Little Danny, still buckled in his booster seat was looking around wide-eyed, scared but waiting, somehow knowing better than to speak just then.
“We’ll stay here until Margo’s ready to do something different,” Theo breathed, then reached for his phone to send a text message to the trusted pilots waiting for them in a trans-Atlantic-ready plane, some forty minutes away.
Delayed. Please wait.
To Margo, Theo’s words were a tonic on the distraught mother’s soul. She looked over at his exhausted face and knew she loved him more in that moment than she had ever loved him.
Theo’s phone vibrated in his hand. The pilot, Captain Jacobi’s response read: Sand storm en route. We leave soon or must wait until it passes.
Theo hesitated to relay the news, but in the end felt obligated to let everybody know the situation.
Everybody took the news with wide-eyes and dry throats. They knew it would be dangerous for them to have to wait the hours it could take for the storm to pass. Williams would be just as trapped as they were, but he wouldn’t hesitate to send his metahumans out in the storm to keep hunting them down.
The digits on Farrow’s wristwatch stabbed forward one minute after the next and still there was no sign of the boys. She willed headlights to beam down the road so badly that phantom lights and shadows played cruel tricks on her mind.
That’s exactly what she thought was happening when she saw the beginning of a white glow slipping over the dip in the road.
“I see something,” Farrow finally said, once the twin headlights became obvious as real and not wistful aberrations.
“I see it, too,” Sloan’s voice hitched from thoughts of Cole.
“Headlights?” Margo breathed.
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Do they look like those of the sedan?” Theo asked.
“They could be, sir. They’re fast approaching.”
Time seemed to hold its breath waiting for the lights to get closer.
“Is it them?” Margo couldn’t stand it any longer.
“Stand by.” Farrow breathed, straining her eyes to look inside the vehicle—willing herself to confirm the visual they were desperate for.
She thought of Alik—of his blue, blue eyes crinkling at the corners when he smiled down at her. His love and devotion to his family as crisp as the blue in his eyes. Farrow never doubted for one minute, he was just as desperate to find them as they were to have him back. A mental picture of him with humor twinkling in his eyes forced her to bite back a whimper. He would do anything to make her smile, and she loved him for it. She’d lived more in the past year than she had her entire existence before Alik.
“Well?” Margo asked, anxiously.
“It’s a sedan,” Farrow offered lamely.
“Color?” Theo asked.
“It’s too dark to tell,” Sloan responded, “Give us a few more seconds.”
Everyone obeyed, praying silent prayers.
“Negative. It’s red. The sedan is red. It’s not them,” Farrow nearly sobbed when she realized it. The others in the van gasped softly, but held their tongues.
“I’m sorry,” she breathed, her eyes downcast and stinging with tears not just from the strain and exhaustion. Heartbreak and numbness were starting to envelop Farrow.
“We’ll just give them more—”
“Wait!” Sloan exclaimed. “We’ve been so busy following this first vehicle, we didn’t notice the one a mile behind it. It’s silver or gray—a sedan.”
Hope leaped into Farrow’s chest as she repositioned herself next to an opened window so she could have an even clearer view.
“Could it be?” Margo whisked away the annoying tears coursing down her cheeks.
“I think—” Farrow began, but hesitated before diving in. “I think this could be them!”
“Keep watching,” Sloan encouraged.
“It looks like one of the larger boys driving: either Alik or Creed.”
“Who else do you see?”
“That’s either Cole or Evan in the front passenger seat.”
“Are there four of them in the car?” Theo asked, worried.
“Sir, I can only confirm two at this distance,” Farrow responded robotically, though inside she was leaping around the van like a little kid Christmas morning.
Alik’s alive! He has to be alive! Farrow’s heart pounded loud enough for her to hear ringing in her ears.
Maze whined plaintively before moving to look out the window into the night sky. His night vision was excellent. Maze scratched at the window with the nails on his huge paws.
“Hold on Maze,” Margo cooed. “It’s them—it’s got to be.”
“I think you’re right, Dr. Winter.” Farrow didn’t even try to contain the wide grin spilling across her pixie face. “Five. I count five people in the car, but those in the back seat are slumped over.”
21 The Heart Knows
“I hope the others are okay.”
“They have to be.”
“Right,” Evan breathed. His sharp hazel eyes searched the horizon for the silhouette of the billboard they’d chosen months ago as their meeting place.
Evan kept craning his neck around to check those in the back seat.
“How are they doing?”