Chapter 13
13
Finn leaned back into the spray of the shower, shielding Elise from the heaviest of the spray as he pulled her against his naked body. Her arms snaked around his waist, and she rested her cheek against his chest.
He felt better this morning, cleansed of the sorrow and shame that had run through his veins like poison the night before. A good night’s sleep had helped, but he knew the truth: it was because of Elise.
She had a way of soothing him, of healing him even when he didn’t know he needed healing. Her willingness to open herself to him had brought down the last of the barriers between them, releasing a floodgate of unexpected emotion. He’d known he loved Elise before, had probably known even back in Scotland, when they’d been lost in their own silent, misty world.
Now he felt a soul deep connection to her that was completely unfamiliar, a connection forged in the fires of their individual trauma, cooled into the steel of something that felt unbreakable.
He inhaled the scent of the shampoo he’d worked into her hair and kissed the top of her head, wishing he could freeze time. The future was as opaque as ever, but he loved the woman in his arms.
That much he knew.
She looked up at him. “I’m getting out before I turn into a prune. Also, I’m starving.”
“We can’t have the lady starving,” Finn said. He gave her a gentle shove toward the shower door and smacked her bottom.
She looked over her shoulder, her hair hanging in wet ropes around her pale skin. “Be careful. I might ask you to do that again. Then we’ll never get out of here.”
He forced himself to snuff out the desire stirring his cock. He needed to get his head together, needed to figure out his next move.
He had no idea how he and Elise would reconcile their future together, if it was even possible, but any possibility of it depended on resolving the questions surrounding Fedir and Iryna’s death.
One way or another.
He turned off the water and followed Elise out of the shower. They got dressed quickly and headed to the kitchen.
Ronan and Julia were piled on the sofa in the great room, munching bagels and drinking coffee while JT played with a puzzle on the floor, Chief keeping a watchful eye over her charge.
Ronan looked up. “Morning.” The questions in his eyes were obvious, but they didn’t require a verbal answer.
“Morning,” Finn said.
“Sleep okay?” Julia asked Elise.
Elise nodded and glanced at Julia’s laptop, open on her lap. “You’re working.”
It was rare to find Julia working in the morning. She and Ronan were usually busy with JT.
“Just doing some research,” Julia said. “Get something to eat and I’ll tell you about it. There are bagels in the kitchen.”
There was something in Julia’s voice that put Finn on alert. Had she found something out about what had happened in Ukraine?
He set the questions aside and followed Elise into the kitchen where they found a plate piled with bagels, several kinds of cream cheese lining the counter next to it.
“I’ll do coffee if you do bagels,” Finn said.
“Deal.”
They worked in companionable silence to put together their breakfast, then carried their plates and cups back into the living area.
“What’s up?” Elise said when they got settled on the floor next to the coffee table.
Julia glanced at Ronan, who gave her a subtle nod, then looked from Finn to Elise. “Ronan told me about boxgrove.”
Finn felt the word like a punch to the gut, heard Eudorus’ raspy voice as he muttered the words, his unhinged laughter echoing through the garage at the mountain house. “Okay.”
He relaxed as Elise stroked his back.
“Well, I did some digging,” Julia said. “I was trying to find a connection between the word and Fedir and Iryna’s murder or a mining operation in Ukraine, basically anything that made sense.”
“We couldn’t be sure it meant anything at all,” Ronan said.
Finn nodded. He’d learned a lot of things since working with his brothers, one of which was the unreliable nature of anything learned when you were beating the shit out of someone.
Were they lying to get you to stop? In the throes of their suffering, were they retreating to another place, talking about things that had nothing to do with the questions they were actually being asked?
“But I think it does mean something,” Julia said. She glanced at her laptop and set it on the coffee table where Finn and Elise could see it.
Finn caught the headline of the article — BOXGROVE SOCIETY TO HOLD ANNUAL GALA — before Julia continued.
“Boxgrove is a place in England,” she said. “It also happens to be the site of a famous archeological dig, one that uncovered evidence of humans as far back as five-hundred-thousand years ago, which makes them some of the earliest humans in the British Isles.”
“They found bones too, some of the only ones of their kind in Northern Europe,” Ronan said.
“So Boxgrove is an important archeological site?” Finn asked.
“Very important,” Julia said. “They’re still looking for artifacts there, and that’s not all. The Boxgrove Historical Society is a heavy hitter in natural history and paleontological circles. So much so that they hold a big gala every year.”
Finn could feel the connective tissue between Ukraine and the new information about Boxgrove, but he didn’t yet understand what it meant, how it all worked together.
“What kind of gala?” Elise asked.
“It’s a philanthropic event,” Julia said. “They use it to raise money, some of which they grant to researchers who want to dig in the area. You want to hear the most interesting part?”
Finn nodded. He definitely wanted to hear the most interesting part.
“This year’s gala is next week.”
That got Finn’s attention. “Next week?”
“Yep. In London,” Julia said.
“London?” Elise asked. “Why would an event for the Boxgrove Society be held in London instead of Boxgrove?”
Julia shrugged. “I’m guessing it’d be harder to get people with fat checkbooks out to a tiny village for an event held at the local church.”
“Julia’s right,” Ronan said. “London is where the movers and shakers are. An event there gives people a chance to dress up, to see and be seen.”
“So all the members of the Boxgrove Historical Society will be in one place next week,” Finn said.
“And their donors. Presumably,” Ronan said.
“Think there’s anything to it?” Elise asked.
Finn knew she was running through the same questions running through his own mind. How reliable was the information elicited from Eudorus in the hours before his death? Why would this, of all the information he possessed, be the one thing he’d given up?
“I think there’s only one way to find out,” Ronan said.
“We go to London,” Finn said.
Ronan met his gaze. “We go to London.”