Keeping that firmly in mind, she looked at Calli and said in an offhand voice, you going with him?”
.”
’ll miss you,” she said. ’ll wake Danny up.”
car is in the back,” Calli said, already heading for the door with his suitcase in hand. were a couple of reporters hanging around out front,” he lied.
HIS ATTENTION FOCUSEDon the document he was reading, Gray Elliott reached out and picked up his telephone. MacNeil’s voice was tinged with carefully concealed frustration. “While I was grabbing a cup of coffee a minute ago, Childress got an idea and phoned LaGuardia.”
?” Gray said irritably.
seems that Wyatt’s plane took off an hour ago, and the flight plan the pilots filed was for Indianapolis. A few minutes ago they changed it to Midway.”
. Leave it to Childress.”
, he has great instincts,” MacNeil said carefully. ’re on our way out to Midway now.”
Gray leaned back in his chair, contemplating the allegation that Bartlett had caused Danny Donovan’s kidnapping and possible death at the hands of a deranged Billy Wyatt. He’d also managed to make it public knowledge that Kate was an unwed mother with a child fathered by one of the Chicago Wyatts. Now he wanted to see Mitchell Wyatt put on trial. Lurching forward, Gray made up his mind and said, think I’ll take care of this on my own. Tell Childress I said good work.”
,” MacNeil said. ’ll tell Childress that. He’s got a sinus headache, and he won’t mind keeping an eye on the restaurant while we meet Wyatt’s plane at Midway. It’s not a good idea for you to try to handle it yourself without a detective along. Sticking with procedure is important when the victim’s a lawyer.”
, Mac,” Gray said, touched.
’ll pick you up. We’re just a few blocks from you. I guess we’ll have to take your car.”
DID YOUpretend you don’t speak English, Calli?” Kate asked when she couldn’t think of anything else to distract her from the impending good-bye to Mitchell. Danny was fast asleep, his head on her lap, and her fingers kept automatically searching for his curls whenever she laid her hand on his head.
wasn’t sure you were going to keep him in the loop while Danny was missing, and people talk openly in front of someone who doesn’t speak their language.”
They were at Midway, driving past hangars with private planes that dotted the tarmac. Calli flipped on the turn indicator and swung the car through open gates, then turned again and headed toward a large, brightly lit hangar. In front of it a sleek jet with swept-back wings and 1 2T F printed in large black letters on the tail was waiting on the tarmac, its boarding steps down and its interior lights on. ’ll carry Danny,” Calli volunteered, reaching into the backseat and scooping the sleeping boy up as if he were weightless.
Partway up the steps, something blocked the light spilling out from the doorway, and Kate lifted her head. Mitchell was standing there, his tall broad-shouldered frame filling the opening.This is good-bye, she thought, and the knowledge was suddenly so excruciating that she swore then and there to never, ever let herself be in this position again. He stepped forward and held out his hand to her. Kate took it and even managed a smile as she walked into the plane’s luxurious interior. some reason,” she said, never imagined you in an Art Deco setting.”
sort of setting did you imagine me in?” Mitchell asked, taking Danny from Calli’s arms and carrying him inside, leaving Calli to unload the bags he’d been able to sneak out of Kate’s apartment.
Kate forgot the question as she watched Mitchell carefully lay his sleeping son in the middle of a big, gray leather sofa and tenderly place his big hand on Danny’s cheek. His big hand . . . with light bruises on the knuckles. Kate’s instantaneous response was a mixture of fascinated horror at the proof she was seeing that Mitchell could be capable of physical violence, and a sense of profound satisfaction that someone had finally had the courage to partially repay Evan for the unconscionable things he had done without a trace of compassion or remorse. She was so preoccupied with her thoughts that she didn’t notice Mitchell fastening a seat belt over Danny’s prone body.
this an important trip?” she asked Mitchell as he helped her off with her suede jacket.
,” he said in a tone so solemn that Kate studied him closely.
you be gone long?”
depends.”
how long those bruises take to heal?”
He grinned, then shook his head and said, .”
Struggling against a wave of early bereavement, Kate glanced around the plane’s interior. ’s like a beautiful living room.”
Calli said something in Italian, and Mitchell leaned down, looked out the plane’s window, and picked up a telephone, speaking in some foreign language. Kate assumed he was instructing the pilots since the phone had no dial or buttons for making an outside call.
A moment later, she heard a loud sound from the rear of the plane, then Calli came walking forward, smiling. He continued past her and settled onto a big leather swivel recliner close to the cockpit.
,” Kate said, lifting her eyes to Mitchell’s smiling blue gaze, guess this is good-bye. I thought we’d have more time. Let’s wake Danny up so he can say good-bye and see your plane before we go.”
A funny smile twisted Mitchell’s lips, and Kate leaned up impulsively and kissed him, blinking back tears when his arms slid around her. The plane lurched subtly, and she glanced out the window and realized that it was starting to move. “Grab Danny,” she said quickly. ’re starting to move. We have to get off—”
isn’t a bus, Kate.”
know that, but we have to—” She clutched the back of the chair, narrowing her eyes when Mitchell sat down on the sofa and attempted to draw her down onto the chair beside him. Just beyond the window, a car with a revolving light on the dashboard was racing down the road toward the gate near their hangar. , what is this? What are you doing?”
The plane’s engines revved up to a whine, then it began to pick up speed, and over the intercom system the copilot’s voice provided an answer to her question: ay Ground, this is Gulfstream One Two Tango Fox requesting expeditious taxi if possible. We will be ready at the runway.”
, One Two Tango Fox,” an answering voice said over the intercom. via Kilo Yankee to runway thirty-one center.”
Kate’s heart soared along with the plane’s increasing speed, and she sat down quickly, fastening her seat belt. She had no idea where she was going or why she was going there, and it didn’t matter. All that mattered was that Mitchell wanted Danny and her with him, which meant he’d told her the truth last night about how he felt.