“What I mean,” Dox said, “is that according to K., John and Delilah are landing in DC late tonight. They’re going to pick up K.’s young officer, the one someone made the attempt on earlier. They could keep watch on your people, too, at least until you’re back.”
Manus hated that Evie and Dash were so exposed, but he didn’t like Dox’s suggestion. “I don’t even know who they are.”
“What you need to know is this,” Dox said. “I’ve been running and gunning with John for a long time. He knows all there is about how to make someone dead. Which makes him the person you want most when it comes to keeping someone alive.”
chapter
forty-two
DELILAH
Delilah was still trying to doze off when she felt a jolt and realized the plane had touched down. Her ears had been popping, but she hadn’t expected to arrive so soon. She checked her watch—not quite four o’clock in the morning local time.
She pressed the button to raise the seat. John stirred across from her, still reclined. Ordinarily he was a light sleeper—a survival reflex, she knew. But when he felt safe, as apparently he did inside an airborne private jet, it was a different story.
The plane began to decelerate. John opened his eyes, stretched, and raised his seat.
“Well,” she said. “At least you got some sleep.”
He pinched his nostrils, closed his eyes, and blew out to pop his ears. “I’m guessing that makes one of us?”
She nodded.
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s all right. If I’d stayed behind, I wouldn’t have slept any better. And I would have been pissed on top of it.”
“Does that mean you’re not?”
She sighed. “I was thinking . . . I wasn’t being fair. It used to be you who tried to pressure me to get out of the life. And I wouldn’t, because I wasn’t ready.”
“You had your reasons. I shouldn’t have pressured you.”
She laughed. “Yes, that’s true. But I could be a little more understanding myself. I care about Dox, too. You know that. Livia . . . I’m mixed on.”
“Only because you’re protective of Dox. That’s no vice.”
He was right about that. “He’s a good friend.”
“The best. But don’t tell him I said that. When the opportunity presents itself, I still need to be able to give him shit.”
“What you said before . . . about how, if I needed help, I wouldn’t be able to stop him.”
John looked at her. “It’s true.”
She nodded. “I know it’s true. No one could. I don’t want to lose sight of that. Or anything else that really matters.”
While the plane continued to taxi, John used the bathroom. Delilah followed suit. When she came back, he was closing the laptop. He would have connected, she knew, through the plane’s satellite hotspot.
“All good?” she said.
“Yeah. Turns out we have two more people to pick up, not just this girl Maya.”
For a second, she thought she’d heard wrong. “You’re kidding,” she said. But it was a reflex. John never kidded about that kind of thing.
He told her about the other two—Marvin Manus’s woman and her boy. The woman had seen something worrisome and was afraid to go home. Manus was flying in to be with them, but he wouldn’t land for a few more hours.
“Is this really necessary?” she said. “This Manus . . . we don’t even know him.”