"And Max." He said it carefully. The way you say a name when you want the person to hear what comes after it rather than react to how it's being said. "When we find them. When we find all of them and have them where we need them…"
He left it there. Max looked at him.
"Ruby," Samuel said simply. "She will remember. You said so yourself."
The name landed differently in the car than it did anywhere else. Quieter. More personal. The name of the thing that made all the difference between the man Max was right now and the man he could become if he let the fury run too far in the wrong direction.
Max said nothing.
But something shifted in his face. Something very small and very significant, the fury not gone, not diminished, but moved slightly aside by something that had a stronger claim to the space.
"Take me home first," he said to Dawn.
Dawn nodded without turning around and pulled smoothly into traffic. Max leaned back against the seat.
