Chapter 38
DEJA
After the engagement proclamation, the entire family had headed back to the Red Sea vacation house.
For the last three weeks, that was where we’d been.
Dad, Khaled, and Colin had commuted back to Cairo a few times, but outside of that, they’d kept up with developments from their laptops while looking out at the stunning sea.
Being here had been amazing, even if Colin and I had had to meet up in secret if we wanted to sleep in the same bed and steal kisses behind garden walls. We’d still spent plenty of time together during daylight hours and I’d finally gotten to show him around the area properly.
We’d gone snorkeling at the Enchanted Lake and taken a boat trip to Tiran Island, star-gazed in the desert, and visited the Old Market and other sights.
Some of my family members had tagged along at times, but not to act as chaperones, simply wanting to share in the excitement of someone seeing it all for the very first time.
Today, however, the whole family was on the move again. We’d left the Red Sea house, but we were doing a bit of a grand tour around the country before returning to Cairo. The GlobalStar jet hummed steadily beneath us as it descended into Luxor, our first stop.
The cabin was quiet, even Jasmine having fallen asleep. I was curled into my seat beside Colin, absently answering emails on my tablet while my mother read, my brothers either slept or stared lazily out the window, and my father buried himself in an actual paper newspaper. The man loved tradition.
I tapped out one last reply before we landed. Sighing, I glanced up at Colin. “I miss my office.”
He smiled from where his cheek was pressed against the top of my head. “You’ve been saying that for a week.”
“It’s been true for a week,” I said softly. “Did you actually get anything done on the flight?”
I felt him grimace, his nose wrinkling slightly as he scrolled from one email to the next. “No, not really. I read some of the messages that have been piling up. Does that count?”
“No.” I nudged his knee. “See, you miss your office too.”
He barked out a quiet laugh. “I don’t, actually. I mean, sure, the coffee there is pretty good, but if I had to choose between coffee and the view we had back at Nanna’s, I’d choose the view every time.”
“Nanna has coffee.”
He lifted his head just a fraction of an inch away to arch an eyebrow at me. “No, Nanna has stuff she says is coffee. Her tea made up for it, though. I never knew there were so many different types.”
His cheek came back to rest against the top of my head like he’d done it a hundred times before, but at this point, he probably had.
Being together like this had become easy.
Natural. Neither of us really had to think about it much anymore.
We just slotted together on instinct whenever we were in the same room.
It helped that today, everyone was too tired or too lazy to take much notice of us.
We’d been scolded too many times to count for getting too cozy in front of the family.
I smiled at the memories we’d made the last few weeks, then went back to my tablet and signed off on a bottle prototype while Colin scrolled through another email.
“You’re going to love Luxor,” I murmured absently. “The temples and the history here are amazing.”
“The temples everywhere have been amazing.”
“Yeah, but these are particularly impressive. You’ll see. You’re going to love it.”
“I’ll reserve judgment while deferring to your expert opinion,” he joked lightly. “On a more serious note, I am looking forward to this. From everything I’ve read, Luxor is the place to go if you’re into history.”
I opened my mouth to answer, but then he clicked into a new message that’d just come in on his phone. He straightened beside me, sitting upright for the first time the whole flight as the smile disappeared from his lips.
“Colin?” I asked, my own spine straightening as tension rolled through me. “What is it? What’s going on?”
“I don’t know yet.” He locked his phone and inhaled a breath deep enough that his entire chest expanded with it. “I need to call Jane when we land.”
His voice stayed calm, but I knew him well enough by now to hear the strain he was trying to hide. I frowned as the captain announced our final descent. “Is everything okay at Thayer?”
“I wish I knew.”
I wanted to press for more, but at this point, it didn’t look like he had more info to give. So, I just took his hand instead, offering silent support as we touched down. Everyone woke up as the wheels hit the ground. The cabin doors opened just a few minutes after we finally rolled to a stop.
We disembarked into Luxor’s bright sunshine and dry heat, but Colin barely even seemed to be aware of it. He took the time to help with my things, but as soon as he’d handed them over to the staff waiting on the tarmac, he pulled his phone out of his pocket.
“I need to make that call, but I’ll be right back.”
I nodded. “Good luck.”
He gave my hand a quick squeeze, then turned and strode away from the family toward the edge of the private terminal. I watched him go, his shoulders tight and his pace clipped. Whatever was waiting for him on the other end of that phone, he didn’t think it was good.
That much was clear.
A sudden chill settled in the pit of my stomach as I watched him press the device to his ear, and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t shake it.
“What’s wrong with your fiancé?” Jasmine asked, appearing at my side while we waited for our luggage to be loaded into the convoy of black SUVs. “He looks really stressed.”
I kept my eyes fixed on him. “He does, right? I don’t know what’s going on, though. Only that I don’t think it’s good.”
He wasn’t pacing as he spoke, but he wasn’t standing still either, scrubbing a hand over the back of his neck or shifting his weight every few seconds. Jasmine sighed and glanced back at me. “That’s weird. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him act like that. He’s not usually the dramatic type.”
“I know.”
Honestly, I’d never seen him like this either. He wasn’t the kind who wore his emotions on his sleeve. When something was bothering him, it usually showed in tiny ways, like he’d fidget with his cuff or his jaw would tighten, but this wasn’t that.
Right now, he looked cornered and it scared me. “I don’t like that face.”
Jasmine looked back at him, and when even she stopped joking, I knew it was serious. “Shit. Yeah, I don’t like it either. It really doesn’t look good.”
Our father had been talking to Khaled while occasionally directing a member of staff about where to go with the luggage, but a few moments later, he must’ve noticed the look on Colin’s face too.
He broke away from Khaled, striding over to Colin with that determined pace he only used when someone was in trouble.
When Colin noticed, he said something into the phone, then lowered it, talking to my dad for a minute. Dad mostly listened, but when Colin’s lips stopped moving, he asked a question, Colin answered, then he nodded and motioned toward one of the cars.
The SUV at the front pulled away from the line and rolled toward them. The driver climbed out and opened the rear door. Dad barked some instructions to the driver and Colin went to get into the car, but he looked at me before climbing in.
As our eyes met across the hangar, I realized that he suddenly looked as exhausted and worried as he had in those early days here in Egypt, but since this couldn’t have anything to do with my family’s demands, it really, really couldn’t be good.
“I’m sorry,” he mouthed, then climbed into the SUV and the driver shut the door behind him, hurried back to the front, and quickly jumped in behind the wheel.
The vehicle accelerated only seconds later, peeling out of the hangar like it was racing to the scene of an emergency. Beside me, Jasmine’s eyebrows swept up and she let out a low whistle. “Did someone die?”
“Jasmine,” I admonished, but because I honestly didn’t know.
“What?” she asked. “That’s usually how people get that face. I think.”
I wanted to tell her she wasn’t helping, but Dad was walking back toward us and I hurried over to him instead. “Dad?”
He looked at me, but even though he was trying to appear like nothing unusual had happened, I could see the turmoil churning behind his dark eyes. “You’ll see Colin at the resort, sweetheart. He’s only gone on ahead of us, but he’ll be there.”
A flicker of relief started up deep inside, but it didn’t last long. “What happened?”
Dad shrugged. “I’ll know more once he’s had some time to sort it out.”
“Is it business?” I asked. “His family is okay, right? No one got hurt or anything like that?”
“I believe so.”
I arched an eyebrow at him. “You believe so? Surely, you have to know whether it’s work or a death in the family.”
He reached out and squeezed my shoulder. “Sometimes, those two things can feel remarkably similar. Come, my lily, let’s get moving. We’re already behind schedule.”
My eyes begged to roll. As if the schedule mattered at a time like this, but since getting moving would also get me to the resort—that Colin was already on his way to—I climbed into the closest car without argument.
Thankfully, the entire family had realized by now that something was going on, and no one wasted any time finding a seat in one of the SUVs. Within minutes, our convoy was on its way to a breathtaking resort right on the banks of the Nile.
Normally, I would’ve grabbed my camera and taken off while the rest of my family went to get settled, but I stuck with them, following Jasmine to our assigned suite once we’d checked in. She claimed the bed next to the window with a smug grin, obviously expecting me to argue.
“I’m taking this one,” she said, flopping down on it and looking over at me.
I shrugged, striding over to the other bed and laying my camera and purse down on top of it. “That’s fine. You can have whichever one you want. It doesn’t bother me.”
She frowned. “Are you okay?”
“No,” I said honestly. “I’m just going to check on Colin. Don’t wait around for me.”
“I wasn’t going to,” she said, but then the humor faded from her eyes. “I’ll be at the pool if you need me.”
I nodded and left, heading down the corridor toward the suite I’d heard the receptionist mention Colin had already checked into. The first time I knocked, nothing happened, but after a second, louder rap of my knuckles against the wood, I heard footsteps, and a moment later, the door opened.
Relief flooded his eyes when he saw it was me and he immediately stepped aside to let me in. “Deja. Hey, I’m glad you’re here. Sorry about the way I left back there.”
“It’s okay.” I went inside, waiting until he’d shut the door behind me before I turned slowly to face him.
As I turned, however, I couldn’t help taking a sweeping glance around the room, immediately noticing that his suitcase was unopened on the luggage rack and his laptop was already open on the little table. That chill that had settled in my stomach intensified, my throat drying up.
I finally looked at him. “What happened?”
“We need to talk.” He rubbed his hands across his face, squeezing his eyes shut for another moment even after he’d lowered his hands back to his sides. “I’m so, so sorry, Deja.”
My heart started sinking. Icy fingers of terror suddenly reached into my veins. “You’re sorry about what?”
“I have to go back to Chicago,” he said after a beat. “Immediately.”
The room seemed to tilt. The ring on my finger instantly felt a hundred pounds heavier. I still didn’t know what was going on, but I knew now that it was definitely serious.