“Will Striker be there?”
“If by ‘there’ you mean at the house, maybe sometimes, but he definitely won’t be staying there. We haven’t figured out the logistics yet, but he’ll either be at the safe house in Harmony or down in Montecito, closer to Doc’s place.”
“Okay.”
“What happened with you two? If you don’t want to tell me, I’ll understand.”
“I think he got bored.”
Tabon raised his eyebrows. “Not a chance. Maybe he just got scared.”
“Of me? That’s hysterical.”
Razor shrugged. “I bet I’m more right than you are.”
5
One thing about being around Tabon and the rest of the K19 team that always astounded Aine was how many vehicles they had.
When she asked about driving her car down from Yachats, Tabon scoffed.
“There’s one in the garage you can use.”
“What about when you need it?”
“No, I meant in Gunner’s garage. Avarie and I both have cars in Cambria.”
“You do?”
Tabon nodded and went back to whatever he was doing.
“I don’t know how he’s getting there, but Tabon said that Striker—I mean Griffin—wouldn’t be on the plane today,” said Ava when they were getting ready to leave for the private airfield.
“It’s okay. You can call him Striker. I do now.” Aine had felt funny calling him by his code name when they were dating, but now that they weren’t, there was no reason she shouldn’t refer to him the same way everyone else did.
“Striker left last night,” said Tabon, walking past them with their bags.
Aine was equally relieved and disappointed. A part of her had hoped he’d be on the plane, even if he didn’t talk to her.
“What’s happening with Stuart?” asked Tabon when he came back inside after putting the bags in the car.
“I talked to him last night. He’s going to try to take a couple of days off to come down to visit. If that’s okay. I mean, he wouldn’t stay at the house or anything like that.”
Tabon put his hand on Aine’s shoulder. “You’re my sister-in-law not my daughter, and you’re twenty-three years old. You don’t need my permission to have guests. Even overnight ones. You have the run of that side of the duplex, sweetheart. The only thing I ask is that if you have loud parties, you invite your sister and me.”
“Right,” laughed Aine. “As if.”
“I don’t know,” said Ava. “Quinn’s back.”
Aine couldn’t wait to see one of her best friends. Quinn was the reason that Ava met Tabon, which led to Aine meeting Striker.
“Do you think it’ll be too hard for her, you know, with Sam?”
It had been over a year since they’d seen Quinn and her husband, Mercer. The last time they were in town had been for Ava and Tabon’s wedding. Quinn was pregnant at the time but had miscarried a couple of weeks after that. Since, she and Mercer had been traveling around the world.
“When I asked him if he’d take me to India, Mercer said he’ll take me everywhere,” Quinn had gushed shortly after she and Mercer started seeing each other.
He’d made good on his promise, and they’d spent the last year going everywhere from Europe to the Caribbean—even to places Aine had never heard of.