by Susan Ward
My mind twirled with thoughts as I stared at the blue water of the Pacific crashing against the shore. The ocean was turbulent today, and I wondered if it were Jack telling me go to Venice, baby girl.
The words of his letter flashed through my memory again. Followed by the question I wrestled with: Do I go?
A second unknown for Khloe.
Terrifying, yet it made my pulse race in a good way.
Whatever there was in Venice wasn’t the unknown for Jack. He knew why he was sending me there. He wanted me to go. And if Jack thought it was right...
I sprang to my feet and dashed across the yard to the front of the house. I had to find Cody before I lost my nerve. No more thinking, only doing.
Placing my hands on my hips, I stood in the driveway, my gaze flitting across the bodyguards patrolling the property. Without reason to, it felt like I was in a desperate hurry. Like the faster I found Cody the faster I’d be where I needed to be.
So silly.
It made no sense.
Cody, where are you?
My eyes zeroed in on him by the west gate, leaning back against the stucco wall, jabbering with another guy from Black Star Security.
I hurried toward him and he turned his head, smiling when he saw me. I gestured for him to come to me.
Cody pushed off the wall, a pucker in his brow, and joined me on the pavement. “You all right?”
“Jack gave you a list of instructions for me, didn’t he?”
His eyes brightened in surprise. “Yes, he did. Every detail. Exactly what I’m supposed to do.”
“Can you get it arranged by the morning?”
“Does this mean you’re going?”
“Yes, Cody. We’re going to Venice.”
EARLY THE NEXT MORNING, I stood by the SUV as Cody loaded our bags. When he slammed closed the hatch, Mom took me in a fierce hug.
“Khloe, why are you leaving? Did you decide to go to Europe to link up with Gretchen and Cia? You can stay a little while longer, can’t you?”
I embraced her back as firmly as she held me. “I told you, Mom. A short holiday with Cody. I need to get away. That’s all. You don’t have to worry about me.”
“I’m a mom. That’s what we do—worry.” A soggy laugh escaped Chrissie.
I leaned back so she could see my smile. “This time, you don’t worry. Can you do that for me, Mom? I feel good. I’m fine. I’ll have Cody with me. You deserve a break from worry. Take it.”
“When did you get to be so sweet and smart?” She brushed my cheeks with trembling fingers.
“Not so sweet, but very smart.”
“Cheeky girl,” Dad growled affectionately, giving me a hug before he guided me to the car.
As I drove away with Cody, I stared back at them through the rear window. They stood there together, Dad’s arm around Mom, his mouth moving—he was saying those little nothings he spoke to Chrissie to keep her from crying—as they watched me leave.
They were the perfect picture of what love should be for everyone.
SEVENTEEN HOURS LATER, Cody and I stood outside the airport in Venice, Italy. It’d been a long day of travel. I’d never flown commercial before. It was harder on my energy and body, but with all the newness, people everywhere, and rush, the only thing I felt was excitement.
I should have been tired, and I wasn’t. I felt like I was ready to take Venice by storm to tackle what Jack had wanted me to find here.
“Come on, Khloe.” Cody held our bags and jutted his chin toward the water. “There’s a water taxi there. We’ll take it to the Greek Quarter and your new home.”
New home.
My new home, I amended in my head. I liked the sound of that.
As we neared the boat, my face hurt from my smile. The driver looked exactly as you’d expect a guy in Venice to look. Muscular, swarthy from the sun, and darkly handsome dressed in straight knee-length white shorts, a tight striped shirt, and leather loafers.
I studied the boat as Cody loaded our bags and gave instructions to the driver. Nothing was ordinary in Venice. Not even a taxi. It was a spotless white motorboat with a polished dark wood cover over the stern seating. I could smell whatever wax they used to get it to shine so brightly. It was elegant and fantasy-like. Everything in Venice was that way and we hadn’t even left the airport.
Once we were on the boat, we sped from the dock, the boat sending water streaming everywhere. I was too antsy to sit. I carefully maneuvered out of the seating area to stand with my elbows resting on the roof with the glorious horizon in front of me.
I motioned inside the cabin with a hand. “Cody, come here. This is wonderful. Don’t sit in there.”
He exhaled, annoyed. “I don’t like boats. You know that.”
“This isn’t a boat. It’s a taxi.”
“No difference.”
“Big difference.” I waved my hand in front of me. “If you sit in there, you miss this. The feel of this wonderful air. The dancing blue water. The buildings. Everything old and spectacular. Amazing. So beautiful. I understand why this is where Jack would have his special place. It almost looks like Santa Barbara, minus the canals.”
Cody shrugged. “Almost.”
I pouted at him. “Well, I think it does.”
“I’m ready to drop. Aren’t you?”
I shook my head.
He frowned.
“I don’t know what it is. Maybe those injections are starting to kick in. But I feel like I could go for another day straight without rest.”
He wrapped his arm around my hip. “It’s the adrenaline rush. When I was in the service, on long ops when I didn’t think I could go one more step, when things heated up I’d get a rush and it’d get me through anything.”
“I’m glad it did. This adventure wouldn’t be anything without you.”
He answered with a strange expression. I didn’t know what to make of it.
The boat pulled up at a dock in the Greek Quarter. It wasn’t the most upscale or expensive part of Venice, but it was as charming as the rest of the areas were.
We made our way down the narrow pavement between tall stucco structures, over bridges, passing little boutiques and cafés. It was hard to navigate. No signs anywhere. Sometimes there was writing on a building, but I couldn’t read it. I picked out landmarks, committing them to memory, to help me know later where to go.
We stopped at the intersection of two walkways and Cody checked the map on his phone.
“Do you know where we are?”
“According to this, we go left.”
We made the turn down the next walk, with buildings on one side and canal on the other. After a handful of minutes, Cody paused again, checked his phone then a building, and jutted his chin.
“The flat’s down here.”
I looked up, down, all around. Above the narrow alley were tiny black iron terraces littered with plants and even laundry lines strung between the buildings with clothes drying in the warm July air.
“This isn’t what I expected,” Cody murmured apprehensively. “Having second thoughts, Khloe?”
I laughed. “Why should I? This is an adventure. It’s not supposed to be what we expect. I’m thinking that’s Jack’s point of this.”
“If you say so, princess. I’ve got to get some different shoes. These sandals don’t do shit to protect my feet against this stone.”
“Every time we’re in Europe I tell you to get shoes like mine and then you don’t do it. So stop complaining about your feet.”
He cast a glance toward my shoes and crinkled his nose. They were black open-toed leather walking sandals with thick leather soles. I wasn’t sure why they worked, but locals wore them everywhere we went.
“No need to go that far for comfort. I always adjust after a couple of days.”
“My shoes aren’t that bad.”
He grimaced. “You won’t find me in a pair of those things.”
I made a face at him. “You can pull off any kind of shoe
with how you look. Your hotness factor won’t go down. Be smart. Learn to love your feet like an Italian. Besides, we’re going to have to walk everywhere here. I’m sure there are places we can’t get by water taxi.”
He went back to his phone, hunted through his doc file, then punched a code into a panel beside a heavy metal security door.
After inspecting inside, Cody shook his head. “No elevator. Steep concrete stairs. Dark and stinky. Not what I expected. At least we’re on the second floor and not the fifth.”
Slowly I climbed the long flight of steps to the tiny landing with only one door. As I waited for Cody to follow, I leaned over the rail and stared up at the zigzag climb the other residents would have to make.
I glanced down at Cody lugging up the bags. “Hurry up. I want to see inside.”
“Hold your horses. The stairs are narrow, and I have big feet. They’re not as easy for me. Not with me hauling your gear.”
“Sorry.” I crinkled my nose. “I’m excited.”
He shook his head at me. The bags landed with a thump on the concrete floor. He tapped in the code and preceded me in.
Certain I was more excited about this than I should have been, I followed quickly. This will be my home—for a bit—but I’ve never had my own place before.
Halting inside, I drank it all in like a delicious wine as Cody went to survey our new digs and put the bags in the bedrooms.
The space was sparsely furnished but charming in its simplicity and line. Here and there I spotted something I could tell by looking at it that it was Jack’s. A picture on the wall. A guitar. A tall stack of journals like the ones he wrote in. Books. Bits and pieces of this and that—keepsakes—but they were his and that made them treasures.
“What you think?” I called out to Cody.
He came out of a bedroom. “It’s all right. It’s got what you need. It’s the standard bedroom-bedroom-hallway-kitchen flat. Everything has been updated and it’s got security. It’s got what you need.”
“It has everything I need.” I bit my lower lip instead of pinching myself to double-check that this was real.
The sound of something being set on the kitchen table caused me to turn. “What’s that?”
“It’s a secure phone. All your contact information is in it, but I’m the only one who can trace it. You are officially off the grid with your family unless you decide to tell them where you are.” He held out his hand. “Give me your phone. It stays with me.”
My brows hitched up. “Why? I’m not giving you my phone. It’s got all my personal stuff on it.”
He picked up the new phone and made it dance in front of my face. “This phone is loaded with all the codes and information here. I’ve even loaded maps and destinations of the places you’ll need to know how to find. Hospital. Groceries. Cafés. Where your flat is.”
“Do all that in my phone and let me keep it. I’m very attached to it. I’m not giving it up without a fight.”
“Don’t be a pain. You know I can read what’s on your phone any time I want to, whether you give me your phone or not,” he groused. “This is what Jack asked me to do. I’m not letting him down.”
“Jack?”
“Yes, so can we stop arguing about this?”
I dropped my phone in his hand and took the one he held out to me. He went and checked the small apartment-sized fridge and then the cabinets. “The kitchen’s stocked. Checklist done.”
“Which bedroom did you put me in?”
“Door on the left. Every room has a panic button, Khloe. Hit it and someone will be here in a couple of minutes.”
My jaw dropped. “Panic button? Why would I need that with you here?”
The air grew heavy with tension as he shifted on his feet and lowered his gaze from mine. “I’m not going to be here, Khloe.”
My heart stilled. “I don’t understand. No. No. You can’t leave me. This is our adventure.”
“Wrong. It’s yours.” He gave me a bear hug. “Jack didn’t want me here with you. He gave explicit orders: Get you settled in, get you comfortable, then hotfoot it out of here.”
“But why? I don’t understand.”
He lifted my chin and stared at me. “We’ve been traveling together four years and in all that time you’ve never once needed protection or my medical training. But having me there always with you reminds you of everything you leave behind in Pacific Palisades. It kicks off that voice in your head that says can’t. Without me here, you’ll make up your mind on what you can or can’t do. And that’s what your grandfather wanted for you. Endless possibilities without any interference for Khloe.”
Chapter Forty-Four
A MONTH LATER I WAS still in Italy, finally living what I considered Khloe’s life in the flat Jack had given me. Being on my own and getting comfortable there hadn’t been easy. It’d taken a learning curve and knowing when to push myself and when not to.
August was a month filled with smothering heat and hellish humidity. The residents of Venice walked everywhere. I had to do my shopping early in the morning or after dark to be able to do it at all. But I adapted to the world instead of expecting the world to adapt to me.
I had a smattering of people whom I considered acquaintances that tossed me a smile or hello as I wandered the canals. I could navigate around without my phone app and settled into my own routine of living.
When I missed home, I called my family. When I was lonely I read one of Jack’s journal. But each night I went to sleep, and in the morning there was the dawn with its endless possibilities. I understood why Jack had wanted this for me.
It was early in the morning as I made the long walk back from the tiny grocer to my flat. I shopped daily like most Europeans did. It was better for me. One bag was the limit of what I could carry and not struggle to make it home and up the flight of stairs.
In front of the stark concrete building, I punched in the code, waited for the beep, then fought to open the heavy iron security door. I lugged in my grocery bag and went toward the stairs. I noted a figure sitting on the top step, but the interior of the building was too dimly lit for me to see clearly who it was.
Grabbing the iron rail, I half climbed, half pulled myself upward. I paused to catch my breath, took another lungful of air, looked up, then lost my breath.
Damon.
He was staring down at me with those tiger eyes, and my heart turned over. His hair was longer and unrulier, his skin bronzer from the sun, his attire the simple shorts and shirts the men wore everywhere here, and there he sat on the top step, extraordinary in every way...and alone.
Inside my head, I retraced my steps in the alley before my door. No, there hadn’t been security there and not on the ground floor either. Damon was alone, like me, in Venice.
“What are you doing here?” I asked anxiously as he took the bag from my hand.
“Don’t you get it yet?” He stared at me across the space. “Your mouth says no but your eyes say yes. As long as you look at me that way I’ll keep following you, KK.”
“How did you find me?”
“It wasn’t difficult. Cody and I, we text and chat from time to time. I knew Cody would know where you are. I asked him.”
“You shouldn’t have done that.” My chin wobbled as I tried to hold myself steady enough to punch in the code to open the flat. “You shouldn’t have followed me, Damon.”
As I switched on lights, I heard from behind me, “You look good, Khloe. In fact, remarkable. Venice agrees with you. Are you doing all right?”
“Great, as always. Venice is lovely.”
When I turned, Damon was setting my bag on the kitchen table. “Do you share this flat or live here alone?”
Leaning back against the counter, I crossed my arms. “Since you text with Cody, I’m sure you already know that answer.”
“Yes. Some questions I ask only to hear your voice. It’s been too long, Khloe, since I’ve heard your voice.”
I swallowed down my rising emotion. I�
�d stayed out of contact with Damon since I’d arrived here. It felt like what I needed to do to sort through the tangle he had me in. Instead, it had made him search and follow me again.
“Have you been thinking about us?” he whispered.
Biting my lower lip, I looked away from him. “I think of you every day, Damon. Even here. That’s the problem.”
“If that’s a problem, it’s a good one,” he said in gushing relief. “Nothing has changed for me since Paris. I think of you night and day.”
My eyes watered as I stood on shaky ground, my heart yanking me in one direction and my mind another. “I don’t want that, Damon. In fact, I don’t want you thinking of me at all. I’d like you to leave, please.”
His face registered shock. “You don’t mean that, Khloe.”
“Nothing has changed. We’re still the same impossible collection of pieces that will never make a puzzle. I can’t be who you need me to be. You won’t be happy being who I need you to be. It’s been good for me in Venice. It’s got me clear about a lot of things. Living simple, like everyone else here, has made me realize you adapt to the world, it doesn’t adapt to you. There are things you can do and things you can’t, but the world isn’t going to change for you.”
He tilted his head as he looked down at me, his amber eyes brimming over with love. “You’re right. The world doesn’t change for anyone. But you’ve been here for weeks, Khloe. I suspect you’ve done a lot of things you didn’t think you could. I’ve been here a month, and you didn’t even know I was here. There’s no press. No security. Not a soul knows who either of us are here. We’ve managed to be here simply Damon and Khloe, just as we were in Pacific Palisades. We can make us work anywhere, how you need us to be, if we love each other.”
How we need us to be?
Doctors.
Clinics.
Treatment.
Illness.
A life of more bad moments than good for Damon.