“No.”
“A job?”
“No.”
“Anything.”
Ethan looked at her for several seconds.
Then his gaze moved past Victoria toward Mia.
His daughter sat clutching Captain with both arms.
Something changed in Ethan’s expression.
“There is one thing.”
Victoria waited.
Ethan leaned closer.
“Go home.”
She blinked.
“What?”
“You almost died alone on an airplane going to another meeting.”
Victoria’s fingers loosened around his wrist.
“You asked what I wanted.”
He looked directly into her eyes.
“Go home to whoever would miss you.”
For once, Victoria Hale had no response.
The paramedics rolled her away.
—
Two hours later, Victoria lay in a private hospital room connected to enough equipment to make sleeping impossible.
Her assistant, Lauren Pierce, arrived shortly after midnight.
Lauren was thirty-six, relentlessly organized, and one of
