CHAPTER EIGHT
“Is Lennox coming over soon?” Maria asked curiously from beside Talia on the couch placed perfectly in the middle of the second floor reading nook. The one with the big window that overlooked the lake and gazebo behind the house. Maria liked to do her studying here, even though the window provided a built-in excuse to not pay attention. “It’s been like forever since he took us to Legoland, and he promised to take us back again.”
Talia shook her head. Lennox hadn’t even been gone for a week, but she had to agree, it did feel like forever. Of course, she refused to think too much about why it felt like that. But it definitely had nothing to do with her missing Lennox.
“Sorry, honey,” she said with a sigh. “Lennox had to go somewhere for work, and I have no idea where he went or when he’ll get back.”
“Can’t you call him?” Maria asked, looking at Talia like it was the most obvious thing in the world before her expression changed to one of concern. “You have his number, right?”
“Yes, I have his number,” Talia said with a smile, pretty sure Maria had just thrown significant shade in her direction. “Unfortunately, his job doesn’t allow him to carry his phone with him while he’s working, so I can’t reach him.”
Maria scrunched up her face in a frown. “That’s stupid. Who goes someplace where they can’t have their phone?”
“Navy SEALs,” Talia said. “They can’t talk about where they go. To anyone.”
“Well, that sucks,” Maria said petulantly, sounding far older than she was.
Maria wasn’t wrong. It definitely did suck.
So, okay. Talia missed Lennox more than she cared to admit. She hadn’t wanted to, but she did. Now she was terrified of what that might mean.
“Is Lennox doing something dangerous?” Maria asked, her voice suddenly soft and tiny like her. “Like what he did when he rescued my family after we left Belarus? Because that was really scary.”
Talia was generally aware that Lennox and some of his SEAL teammates had saved the Rybak family from a bunch of paid killers but she didn’t know the details. Truthfully, she hadn’t wanted to. She definitely hadn’t known that Maria had been close enough to the action to be in danger. That was a terrifying thought.
She wanted to downplay the danger Lennox might be in. Kids were supposed to be protected from that kind of thing, right? But as Maria sat there gazing up with an expression far too world-weary for a six-year-old, she found herself unable to lie. It was difficult to believe, but in many ways, Maria had already seen more of the darker side of the world than Talia ever had. Something told her that Maria wouldn’t appreciate her au pair trying to sugar-coat the situation.
“I don’t know where Lennox is, but I have no doubt that you’re right and that he’s doing something scary and dangerous, yes.”
Now, Maria looked even more worried. Maybe Talia should have been a little less honest.
“But he’ll be okay, right?” Maria asked.
“Yes, he’ll be okay,” Talia said, trying to sound positive for both Maria’s benefit as well as her own. “We’ve both seen what Lennox can do and we know he’s good at his job. You’ll see. He’ll be home soon ,and he’ll take us to Legoland like he promised.”
That put a smile on Maria’s face, her whole demeanor changing to one of happiness.
“You miss him, don’t you?” she asked, wiggling a little closer to Talia on the couch. “You’re worried about Lennox like I am.”
Talia opened her mouth to deny it but then decided that would be silly. “I guess I do. Though I have to say, I never thought I’d admit it.”
“Why not?” Maria asked curiously, resting her head on Talia’s arm and gazing up at her in confusion. “Don’t you want to have a nice boyfriend, get married, move into a big mansion, and have a family?”
Talia laughed. “You realize you’re only six-years-old, right? What could you possibly know about marriage, mansions, or starting a family?”
“I hear Mommy and her friends talking about stuff like that a lot,” Maria said. “I don’t understand everything, but I’ve heard them say that it’s very important to find the right boy first. Someone you can trust, who respects you, and who has a good job. He’s supposed to be good in the bedroom too, but that doesn’t make any sense. Why would Mommy care that Daddy goes right to bed when he’s supposed to without asking for a glass of water or a second bedtime story first?”
Talia had to bite her tongue to keep from laughing again, nodded her head and tried her best to keep a straight face. “Well, all of that will make more sense when you’re older. And before you try to complain about being old enough to talk about any subject you please,” she added as Maria opened her mouth to probably say that very thing, “how about we talk about your bad habit of listening in on people’s conversations?”
“I don’t listen in on purpose,” Maria said, trying to sound innocent but failing completely. “I just stand outside different rooms when people are talking. It’s not my fault they talk loud.”
Talia wanted to point out that Maria had given her the exact definition of eavesdropping, but there was something the little girl said that caught her attention.
“You stand outside different rooms when people are talking,” Talia repeated. “Does that mean you’ve been listening in on people other than your mommy and her friends?”
Maria’s expression shifted quickly through guilt, chagrin, and defiance before finally settling on resignation, making Talia once again wonder how she’d gotten so mature.
“Sometimes, I get bored when Beverly can’t stay over and you’ve already left to go to your cottage so one of my dolls and I go around listening to what everyone is saying,” Maria admitted.
“Who else have you been listening to?”
“Sofia and her friend, Tiffany.” Maria let out a dramatic sigh. “But they never say anything fun. All they talk about is TikTok and kissing boys all the time.” She made a face. “Gross!”
Talia laughed at that. She was glad that in this one area, at least, Maria was still a little girl and not the old soul she so often seemed to be. “That’s something else that will make a lot more sense when you’re older. Do you ever listen in on any of your dad’s conversations?”
If so, had Maria heard anything that might help figure out what happened to Anna?
The embarrassed look Maria gave her effectively answered that question.
“Sometimes,” Maria admitted. “When I sit on the floor behind the couch in the library and play with my dolls. There’s a vent in the wall that connects to Daddy’s office, and I can hear everything he says.”
Talia gaped. Maria wasn’t an eavesdropper. She was a little spy.
“You have to stop doing that,” Talia said in exasperation. “If your daddy found out, he would ground you until you’re thirty. Absolutely no more Legoland for you!”
Maria chewed on her lip, obviously concerned about that possibility. “But he has the coolest stuff to listen to. There are these people who want Daddy to work for them. They want to give him a lot of money too.”
Talia felt her heart beat a little faster. She shouldn’t be talking to Maria about this—especially since she just told her not to eavesdrop anymore—but whatever she’d heard could be important.
“What did your daddy say?”
She shrugged. “Daddy told them he wants to think about it. I don’t know why. They kept saying they only wanted to see some of the contacts in Daddy’s phone.”
Talia’s head spun, realizing that Maria’s concept of contacts was likely off. Before leaving Belarus, Bogdan had been known for his powerful political and intelligence connections throughout Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. If the men Maria had eavesdropped on were the same ones who’d visited the other families then they were almost certainly after those contacts, not the ones on Bogdan’s phone.
“Did you see the men?” she asked casually.
She truly hoped not. She prayed Maria had done the smart thing and stayed hidden behind that couch in the library instead of putting herself at risk.
But Maria nodded. “Uh-huh. When I heard them leaving, I peeked out the door of the library to see what they looked like. One of the men hand dark hair and he was so tall he had to duck to keep from hitting his head on the door when he walked out of Daddy’s office.”
Talia’s stomach clenched. What were the odds of two super tall men with dark hair being in San Diego, both of them connected to this situation at the same time?
Absolutely zero.
She suppressed a shudder at the memory of the man chasing her through those alleys. It was one of the reasons that she’d kept Maria close to home since Lennox had left, only doing activities on the Rybak property where they’d both be safe.
“Did you happen to hear the man’s name, or the names of any of the men that met with your father?” Talia asked.
Maria scrunched up her face for a few seconds, apparently thinking hard. Then she brightened. “Oh, yeah! It was Mason Keller and he’s from England. He told Daddy that he grew up there but didn’t live there now. He said he liked the sun in Spain more. I remember that part because Beverly’s mommy and daddy went to Spain, and they talked about how sunny it was. He wanted Mr. McDaniel to get him some medical stuff.”
“Mr. McDaniel was talking to the men with your daddy?”
Maria nodded.
Talia stared at her in shock, not sure what stunned her more. The fact that Maria had been able to remember that level of detail, or that Dayton McDaniel had been in the meeting with Bogdan. And why did Keller want medical equipment?
Before Talia could ask anything else, the sound of a door opening downstairs caught her attention. It was immediately followed by the clack of high heels on tile, the sound echoing up through the atrium from the entryway below. Vera was home.
Maria hopped off the couch, running for the top of the stairs across from the reading nook. But she stopped with her foot on the first step, turning back to look at Talia.
“You’re not going to tell Mommy about me listening to people’s conversations, are you?” she asked, a worried look on her sweet face.
Talia shook her head. “No. But maybe you shouldn’t do it anymore. If you get lonely or bored, call me down at the cottage and I’ll come up and hang out with you. I don’t want you getting into trouble.”
Maria nodded and grinned, seemingly okay with that deal. But as she started to head downstairs to see her mother, the girl turned and looked back up at Talia again.
“You didn’t answer my question about why you don’t like worrying about Lennox. I’m going to ask you again later.”
All she could do was shake her head as Maria ran down the marble stairs.
Sighing, Talia sat back on the couch. She needed to talk to Lennox about Mason Keller. She also needed to think about why she was so afraid to worry about Lennox too much.