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I pressedto her, Jared"

"I know"

The stars had crowded out the last colors left behind by the setting sun, and the ocean was as black as the sky above I ht by the water a fewwrapped in Jared’s arht as wel have been bearing down onoff the water blewthe strands from his mouth

I s of Jerusale, won’t they try to stop us? If it gets worse than a car bo to be busy What if they wire the plane?" I laughed once without humor "What if they shoot us down?"

"That is a possibility But we’re prepared"

Dread settled over me We were vulnerable on the plane, and it was a ten-hour flight

"We’ll land, get you and the book to the Sepulchre, and wait it out underground until you deliver"

"Youthey can to stop us"

"We just have to get you there It’s s after that"

"You hope"

The skin around Jared’s eyes tightened "I’ to stop by the warehouse before we leave Talk to Eli"

"I thought he said to come to him e only had one question to ask?"

Jared kept his eyes on the ocean "I don’t think the question is ours to ask"

Chapter Thirteen

The Road Home

We revisited that spot on the beach many times over the next two days Jared sat with me and watched the waves rol onto the sand, and the water carry distant ship slowly across the horizon We discussed our upco trip to Jerusalem, but Jared kept most of the details to himself He didn’t want to worry h I was e the fact that I was carrying our child

The only sound was the wind and the interainst the sand, but my ht and try to push out the hundreds of frightening thoughts in ht Jared wrapped his eyes around me, or how hard I tried to pretend ere in Little Corn, thoughts of deuedseveral ti, and my voicemail, with her frantic pleas Sasha hadn’t co, other people began to calEven Cynthia, although I assumed it was just to keep up pretenses for the police As far as they knew, she was afraid I was dead orof the second day, Jared’s phone buzzed "Ryel" Jared listened for aup "The investigators expect the results of the dental records any ood news, I guess"

Sasha’s fa that it was her reood thing, but it was a ood neas that I could final y cal Beth

Claire was right, within the hour, she texted a confiro ahead, I dialed Beth’s number

"Where in the hel have you been?" she wailed "I thought you were dead!" Her breathing quickened until sobs developed in her throat, fol owed by a pause in the form of muffled noises before Chad came on the line

"Uhhel o?"

"I’ht everyone kneas gone Jared and I needed some time away, so I turned off my phone I feel awful"

The last bit was true I could hear Beth sobbing in the background; hearing Chad try to co her, he tried to fil me in on what had happened He described the scene at Titan, the police tape, the lines of e to be questioned, and the blackened asphalt whereBeth took the phone back and put it to her ear "My life has been miserable Everyone at Titan either spread ru between irritated and hateful Did you know Sasha is ?" I said, trying to keep hed on me with every lie I told

"Oh myoh my God, Nina The last person to speak to Sasha was her ht she wentDo you think it was her in your car? I meanif it wasn’t you, then who?"

"II don’t know Maybe you should say soan to cry again "That poor girl You should cal your mother, and then cal Providence PD and tel theht away" She sniffed again "I’ the beejeezus outta iven"

"I’lad you’re okay As much as I loathed that woman, I hope it wasn’t Sasha, either That’s an aay to dieNina?"

"Yes?"

"Someone put a bomb on your car"

"It certainly appears that way"

"Butdoesn’t thatdoesn’t that bother you?"

I sighed, resolved to tel her at least some of the truth "I’m used to it, Beth Why do you think my father hired Jared?"

Beth didn’t speak for a long while, and then final y uess I didn’t think about it I’s were so frightening for you"

"I’uard Don’t worry for et back"

Beth blew a deep breath of relief into the phone "Please hurry I need to see you"

"Jared is already packing"