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you.”
    “Let’s be realistic. Tomorrow morning, we’ll go back to the bunker, tell Oriana her plane is fine, and that’s that. She’ll be gone by the afternoon, back to her life. We’ll continue on with ours as usual.”
    His younger brother shot to his feet and began pacing. “You have to help me keep her here.”
    Jordan couldn’t believe his ears. “I’m sorry, what? You can’t be serious.”
    “I am. I think… I think I might be in love with her. We can’t let her leave.”
    Stunned, Jordan sat there for a moment, his mind absorbing his brother’s declaration. He pressed his lips together, but it did nothing to stop his laughter from spilling out.
    “What’s so funny?” Jon asked, obviously offended.
    “Do you hear yourself, man? I... I...” Jordan gasped for air, but laughter continued to steal his breath. “Damn. I shouldn’t be surprised at the family sap falling for some woman he’s barely met. So predictable.”
    Huffing, Jon unrolled his sleeping bag with his foot. “Whatever.”
    “This is exactly why you have psycho ex-girlfriends. You just give your heart away to whomever without knowing what kind of person they are. And once the lust wears off, you want out of the relationship and they want to kill you.”
    Jon slipped into his makeshift bed. “This one’s different. I feel it. And if you got your head out of your ass, you would feel it too. Ever heard of love at first sight?” He rolled over, turning his back to the fire. “As for giving my heart away, I haven’t been allowed to do that since the night we made that pact not to pursue separate relationships with women.”
    “And why did we make that pact?” Jordan asked. “Perhaps it had something to do with your misplaced trust and your college ‘sweetheart’ trying to expose our little secret because of your bad break up?”
    “It’s not like anyone believed that crazy bitch.”
    “You let her take photos of you shifting!”
    “I didn’t let her. How was I supposed to know she’d followed me? I didn’t! Not until it was too late. Anyway, everyone thinks she doctored those pictures.”
    “She sold them. You became an instant tabloid super model. For months, Jack and I—and the rest of the family—had to field calls from reporters, conspiracy theorists, and mad scientists. Jon, you garnered a cult of followers who wanted to worship you like a god.”
    “So what?” He shrugged. “We said it was a hoax and everyone believed us over her, and she stopped spreading the story once we threatened to sue.”
    “The point is we don’t need that kind of attention ever again. It would be much harder to sell the hoax story a second time. That is why we made the pact, a safeguard that would ensure—”
    “Look, the past is in the past. I made a mistake. I admit it. But Oriana is different. And if you were any kind of a brother to me, you’d help me convince her to stay.”
    “What about Jack? He’d never go for it. He’s the den leader and has the final decision in all matters concerning us as a group. He already mandated that she was to leave immediately. Matter of fact, when we tell him that there’s nothing wrong with her aircraft, it will just reinforce his belief that she’s some spy, and her claim of a malfunctioning plane was just her way of infiltrating us.”
    “Then let’s not tell him,” Jon grumbled.
    “All he will do is order us drop her off back home, and have us bring her the plane when we finally ‘fix’ it.”
    Jon turned over, his smile flashing in the firelight. “Not without the helicopter keys he won’t.”
    Jordan groaned. “No. I will not go along with this. I’m going to tell him the truth. We all agreed not to hide things from each other, to always be honest. You know the penalty for lying.”
    “Fuck it. Let him dock my pay.”
    “If it was only about money, I wouldn’t be so nervous. Do you really feel like scrubbing every inch of the bunker’s entrance tunnel with a