Chapter 15
Kara - Present
Owen is sitting back at the counter and I’m making us cheese on toast. He’s taking bites of the Mars Bar.
“Start at the beginning,” I say over my shoulder as I bend over the oven, sprinkling the cheese onto the toast. I push the tray back in and lean forward on the other side of the counter.
“Tell me about how you became involved with the Covenant,” I continue.
“I’m not,” he answers. “Not officially, anyway.”
“Go on.”
“I am however, acquainted with Luca Knight. And five days ago, I received a package from him.”
And here’s me thinking I buried Luca Knight.
Well, kinda.
Faking someone’s death isn’t easy, and he really took a risk sending anything.
I push back off the counter keeping an eye on the food.
“What package?”
I place the tray down on the metal pan holder and glance at Owen.
“A note, with an external hard drive that contains information that is dangerous to those in power.” Owen moves, heads into the kitchen, opening cupboards. Looking for ketchup, I’m sure. Owen has ketchup with everything.
“Left cupboard next to the fridge.”
He grabs it. “For a safe flat, this is well stocked.”
“Always be prepared,” I reply, placing our cheese on toast on the plates. “So, what’s on this hard drive, specifics?”
“I have enough evidence on that thing to take out most of the current serving cabinet members, including the Prime Minister and past politicians going back to the early 80’s.”
“What?” I ask, eyes widening.
I blink at him, unsure if I even heard that right. My brain tries to piece it together; just how big this is. How serious it is. Hell, how dangerous it is.
“You’re joking?”
He isn’t. I can see it in the way he looks at me. Steady and serious.
“And you’ve just been walking around with something that has the potential to bring the country to its knees?”
“Exactly. So, you can see why I keep telling you that you have no idea what you’ve gotten yourself into. You will also understand why I didn’t include this in the briefing information I gave to Andrews.”
“Okay,” I say, taking a bite, swallowing, letting what he has said sink in. Us going into hiding straight after the attack maybe the best thing. It will keep him safe and make my job easier.
He throws his crust onto the plate and takes a sip of water.
“Honestly, I wish I’d never opened his sodding package.
Meeting Luca Knight has been the best and worst thing that has happened to me.
But Lucy, I’m not hiding. We will go back to my apartment, and we continue with whatever plan Andrews had put in place to allow me to keep doing my job. ”
Doing his job. Someone tried to kill him tonight. For that sodding hard drive.
“What’s your plan with the hard drive?”
“I haven’t worked out exactly what to do yet. Luca told me to reach out to Apex security. So, I did what I was told, and here we are. How could anyone possibly know that I have it?”
“Who knows. But regardless, someone knows you do, and will go to extreme measures to get it. And now knowing what’s on it, I understand why. So you have no idea who sent them?”
“No clue. We need to get the hard drive, though.”
“You don’t have it?” My eyes widen in surprise, my voice loud.
He shakes his head and goes to grab his tuxedo jacket from the living room.
“Where are you going?” I drop my food back onto my plate and follow him licking my fingers from the excess grease.
“Going back to my apartment like we discussed.”
“No, like you demanded. We didn’t discuss anything. Owen, stop for a minute. We can’t just blindly go back to your place, not whilst you’ve got a target on your back. I will make a compromise. We carry on with the original plan, upping your security as you go about your business.”
He watches me intently, waiting.
“BUT we stay here, and you stay here whilst I go and retrieve the hard drive.”
“No! Absolutely not, you’re not going without me, without back up.”
I let out a humourless laugh. “And what, you’re going to protect me, are you?”
He goes to walk past me, ignoring my instruction to stay put, but he doesn’t get far. I swipe his legs out from under him whilst pulling him on his back.
He lands hard. I reach out to the side where a knife is laying and throw myself onto his body, straddling him, holding the metal blade up to his throat.
“I am not that little girl anymore. I do not need your protection,” I growl through clenched teeth. “Now let me do my job, and please, listen.”
We both stare at each other, breaths coming in heaves. “Fuck,” I mutter. I stand up, putting my hand out. He takes it, and I yank him to his feet.
I look up, and he’s looking down at me with the same fucking stubborn expression on his face that he had as a kid.
“Fine. We will stay here, but I am coming with you. Unless you’re intending to chop my finger off to get into my safe, you’re going to need me with you.”
“Don’t tempt me.”
His face breaks into a smile. “Oh, Cookie. These next few weeks, it’s going to be like the old days.”
“We have very different memories of our childhood.”
“Hiding, fighting for our lives, pretending everything is fine, spending time together. It sounds just like it. I’m going to need a phone, and clothes.”
“For someone who is terrified, you’re acting very gung-ho.”
“I can’t control everything, but you bet your arse I’m going to take control of the things that I can. And right now, I want to make a statement. And I need to call Juliette’s husband.” He clears his throat.
I nod.
“Okay. We stay here tonight; you can make calls tomorrow—”
“No, not Jules. I’ll make that call tonight. I need to.”
I understand the reasoning. He’s hurting, he wants to speak to her husband. So I don’t argue. I can see the turmoil in his face, the hurt in his voice.
“That’s the only call, though. Tomorrow we will get the hard-drive. For now, though, we need to sleep. Couch or bed?”
“Seriously? We grew up together with nothing between us. I’ve just stitched you up, and let’s not forget the shower.”
Warmth rushes to my cheeks, which I’m pretty sure are now a shade of beetroot. I sigh dramatically.
“Fine.”
It isn’t fine.
There’s just so much, so much of something between us that I don’t think I can even find the right words. So instead, I grab the phone off the table and pass it to Owen.
“Make your call. It’s completely untraceable and we will destroy it after. I’ll be in the bedroom.” I leave him standing in the living room, staring at the phone.
“Lucy,” he calls after me, and I stop on the threshold. “Thank you. For saving me tonight.”
“Hey, it’s what you hired me to do, right?” I smile tightly and close the bedroom door, falling against the wood and resting my head against it.
Jesus.
How am I going to get through this? Every time I’m with him, I’m thrown back to being a kid.
And I feel so much being around him. I take a breath and head into the bathroom to brush my teeth.
I climb into the bed, looking at the ceiling.
I can hear Owen talking in the living room, but I zone him out.
My head’s busy revisiting old memories, flashes of times that I’d thought were buried.
Is this what it’s going to be like? In the quietness and stillness, I’m going to relive every fucked-up memory of our childhood? A childhood that I thought I’d forgotten?
That’s all in the past now.
Except my past is very much sitting behind that closed door, and I feel like a scared little girl all over again.
“Are you awake?” he whispers.
I peel my eye open and see the light from the living room shining in before disappearing as he joins me in the bedroom, closing the door.
“I am now.”
“I’ve scheduled a press conference tomorrow at 11:00 a.m.”
“Of course you have.” I deadpan. “I thought I said one call, and when I said yes to a statement, I didn’t mean press conference.”
I sit up onto my elbows, the covers falling off my shoulders to under my boobs. Owen’s eyes glance at the white tank top, the thin material the only thing covering me, not leaving much to the imagination.
“I’ve just been caught up in a suspected terrorist attack and lost one of my closest aids. Of course I would give a press conference, and the police need to talk to us.”
I sigh. What an annoyance.
“Fine.” I turn around and fluff up my pillow. “Your flat, press conference, police.”
“Police, conference, office, flat and dinner.”
“Dinner, seriously?”
He stands in front of the window, the light from outside framing his silhouette. He pulls his t-shirt over his head in the way men do with one hand, that makes him look ridiculously sexy. I never thought that watching such a simple, mundane task would be such a turn on.
Maybe it was just Owen.
He at least keeps his tracksuit bottoms on, and I send a silent prayer of thanks to the man upstairs, not that I’m remotely religious.
He climbs in, and I turn onto my side to face him.
“Do you remember doing this as kids?” I ask as he settles in next to me, his arm going underneath the pillow while the other rests next to his head.
“I do. We were a lot smaller, as was the bed.”
I grin and turn onto my back. Silence fills the space, and I can hear Owen’s breathing get deeper as exhaustion pulls him under. Now that I’m lying down, I’m wide awake.
I stare at Owen, his features relaxed for the first time all night, the peace of sleep removing any frown lines and stress. I lean over and gently run my hands though his hair, and he moans.
“Why did you leave me?” I whisper the question that I’m desperate for him to answer but can’t bring myself to ask.