“No,” Macey admitted.
“Is he…” Preston started but trailed off. I couldn’t blame him. We were all trained spies, and even we didn’t have the strength to finish that particular sentence. “Why isn’t he coming? Macey?” He looked at her, but she couldn’t face him. “Someone tell me something! Cammie?”
“I’m so sorry, Preston,” I said, coming toward him. I took his hands. “I’m so sorry.”
I was maybe the only person in the room who knew what he was feeling, but the emotions were too raw for me. When he pushed away, I didn’t protest—didn’t follow. My own wounds were too sore. But I also knew that I was the only one who’d been there. I was the only one who had found my way out.
“My father is dead,” Preston said slowly, almost like he was admitting something he was ashamed of. “Of course he’s dead. Wasn’t that what you were trying to tell me in Rome—that people like my dad were dying?”
“Preston,” Macey started, but he was only looking at me.
“How did he die?” Preston struggled to keep his voice from cracking. He was still slightly frozen and totally numb, and he was trying to hold it all together, trying not to break down and be the weak link as he looked at me. “Do you know how he died?”
I wasn’t aware I was biting my lip until I tasted the blood. I nodded slowly. “He was shot. In custody. A few days ago.”
“In custody?” Preston asked like he was trying to wrap his mind around the facts, put them all in perspective. “In that place?”
He pointed at the mountain that was, by then, a thousand miles away.
“Yes,” I said. “He was there.”
“So he died,” Preston said again, like he was still trying the words on for size, trying to make them fit. “Was it your mom?” he asked Zach.
“We don’t know,” Zach admitted as if the question wasn’t offensive at all. And I guess when your mom is a psychotic terrorist it isn’t. “Cammie was there but she didn’t get a good look at the gunman. He could have been acting on Catherine’s orders. Or maybe the other members of the Inner Circle wanted to eliminate him before he could talk. We aren’t sure which.”
Preston whirled on me. “You saw it happen? You were there?”
“It was dark. I was in the other room, but…yes. I was there.”
“What were you doing there?” Preston asked.
“He asked to see me. I thought I was going to see you, but it was him instead. He told them I was the only person he would talk to.”
“Why?” Preston asked.
I shook my head. “He said he wanted to talk to me…about the Circle. And he asked me to keep you safe. But when I saw what happened to him, I knew you were never going to be safe in there.”
“And I’m supposed to be safe out here?” Preston yelled. The shock was wearing off, taking its toll. All that was left was fear and grief and terror. “Why did they arrest me?”
“The Circle,” Macey said. “It’s kind of a family business. It’s your family business.”
But Preston didn’t take the time to process this. He fired back, “Do you think I’m one of the bad guys?”
“No!” Macey reached for him, but Preston pulled away.
“Maybe I am.” A darkness filled his face. The truth about his father was seeping in, bleeding through his outer layers. “I could kill someone.”
“No,” Macey said. “You couldn’t.”
Preston pulled a chair out from the table and sank into it. It was like he no longer had the strength to stand.
“Where is my mother?”
“We don’t know exactly,” I told him. I wanted to keep the facts plain and straight and simple. He’d already heard too much to process any more. “We think she’s safe.”
“Are you sure?” Preston asked.
“The Circle is kind of a ‘by blood’ situation,” Zach explained. “It’s not the kind of thing you marry into.”