For several seconds after Elena said it, Roman did not move.
"I'm ready."
Three words.
That was all.
Not I'm alive.
Not I'm sorry.
Not I should have come back sooner.
Just—
"I'm ready."
Roman stared at the speaker in the ceiling as though looking hard enough might make her appear.
Aaron turned away first.
Susanna cried quietly into Adrian's shoulder.
Allison looked toward Roman.
His face had changed completely.
The sarcasm was gone.
The danger.
The practiced indifference.
For once, he looked exactly like what he was.
A man who had loved someone for twenty years without knowing whether he was grieving a death or waiting for a return.
"Where?" he asked.
His voice barely worked.
Elena answered softly.
"Not yet."
Roman laughed once.
Of course.
Of course there was still one more condition.
He scrubbed both hands over his face.
"You've had twenty years to work on your timing."
"I know."
"You could've started with coordinates."
"I know."
