occasional twinge.”
“I’m sure someone in the kitchen would be more than happy to give you a massage,” Matty said with a grin.
Vivi arched an eyebrow, but then looked at Kit expectantly. For a moment, Kit said nothing. Then a smile crept across her face, one she couldn’t have stopped even if she’d wanted to.
Vivi laughed first, followed by the others. “So, am I to take it that your relationship with Garret has gone beyond wherever it was last fall?” Vivi asked.
“Waaayyy beyond,” Kit replied.
“And I assume that’s a good thing,” Jesse interjected.
Kit nodded. Unfortunately, her friends didn’t miss her slight hesitation. Nor did they miss the opportunity to jump on it, all demanding to know what the issue was.
“It’s just, well, it’s hard to say,” Kit started. She frowned and thought for a moment before trying to voice some of the emotions that would hit her, seemingly out of the blue, every now and then when she thought about Garret. “Well, you all know he used to work with my brother.”
“Used to?” Vivi asked.
Kit nodded. “Yes, used to. He quit his job so that he wouldn’t have to travel—so he could be closer to me.”
With that statement, she’d managed to stun her friends for the second time that day.
“Um, wow,” Jesse said. “Not that you’re not worth it, of course,” she hastened to add. “It’s just that, well...” Her voice trailed off.
“It’s just that that is a tremendous amount of pressure to put on you.” Matty finished Jesse’s thought.
“No kidding,” Kit agreed.
“But is it going okay?” Vivi asked. “I mean, if you don’t think about all that and what it might mean, do you enjoy spending time with him?”
Again, Kit nodded. “I do. Very much. But that leads to the second issue. How can I know what’s real and what’s lasting when I’m trying to start a relationship with someone who has just quit his job and started a new one, is spending all his time with me, and is protecting me from a war criminal who’s trying to kill me? I mean, I have a lot of adrenaline around this, so it’s hard to tell what’s real and what’s not.”
“But until a few days ago, you didn’t even know about Kašović,” Jesse pointed out.
“That’s true,” Vivi agreed. “So before then, how did you feel about Garret? How were the few weeks you spent together in the city?”
Kit let her head fall back and gazed at the ceiling. “They were good,” she admitted. “Really good.”
“Then maybe you should just focus on the ‘good’ part,” Vivi suggested.
“And as for the rest, look at us, Kit,” Jesse said.
Kit raised her head and looked, but she wasn’t sure what she was supposed to be looking for.
Jesse continued. “Vivi met Ian when they were tracking a serial killer. Matty met Dash when her half brother went missing. And I met David when my dead husband’s mistress decided to try to kill me. I’m not saying everything is always easy for us, but none of us are the flighty or flippant type. If you feel like there’s something real between you and Garret, chances are there is something real between you. Something that will withstand this admittedly scary bump in the road.”
Kit took a moment to ponder Jesse’s words and realized her friend had a very valid point. Kit had never been one to get caught up in much of anything. She was the youngest of the four women, but given her past—given her father and what he’d exposed her to—she was much wiser than her years. And what she felt for Garret was something she’d recognized as true long before her own life had been put in danger. In fact, she could still recall with absolute clarity the way her heart had skittered and her stomach had dropped the first time she and Garret had locked eyes.
Jesse was right; she was overthinking everything. All she really needed to be thinking about right now was getting through the next phase of their plan and, hopefully—god willing—bringing Kašović to justice. The rest was something she and Garret would figure out.
She smiled, “Did you just refer to a crazy, genocidal war criminal trying to kill me as a bump in the road?” she teased.
Jesse smiled and shook her head as she swung her legs off the bed. “I did, and unfortunately it just means you can now also officially join the Crazy-Things-Happen-To-Me Club—our membership is now four,” she said, making a gesture that encompassed all of them.
“Four what?” Garret asked, walking into the room.
Kit pushed herself up off the bed; Vivi, Jesse, and Matty joined her. “You don’t want to know,” Kit said, as they all made their way down to the kitchen.
Garret made a noncommittal noise behind her but followed them back to where Caleb and Ian stood waiting. Judging by the look on Ian’s face
, Caleb and Garret had filled him in.
“You okay?” Ian asked softly. Kit gave him an answering smile, appreciating the man her friend had married.
“I’ll be okay. It will be nice when this is all over, but I’ll be okay,” she answered. It was the understatement of the year and everyone knew it.
***
Rather than take the interstate north to Vermont, Garret opted to drive the more scenic, albeit slower route through the Green Mountains. He had been to nearly every state in the nation, and many nations in the world, but there were very few routes he liked more than the drive through the Green Mountains.
The two-lane highway snaked through a picturesque valley, never more than four or five miles wide, that was dotted with farms and large, open fields. It was spectacular in every season, but in the deep of winter, when old buildings peeked out from under thick blankets of snow that covered everything but the road and smoke rose from chimneys that jutted up from pitched roofs, he felt a little like he was traveling back in time—like a horse and buggy might come around the bend at any moment.
Glancing up at the mountains that seemed to shoot up from the valley floor, he couldn’t stop his brain from recognizing that these hills, this valley, would be a good tactical spot from which to ambush someone. Logically, he knew that wasn’t going to happen, not today. But with the height provided by the granite mountains and the thick cover of snow on the trees, hiding in them-thar-hills would be easy.
“What are you thinking?” Kit asked from beside him. He looked over at her, her eyes still hazy from the nap she’d just woken from, and smiled.
“Do you ever feel like part of a Norman Rockwell painting when you drive around here?” he asked in answer.
The flat look she gave him in return let him know that she wasn’t fooled, that she knew he hadn’t been thinking about the famous painter. But she sighed, turned her head toward the window, and went with it.
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