There was more about him that caught her attention. Creases and worry showed around his eyes, and he looked as if he had aged years in mere months. They held their gaze for a moment too long before Olivia felt conspicuous. Hudson coughed and stood. “Thank you, Ethan. And thank you, Ms. McAllister.” He picked up a folder from the conference table. “Very good work.”
Her tongue felt thick in her mouth. “Thank you,” she managed to eke out before she again nodded to the guests. “I look forward to helping in any way I can.”
She wanted to murder Ethan, who guided her out the way they entered amidst the exit of the committee.
“You set me up! You knew Hudson was in there.”
“Why are you so alarmed?” He leaned in close. “Does he look that bad to you?”
Olivia reined in her indignation as she remembered that to Ethan, she and Hudson were merely old college friends. “He looks exhausted.” She looked back in the direction of the room.
“Sweet Water is in big trouble. The rebels are uprising again, threatening anyone who tries to release their hold on the region. Hudson is a threat to them.”
“So Hudson is also in danger.”
Ethan glanced over her shoulder and coughed, resuming his conversation in a louder voice. “You’ll need to update your address. Personnel is two floors down. Go update your information, then check in with my secretary. She’ll show you to your office space.”
Ethan peeled off, leaving Olivia confused. She moved numbly toward the elevators when she heard a voice from behind. “Liv?”
Now she understood Ethan’s quick exit.
Her lips quivered as she turned. She knew better than to try to speak. Hudson came to her, stopping several feet away, his unsteady smile under constant adjustment. “It’s good to see you. How long are you in town?”
“For a year at least.” Her lips quivered as they formed a forced smile. “I’ve got a lease on a place on Roosevelt Island.”
Hudson’s face brightened, and for a moment, Liv saw the return of the young man she once knew. “You moved here? To New York?”
“Yes. Ethan said—”
His smile dimmed to a business-only politeness. Awkwardly, he moved to her, nodding, extending his hand, taking hers, and covering it within his own. “Of course. Ethan asked you. I’m sure he’s very happy you accepted his offer.”
“No,” she said urgently. “I mean … yes, Ethan asked me weeks ago, but that’s not why I came. I didn’t move here for Ethan or for work. Telecommuting was working fine.”
His head cocked slightly to the side. “Then what changed your mind?”
“You. I … I w-wanted to apologize for that last—”
He released her hand and shook his head. His voice lowered to a husky whisper. “There’s no need for you to apologize. I shouldn’t have pressed you. It won’t happen again.” He took a step away.
“Wait. So much has happened in the past few months. I moved here to …” Her frustration muddled her thoughts. “Could we possibly talk?”
His face, flush with wonder one moment, quickly shifted to disappointment. “I’m leaving for the helipad right now.” Worry etched deep lines in his brow. “It’s my parents.”
She closed the small gap between them and took hold of his arms before remembering that this man was the head of the corporation, and she was an employee. She stepped back and asked, “What’s wrong? How are they?” The news explained the changes she saw in him.
“They’re frightened, but otherwise all right.” His eyes rolled heavenward. “A rebel band roughed Dad up and threw a stick of dynamite down the shaft of the well he was drilling in Ghana. They issued a warning this time, but they threatened my parents’ lives if Dad drills another well.”
“Why? Oh, Hudson, I’m so sorry.”
Hudson’s face melted as his name rolled from her lips. “Water frees people. They can move where they want, grow crops, start businesses, and enjoy previously unimaginable possibilities, and that’s the last thing these rebels want.”
Determination steeled his expression. “The final tests on the solar battery and pump are critical. If we can power these micro-pumps with the sun, families will be able to poke a tube into a dry riverbed and pull water from the sand.” His hand formed a fist. “And if we distribute them widely enough, the rebels will never be able to use water as a weapon again.” He closed his eyes and slumped into one hip. “I’m sorry. I’ll get off my soapbox now.”
“Wait.” Worry replaced the warmth seeing him had brought her. “Won’t they try to stop you, too?”
“They’ve threatened as much, so we’re moving the tests to a safer place—the Ivory Coast. I have friends there, and a security detail. It’s not a typical drought zone, but they’re having a dry year, so we’ll find dry riverbeds there for the test.” He fidgeted, and his eyes kept glancing at his watch. “I’m sorry. I just need to get my parents home. But I really—”
“You need to go. Of course.”
His face slackened as he took a slow breath. “I’m sorry. I have a minute. Please … tell me what you wanted to say.”
She couldn’t adequately focus the myriad feelings swirling inside her. She knew her joy at seeing him was fully reciprocated, but now he was leaving. Again. Into danger. “It’ll keep.”
Relief visibly washed over him. “I’m very glad you’re here.” He gently took her hands. “You can’t know how glad I am to see you. I’ll get in touch as soon as I’m able. Okay?”
She felt her eyes begin to well as Hudson drew close enough for a momentary embrace.
“Please give your parents my love.” She bit her lip. “And please stay safe.” Then she turned and headed for the elevators. “Because I love you, Hudson Bauer,” she said, when no one but she could hear.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Brief texts from Hudson appeared on her phone over the next few days.
-Glad to have you in New York. Would love to show you around the city. Mom and Dad are on a plane for Portland. Breathing easier now.
Things here are a mess now. The rebels are even threatening the tribal leaders if they so much as talk to me. They found a local tough guy named Safdar to frighten them. I need to stay here to bolster their confidence. If I lose them, I lose Sweet Water.
-I would love for you to see Africa.
Fear struck her as she read of the rebels’ new threats. She knew Hudson risked his own safety for the causes he loved, and she knew he would place himself in danger for Sweet Water. And some rebel named Safdar wanted to stop him. Why hadn’t she told him she loved him?
A memo on the dilemmas with the Sweet Water project crossed her email, underscoring Hudson’s texts. The tribal leaders’ will to support the project was waning as fears mounted over rebel retaliations. As a result, the date of the pump test was moved up substantially. She wanted so much to be there.
She pulled up the folder of photos of Hudson with the children. One photo pictured Hudson watching a nun from Mother Thomasine’s convent as she wrote the alphabet on a whiteboard, poised before rows of eager, happy children. All of them were rebel targets. Olivia wanted to do something to help each of them, but she felt powerless from so far away. So far away. Then she would fix that. But, she’d need help from Alejandra, the gatekeeper to Hudson’s world, who gave Olivia the death stare every time she even darkened the executive level hall.
Alejandra’s elegant shoulders squared as Olivia walked towards her intimidating post.
“Hello, Mrs. McAllister.”
“Hello. I just thought we should get to know each other, since we’ll be colleagues.”
Alejandra placed her arms on the desktop, folded her hands, and leaned toward Olivia. “Oh, I know you already. You’re the person Hudson went to Mexico to forget.”
The news hit Olivia like a lightning strike, splaying her open like so much dead wood. She was the reason Hudson fled Seattle. Was she also the reason he abandoned grad school for Mexico? With Pepper?
The ston
e coldness of Alejandra’s voice turned to gravel. “You didn’t know?”
Olivia faltered for several seconds as she considered the depths of the despair into which her impulsive marriage had driven Hudson. Her hands shook and she interlocked them to hide her reaction. “Pepper told me he went there after a heartbreak. I suspected it was my marriage, but she wouldn’t confirm the timing or say as much. But I know you’re the woman who saved him and Pepper.” She met Alejandra’s eyes. “I know you love him and want to protect him, so one thing we can agree on is that we both care about Hudson.”
“Easy words,” Alejandra hissed back. “For how long? This week? Two weeks? Until loving Hudson proves inconvenient again?”
The barb struck even more painfully, because Olivia knew this was a good woman that Hudson dearly loved. “You don’t like me. I get that, but let me tell you respectfully that you don’t have all the facts. Neither does Hudson, nor did I until a few months ago. That’s why I’ve waited until now to come to New York. Until I was sure I had dealt with all the hurt and betrayal of the past.”
“And you think you have?”
“Yes.”
“Do you know that you are his Achilles heel? His Kryptonite, so to speak? This man’s word is his bond, unless you need him more, in which case he drops meetings, flies across continents, and allows his global influence to dim in a world that needs men like him to shine. That’s the influence you have on him. Do you love him enough, and in a way that will help Hudson be the man he wants to be?”
Olivia’s eyes held Alejandra’s like a tractor beam as she considered what the woman was implying about the cost of Hudson’s love for her. She could either be an asset or a stumbling block. To be an asset to him, she would have to accept that Hudson would never fully be hers in the traditional family way. They would never have a nine-to-five, dinner-at-six sort of life. She couldn’t expect that she or any future children would ever be able to count on him to be there at a specific moment or event if a cause or a problem needed him, because if she protested, he would answer, and projects would remain merely plans, and hopes would go unanswered. It was a daunting thought.
And then she remembered something Jeff said in the video. Hudson was always smart, but you, Olivia, you made him believe in himself.
Alejandra sat back and nodded appreciatively at Olivia. “I appreciate that you understand why—”
“Yes.” Olivia lifted her head and set her eyes on Alejandra’s. “Yes, I do think I love him in a way that will help him be that light. Because I was there in the beginning. Me. Hudson and I dreamed the first dream together.” She stood and held her hands outward. “These hands helped him make it come true. We were barely more than children when circumstances separated our paths, but I believe that we were always meant to be together, and I’m not going anywhere.”
A smile spread across Alejandra’s lips. “I finally meet the woman Hudson described.”
Nearly breathless with relief, Olivia leaned close. “I need to get to the Ivory Coast.”
The woman’s head shook with a firm no. “You cannot go to the Sweet Water site. It’s too dangerous. The company pilots are ex-military because they are also part of the needed security.”
“I love Hudson, and I’m going to be with him even if I have to book my own flight.”
Long moments passed before Alejandra stood and began writing on the back of a business card. “We have a plane leaving for the Ivory Coast in three hours to carry the pump and supplies for the test.” She handed the card to Olivia. “Do you have a passport?”
Olivia was grateful she had applied for one months ago when Ethan scheduled her for the canceled trip to Turkey. “Yes.”
“Good. Here’s the hangar number. Go home and pack some light work clothes. The temperatures in the inland areas exceed one hundred degrees this time of year. I’ll call our pilot and tell him to wait for you.”
“What about Ethan?”
“I’ll square things with Ethan. Now go. Go!”
Olivia remembered her idea. “I’d like to take something to Mother Thomasine’s orphans.”
“Something small?”
Olivia gestured to illustrate one electronic tablet’s size.
“As long as it’s all right with the pilot.”
She was determined to make it all right with the pilot. She wanted to throw the whole of the Arena Corp money into a fund for the orphanage, but she knew if money were the answer, Hudson would have fully funded the school long ago. Then she remembered Arianna’s presentation and her warning that less was safer than more for the nuns because small gifts were less likely to draw the rebels’ attention. She called a big box store, ordering a modest number, twelve electronic tablets, for the children’s classroom.
“That would be a factory case,” said the ecstatic commissioned sales rep.
“I’m delivering them to a school in the Ivory Coast, so can you also prepare whatever documentation I need for customs? And there’s a two-hundred-dollar tip if you deliver them to hangar three at Teterboro Airport by two o’clock.”
With that task handled, the impact of her pending trip to Africa hit her. What would Hudson think? Each time her nerves weakened her will, she remembered that Hudson had flown across the world for her. Surely he would understand her own gesture of commitment.
She asked the taxi driver to keep the meter running while she packed and changed into jeans and layered tops she could shed once she left New York’s cold. The driver weaved and dodged through the winter slush on the ride to JFK. An unmarked Gulfstream G4 waited on the tarmac in front of hangar three. Two men, one tall African-American and another, shorter man who Olivia assumed were the pilots, were performing a pre-flight check as the taxi pulled up. Olivia paid the driver, and as she exited the cab, the taller pilot extended his hand. “Michael Lath at your service,” he said, with a beautiful African accent tinged with French.
“Thank you for taking me,” said Olivia, as she paid the driver who unloaded her things.
“We thank you,” said the other pilot, in noticeably Australian tones. He offered his hand and said, “Buddy McIntlock. We were scheduled to fly an old cargo plane, but Alejandra upgraded us. I suppose she didn’t want two former military pilots flopping you around in the back for eight hours. Now, let’s get your things loaded, shall we?”
Before Olivia answered, Michael pointed to the carton of tablets. “Alejandra gave me the pump and piping. She didn’t mention any other cargo.”
“It’s a last-minute addition. Can you fit it in?”
“May I see the paperwork?” She handed him the customs documents, and his brow wrinkled as he studied them. “Our final destination is Gagnoa, but we can’t land this jet on the short dirt runways there, so we must transfer to a small Cessna in the morning. It will be a tight fit with that carton.” He shook his head. “And it will draw attention.” Lines formed on his tight brow. “Please board now while I file my flight plan.”
Buddy welcomed her into the luxurious cabin of the Gulfstream and settled her into a buttery soft leather seat fit for a king or a president. “Is this the company’s jet?” she asked, as she squeezed the soft armrests and reclined. “I didn’t see the Bauer Group logo on the side.”
Buddy smiled at her. “It’s one Mr. Bauer uses to fly important guests when we need to arrive—how shall I put this—incognito. I’ll go load your carton now.”
Olivia wondered if the rebels were the reason they needed to be covert. The question plagued her through takeoff, until the rocking rhythm of the Gulfstream lulled her to sleep. When she awoke, she saw nothing but starlight ahead and a vast unforgiving ocean below, signaling that they were still over the Atlantic.
She walked up the aisle to the open cockpit door. Buddy turned and smiled. “Just a few more hours now.”
“When did Hudson Bauer decide to send that case of tablets?” Michael asked.
Olivia sensed the worry in his voice. “He didn’t. I asked Alejandra if I could bring something
for the children, and she said it would be all right if it was small and okayed by you.”
Michael’s worried gaze shifted to Buddy. “I believe she meant small like a lollipop.”
Olivia’s arms prickled. “Are these tablets going to cause problems?”
“We will not know until we reach Gagnoa.”
Michael’s final comment hung like a sword over the rest of the flight. Olivia was relieved when things appeared to go smoothly after landing in Bouaké, Ivory Coast. After routine checks of papers and cargo, the three left the airport to spend the night in a hotel, returning at first light to load their luggage and cargo into a Cessna. Three armed men watched them near the hangar.
Olivia hurried up to Michael who was checking the plane. “Those men are carrying guns. Do you think they’re with Safdar?”
“Or someone loyal to him. Nothing passes through these airports without his knowledge.”
“Maybe we should just dump the tablets here. Let them have them.”
“That won’t help us now. The rebels in Gagnoa are likely expecting them to arrive there. This plane and each of us will be searched whether we have them or not.”
Hudson’s conversation about the warning the rebels gave his father echoed in her mind as a chill zipped up her spine. “If they search us, they might find the pump.”
The normally affable Buddy scowled. “We’d best get on our way as soon as possible.”
The relief of takeoff and the peaceful hour-long hop to Gagnoa ended in tension when the satellite phone rang in the cockpit as they prepared to land. Buddy answered the call while Michael landed the plane, leaving a wild plume of dust billowing behind.
Olivia couldn’t hear the phone conversation, but she read Buddy’s lips as he leaned near Michael, his worry evident. “Hudson is coming in person to get the pump. He’s almost here.”
A SECOND CHANCE ROMANCE BOXED SET Page 48