by Helen Brenna
You want a family, Kate….
She wasn’t likely to find one with James Riley. She didn’t need three dates to figure that out. That meant forgetting the kiss they’d shared last night had ever happened.
Flipping the mirror closed, she studied the streets. The five minutes Riley had been gone turned into ten. The only sound inside the car was Ally’s soft, steady breathing. When ten minutes turned to fifteen, Kate’s heart started pounding in her ears, her mouth turned dry and she couldn’t seem to swallow.
What was taking him so long?
A sniffle sounded from the backseat. Kate glanced behind her and found Ally wide-awake, trying hard not to cry.
“What if he doesn’t come back?” Ally whispered.
“He’ll be back.”
“But what if something happens? What if…he gets shot or arrested? Would you really leave him?”
“Absolutely not,” Kate whispered.
“But you told him—”
“I told him what he needed to hear to get this done and over with. But I won’t be turning my back on your dad, Ally. No matter what he tells me to do.”
“Thank you.”
For all her teenage blustering to the contrary, Ally clearly loved her father. “He loves you, you know?”
“Then why…why does he leave me with Jenny?” Instead of anger in her voice, Ally sounded hurt and alone.
“I’m going to guess it’s because the idea of being a father scares your dad more than the thought of going to war.”
“Maybe if I was…easier. Nicer.” Ally slid down in the seat, resting her head against her pack. “Maybe he’d stay.”
“Ally, don’t say that. It’s not your fault. He’s just…he’s—”
“So stupid sometimes.”
She could say that again. “You miss him, don’t you?”
“I want him…home.”
Kate understood. Completely.
When she glanced back again, Ally’s eyes had drifted closed. The urge to climb into the backseat and hold the scared girl nearly overwhelmed Kate. Riley really was an idiot.
Headlights appeared and she jumped as a car turned onto their street and drove by them. An instant later the passenger door opened and Kate nearly had a heart attack until she saw Riley’s face. “I didn’t even see you coming,” she whispered.
“It’s my job to disappear. I’ve gotten pretty good at it.” He checked on Ally, then handed the statues to Kate. “Did I grab the right ones?”
“Yes.”
“Are they real?”
One at a time she flipped them upside down and around and turned them over and over in her hand. “The weight feels right, but I need some light to get a better look.”
Riley turned on a small but powerful flashlight and shone the beam directly onto the statues.
There was a nice-size chip in the lower side of one, but with the age of these pieces, if anything, that was an indication it was authentic. The tooling seemed rough, fitting the period, and the rosebuds, fully bloomed but small, were consistent with what she knew of the other statues. “I think they’re real.”
“Is there any way to be sure?”
“Not without carbon-dating them.”
“All right, then. Like March said. Piece of cake.” Riley took out the empty boxes March had prepared and slid the statues inside. They fit perfectly within the molded plastic sheathing. “That should work. Now let’s get back to the airport. We have to catch a flight to Athens.”
They switched places so Riley could drive. He shifted the vehicle into neutral and let it coast most of the way down the hill before starting the engine. Keeping the headlights off, they disappeared into the night.
“Two down,” she whispered.
“Three to go.” He glanced at her. “Thank you, Kate. I couldn’t have done that without you.”
That’s when it happened. He smiled. It was the first smile Kate had ever seen on Riley’s face and, given the flutter of pleasure rippling through her, she hoped it wouldn’t be the last. Then again, she’d be a lot safer if he stayed pissed off the rest of the week.
RILEY PACED THE HALLWAY at the Rome airport as they waited to board their flight to Athens, keeping the restroom door in sight and wishing Kate would hurry it up. Ally was sitting nearby staring off into space while she listened to music from an MP3 player Kate had bought for her on the way to their departure gate.
Ally didn’t look good. In fact, she looked stressed and tired and scared. Almost as if she was in shock. His instincts had him wanting to entirely ignore the situation. He’d rather take his chances with a cell of terrorists than a teenage girl, especially one as outspoken as Ally, but his conversation with Kate the night before reverberated through his mind in vivid sound bites.
What I would’ve given as a kid for a complete family…had to be hard for Ally growing up without her mother or father…you lost your connection with your daughter…shouldn’t turn your back on her…no one can love Ally the way you can.
Was it possible Kate was right? At least in part? It may not have been his intention to turn away from his own daughter, but then Ally didn’t know that, did she?
So quit turning your back. She’s your daughter, man. Start acting like a dad and fix this.
He forced himself to walk toward her while keeping a clear view of the restrooms. “Ally?”
She glared up at him.
“How are you holding up?”
She rolled her eyes and removed one earpiece. “Why would you care?”
“Hey. I want to know how you’re doing.”
“Oh, I’m fine,” she said sarcastically. “Kidnapped, held at gunpoint, my aunt could die and I’m watching you steal things. What could be better?”
Now that he thought about it, he supposed his question had been extremely lame. So how did an adult go about talking to a teenager in these extreme circumstances?
“Very funny.” He sat, hoping he might be able to make some kind of connection with her over the music she was listening to. Within seconds it was apparent that wasn’t going to happen. “Will you take those earpieces out for a minute?”
“Why?” Ally looked at him, her eyebrows raised.
“Do you need to be such an ass?”
“To you, yes.”
“I’m trying to have a conversation with you.”
“Want to get to know me? Find out who I am? Make a connection?”
“Yeah. What’s so bad about that?”
“If I was three, nothing. But since you haven’t been in my life for most of the last thirteen years, everything.”
“Ally, listen—”
“No, you listen.” She pulled out both earpieces. “You may be my father, but you are not my dad.”
She was right. “I want to be. I want to try, anyway.”
“How can you try when you don’t know anything about me?” She stood and crossed her arms. “Tell me, Dad. What’s my favorite color? What kind of grades do I get in school? Have I ever been kissed by a boy? Who’s my best friend? Then again, do I even have any friends? Maybe I’m the nerd who gets bullied. Or the creepy Goth that scares everyone. You don’t even know what kind of birthday cake I like.”
He hesitated, knowing he should probably keep his mouth shut, but this one he knew. “Chocolate.”
“Wrong,” she said. “Jenny likes chocolate. Yellow cake is my favorite.”
Holding eye contact with her at that moment was one of the hardest things Riley had ever done. “If you’ll let me, Ally, I’d like to know the answers to all those questions. I’ve even got a few of my own.”
She glared at him.
“In the last thirteen years a day hasn’t gone by without me thinking about you,” he said. “Wishing things had been different, wishing your mother had lived. Wishing…I’d stayed with you.” As tough as it was for him to admit it, Kate had been right last night. “I should’ve raised you. But you have to know I did what I thought at the time was the best thing for you.”
>
A voice came over the intercom announcing they were boarding their flight and Kate came walking toward them from the restroom.
“Best for me, or for you?”
“I screwed up. I’m sorry.”
“That’s supposed to make everything better?”
“No. But we need to start somewhere—”
“You mean you need to start.” She grabbed her bag and stalked toward the flight attendants taking tickets. “I don’t.”
CHAPTER TEN
PARKED ON A SUNNY Athens hillside near the top of Mount Lykavitós, Kate sat in the driver’s seat of their rented vehicle while Riley analyzed Angelo Bebel’s estate through a pair of binoculars. Despite the fact that an uncharacteristically warm fall breeze blew through the open car windows, everyone in the car was irritable and antsy.
“Well?” Kate asked when she couldn’t stand it any longer.
“All I can see is a guard at the gate and at least one more patrolling the exterior wall,” Riley said. They were less than a quarter of a mile from their target, but the privacy of the grounds was protected by not only a six-foot concrete gate, but also a variety of bushy jacaranda, fig and laurel trees.
“It’s what you can’t see that’s going to be the real problem,” Kate said.
On the two-hour flight from Rome to Athens earlier that day, Riley had studied all the information March had passed on with regard to the state of Angelo’s security. Curious, Kate had gone through everything with him. She’d been fascinated by his detailed knowledge of security systems. No wonder March had wanted him, so to speak, on his team.
“There’s no doubt about it,” Riley muttered, lowering the binoculars. “Angelo’s security is as strong as it was ten years ago. A piece of cake this is not. Unless his people still haven’t fixed that blind spot on the northwest corner of the grounds.”
“Can I look?” Kate asked.
He handed her the binoculars. “I need to be finished with Moscow and on to Istanbul within a couple of days. I don’t have time to stake out this place, let alone sit tight and wait for an opportunity to make a move.”
“Why don’t you just ask Angelo for the statue?”
“And if he says no? Then what?”
She lowered the binoculars. “Then he knows what you’re after and he’ll be on high alert.”
“Exactly.” He sighed. “Angelo might be a friend, but when money is involved—a lot of money—it’s best to play it safe.”
“My brother-in-law is very close with Angelo. He’s like an uncle to him. Nick could ask.”
“And if Angelo declines…”
“Again. He knows what you’re after.” Stealing it was their only option. “You can’t just walk in there in the middle of the day.”
“No. But I can wait until security lightens a bit. Used to be Angelo had a standing date for Diloti on Wednesday nights.”
“What’s that?”
“A card game. He waits until Nadi goes to bed and then he meets a group of friends at a local tavern. He usually takes at least one security guard with him and plays late into the night. I need only a half hour, an hour tops. It’ll be the best chance I’ve got to get inside undetected.”
“What if he doesn’t leave to play cards?”
“Then we wait until the house goes quiet.”
Kate sighed. “So we wait either way.”
“You got it.”
“Here? In the car?” Kate asked. “All afternoon?”
Riley glanced back at Ally—who’d said barely a word since the airport and was watching them with a worried expression—before he turned to Kate. “We could all use a diversion.”
Meaning Ally needed some downtime. “Good idea,” Kate said, keeping it light. “I know just the place.”
They arrived at a parking lot near the Acropolis, Athens’s most famous ruins at the city’s center, a short time later. Riley and Kate got out of the car, but Ally didn’t budge.
Riley opened the back door. “Come on, let’s go.”
“I don’t wanna.” Ally pulled the door closed again, crossed her arms and turned away.
Clearly frustrated, he ran a hand over his face. “I’m so sick of putting her through this. It feels like this nightmare is never going to end.”
“After tonight, there’s only Moscow,” Kate said, walking toward him. “Then it’s almost over.”
“I know. I wish we could get this done sooner rather than later.”
“Let me talk to Ally,” Kate said, putting her hand on his arm. It felt surprisingly natural to touch him. “I’ll see what I can do.”
He glanced into her eyes and was about to argue when it seemed he thought better of it. “I’ll go get us some tickets,” he said, walking away.
Thirteen. Kate wouldn’t go back to that tumultuous age for a million bucks. She contemplated Ally as she sat with her back against the car door, her knees drawn toward her chest. She was hurting, but there was no way she was about to let anyone fix this for her, especially not her dad. Kate well remembered her own stubborn sense of independence, especially toward her sister Maggie, and the truth was that sometimes the teenagers who seemed the toughest were really the easiest to hurt.
Opening the back car door, Kate leaned inside. “Will you at least get out of the car and walk with me?”
“Go away,” Ally said.
“I would, but see…there’s this stubborn part of me that can never leave things be. You know?”
“Whatever.”
“You and I have something in common, I’ve discovered.”
“So you wanna be best friends?” She blew out a short burst of air. “I don’t need any friends.”
“My mom died when I was little. She got pancreatic cancer. I was only eight. So I think I understand a little of what you might be going through right now.”
“You think, huh? Well, at least you knew your mom. My mom died when I was a baby. All I have are pictures, some videos. I don’t remember her at all.”
“Yeah, I suppose you have a point. I was lucky. I knew what I was missing. That made it easy.”
Ally glanced at Kate and her face softened ever so slightly. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it like that.”
Kate gave a swift shake of her head. “It’s okay. I’m going to guess some things about your mom dying are harder because you never knew her, and some things about my mom dying are harder because I did. But I think there are things about losing a mom that every child experiences.”
A sullen silence followed, but at least it was better than nasty comments.
“It’s got to be even scarier that your aunt, the closest thing you’ve ever known to a mother, is in danger.”
At that, several fat tears dropped off Ally’s lashes and onto her cheeks.
“For what it’s worth, I don’t think they’ll hurt Jenny.”
“She could be dead already.”
“I don’t think so, Ally. David March needs your dad’s help, and he knows the only way your dad will do what March wants is if Jenny is safe.”
“You think?”
Kate nodded, wrapped an arm around Ally and squeezed her tight. “I know you’re pretty mad at your dad. But he thinks he’s doing what’s best for you.”
“He’s wrong.”
“Probably. But people, even parents, make mistakes.”
“Does your dad ever make mistakes?”
“He made a big one. He left our family before I was born, so I never knew him.”
“Really?”
Kate nodded.
“Do you miss him?”
“I don’t think so. Maggie, my older sister, claims he was a real jerk. But I do miss having a dad. I miss having a family.”
“You have sisters. You’re lucky.”
“Yeah, I am. And you have a dad who loves you, even though he doesn’t know how to show it. He’ll do anything for you. And he’ll do whatever it takes to make sure Jenny doesn’t get hurt. He’s pretty amazing, you know.” And as she spoke those w
ords, Kate realized how true they were. “Now, will you get out of the car? I could really use a break.”
Slowly Ally climbed out. “Where are we going?”
“Let’s try a little sightseeing.”
Grudgingly, Ally walked alongside Kate. They caught up with Riley and headed toward the Acropolis. Everything looked the same, as far as Kate could tell, other than the huge metal frame in the shape of a Christmas tree at the top of the hill that some workers were stringing with lights.
“It’s hard to believe it’s almost Christmas,” Ally said, sounding sad. No doubt her thoughts were tracking back to Jenny.
“You’ll be home before the holiday.” Kate squeezed her shoulders. “I’m sure of it.”
Slowly but surely Ally loosened up. The moment she saw the stately, awe-inspiring Parthenon, her bored expression turned to one of pure delight. Smiling from ear to ear, she moved from one site to another, reading, asking questions and snapping off photos with the disposable camera Riley had bought for her in the first gift shop they happened upon.
Kate had loved exploring this city on her own when she’d come to Athens with Maggie all those years ago. Revisiting the ruins with Riley and Ally now, and watching them interact, turned out to be even more enjoyable. Riley was a much better father than he gave himself credit for. After several hours traipsing around the ruins with the midday sun warming the cool breeze coming off the Mediterranean, they were all sunburned and in need of a break.
“Let’s head to the Plaka market,” Kate said. “It’s pretty there and shaded and there are lots of tourist shops.”
“Yes!” Ally exclaimed. “Shopping.”
“This is the oldest part of the city,” Kate explained once they reached the Plaka district.
“Looks like it,” Riley said, glancing around.
Within moments the smells of roasted chicken and lemon mixed with the scent of olive trees assailed her senses. Memories of being in Greece with Maggie flooded her mind. That had been such a turbulent time in Kate’s life. She’d been struggling to stand on her own two feet, to make her own decisions all while Maggie had been stuck in control mode. So when she’d met Riley, her fists had already been clenched for a fight. In some ways she wished she and Riley could start over again. Start fresh without any preconceived notions about each other.