Chapter One Before We Go To Spain #2
Lucas and Naomi sat opposite her.
"Arthur believed someone had infiltrated the Covenant."
"Mercer?" Lucas asked.
"We thought so."
"You knew Daniel?"
"Yes."
Naomi stared at her mother.
"The professor who taught me?"
Evelyn looked ashamed.
"We arranged that."
Naomi stood so quickly the chair scraped backward.
"You what?"
"Your father wanted someone nearby who understood the Covenant."
"You put Mercer in my life?"
"We didn't know what he would become."
"Mom!"
"He saved your father's life once."
"And now he's stealing evidence from museums!"
"I know."
Naomi walked away.
Lucas started to follow.
She raised a hand.
"I need a second."
He stopped.
Not offended.
Not demanding.
Simply there.
Naomi breathed slowly.
Then turned.
"What happened in Spain?"
Evelyn looked at the manifest.
"Arthur called the meeting because he believed someone was using Taylor shipping routes to move stolen art, weapons, and people."
"Serrano."
"No."
Everyone froze.
Evelyn looked directly at Rose's photograph among the evidence files.
"Mateo inherited the operation."
Naomi's heartbeat accelerated.
"From whom?"
Evelyn hesitated.
Commander Ross leaned forward.
"Mrs. James."
"From Elias."
Naomi stared at her mother.
"My uncle?"
"Your uncle built the original network."
The revelation struck harder than Naomi expected.
Joseph's warning returned.
The greatest danger does not wear the name Taylor. Nor Serrano. It wears my own.
Lucas looked toward Naomi.
She could barely process it.
"Elias was trafficking people?"
"No."
Evelyn shook her head.
"Not initially."
"He built routes for the Covenant. Secret transportation channels that could move endangered witnesses, stolen artwork recovered from criminals, historical documents, even families escaping violent regimes."
Anthony understood.
"An underground railroad."
"In a sense."
Evelyn nodded.
"But Elias began deciding who deserved protection."
Her voice lowered.
"Then he began deciding who deserved punishment."
Naomi sat again.
"What happened?"
"Power."
Hudson's word from the hidden chamber.
Evelyn continued.
"Elias stopped believing in courts."
"He stopped trusting governments."
"He believed the Covenant should become its own justice system."
"Joseph opposed him."
"Arthur supported Joseph."
"And Mercer?"
"He stood between them."
Lucas frowned.
"Then where does Serrano come in?"
Evelyn looked toward him.
"Gabriel found Elias."
"When?"
"When he was young."
"Elias convinced Gabriel the Taylors had stolen his birthright."
Naomi shook her head.
"They had."
"Yes."
Evelyn didn't deny it.
"But instead of helping him heal, Elias fed his anger."
"Why?"
"Because angry men are useful."
The room became quiet.
Naomi suddenly understood.
"Elias created Serrano."
"Not entirely."
"No one creates another person's cruelty."
Evelyn looked at her daughter.
"But Elias gave Gabriel the tools to turn his pain into an empire."
Lucas stood near the window.
His face had hardened.
"So thirty-one years ago everyone went to Spain."
"Yes."
"Why was my father there?"
Evelyn hesitated.
"Arthur wanted Hudson to take over the Covenant."
Lucas laughed bitterly.
"My father?"
"Arthur believed responsibility might change him."
"Did it?"
"For one night."
Evelyn's eyes became distant.
"Hudson saw what Elias had become."
"He saw people imprisoned beneath the monastery."
Naomi whispered, "Trafficking victims?"
"Some."
"Others were people Elias considered dangerous."
"Politicians."
"Collectors."
"Criminals."
"Whistleblowers."
"Anyone he believed could expose the Covenant."
Ross's expression hardened.
"Illegal detention."
"Yes."
"What happened?"
"Joseph tried to free them."
Evelyn swallowed.
"Everything went wrong."
"Someone fired a gun."
"Part of the underground chamber caught fire."
"Arthur was injured."
"Mercer disappeared."
"And Hudson..."
She stopped.
Lucas stepped closer.
"What happened to my father?"
Evelyn looked directly at him.
"He killed a man."
Silence.
Lucas's face emptied.
"Who?"
"We never knew his real name."
"Was it self-defense?"
"Yes."
The answer came immediately.
"The man was about to shoot Joseph."
Naomi stared.
"Hudson saved my father's life?"
Evelyn nodded.
"Your father would have died that night without him."
Lucas slowly sat down.
Naomi reached for his hand.
He accepted it.
For all Hudson's failures...
For all his cruelty...
For all the ways he'd tried to control Lucas...
Once, long before Naomi knew either Taylor man existed, Hudson had saved Joseph James.
"Why doesn't he remember?" Lucas asked.
Evelyn looked toward the table.
"Because Elias drugged him."
Lucas stared.
"He what?"
"Elias had developed a compound used during witness relocations. Sedation combined with memory disruption."
Ross looked disturbed.
"Experimental pharmacology?"
"Crude."
"Dangerous."
Evelyn nodded.
"Hudson woke two days later in London."
"Arthur told him he'd suffered a breakdown."
"And Hudson believed him?"
"He remembered fragments."
"The cave."
"The bells."
"Gabriel."
"But not enough to understand."
Lucas stood abruptly.
"Arthur let his own son believe he was losing his mind?"
Evelyn didn't defend him.
"Yes."
Lucas walked away.
Naomi followed this time.
She wrapped her arms around him from behind.
Lucas closed his eyes.
"My family..."
Naomi pressed her cheek against his back.
"Is complicated."