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And why is that? shehers No,to the firentle way his hand enveloped hers as he pulled her to her feet A tiny shiver of awareness—good awareness—coursed through her body How she kneas good she had no idea But it wasand it confused her

To cover her confusion, she asked, “Hoill I get to Wyo?”

“I’ll take you there”

“You kneould say yes?”

He shook his head “No, but D’Arcy is a man who plans ahead Whichever choice you made, he had plans in place He’d already asked , and he had a backup plan ready in case I said no He also had a plan to get you back in the care of the marshals, if that’s the route you preferred We’ll fly to Aurora, Colorado, in a military plane out of Pope Air Force Base—it’s not that far from here—then drive up to Black Rock”

“Why a military plane?”

“First, D’Arcy wants you in safekeeping as quickly as possible, whichis out If we flew commercial, there’d be pictures of you at the airport that would end up in a government database D’Arcy told me that’s how Keira found you in the first place She ration and Customs Enforcement—arrested you to the picture on your expired work visa with face recognition software And the FBI has the same software

“Second, in order to carry un on board the aircraft I’d have to declare it and prove I was authorized to do so While the agency has the pull to arrange soit at the airport would leave a record, which would mean there’d be pictures of ht access—not a risk D’Arcy wants to run And third, arranging things so I can be armed at all times even when I fly would take time, time D’Arcy doesn’t want us to waste He wants us to vanish Now”

Liaive Cate a chance to speak, but when she didn’t he continued “The US Air Force plane we’ll be taking isn’t flying to Colorado just for us—we’re hitching a ride, as it were But D’Arcy pulled so in our direction, which is scheduled to take off just after three this afternoon

“When we get to Colorado, the agency will provide us with a coave us yesterday It’s roughly six hours from Aurora to Black Rock by car I don’t know about you, but I’ht we’d check into a hotel tonight and start driving north first thing in theWe’ll have plastic—credit cards,” he explained at her confused expression “But D’Arcy doesn’t want us to use theh they’ll be in our fake names He doesn’t want us to leave any kind of a paper trail, if possible We’ll have enough cash for the tripunless so disastrous happens The credit cards will just be backup in case of eencies”

“I see” And she did Wasn’t that what she’d always done since she’d escaped froo? Disappear into thin air? Travel as secretly as she could, insisting on being paid in cash and paying cash for everything so as not to leave a record someone could trace?

“D’Arcy will be glad you took his recommendation”

“Not his,” she said quickly “Yours”

Liam drew a sharp breath “Does that mean you trust mea little?” he asked in his deep voice “That you knoon’t just abandon you, after all?” The expression on his face was a dead giveaway she’d hurt hiain

“I’m sorry,” Cate said, contrition in her tone as they walked toward the back door “I shouldn’t have assumed the worst I should have known you wouldn’t do that to meany more than Alec would”

Liam stiffened beside her It was almost imperceptible, but Cate—who’d learned the hard way to read body language and react to it—could tell And she wondered what she’d said that would have caused a negative response in Lia hiative in that?

Then it came to her out of the blue as Liam opened the back door into the house and held it for her, and the realization startled her He didn’t like youAlec’s name His own brother His own brother whom he loves He didn’t like it, and that means