I’d thought Hayden would quit after Sam’s death. But he jumped back in faster than I could, telling me he needed the distraction of work.
Dante wasn’t there, either. I still signed his paychecks, but we hadn’t seen each other face to face since the night of the funeral.
Angela was in charge of assigning him jobs now.
I opened my office door, immediately greeted with the dusty smell of disuse. I flipped on the light and settled behind my desk, eyeing the huge stack of mail that sat there, waiting for my attention. Most of it was junk. The bills went to my accountant and the clients all contacted us through email. But as I sifted through it, I came across a plain envelope with my name written in Sam’s script.
My heart stopped for a second.
“Angela!”
She came to the door, her face a mask of curiosity with a twinge of fear.
“Yes, ma’am?”
“Please don’t call me ma’am. I’m Megan.”
“Yes, ma…Megan.”
“What is this?”
Angela shook her head. “I don’t know. It’s been there ever since…it’s been there a while.”
I nodded, running my finger under the sealed edge. I looked up and Angela was still there, watching me.
“You can go.”
I waited for the door to close before I poured the object inside the envelope into my hand. There was a note, too, a thin sheet of paper with just a few words on it.
“In case I miss you.”
It was signed simply with the letter S.
I closed my eyes and waited for the pain to pass.
It was a thumb drive. I shoved it into the port at the side of my computer and clicked on the icon that appeared on my monitor. It was a collection of emails. I didn’t understand at first, but then I realized that they were from Peter to Luke.
They were talking about the terrorist cell—about Luke’s connection to it. They were talking about how they should proceed. There were warnings from Luke to Peter, telling him to back off and to keep from getting in too late. Luke warned my brother that he wouldn’t be able to protect him much longer.
There was so much, things we’d only suspected but weren’t clear about. Information that ripped the blinders from my eyes.
But it was the last few that really caught my attention. They were written in the months after Luke left me.
Peter knew where Luke was. He knew why he’d left.
How do you think she is? Peter wrote. She’s broken. She thought the two of you had this bright future, but you left her at the altar. Quite literally.
Luke wrote back one, simple line.
It was the only way I could keep her safe.
Then Peter:
What will you do if they come after her? Or, God forbid, she finds these emails and realizes that we’re both in neck deep? What then?
And Luke:
I have a plan in place. I have a friend in California who can help me disappear in plain sight. I’ll watch over her, keep her safe. You know I will.
There were a few more exchanges and then they just stopped. The last email was dated three days before Peter died.
There was an additional file on the thumb drive. It was an audio file.
Sam’s voice filled the room when I clicked it. Again, I had to stop to let the pain pass. The thing was, the pain never fully passed. It just lessened somewhat.
“Is this Candy?” Sam’s voice asked.
“It is. Do I know you?”
“No, but you know a friend of mine. Luke Murphy.”
“Oh, of course. He was a patient here at our clinic over the summer.”
“Yes. Your clinic did a procedure for him.”
“It was several procedures, actually. A nose job, chin implant, cheek implants. I think they sculpted the bone along his brow, too.”
“A facial reconstruction?” Sam asked quietly, excitement audible in her voice.
“We don’t call it that anymore, but yeah. We also removed a scar on his knee and obscured a tattoo on his chest. He wanted to be sure he was completely unrecognizable, even to people who knew him well.”
My heart stopped as I listened. It literally stopped beating for a few seconds.
The clear sound of the call disconnecting filled the room a moment later. I was about to turn the file off, but then Sam’s voice spoke again.
“It’s him, Megan. I wasn’t sure at first. I didn’t think anyone could actually pull that sort of thing off in the real world. It seemed like something out of a bad novel. But, I knew the moment I saw Dante there was something familiar about him. He checked out. He did a good job covering his tracks. But he couldn’t fudge everything.”
She laughed, pure glee in her voice.
“Dante’s Luke, Megan. I know it. I know you know it, too.”
The file ended. I just sat there, numb.
And then the door opened.
“Megan?” he said, that familiar voice, deep, but silky. Like chocolate pouring over the edges of a fountain.
Dante.
Or was she right? Was that Luke?
~ END of HAYDEN ~
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Expect all SIX books (Megan and Dante’s story included) published as a box set on the 29th of this month (August). Free with Kindle Unlimited or $0.99 for a limited time.
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HAYDEN (Dragon Security Book 5) Page 16