Aria's POV
Three days under lockdown, and the penthouse had started to feel like a very beautiful cage.
I understood the necessity — every time that photograph flashed through my mind, the lobby, the shadow, the deliberate see what I can do of it — the lockdown settled around us like armor, necessary and suffocating in equal measure. Reyes's team was good, the building was secure, and there were layers between Marcus and Noah that I could count and trust. But Noah was four years old, and he wanted to go to the park.
"Mama." He appeared at my elbow for the third time that morning while I tried to answer emails, his expression carrying the particular gravity of a child who felt a deep injustice had been done to him. "When can we go outside?"
"Soon, baby." The same answer I'd given him yesterday and the day before.
"You keep saying soon." He leaned his whole small weight against my arm. "Soon was yesterday. And the day before yesterday. That's a lot of soons."
