She nodded. “It made sense afterward. You had known but not told me; Mandy is skittish. There was a good chance tonight wouldn’t happen.”
“His message just read ‘it’s on.’ None of us wanted to build up your hopes, Tracey’s, and then not be able to make the reunion happen.”
“What if this Richard Wise finds Mandy? What if I lose her after I just found her again? Connor-” The fears came flooding back, the facts that scared her the most, and the tears returned.
He took the glass back and set it aside, then wrapped his arm around her. “It’s going to be okay.” He didn’t know how, but it was something they would have to solve.
“I’m so afraid for her, so afraid,” she whispered.
He let his hand linger on her hair, easing that pain the only way he could. Part of him worried incredibly about it not being okay, that her fears were founded in the real risks of trouble arriving. But there were limits of what worry could help.
Connor tipped up her chin. He leaned down. When she didn’t lean away he took his time kissing her, feeling her hands come up to rest against his neck, feeling her weight shift and her head tilt to more easily welcome the kiss. She tasted of salt and tears, of sweetened tea, and of woman-he eased back to make a promise. “I’m not going to let you walk through any of this alone. I care too much.”
He felt the sigh rather than heard it. “Can I just lean against you awhile and keep my balance that way?”
He smiled gently. “As long as you like.”
“My sister is home.” There was the quiet satisfaction of a long-sought dream suddenly true in the words.
“
“Yes.”
She leaned back. “Connor, I need to know what is going on-all of it. The stuff Mandy can tell me and the stuff she can’t. Would you keep me informed of what is really going on?”
He didn’t know how to answer that, for he was torn between protecting her emotions and knowing she had the right to ask. “I promise to tell you as much as I can, the security steps, the people we’re trying to deal with. All of it that doesn’t risk Amy or someone else working the case.”
“Thank you. It’s so very, very hard being in the dark.”
Connor stepped back. “Tracey is going to wonder where you have gotten yourself off to. I’d best take you home.”
“Would you invite me back here one day so I can better appreciate your place?”
He laughed. “I could do that-hopefully before I end up packing everything.”
“I’d enjoy helping.”
She blushed and he laughed. “Don’t go retreating on me now. I like this side of you.” He reached for their coats. “I’m buying you breakfast today, before I go to work, before you wander down to work in the gallery.”
“I’d like that a great deal.”
He buttoned her coat up for her, then caught her hand, and opened his apartment door. “Let’s take you home.”
Luke watched Amy circling the room after her sisters left, picking up glasses, plates, restoring order to the home. There was no need for her to do the cleanup, but he knew it was more to give her something to do while she thought than to particularly work.
“They’ve changed so much. Tracey-I remember her as being young, and she’s a grown lady now and seriously dating a good guy. Marie looks tired, like the last few years, rather than just the last week, has pulled life from her. She’s more quiet now and serious. That’s my fault.”
“There’s no fault to place, Amy. You’ve coped with events and done the best you could; so has Marie.”
She carried the dishes into the kitchen. “I’ve missed them so much; I didn’t realize how much until they were both here.”
Her sisters needed her, and even more, she needed her sisters. “Give me forty-eight hours to show you this can work, that you can safely come in from the cold,” he asked as she came back into the room. She wanted to trust him. He could see the tears now back in her eyes and how badly she wanted to be able to say yes. “You can call me tomorrow or you could just come with me now. I’m fully prepared to make you safe from this moment on if you’ll let me.”
“I can’t stay tonight.”
“Then call me tomorrow and we’ll arrange another time and place to meet. Give me a chance to at least show you what I’m thinking about. They need you in their lives again, Amy. And you need them.”
“I’ll call you,” she whispered. “That’s the best I can promise.”
“You won’t regret it.”
Her hand touched the locket she now wore for a moment before she reached for her coat. “Please tell Connor and Marsh thanks for their help and Caroline. All of it is deeply appreciated.”
“I will.”
He didn’t want to see her leaving, but she was preparing to go as she had come. On her own.
“Please don’t try to tail me out tonight.”
“I won’t.”
She nodded and moments later her car disappeared down the drive.
“What do you think, Caroline?” Luke looked over at his friend as they walked the estate grounds, finalizing the last check before they reset the security codes and left the place as they had found it.
“Amy is good at hiding. And this is a family in crisis.”
“Would you take on her security?”
“Chief, I’ve got responsibilities and enough on my lap already.”
“I know. But there are no other good options. She’s not going to take a guy hanging around with her, not beyond deciding when and how she’ll slip his protection and disappear for something she needs.”
“She’ll do that with me too.”
“Not if you two agree to a simple fact that your loyalty is to her first and to me second. I don’t want to know what she’s doing, where’s she’s going, who she’s seeing-I do want to know, but not enough to injure something I need more-someone with her to keep her alive.”
“You need a retired secret service agent, not a retired cop. I don’t think I could carry a weapon right now, let alone fire it, even to protect Amy.”
“You would use the weapon if it was necessary to prevent someone dying,” Luke replied, knowing when it came down to it that Caroline’s training and instincts would do that job. He pushed his hand through his hair. “I want you back on the job, Caroline, but in this case, I need what you are better at than most people I know. You are one of the few people who might get Amy to trust and to talk; she needs someone hanging out with her, not just be protection around her. Just keep her company through this transition for a couple weeks. I’ll talk with Jonathan about something more permanent after that.”
“Where?” Caroline asked.
He smiled. “Got some ideas for me? We’ll have to slip the sisters out of town to take them to see Amy in order to get away from the reporters. After a couple times doing that, the reporters are going to see it as a personal challenge to figure out where they are going. Even under the cover of a date with Connor and Marsh, it’s going to be an ongoing game of cat and mouse.”
“We’ll need Daniel’s help; he has to know now. It’s going to take more than your personal financing for one thing, and I’ll need Jonathan’s guys for some specialized help.”
“I’ll be meeting with Daniel for breakfast tomorrow; he needs to know for a myriad of reasons, his own security just for starters.”
Caroline nodded. “I’ll help, Chief. But I don’t have quite as much hope as you do that Amy is ready to settle down. She’s been running an awfully long time.”
“Thank you.”
“I’ll do my best.” She smiled at him. “Do I get to tease you about having a girlfriend now?”
“Maybe later, much later. I’ll settle for her simply telling me the name she’s using. That will mark
