Chapter One Before We Go To Spain #3
"That's generous."
"I was going to say deeply dysfunctional, but we're engaged now. I'm practicing diplomacy."
A quiet laugh escaped him.
He turned and pulled her against his chest.
"Thank you."
"For insulting your family?"
"For knowing when I need you."
Naomi looked up.
"You always have me."
He kissed her forehead.
Across the room, Evelyn watched them.
Something softened in her expression.
Joseph had been right.
Naomi had looked beside her.
And found Lucas.
That afternoon, Hudson Taylor arrived.
He was thinner than he had been before his hospitalization.
Less imposing.
But the old Hudson remained in his posture.
He entered expecting information.
Instead, Lucas handed him the manifest.
Hudson read it.
His face changed.
"No."
Evelyn sat across from him.
"Yes."
Hudson looked at her.
"You were there."
"So were you."
"I would remember."
Evelyn's eyes filled with sympathy.
"That's exactly what Elias didn't want."
Hudson stared at her for a long time.
Then he looked toward Naomi.
"Joseph?"
"He was there."
"Arthur?"
"Yes."
"Gabriel?"
"No."
Hudson sat.
His hands trembled.
Naomi had never seen him look so vulnerable.
"Tell me."
Evelyn did.
Not everything.
Only enough.
The monastery.
The prisoners.
The gun.
Joseph.
The man Hudson killed to save him.
Hudson listened without interruption.
When she finished, he stared at his hands.
"I killed someone."
"You saved Joseph."
"That doesn't erase it."
"No."
Evelyn's voice remained gentle.
"It doesn't."
Hudson looked toward Naomi.
"I saved your father."
Naomi nodded.
"He apparently spent the rest of his life trying to return the favor."
Hudson's eyes filled.
Something passed between them.
Not forgiveness.
Not absolution.
Understanding.
Perhaps that was where redemption truly began.
Night fell over London.
The others eventually left.
Security remained outside the penthouse, but for the first time that day, Naomi and Lucas were alone again.
Naomi stood inside the bedroom removing her earrings when Lucas appeared behind her.
Their eyes met through the mirror.
"You okay?" she asked.
"No."
She turned.
"Come here."
Lucas crossed the room.
Naomi wrapped her arms around him.
He held her tightly.
"My father saved yours."
"Yes."
"And yours spent years protecting mine."
"Looks like our families were tangled together long before we were."
Lucas looked down at her.
"Do you ever wish you hadn't met me?"
Naomi pulled back.
"Don't ever ask me that again."
"I'm serious."
"So am I."
She touched his face.
"I hate what happened to my father."
"I hate what these people did."
"I hate that every answer seems to uncover another lie."
Her thumb moved gently across his cheek.
"But you?"
She shook her head.
"I will never regret you."
Lucas kissed her palm.
"I love you."
"I love you too."
His arms tightened around her.
The kiss that followed wasn't frantic.
It wasn't driven by fear.
It was slow.
Intimate.
Certain.
Naomi rose onto her toes as Lucas's mouth moved over hers. His hands settled at her waist, then traveled along her back, drawing her closer.
She felt his breathing deepen.
Her own followed.
Lucas kissed beneath her ear.
Naomi closed her eyes.
"Lucas..."
He stopped immediately.
She smiled.
"That wasn't a stop."
His answering smile sent warmth through her.
"Good."
She pulled him back to her.
The world had taken enough from them.
Tonight, they chose each other.
The rest belonged only to them.
Naomi awakened at 3:17 in the morning.
Not because of a nightmare.
Because someone was knocking.
Three slow knocks.
She sat up.
Lucas awakened instantly.
"Did you hear that?"
Another knock.
Not the front door.
Naomi turned toward the sound.
It came from the balcony.
Twenty-eight floors above London.
Lucas was already reaching for the security alarm.
Naomi grabbed his arm.
"Wait."
A shadow stood beyond the curtains.
Human.
Lucas moved in front of her.
The shadow lifted one hand.
Then placed something against the glass.
A silver pendant.
Naomi's breath stopped.
It was identical to hers.
Except the compass pointed in the opposite direction.
The same pendant Mateo Serrano possessed.
Lucas activated the silent alarm.
Security lights flooded the balcony.
Nobody was there.
Only the pendant remained.
Attached to it was a folded piece of paper.
Security entered moments later and retrieved it.
Commander Ross arrived within twenty minutes.
The note contained six handwritten words.
Spain is where your father lied.
Naomi stared at the message.
Ross turned the paper over.
There was more.
A second sentence.
Ask Evelyn who Naomi really is.
No one spoke.
Lucas slowly looked toward Naomi.
She stared at her father's pendant.
Then at the identical one resting inside the evidence bag.
Thirty years of secrets had led them toward Spain.
Now one question threatened to destroy everything Naomi believed about herself.
Not what Joseph James had hidden.
Not what Elias had done.
Not what the Taylor family had stolen.
Something far more personal.
Who was Naomi James?
And why had someone been waiting since the day she was born to tell her?