by Lexi Blake
“Then we’ll figure it out together,” Robert promised.
He wasn’t sure his brother was the best resource he had. “Or we could go to Ariel and ask her what to do.”
Robert grinned. “That’s what I was going to suggest. Hey, I married a smart woman. Let’s go catch her before she gets in that big bathtub. I want to live like English nobility, man. I’m pretty sure every room in this house is about sex. That tub is big enough for like three people.”
“My shower has shampoo, conditioner, and what I’m pretty sure is lube. Right there in the shower.” He hadn’t gotten to use it on Roni. It was sad. He was sad. Maybe he should do what Jax had done. Go out and buy the cutest dog he could find and they could both look miserable until Roni gave in like River had.
“The rich know how to live, brother.” Robert stood up.
They hadn’t been rich. They’d been comfortable, though. Their mom had made sure they had a nice house and food on the table. She’d worked hard to ensure they had good educations. Was she still there waiting for her sons to come home? “We’re going to find her, you know. We’re going to find Mom.”
“I hope you remember more,” Robert admitted. “I can barely get any of it. I worry I’m different and she won’t recognize me. I don’t want to hurt her.”
He stood beside his brother. He got the feeling they’d done this a million times before. Brothers simply sharing space so they knew they weren’t alone. Somehow, some way, they would find their way home. “She will thank God every day for bringing you back. And she’ll adore Ariel. I hope I get to introduce her to Roni and Vi.”
Despite what he’d said to her, he wasn’t sure how much standing he would have when it came to custody of his daughter. Roni could tell the courts he was a danger to her, and given his history, it was a believable argument. That was if he could ever show his face in a court.
It was all fucked up and he had to find a way to make things right between them again.
The door came open and Ezra strode out.
“You need to come inside. We have a situation,” he said grimly. “Tucker, we need your medical skills.”
He rushed in, terrified it might be too late to fix anything.
* * * *
Roni watched as Robert walked outside, two beers in his hand. She felt ridiculous skulking around like she was the spy. She wasn’t. She was the woman who was trying to avoid another fight. Or maybe she wanted to avoid the fact that they might not fight at all, that Tucker might have written her off after last night’s debacle. This was how she’d spent her day. Hiding out. Thinking way too much. Putting off that moment when she would have to talk to him again. Tucker was already out there. She’d seen him, staring out at the yard like there were answers there.
She had a few answers, just not the ones either of them wanted to hear.
Arthur had sent her the PI’s file on Tucker’s last few days in Munich. There were pictures that clearly showed Tucker walking into Katie’s apartment in Munich. He’d stayed for an hour and a half and then gone home. Two days later they’d been in Paris and it had all gone to hell.
Seeing those pictures of her sister with Tucker had made her heart seize. Katie. She’d been dressed casually and she’d given him her “friends” smile. Roni had always been able to tell a lot about how her sister felt from her expression. In the picture the PI had caught, her sister had a smile that lit her eyes up. She’d liked Tucker. She’d been happy to see him.
What the hell did she do with that?
Her stomach rumbled and she made her way to the kitchen since it appeared the brothers would be out there for a while. It was good that they were talking. It really was. She was happy he’d found his brother and knew exactly who Robert was to him.
But god, it made her miss her sister.
She had to get it together because Ezra Fain had promised her a call to her mother and daughter in an hour, and she would have to sit beside Tucker and act like nothing was wrong. She couldn’t bring her mom into this until she was sure of what she wanted to do. Sandra Croft could be a steamroller, obliterating everything in her path when she wanted to.
She didn’t want Tucker to get caught in that. If her mom even got a hint that Tucker had a hand in what had happened to Katie, she wouldn’t ever listen to reason. She needed to figure out how to handle this before she ever breathed a word of the situation to her mom.
It left her feeling incredibly alone. All through the last few years her mom had been at her side. She’d helped her make the decisions when it came to Violet. She might have felt alone, but she hadn’t been.
“Hey, stranger.” Nina stood in the kitchen wearing pajama pants and a T-shirt, her hair up in a high ponytail. She stood by the range, a tray of teacups by her side as she waited for the water to boil.
She wasn’t alone. Arthur was there, placing some half sandwiches on the tray. He was still dressed for work. Despite the fact that they weren’t in an office, Arthur dressed like he was. He’d shown up for breakfast wearing a jacket and tie and hadn’t taken either off though it was almost bedtime.
Not that she would sleep.
He glanced her way. “Veronica, we missed you today. Not that you missed much. We made absolutely no progress.”
Nina looked up from her task. “That’s not what I heard. I was told he managed to remember something about you.”
Arthur went stiff. “Well, we did work together. He claims he can remember the day we met, but that isn’t meaningful at all. Levi Green tried to pull some important information out of him but to no avail. Your boyfriend seems to be having trouble focusing.”
Maybe she wasn’t hungry. Tucker had walked away the night before, but she’d heard the anguish in his voice. She’d known how upset he’d been. Unlike Steven Reasor, Tucker wasn’t good at hiding his emotions. Or perhaps he didn’t have to anymore. Perhaps he’d had to do it for so long, he simply couldn’t when the reason for tamping it all down had been erased from his mind.
“I’m sorry to hear that.” She’d hoped there would be a breakthrough that led them back to The Garden. Or that would allow her to go to New York to be with her mom and Violet. She wasn’t sure how long she could hold out when they had to stay in the same house. She needed time to think and consider all the ramifications of Arthur’s information. Instead, all she’d been able to think about was how much she’d missed Tucker. In the course of a few days he’d become necessary to her again. Maybe more necessary than the first time around since now she knew how good he was as a father.
Who was she fooling? The feeling in her heart wasn’t about his skills as a dad. She liked him. Even more this time around. He was kind and thoughtful. He made her laugh. She felt more like herself when he was with her.
“Don’t listen to him. Ariel isn’t worried. It’s a process,” Nina assured her. “This could take time. Can I get you something, love? You missed your dinner. I’m making a spot of tea. Arthur and the intelligence lads are having a meeting to discuss their reports. I offered to make them some tea because I could use a bit before bed. There’s some roast left if you’re hungry.”
“Tea sounds nice.” She couldn’t eat a bunch, but she’d seen some fruit, and Nina had made cookies earlier. That would do and then maybe after they’d talked to Violet, she and Tucker could talk about how to proceed. They couldn’t spend their days avoiding each other.
“I brought along some excellent Schwarztee,” Arthur explained.
“Like we used to have in the break room?” It was one of the only things she’d missed from Kronberg. They had tea in the break room in the afternoons, and she’d learned to love the rich, black tea they served there. The English were known as the world’s tea drinkers, but the Germans weren’t far behind.
Arthur smiled. “Exactly. I know I should switch to something that will help me sleep, but it’s going to be a long night. I have a call back to Munich, and they won’t like what I have to say. I promise, I’ll let them know how important it is to not giv
e Tucker more drugs.”
No matter what went on between them, she wouldn’t change her mind about that. “We don’t understand how the first drugs affected him. Or what was in them.”
“I still don’t believe Levi Green doesn’t have the formulary,” Nina admitted. “I find it hard to believe there was a random dose of cure lying around.”
That was a good point. “That does seem odd. From what I’ve been told, Green stole a lot of intelligence from the group. He did in Colorado at least.”
“I think stealing is a difficult word since McKay-Taggart broke into that facility,” Arthur pointed out. “It was a CIA base. At least Green was actually working for the CIA at the time. He had some right to be there. I can’t say the same for what they did at Kronberg. That was theft, pure and simple. Neither the CIA nor a group of rogue citizens had the right to come into a private company and steal documents. I would like to point out that you’re all lucky my company is being patient.”
“If Kronberg doesn’t want to be investigated, maybe they should vet their research more carefully,” Nina said as the kettle began to whistle. “And perhaps they should stay away from Illuminati-like groups who try to influence politics in a way that corporations shouldn’t.”
“If the CIA truly believed my company was a part of…what was it called?” Arthur asked.
Oh, she knew this one. It was exactly what her sister had been investigating. “The Collective.”
Arthur’s eyes rolled behind his glasses. “Yes, The Collective. It’s ridiculous to think a group of corporations who are normally at war with one another could ever cooperate long enough to take over the world.”
What had Katie told her?
They don’t need to take over the world. Just push it this way or that. Just enough to keep them in economic power. All they need is a few of the right people in the right places to make things happen for them.
The words played through her head as Nina and Arthur argued. Nina poured hot water into two separate pots.
“We’ll have to agree to disagree,” Arthur said. “I find arguing with conspiracy theorists to be wearing. Facts don’t matter to people like you. Veronica, I bid you good night. Perhaps you’ll join us in the morning. It seems Steven needs something other than the good of the world in order to actually focus on the job at hand. Maybe you can be that for him.”
He picked up his tray of late-night treats and walked back toward where the English and German operatives would be waiting for him.
“There’s an unctuous prick if I ever saw one,” Nina said with a sigh. “Sometimes those big words come in handy.” She placed some cookies on her tray and picked it up. “Let’s sit and have a chat. Arthur might be an arrogant nob, but he’s right about one thing. Tucker was off today. I suspect you had something to do with that. What’s he done?”
Nina was so nice it could be easy to forget she was a trained investigator. She’d spent years with Interpol running down some of the world’s worst criminals. If she was still there, she would likely be looking for Tucker.
Was she treating Tucker like a criminal? Had she lost faith because her grief had stricken out like a viper she’d thought was gone?
“We had a fight,” she admitted. It might be good to talk to someone. If she couldn’t talk to her mom, it might as well be Nina. She didn’t seem particularly close to Tucker. From what Roni understood, Nina had only been with the team for a few months. The only other person she might be able to talk to would be Solo, but she was oddly intimidating. There was a core to Solo that seemed a bit untouchable despite how warm the woman could be. Ariel was Tucker’s sister-in-law, so she was a no go. She didn’t think Ezra Fain would appreciate being made a relationship sounding board.
Nina it was then.
“I assumed so since you both looked utterly miserable,” Nina said, pulling out a chair. “He didn’t sleep in your room last night.”
“How did you know? I thought he snuck into another room.” He hadn’t seemed to want anyone to know they were having trouble. He’d smiled her way when he’d come down for breakfast and she’d noticed he’d come in from the direction he would have had he slept in their room, rather than the easiest route from the room he’d stayed in.
“It’s my responsibility to know everything that goes on in the house. Ezra is too preoccupied with Solo and vice versa. Robert can’t think about anything but his brother and Ariel. I’m the only one who can think straight here, so I have to be careful.” She stood up and walked to the doorway, glancing the way Arthur had gone before returning to the table and picking the tray up again. She walked right back to the sink.
“Uh, is something wrong with the tea?” She’d been looking forward to it.
“Yes, it comes from Arthur, who happens to travel with his own tea.” Nina poured the pot out. “Like I said, I have to be careful and I would be an idiot if I let you drink something that man gave us. Right now, we don’t eat or drink anything we’re not one hundred percent sure is fine. There are two spies in this house I don’t trust, and Arthur Dwyer works for an evil pharmaceutical corporation.”
Put like that it did seem ridiculous. She wasn’t built for the conspiracy life. She wanted…she wanted what he’d promised her that day in Paris. A quiet practice where they cared for their patients, a life where they raised their children. She wanted more kids and she wanted them with Tucker. But how could they go on?
Nina dumped the tea but came back with something better. “I can assure you he hasn’t put anything in this.”
She held up the bottle of wine before opening it and filling two glasses.
“You think he tried to poison us?” The idea sent a shiver down her spine. Were they not safe here?
Were they safe anywhere? She hadn’t felt safe for years, but now she realized she’d reached next-level anxiety.
Nina shrugged and passed her a glass of the rich red wine. “I’m not taking the chance. But I’m also not going to accuse him of anything. I’ve found it’s best to smile and let whoever your opponent is completely underestimate you. What did Tucker do?”
Arthur was the opponent. Why had she forgotten that? It didn’t mean he was lying, but it did mean he didn’t have pure motives for showing her that report. “He knew my sister.”
“The one who was killed? From what I’ve read about her, she was possibly investigating The Collective.”
Roni took a sip. “She was. At the time I thought she was crazy.”
“She definitely wasn’t, though I can understand how it would look that way,” Nina admitted. “Let me see if I can guess how this plays out for you. So either Arthur or Rupert showed you something that links Tucker with your sister, hoping that he didn’t say anything back then when he was pretending to be Steven Reasor. If Tucker never mentioned to you that he knew your sister, naturally your brain will put two and two together. If Steven knew your sister and didn’t tell you, he might have had a hand in her death. At the very least Levi might have. Since Levi is connected to Steven, you have to consider that he might have had something to do with it even though she died after Steven had already become Tucker.”
Well, that succinctly summed her up. “Why wouldn’t he have told me he knew Katie?”
Nina chuckled, likely at how naïve she sounded. “Well, in the first place he was working for the Agency. They tend to be tight lipped. He didn’t tell you his real name. There’s a possibility that he didn’t know she was your sister.”
“No, he knew,” Roni explained. “I showed him pictures of her and he never said a thing.”
Nina nodded. “All right, then it might have been important you not know anything. I can’t be sure. I might not be the best person to give you advice about this.”
“Because you like Tucker?”
“No, because I’ve been used for information before. It’s why I left Interpol,” Nina admitted. “I was seeing a man there, another agent. I was on the biggest case of my career, investigating an international arms dealer. Unfor
tunately, he was working the case too. From the arms dealer’s side. He slept with me to get information for his real boss. Is that what you think Tucker did? Slept with you to get information about your sister?”
“He never asked about her.” He’d listened to her talk about Katie, but he certainly hadn’t pressed her for anything beyond asking about stories from her childhood. Now that she thought about it, she wasn’t sure hearing about the great soap debate of their teens would have done anything to help his cause. “Not anything serious. Like he didn’t ask about her work. Obviously because he knew what she did.”
Nina nodded as though she’d expected that was the case. “Then you’ve got two options for why he did what he did. Option A—he formed a relationship with you in hopes of eventually using you against your sister. I would assume they would have threatened you to get her to hand over her research or something like that.”
That was definitely a scenario that had gone through her head. “And the other option?”
“He fell in love with you,” Nina said simply. “He was in a position where he could have gotten you killed. He thought the less you knew, the better. I know that sounds harsh, and every person who’s ever been on the other side of this argument thinks they had a right to know what was going on, but they’re wrong.”
Roni didn’t understand why. Knowledge was always better than ignorance. “At least I would have known what was coming for me.”
“What was coming for you, Roni? McDonald? According to what you told Solo, she did come for you and as your mind is still completely your own, she must have decided you didn’t know anything,” Nina pointed out. “Otherwise, you would either have found yourself without a memory, or more likely without a life. According to your report she showed up at that Paris flat you were staying at the same day Tucker went missing.”
“Yes.” She could remember how carefully McDonald had studied her, questioning her and finding her utterly harmless. “She came by to pick up Tucker’s computer and his tablet.” Her stomach clenched as she realized who else had shown up. She’d known, but she hadn’t realized the cruelty of it. It made tears threaten. “She brought Robert with her. Robert was there. He took Tucker’s computer and his things. Do you think…”