intricate part of us because of you. Reid loves you. Patrick picked out flowers for you. I asked you to come up here. You did.” He continued to emphasize the personal pronoun. “He will always be a part, but he isn’t your part. No one is but you. Thank you for coming up and talking to me.”
Tears prickled the backs of my eyes as I grinned. “Thank you for asking me.” I turned to leave.
“Lorna?”
I spun back to him and his desk. “Yeah?”
“Your breakfasts were nice.”
My smile grew. “Tomorrow at seven.”
“This floor,” he said.
“This floor.”
Reid
Present day
The small plane approached the landing strip at the main house. Although Mason’s plane only contained the pilot and copilot seats, in the aft there was a third jump seat. While neither of us would have easily fit, Araneae did. Throughout the flight, I continued to check on her, offering her water and asking if she was all right. Since she didn’t have headphones, it was more of a labored game of charades.
Before heading away from where Araneae was discovered, Mason and I did a scan of the area, determined to not leave Lorna behind. Both of our searches came up empty. While I didn’t want to think about my wife alone on the canyon floor, I also couldn’t delay getting Araneae a.k.a. Kennedy back to the house.
As soon as we reached the plane, we radioed the house. Sparrow assured us that they’d be waiting along with medical help including the doctor who checked out Madeline and Laurel after the attack.
“No one is close,” Mason said to me after the radio conversation, speaking of the doctor.
“Sparrow will have a fucking helicopter fly the doctor to the ranch. I have no doubt.”
Mason’s green stare, the one like his sister’s came my direction. “Lorna is still alive.”
His response wasn’t in regard to what I’d said, but to what I needed to hear. I inhaled, letting his words sink in, taking them as gospel, and refusing to believe otherwise.
Once the plane came a little closer to the main house, my prediction came to fruition. A helicopter sat near the outbuildings in the area where the kidnappers had landed. The markings on the tail indicated it was from a level-three trauma center in Butte.
“You were right,” Mason said, before peering back over his shoulder and back. His green gaze questioned along with his one word. “Kennedy?”
“Yeah, it was her name...before...” I didn’t finish. It all happened before Mason’s return; however, the story wasn’t secret.
“Before Sparrow?”
“You know the story,” I said. “It’s complicated.”
“She didn’t know me, which is understandable,” Mason said softly into the headphones. “Seems like she would have known you.” When I didn’t reply, he added, “Surely, she’ll know Sparrow.”
“I fucking hope so.”
As we touched down Sparrow, Patrick, Madeline, and Laurel stepped out of the hangar. Sparrow barely waited for the plane to stop when he took off running toward us. As Mason turned off the controls, I unbuckled myself and opened the door to reach the jump seat.
“Are we to the hospital?” Kennedy asked.
“No.” I looked at her harness and back up to her light brown eyes. “May I help you?”
“Yes,” she answered quickly with a nod. “If we’re not at a hospital, where are we?”
Mason had taken off his earphones. “This is my ranch, mine and my wife’s. The hospital is farther away. Your husband had the trauma helicopter brought here.”
Her eyes opened wide. “My husband?”
Mason’s gaze went to mine.
Before we could comment, Sparrow was there, reaching for her hand as she began to stand. That didn’t last long before he had her in his arms. “Tell me you’re all right,” he demanded.
Araneae blinked as she took in the man holding her. New tears glistened in her eyes. “Sterling?” She laid her head against his as her body trembled with gut-wrenching sobs. “Sterling. Oh...Sterling.”
His dark gaze looked our way. There were words of gratitude he couldn’t convey. Instead, he said, “I’m taking her to the house. The doctor is waiting.”
We both nodded.
Once he was gone, I turned to Mason. “What the fuck?”
His head shook. “I don’t know.” He looked toward the others. “Hey, Doc?” He wasn’t calling to the doctor who had come at Sparrow’s bid, but to his wife, Laurel.
We began walking toward the others as they came toward us.
“How is she?” Laurel asked.
“What about Lorna?” Madeline asked.
We both shook our heads. “She wasn’t there. Araneae was alone.”
“When we found her,” Mason began, “she didn’t know us. She didn’t know her name was Araneae. She