MATHERS WAS WAITING in the arrivals area at Minneapolis–Saint Paul International. Windermere glanced at Stevens and sighed. “Until next time, partner.”
Stevens followed her eyes. “Ah,” he said. “Back to reality. You going to be okay?”
“’Course I will,” she told him. “I’d rather go home to my crummy love life than to your daughter’s rampant hormones.”
“Christ.” Stevens made a face. “What am I going to do, Carla?”
“Talk to her,” she said. “She’s a smart girl. You make sure she’s making good decisions, and then you get out of her way. You can’t postpone the inevitable.”
“I can try.”
“You’ll fail.” She hugged him. “I’ll see you tomorrow. Harris wants us in bright and early, start cleaning up the rest of the Dragon’s buyers. Maybe working with Interpol to chase down that Mike bastard.”
Stevens hugged her back. “Sure,” he said. “Bright and early.”
“Gonna be another needle-and-haystack gig. Get some rest.”
Stevens shook Mathers’s hand, shot a wave to them both. Shouldered his carry-on and disappeared into the crowd of passengers walking out of the terminal. Windermere watched him go. Then she turned back to Mathers. “Hey.”
Mathers gave her a half-smile. “Hey.”
She looked around the terminal, avoiding his eyes. She’d been thinking about this moment for days now, half dreading it, the other half counting down the minutes. Now she was here, he was here, and she didn’t know what to say.
“So you tracked down Irina,” she said finally. “Someone said you even learned some Romanian.”
Mathers grinned. “They tell me my accent’s atrocious,” he said. “Listen.” He said something unintelligible.
“Sounded okay to me,” she said, shrugging.
He reached for her bag. “Just the carry-on?”
“Yeah,” she said. Let him lift it and carry it toward the exit.
> > >
SHE LET HIM DRIVE HER HOME. Let him park in a visitor stall and carry her bag up to her condo. She unlocked the door and let him follow her in, let him crack a beer for her, let him pour it, let him bring her the glass in the living room. Then he sat, not beside her on the couch, but in the easy chair she never used, the chair she figured would be good for socializing if she ever grew up and got any real friends.
“So?” he said, leaning forward, hands clasped.
“So.” She drank her beer. “So, I don’t know, Mathers.”
“I’m sorry I fucked up your case,” he said.
She nodded. “I know.”
“And I’m sorry I made everything complicated, with work and stuff. I know it’s the last thing you need.”
She drank some more beer. “I know.”
“And—” He stood and walked to the window, rubbing his hands together. “I’m sorry about all of this. The emotional stuff. You said you don’t want a boyfriend, I should have listened. Not fair that I pushed you into something you don’t want.”
She could feel his eyes on her. Knew he’d been saving this up, rehearsing it probably. Knew it wasn’t easy to say.
But she couldn’t look at him. She wanted to, but she just couldn’t. “I know,” she said. She drank again. “It’s fine, Derek.”
“‘Fine.’” Mathers stared at her a moment. “Okay,” he said finally. “So I’ll just go.”
Windermere closed her eyes. Contemplated the thought of her empty apartment, night falling, nobody to talk to. The thought of Mathers somewhere far away, pulling some badge bunny out of a bar. Contemplated him happy with somebody else, and her alone and empty in this soulless apartment.
She heard Mathers sigh again, heard his footsteps cross the living room toward the door. And now she wasn’t seeing herself in her mind anymore, or Mathers. She was seeing the terrified teenage girls climbing out of the basement in Alphabet City, the dark-eyed women in the box on the freighter, in the brothels in Billings and Duluth.
She was seeing Irina Milosovici, Catalina, their thin faces, their haunted eyes. And she knew she didn’t want to be alone.
“Don’t go,” she said without opening her eyes. “Mathers. Please.”
There was a pause from the door. Windermere waited, could feel his eyes on her. Could almost read the thoughts running through his head.
The pause stretched for miles. She felt her heart pounding. Then the floorboards creaked and Mathers was beside her. She opened her eyes and let him hold her.