And, unfortunately, aside from killing a couple of vehicles full of cartel members—in other words, reducing their team size by maybe less than a tenth of a percent—I hadn’t done shit to progress the mission and now they knew we were on to them.
I got to the bunker a short while later. I needed all of DOM’s help.
As soon as I got inside, even before I’d removed everything that was making me sweat like a pig in Brazil, I grabbed one of the burner phones and called Scott.
“Liam and I just landed at the airport,” he said.
“You had better fucking get your asses over here as quickly as you can then,” I said, “because this ain’t a one-man crew. Snake probably knows we’re coming after him hard. I had to fucking fend off what felt like half the cartel.”
“Understood.”
I knew Scott wasn’t lying. He’d seen some shit.
But I had a feeling when it was all said and done, we’d all be seeing shit we never thought we’d encounter.
Chapter 11: Emily
“It all went well.”
I was in the room where Doctor Needham had just completed the transplant. It felt…normal and fine. I wasn’t sure what to expect, even though I had all the material given to me, but all things considered, hearing Dr. Needham’s words went a long way toward comforting me.
“You’re sure?” I said for what was probably the dozenth time since I arrived. Poor doc—she was really doing everything she could to reassure me, and my paranoia and anxiety from the day really weren’t helping matters.
“Yes,” Dr. Needham said with a smile. “We’ll do some follow-up appointments just to make sure. But you should be set.”
I took a breath. It was strange how a moment I had hyped up for so long in my head was finished in a process that had really not taken that long, not involved many excruciating steps, and in fact, mostly entailed me just lying on a table. I guess I’d envisioned it being some sort of epic challenge, but that had largely proven to only be metaphorical, not literal.
After I had rested and was given the okay to leave I called a cab. I was in such a rush to get back to Miami, get back to my life, get back to the world outside in which I would emerge not just as Emily Lorne, a professional woman, but as Emily Lorne, a professional woman and possible mother.
And when I got out of the doctor’s office and into the streets, I literally held out my arms in triumph and closed my eyes, letting the sun and its rays wash over me.
It was all set. It was done.
I might be a mother.
I was elated. I felt full of hope. I hopped into my waiting cab. This was the start of the next chapter in my life, and I couldn’t have felt more excited. What had started out as sheer panic at the prospect of having kids so late in life had now turned into something so joyous, so complete, so…fulfilled despite all my fears.
Yes, I knew that this wasn’t a guarantee yet. But for all intents and purposes…
I chose to believe this was now the case. To have something otherwise come against this would be too much to even consider as a possibility.
When I got to my apartment I almost called Kelly, but I reminded myself she was under some sort of stress and, more importantly, it wasn’t even seven in the morning over there yet. But I did text her, in all caps with some exclamation marks, that the transplant had happened. It read like a text a sixteen-year-old would send, but for what had just happened, I felt it was warranted.
To my surprise, Kelly responded almost immediately. Now I felt a little guilty for having woken her up, but at least it wasn’t a call. And besides, Kelly could call me if she wanted to celebrate the moment. I just didn’t want her to feel like she was an emotional babysitter of sorts for me these days.
In any case, though, I now had two weeks off—time I’d scheduled in advance to celebrate this moment—and nothing to do but kick back and relish the freedom that had come.
I grabbed a cool glass of water, squeezed some lemon in, and made myself one of my favorite breakfast dishes, avocado toast with peanut butter. It only sounded odd before I tried it.
I turned on Netflix and just found the first show that I could. I wound up watching Cobra Kai, a show that I’d heard about at the office. I had a vague idea of its continuation of Karate Kid, but mostly, it was just background noise to what was going on in my head.
The realization that I had everything I ever wanted.
Well…almost everything I ever wanted.
I didn’t have a man.
Burke.
My heart squeezed a bit at the thought of him. He’d made this possible…
And I still hadn’t heard from him. Still.
Suddenly, what had started out as one of the best days of my life was now threatening to dovetail. How the hell was I going to get Burke his fair share of the deal when I’d gotten everything I could have ever wanted and then some? It seemed unfair. I also needed to admit that although I couldn’t expect anything more from him I secretly wished for it. We had a sexual attraction that was undeniable and frankly getting harder to resist every time I saw him.
Liam was one thought. I’d
