out of my way,” I reply before forcing my voice to lower. “Listen, you wanted me to follow him, learn what he’s up to, right? Well, I have. I can do that even better if I’m by his side on this trip. But that’s not why I’m going. You’re so wrong about him. I know you are. I can feel it.” I place my hands on my heart.
Claire grumbles, “I think your hands are in the wrong spot. I’m sure you feel something for him, but at most, it’s one hand on your heart and one on your vagina. To point, neither are on your head, because you are not thinking with your damn brain. I didn’t tell you to fall in love with him!”
“But I did, and that you can’t change!” I cry out. It’s the first time I’ve admitted that out loud, though I’ve known it for a while now. It hurts that the first time is to Claire and not to Nathan himself.
“You’re not thinking straight,” Claire shouts back, “and I can’t do anything to help you if . . . no, when he gets his ass in a sling out of the country!”
“I don’t care,” I reply, placing my hands on the counter. “Claire, I love you. You’re my big sister, and you want to take care of me, but you’re wrong about Nathan. He’s not the bad guy you think he is.”
Claire pleads. “This isn’t the theater or an archaeological dig. This is real, actual dangerous stuff, Emma. Nathan Stone is an international criminal. You want to know the sort of shit people like him get up to? If I had the opportunity, I’d drag your ass down to my office, show you the files. Spend two hours in my closed case files, and you’d never go near someone like Nathan ever again!”
“Yet you put me inside his house,” I reply quietly, and Claire reacts like she’s been slapped. Maybe, in a way, she has. “Admit it. There is nothing concrete, just a hunch. Claire, if you stop for a minute, I think you know he cares for me too and would never hurt me.”
“Can you—” Claire starts, but I roll right over her.
“I’m going because he’s up to something. This trip isn’t about spreading his dad’s ashes, and he’s worked damn hard to get into those caves for some reason, a reason he’s pointedly not shared with me,” I continue, respecting Nathan’s order to not share the cave maps or the research he’s had me do about the area’s history. “It’s not illegal, though. I’m sure of that because I trust him, even if you don’t. I’m going because I love him, Claire. I’m going because he’s going to need my help. But no matter what, I’m going. So please just make this easy on both of us and get the hell out of my way.”
“Wait . . . spread his dad’s ashes? That’s what he said he’s doing?” Claire says.
I nod. “Yeah, but I know there’s more.”
Claire purses her lips. “I’d say so, since Michael Stone’s body is buried at Landmorrow Cemetery. He wasn’t cremated. So what’s Nathan up to?”
“I don’t know, but I’m going to find out.”
Claire scrubs at her cheeks, thinking so hard I can almost see the hamster spinning behind her eyes, but her mouth has no doubts. “No.”
“Claire, listen to me very carefully,” I snarl through clenched teeth, coming around the counter and getting in her face. “The only way you’re going to stop me is if you shoot me. You’re my sister and I love you, but I will put this boot up your ass if you don’t get the fuck outta my way.”
It’s a total bluff. We both know it. She’s trained in kicking ass and would easily subdue me, but right now, I don’t give a shit, and after staring into my eyes for a moment, she relents. “Fuck!” It’s a loud exclamation, pained and furious.
“Thank you,” I tell her, going to my bag and pulling it on. “I’ll call you when I can.”
I open the door, but Claire calls out to me, “If you get arrested, there or when you get back, I can’t help you. This is beyond off-books, so far out of our jurisdiction it’s actually illegal, not just ill-advised. You get that, right?”
I nod, looking back at her. “I know. I love you, Clairol.”
She doesn’t smile at the old nickname from our childhood, and she doesn’t follow me this time. Instead, I