She felt better by the time the lights of the first police helicopter winked in the night sky. Donovan still remained close, her self-appointed guardian. Kyle and Mitch dragged Evan’s body up the stairs and laid it out on the sand. She looked away but couldn’t escape the pain of knowing that her father had been betrayed by his best friend.
“Do you think Wally suspected?” she asked.
He didn’t have to ask what she was talking about. “We may never know.”
She hoped he hadn’t. She lifted a hand to smooth the lines of pain beside his mouth. “He had other friends. I’m glad he knew you,” she told him.
He smiled sadly. “So am I.” Then squeezing her hand, he added, “And I’m glad I know his daughter.”
It warmed her heart far more than it should. With the mission over and no promises between them, she doubted their paths would ever cross again, and she could already sense the gaping hole that would leave in her life. She would have to get used to the pain, because it was never going to go away.
It was more than sheer weariness that allowed Jess to lay her chair back on the flight home and fall asleep before reaching cruising altitude. She didn’t need the usual Dramamine or wine or Ambien to relax. She didn’t even need Tyler’s distracting male aura to take her mind off flying. Somehow the drama and adventure of her time in Luxor had taken away any worries about what she might face next and how she would get there. It turned out that getting the most out of each moment in life beat chewing her fingernails over the hundred ways it might all go wrong.
She slept through their refueling in Paris and woke up somewhere over the Atlantic. Donovan was in the seat next to her and appeared to have been watching her as she slept.
“Hi,” he said quietly. “Sleep well?”
She nodded, righting her chair and smiling. “Great.”
He returned her smile, but something felt different. He was more remote, more emotionally distant than he’d been in Luxor. Separating from her. No matter what she felt for him or how much it hurt, he didn’t have to worry. She knew how to be a big girl.
“So what’s next for you?” she asked brightly. “Another mission?”
He blinked a couple times, apparently doing a mental U-turn. “I don’t know. We have to meet with lawyers and reestablish Omega’s leadership. Wally had hoped I would take Evan’s place someday, but I didn’t expect that day to come so soon. I don’t know if I’m ready to leave the field.” He watched her with an expression that seemed carefully blank. “What about you?”
“I have a book that’s almost done, so I’ll be at the drawing board for the next couple weeks. After that, I’m not sure. I had plans for more books in the Mossy Log Meadow series, but I’m not excited about starting them. Maybe I’ll take a break, reevaluate some things.”
He nodded seriously as if this was terribly insightful and interesting. Then he was quiet for a minute, staring at the seat in front of him. She looked out the window at the clouds.
“Jess…” She turned toward him, saw the awkwardness. “We should probably talk about what happened.”
It wasn’t as hard as she thought it would be to smile at him. She wasn’t happy, but she couldn’t stand to think he felt bad about anything they’d done. If he was sorry, she didn’t want to hear it. “No, we shouldn’t.”
“But…”
“It’s fine, Tyler, really. I had a great time, and I have a lot of great memories.” She doubted anyone else could hear them, but she whispered anyway. “You’re in the best ones.”
He smiled then. “Liar. I know you. Being with me doesn’t beat out discovering the lost tomb of a pharaoh.”
She tipped her head as if giving it serious consideration. “Ramesses VIII was cool, it’s true. But he sure didn’t do for me what you did.”
He chuckled. “Too milquetoast for you?”
“You know how it is, pharaohs are a dime a dozen in Egypt. Besides, he’s a bit stiff. I like someone a little livelier.”
The tension was broken, at least enough of it to keep things comfortable through the rest of the trip.
In Chicago she stayed for a day and a night, long enough to fill their ex-CIA operative-slash-trainer in on everything, reclaim her wardrobe, and sleep for ten hours. If Donovan came to her room that night, she never knew it, but she doubted that he had. He’d maintained a polite and friendly distance at the house. When Avery told her they had a private jet waiting to take her home the next day, he was there to give her a hug along with everyone else. He held her an extra few seconds and whispered, “You take care,” in her ear. Impulsively, she kissed his cheek. He’d shaved when they got back and it was the first time she’d kissed him and felt smooth skin. It didn’t take anything from the rough image of him she carried in her heart, the one she’d fallen in love with.