I went to the chair that was still leaning back against the wall and studied it. I picked it up and searched it, running my fingers along all the crevices. Nothing. But when I ran my hand along the stitching on the seat pad, I felt a teeny place where the threads had been worked loose. Inside was a piece of chewing gum wrapper.
I’ll never leave you.
Tears poured down my face.
It was Luke. He was still alive.
And he still loved me!
Chapter 27
Cole
Amber was curled up in our bed, a pair of panties the only thing covering her lovely body. I stood in the doorway, watching her sleep, wondering how long it would be before she announced that she was leaving.
There was a faint scar on her forehead. She ran her finger over it from time to time, like she was reminding herself of all the darkness the Bradford brothers had brought into her life. She hadn’t been looking for a job in the last week or so, but I was sure that wouldn’t last. She hadn’t bothered to tell me about it before. Why would she now?
She stirred a little, stretching as she turned toward me. Her face lit up with the smile that touched her lips.
“Hey.”
“Baby’s asleep. You should get some more rest.”
“I’d rather curl up with you.”
I walked slowly to the bed, my heart in my throat. It was time to have a conversation that I’d been putting off for far too long. Behind my back I held the wrapped box Megan had dropped off the day Amber got out of the hospital. I should have given it to her sooner. But I just couldn’t make myself do it. Not yet.
“You okay?” she asked, sitting up as I joined her on the bed.
“I have something for you.”
I held it up where she could see it. She squealed a little, like a little girl getting a gift for no reason. But then the joy left her face when she read the note taped to the top.
“It’s from Peter?”
“Megan found it in his office when she helped Mom and Dad clean it out.”
She studied my face for a long second. “Do you know what’s in it?”
“It’s yours. No one opened it.”
She hesitated.
“Do you want me to leave you alone?”
“No. I just…he never gave me anything. I don’t know why he would give me this.”
“Open and find out.”
She slowly tugged at the wrapping paper, revealing a thin white box underneath. She tugged off the top and found several sheets of paper underneath a tiny, silver baby rattle.
“He knew?”
“We never really talked about it. I only saw him twice after…and I didn’t even know until the night he brought that envelope to me.”
She picked up the first piece of paper in the box. It was a letter handwritten in Peter’s hand.
“Dear Amber,” she read out loud.
“You don’t have to share it with me.”
“Yes I do.” She leaned over and ran her thumb over my bottom lip. “No more secrets, remember?”
Dear Amber,
I got a call this morning from the Planned Parenthood clinic in Ada. I thought they were making a mistake, but I guess they couldn’t get ahold of you and you gave them my number as a backup? Anyway, they said you were pregnant. And…well, I know there’s little doubt that the baby’s mine. I feel like an ass, acting so irresponsible. At the same time, I’m so deliriously happy at the prospect of being a father than I can’t keep a smile from my face. My secretary just asked me what the hell was wrong with me!
Anyway, I know we have a lot to talk about. And I know there’s plenty of time to do it. But I wanted to show you that I take this seriously from the word go. So I called my accountant and had him take out a new life insurance policy with you and the baby as beneficiaries. Then I opened a trust fund in your name for you and the baby. I know it would be presumptuous to assume you’ll want to make a life with me, but I want to make sure you’re taken care of. You are a smart, beautiful woman. You just need to believe in yourself. And money never hurts. So…when you’re ready, you can use this money to go to school like we talked about. And, in the meantime, it’ll help you get the best medical care and find a good place to live. Maybe even quit that dead end job. Or not. The choice is yours.
I’m sorry for making your hard life harder. But please let me make up for my stupidity by making things a little easier.
Peter
We were both quiet for a long time, staring at the letter in her hands. Then I lifted the other documents out of the box, whistling when I saw exactly how much my brother had left to his child and the child’s mother.
“You’re a very wealthy woman now, Amber.”
She shook her head. “I can’t take it.”
“Of course you can take it. It’s what Peter wanted.”
“But—”
“It’s what Peter wanted. How can you argue with a dead man?”
She was quiet for a long time, her hands shaking as she stared at the paper still clutched in her hands.
“It’s what you wanted. To not be dependent on me or my family anymore.”
“That’s not what I wanted.”
“You were looking for a job.”
“So that you would know that I was here by choice, not necessity.”
I tilted my head, looked at her for a long minute.
“What?”
She shook her head. “I wanted a job because I thought…you were acting like you didn’t believe me when I said I loved you. I thought it was because I made such a big deal about not wanting to depend on you. So I wanted to get a job to show you that I was still here, not because I had no choice, but because I wanted to be here.”
“That wasn’t…”I grabbed her face and pulled her close to me, kissing her roughly.“Stupid woman,” I whispered. “I didn’t care about that. I mean, I did, but it wasn’t what worried me the most. I thought…I was afraid you were in love with Peter and I was just—”
“Second best?”
“Yeah.”
She groaned, the sound like the painful groans that slipped from her lips when she gave birth to PJ.
“I never loved him. I love you. Peter…he was so kind to me. But he didn’t make me feel the way you did. You do.”
“Really?”
“Yeah.” She kissed me, hard, with all the desperation I felt. “I’ve never told anyone I loved them. I never felt this way for anyone. Peter…I was grateful. But that’s not love, Cole.”
“I know.”
I pulled back and studied her face, feeling like I wanted to scream and cheer and tell the world about this ball of happiness that was expanding in my chest.
“I love you.”
She smiled.
“I know.”
Epilogue
Megan
Six months later
“The new candidates are waiting.”
I looked up, distracted by the report on my computer. Dominic just finished a case involving some guy who thought he could use his employer’s plane to smuggle drugs in and out of the country. I was reading the report, wondering what trouble Dominic might be in this time.
“Okay.” I slowly stood, flipping off the monitor. “How many?”
“Four today.”
“I liked that guy yesterday. Vincent Caplin.”
“Me, too. I’ve already arranged for his background check.”
“Good. Maybe one more and we’ll be good.”
“Well you’ve got four good candidates today. Two were in the Marines, one was a SEAL, and one worked for the New York Police Department for five years.”
She handed me four file folders with names and pictures clipped to the front. Two stuck out to me right off the bat. Marcus Hanson. He was one of the Marines, active around the same time Cole was in the service. The other was Dante Saladin.
“What kind of name is Dante Saladin?” I asked as I walked into the room. “Your mom a fan of Dante’s Inferno or something?�
��
“Something like that.”
My head jerked up at the sound of his voice. It was deep, but silky, very much like Luke’s voice had been. But this man looked nothing like my missing fiancé. He was just as tall, just as dark. His hair was a longish black that curled at his collar and his eyes were a caramel brown that seemed to sparkle in the fluorescent lights. But his jaw was a little wider, his chin heavier. And his nose was narrower.
Not Luke. But the voice was almost too much to bear.
And Inferno. It was something of a joke between Luke and me. We read it in high school together because he had to do it for English class, but he didn’t understand any of it. But when we read it together…
I tilted my head slightly.
Get a grip, Megan. You’re tilting your sword at windmills.
“So, you were a cop…”
~~~
VINCENT
Prologue
Quinn
“Olivia! Livie! I need help!”
I tried to hold the boxes in place to keep them from falling on my head, but they weren’t cooperating very well. When we loaded the truck in Austin, it seemed like a good idea to stack them as high as possible to make room for our dressers and the couch, but now…
“Olivia!”
“Here, let me.”
A woman, taller than me, came up and pushed the box that was threatening to topple the whole stack back into place.
“Thank you so much!”
“I was just coming over to introduce myself and…I guess I got here just in time.”
I turned and found myself looking into milky blue eyes and a face marked by adolescent acne. But she was pretty in a middle-aged woman sort of way. I’d guess she was about forty, tall and thin with dark hair that was also thin and incredibly straight. Not a hint of curl anywhere despite the humidity that was making even the tiny hairs at the nape of my neck curl. I almost envied her that.
“I’m Quinn,” I said, holding out my hand.
“Beth Harrington. Short for Elizabeth…but I guess you could have figured that out.”
I smiled, reaching up to brush the sweat from my cheek. “You live around here?”
“Right next door. My bedroom actually looks right into your living room.”
“Good to know.”
“The lady who owned the house before you, she had these heavy curtains. It was no issue, really.”
I just nodded, wondering if she was implying that I might spy on her, or that she might spy on me. It was a little odd.
I walked to the end of the truck, peeking around the corner for my daughter. She seemed to have evaporated in the heat. Not that I blamed her. The air conditioning was on in the house, and it was hotter than hell in this truck. I almost wished I’d given in and hired a moving company to take care of this. But we were here now.
The move from Austin was supposed to be a new beginning for us. I wanted to get away from the losers who’d been threatening to take over my life. Everything was just encroaching too much, coming close to expose all my secrets to Olivia. I couldn’t do that.
“It’s a nice neighborhood,” Beth said, coming up behind me. “Mr. Laurence over there”—she pointed to the house directly across from mine—“is a retired postal worker. And Miss Holland, next door to you—on the other side—is a retired journalist. She used to work for the Houston Chronicle back when people still got all their news from the paper.”
“The real estate agent told me that this was a quiet place to live. I chose it mostly because it’s close to my daughter’s school. Scottsdale Academy?”
“Yeah? Your daughter must be super bright if she’s going there.”
“She is,” I said, pride dripping from my words. “Aced the entrance exam in less than two hours.”
“That’s pretty impressive.”
“It is.”
I turned back to the contents of the truck, wondering if we’d be able to get it emptied before dark. I really didn’t want to be out here at all hours. I longed for a nice hot bath…I had this new package of bath salts that I hadn’t had a chance to try out just yet. And the bathtub up in the master bedroom was deep and wide enough to fit a whole family, the jets a joy I’d been looking forward to since I first saw this place. But we’d barely begun, and it was already early afternoon.
“Would you like some help? I don’t have anything else to do today.”
“You really don’t have to.”
“No, I want to. What else are neighbors for?”
I smiled. “Yeah? It that would actually be great. My daughter and I…I think we bit off a little more than we can chew with this move.”
“No problem.”
She jumped right in, grabbing a couple of heavy boxes off of a pile as if they weighed nothing.
“Well, alright.”
I loaded up the hand truck and followed her into the house, directing her to the appropriate rooms for the boxes she had. Before I knew it, we had the truck nearly empty and she was offering suggestions for where to place the furniture. When we were done, I ordered pizza—a rare treat—and we sat around the table, sharing a bottle of red wine.
I surveyed the kitchen, loving the marble countertops and the unspoiled laminate flooring. It was so much better than the place we were renting back in Austin. I made good money—very good money—but we were saving so that we could buy a house without owing on a mortgage. This was it. And it was beautiful, the perfect house for a little girl to grow up in. Olivia seemed okay with it, though she was worrying about the friends she’d left behind in Austin. At ten, she was already acting like a teenager, glued to the screen of her cellphone or her iPad at any given moment. Right now, she was texting a couple of girls she swore this week were her best friends, even though last week they’d been her mortal enemies. I almost couldn’t keep up.
“You’ll make good friends at school,” Beth assured her. “Friends that you will have all your life.”
“I had friends. I don’t know why we had to move all the way down here.”
“I told you, the school is better here. And the job market.”
“You had a good job.”
“Yeah, well…”
“That’s okay,” Beth said, glancing at me. “We’ll all be the best of friends before you know it. Then you’ll barely remember your life back there.”
Olivia snorted, but I found myself hoping she was right. I could use a few friends, a good job, and a normal life. God knew I’d fought hard enough for it.
Look at me now, Momma. I told you I’d survive.
Chapter 1
Megan
I could hear laughter before I stepped out of my office door. You’d think this was a playground instead of a place of business. And business was good. We’d had to expand our staff twice in the last few months, hiring three new assets, four new monitors, two new secretaries, and a new researcher to help run the background checks that were coming in—twenty, thirty each day.
Peter would be proud. He would tell me that it was all me, that I’d done this. And he’d only be partially right. I couldn’t have done it without his support. Or without my fiancé, Luke. Or my best friend, Sam.
But only Sam was left now.
I gathered the paperwork I needed for this meeting and flipped out the light, kicking the door closed with my heel.
“Okay, people! Let’s try to pretend we’re professionals and this is a normal work day, alright?”
Sam was blushing, tugging at the edges of the sweater she was wearing. I didn’t even have to ask. Hayden was teasing her again because—despite being one of the most beautiful women I’d ever known—she tended to dress rather conservative. And when I say conservative, I meant she dressed like the church lady from those old Saturday Night Live skits with Dana Carvey. It wasn’t her fault, really. Her mother was ultra-conservative, and Sam found it difficult not to hear her mother’s voice in the back of her mind when she got dressed every morning. At least she didn’t wear turtlenecks anymore.
They slowly settled down, gathering around the desks at the side of the room. Hayden Dubois, my best agent, despite his ongoing flirtation with every girl in the place, sat on the edge of one of the desks, making the poor girl to whom the desk belonged blush when he winked at her. Dominic Gil, my most volatile asset, was leaning against the wall, a pair of sunglasses perched on the end of his nose. He was out pretty late working a case and he wasn’t pleased that I’d asked him to hang around for this meeting. Marcus Hanson and Vincent Caplin, my two most recent hires, were seated at the small conference table right in front of me, like A-students eagerly awaiting their next assignment. And Dante Saladin stood alone in the center of the room, his legs slightly spread, his arms crossed over his chest, looking very much like the cop he once was.
I found myself watching Dante, wondering about this man who reminded me so much of the fiancé who left me the morning of our wedding. The face was totally wrong, but there was something about the way he held himself, the way he looked at me when he thought I wasn’t aware of him. And his voice…it sent chills up and down my spine every time I heard his voice unexpectedly because he sounded so much like Luke. I shouldn’t have hired him. I knew this would happen, that I would be haunted by the similarities. But he was smart, loyal, and he did his job as well as or better than all these other men put together. What else could I do?
“Okay. We need to go over a little bit of company policy. You guys tend to be a little lax with your paperwork, and that’s not going to fly. As I’m sure most of you realize, there is a lot of regulation when it comes to this type of business. I can’t answer to the lawmakers if I don’t have the proper paperwork turned in on time. And you know who I’m talking about…”
A couple of guys, including Hayden, looked over at Dominic. He pushed his sunglasses higher up on his nose and leaned his head against the wall.
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