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MARRIAGE:
Two people sworn into an eternal bond to love and protect each other, signified by the UNBROKEN circle of a ring.
HUSBAND:
Possessor of many male virtues used to seduce, please, and protect his wife and ensure that the bond he shares with her is unbreakable.
WIFE:
Possessor of feminine virtues far more powerful than the husband often realizes but should.
PART ONE
Illusion
A SHINY BLACK CASKET SITS SEVERAL feet in front of us, a canopy barely protecting us from the cold Texas December. I wear a black dress and raincoat, appropriate for a rainy Thursday spent having your heart ripped out. Tellar, my security guard and friend, stands to my left, while Liam, the man I love with all my heart, is on my right, his arm around my waist to steady me. Still I sway on wobbly legs and Tellar’s hand settles on my elbow. My eyes burn with the brotherly action that I know goes beyond his professional duty as our security guard. It also reminds me of the brother I have lost.
We are alone. The surprisingly large crowd has dispersed, but among it had been friends of my long lost family, scholars who admired my parents’ work, Treasure Hunters who knew my brother, and citizens of Jasmine Heights, the city I’d once called home. Thanks to the journal Chad left behind at the scene of his accident, exposing the dirty details of our past, they’d all known me today as Lara again rather than Amy. He’d spilled select parts of my past with his in the diary, exposing the way he’d hidden me to protect me and let me believe that he was dead.
Thunder rumbles overhead, but I do not jump. Maybe it’s because there seems to be a million explosions going on in my head and heart right now. Really, what is one more? Oh so aware that we are always being watched, I steel myself against prying eyes as I break away from Liam and Tellar. Walking to the side of the casket, which has remained closed for the entire service, I rip away one of my gloves and press my bare hand to the glossy surface. Cold that is far more about the loss of my brother than the bitterness of the weather chills my palm and seeps into my bones. My only peace is in the way my protectors are instantly by my side, their big bodies shielding me from the wind and rain.
“Amy,” Liam says softly. “You know this isn’t—”
“I know what this is,” I whisper, tilting my head to look at him, the concern etched in his piercing aqua eyes giving me a sense of unity that I need right now. “I do,” I add, not really certain if I’m trying to reassure him or myself. “But this is real to me on so many levels.”
He draws my hand into his and leads my knuckles to his lips, where they linger a moment. “Let me take you home.”
“Home?” I whisper, the word a bittersweet song in my shredded heart. I’ve not felt I had such a place since the day of the fire that killed my parents only a few miles from where I now stand.
“Yes,” Liam says. “Home.” He gently removes a strand of hair caught on my lip, one of those mindless tender gestures that make me feel special in ways only Liam can. “And just in case you don’t know,” he adds, “anyplace you are is home to me.”
Tears I thought I’d exhausted during the service well up in my eyes. “I love you, Liam Stone.”
“I love you, too, baby. More than life itself. Now, let’s get you out of the rain and cold.”
I nod and allow him to turn me away from the casket, afraid that I’ll completely break down if I look at it again. Liam pulls up the hood on my coat and Tellar raises an umbrella above me. Cold droplets hit us as we step from beneath the canvas, yet I walk slowly as the finality of leaving this place begins to soak in.
When we reach the black sedan we’ve rented, Liam opens the back door and I settle inside. He follows, and Tellar seals us into the space that feels smaller than it should. Pushing back my hood, I shrug out of my wet coat as Liam does the same. We shove them by the doors, moving to the middle of the seat together. Facing Liam, I find his dark hair wet, and I reach up to wipe away the water clinging to his neatly trimmed goatee. “You’re soaked.”
He covers my hand with his, and I like the way it makes me feel, as if he’s holding on to me and will never let go. “We’re going to get through this.”
Damn it, more tears escape from my eyes, proving my efforts to be strong are failing. Liam is there though, rescuing me in a small way that feels big, wrapping me in his arms and the warm cocoon of his body. I sink against his chest, sliding my fingers beneath the jacket of his black suit, and I no longer fight the explosion of emotions that follows. Liam seems to understand, holding me, riding out this new storm with me, whispering to me at just the right moments. Understanding what I need in a way that defies the man he shows everyone else. The man who is alpha and powerful on the outside but sensitive enough to know when a bull charging at me isn’t what works.
The avalanche of emotions finally becomes a dull ache in my chest, the tears have streaked down my cheeks but are no longer flowing, and my hand has found its way to Liam’s heart, the steady beat soothing my frazzled nerves. The car is in motion and I don’t even know when we started moving. Time stands still; eternal in so many ways, but my mind is not silent. It is replaying every second of my last good-bye with Chad at the safe house in the Hamptons.
I’m repeating the way it felt to hug him for about the hundredth time when the car pulls to a halt at the landing strip where a private jet awaits us, cloaked in darkness. I glance at Liam’s Rolex, wondering if I’ve lost more time than I realized, but it’s only five in the evening. Tellar opens the door for us, holding an umbrella, and we exit into a downpour. Liam takes over the umbrella, trying to shelter me, but the rain’s torment is nothing compared to the brutal beating of the funeral. We hurry up a set of stairs and into the galley of the jet, discarding our coats and the umbrella. Liam walks to the cockpit to talk to the pilot while I bypass the leather couches in the front of the plane. Tellar will claim this area tonight as he had on the trip down here this morning; instead, I choose the solitude of the rear seating.
Ignoring the couch to my left, I reclaim the window seat to my right that I’d occupied earlier. I’m just strapping in when Liam appears and pulls the curtain between us and the front of the plane shut. Wordlessly he sits next to me and, with a purpose it seems, removes his laptop from the briefcase beneath the seat.
“What are you doing?” I ask as he pulls the table from his armrest and quickly brings his computer to life, keying up the beginning of a Skype chat. “Aren’t we about to take off?”
“Calling Chad.”
I shut the lid of the laptop. “No. Please. I don’t want to talk to him right now.”
He looks at me, his jaw set with determination. “You need—”
“You,” I whisper. “Right now, I need you.”
His eyes soften and he sets the laptop under his seat, folding the table back into the arm of his chair, and then goes down on one knee in front of me. “You’re grieving for him like he’s really dead. He’s alive, Amy.”
“But he’s gone.”
“He’s not gone.”
“Like he wasn’t gone these past six years?” I challenge. “I know the magnitude of what we’re dealing with, Liam. That cylinder is a miracle that could become a disaster. What else can you call something the size of a pencil eraser that can power the world with clean energy and still manage to crumble economies and create dictators?”
r /> “That is why he made sure the world believes it’s dead, right along with him.”
“Which is exactly why he won’t risk seeing me and putting us back in danger. And I know you, Liam Stone. You aren’t going to let that happen, either. I just . . . the past seventy-two hours since he dropped this bomb on us has been a whirlwind. I don’t think he had to do this. His creation of the Circle of Trust was enough to protect us. Twelve people who have a piece of a map to find the cylinder and triggers to bring them together. We made suggestions for the Circle but we don’t know who he chose, Liam. And Chad swears he approached them with a fake identity. Make me understand why all of that added up to today.”
His lips thin. “That’s exactly what I asked him three days ago when he handed me this bombshell to pass on to you.”
“And he said what?”
“Too many people connect us to him to be safe,” he explains. “He needed those people to get the message that he was gone and he’d never shared his secret with us.”
“All those responsible for killing my family and hunting us all those years are in jail.”
“The people who hired Chad to find the cylinder in the first place are in jail, true. But Jared and Meg are both missing, completely unaccounted for.”
Everyone my brother trusted betrayed him. It makes me value the trust I have with Liam all the more. “Jared was captured by the Chinese when we gave them the fake prototype.”
“Perhaps promising them our secrets for his freedom. He betrayed us. We can’t trust him.”
“He doesn’t know our secrets.”
“They don’t know that, Amy. The bottom line here is what I just told you: Chad felt that too many people had connected us with him for safety. His objective was to give them all a reason to write us off as potential sources of information.”
His words deliver a hard punch of betrayal I have no choice but to face. “And since he knew all of these things from the moment he came up with the idea of the Circle, he clearly planned his death from the beginning.”
“It would seem that way.”
“He should have been honest with us.”
“I told him that.”
“And his defense was what? Or did he even bother to offer one?”
“He didn’t want you to fight him,” he admits grimly.
I shake my head. “And I would have. How ridiculous is that? I mean, if he doesn’t want to be in my life, then why am I fighting so hard to have him in it?”
“Amy,” Liam says, his voice softening. “Baby. I know this hurts, but this isn’t like the last time. He didn’t fake his death and let you believe he was dead, the way he did six years ago.”
“Because I’d expect him to do just that, and I’d look for him if he had. He’s not a fool, Liam. He knew that. He had to keep me in my place.”
His expression darkens, and as much as I want him to deny that I’m right, he does not. “He’s not gone,” he says instead. “Call him. Hearing his voice will reassure you that this isn’t a repeat of the past.”
“Right now, if I call him and he doesn’t answer, I’ll spend the entire flight worried that I’m never going to see or talk to him again. And if he does answer, I don’t know what I’d say to him.”
“Tell him how you feel.”
“Yeah, well, I’m pretty sure screaming would be involved.”
“I’d say screaming is acceptable.” The engine roars into high gear and the plane begins to move. Liam lifts his hand, which I now realize that I’m clutching, and kisses mine. “The pilot said it’s going to be bumpy taking off. We both need to buckle up.”
I nod and reluctantly release him, fighting the urge to hold on and never let go. Some part of me is afraid he’s going to disappear, like everyone else does in my life. The thought shakes me to the core, and a memory of that horrid casket rips through my mind. That could so easily be Chad’s future, and I wonder if I’d even know. The thought rattles me all over again as I try to fasten my belt. Liam settles into his seat, and he must see me trembling because he reaches over and buckles me in and then covers my hand with his. “Easy, baby.”
I swallow hard. “It’s just . . . it’s been a rough day.”
“I know. Remember what Dr. Murphy told you. Just breathe.”
I inhale and let the breath out, mentally willing myself to calm. “Yes. Breathe. I’m okay.”
“I’m here. I’m not going anywhere. I’ve got you, baby.”
Emotion tightens my chest. “I’ve got you, too,” I reply, because no matter how alpha, how dominant, there’s a broken part of Liam that understands and fits with the broken parts of me.
His eyes are warm and he leans in, his long fingers curving over my jaw. “We have each other,” he promises, his lips brushing mine, lingering when they lift, an electric, warm feeling blossoming between us and stealing a tiny part of my pain. That is, until the stupid plane jerks and we jolt with it, shot back into reality, when Liam is forced to shift back into his seat.
Ridiculously, the small space between us is somehow as giant as the Godzilla I call my enemies and fears. I want to reach for Liam again, pull him back to me and lose myself in all of his strength and calm, but the plane is jostling back and forth and I can’t seem to make myself move. Liftoff comes with back-to-back clusters of shakes and shimmies, but it is nothing compared to the trembling I feel inside. The turbulence continues for a few minutes, fading away even as lightning strikes outside the window, seeming to hit the plane. I am oddly calm at what could be a deadly event, and my one thought is: We won’t die, because I’m here and I don’t die. It’s everyone around me that dies.
Almost as if he has heard me, Liam is suddenly unbuckling my seat belt He pulls me to my feet and sits down in my spot, dragging me across his lap the way he did the night he found me after I’d run away from him. I sink against him, inhaling that rich, male scent I can find arousing one moment, calming in another such as this, letting my head fall to his shoulder. I remember wondering that night: if my life was a book, would readers think I’m a fool for trusting Liam? Now I wonder if they would think I am selfish for staying with him and making this his life.
“AMY.”
Liam’s deep, rich voice wakes me and I blink him into view, finding him kneeling in front of me. Disoriented, I’m shocked to realize that I’m coming out of a heavy sleep. At some point during the flight, Liam seems to have placed me on the couch across from our seats, covering me with a blanket and placing a pillow under my head. “How long have I been out?”
“The entire flight. We’re about to land.”
Groggily, I sit up and stretch, noting his missing suit jacket and the way his tie is yanked down beneath several loose buttons on his shirt. “Did you sleep, too?”
“I’ll sleep when we get home,” he says, leading me back to our seats where we both buckle up, the plane in obvious late descent.
Something about the way he doesn’t look at me and the stiff line of his spine furrows my brow. “You have to be exhausted. We left the Hamptons for the funeral in Texas at the break of dawn this morning.”
Before he can answer, the plane hits the runway, the noise discouraging conversation, and almost the moment the sound softens, his phone rings, and it’s like an alarm going off in my body. Every nerve I possess is instantly alive and unwell and I find myself holding my breath, watching him dig his cell from his pocket, concerned the caller is Chad and I’ll have to talk to him. Worried it’s not. Liam glances at the caller ID, grimacing as he punches the answer button. “Why are you calling me from the front of the plane, Tellar?”
I let out a breath, disappointed, relieved, and angry at Chad all at once. And that only makes me angry at myself. Why fret over a brother who clearly doesn’t want me in his life?
“Yes,” Liam says into the phone, casting me an amused look, the weird vibe he’d radiated a minute before gone as if it never existed as he adds, “We’re awake and decent. And expect the wrath of Amy for even asking that.”<
br />
“Yes,” I agree, with a glower. “And you too, Liam Stone, for even laughing at that.”
Undaunted, Liam chuckles, ending the call and kissing my cheek. “I’m going to check on our transportation arrangements.” He’s unbuckled his seat belt and quickly disappears behind the curtain, and I have the strangest sense he’s trying to escape. But from what? Me? Or rather, something he doesn’t want me to know? Oh God. Is it Chad? Is something really wrong with him while I’ve just been mentally berating him?
I unhook my belt and jump to my feet, rushing through the open curtain to find Liam and Tellar in deep conversation, their heads low.
“Liam,” I say, drawing the attention of both men, “is something wrong?” He steps away from Tellar, meeting me halfway down the aisle. “Is Chad okay?” I ask as he stops in front of me, my hand flattening on his chest.
“I haven’t talked to Chad,” he replies, “and you told me you don’t want to talk to him, either. We can try him now.” He reaches for his phone.
“No.” I grab his arm, stopping him. “Not now.” I search his unreadable expression. “What aren’t you telling me, Liam Stone?”
He cups my face. “Nothing is wrong. The opposite, in fact—though I know it will be hard for you on this day to see it that way.”
“What are you talking about?”
“We don’t have to hide anymore, Amy. No more safe house. Tellar arranged to have all of our things shipped home, and—”
“You’re right—after Chad’s bombshell, I didn’t need another surprise. You should have told me before we took off in Texas that we were returning to New York, instead of back to the Hamptons.” I grab the lapels of his jacket. “I’m not ready for this, Liam. We aren’t ready for this. We can’t be sure it’s safe.”
“If I wasn’t sure we’re safe, we wouldn’t be here. And hiding makes it look like we have secrets.”
“Don’t you think it looks funny that Chad just happened to have a fireproof folder in his backpack?”