Lazlo’s Last Stand

“You have him, then?” Corbett asked quietly, not a muscle in his face betraying the emotions Adam knew must be tearing his guts out. Only the diamond hardness of his eyes…

“On ice, back at the shop.” Adam tilted his head toward Lucia as he climbed into the driver’s seat, but didn’t look directly at her. Didn’t have to, did he, to know her cheeks were flushed and her eyes gone misty with love. “You want me to get someone to run her home?”

“She comes with me.” The simple statement rode over Lucia’s sharp intake of breath and told Adam everything he needed to know-if he hadn’t already figured it out.

He nodded and turned the ignition key. Corbett and Lucia climbed into the backseat of his car.

At the Lazlo Group’s security entrance in the basement parking garage, Corbett took Lucia gently by her arms and looked into her eyes. “Wait for me in the apartment, love. I won’t be long. Promise.”

“Promise,” she whispered.

He kissed her-a much-too-sweet, much-too-brief moment. Then watched her step backward into the elevator. Watched the door whisk silently closed on her somber face and shimmering eyes. Together and in silence, he and Adam waited for the elevator’s return. When the door slid open, he placed a hand on Adam’s shoulder.

“I think…I have to do this alone,” he said in a voice rough with all he couldn’t say.

Adam nodded and stepped back. “Gotcha, mate.” He held out his hand, grinning crookedly. “I guess it’s g’day, then.”

Corbett took his hand in a brief, hard grip. Unable to speak, he only nodded, released it and stepped onto the elevator. The door closed, leaving him with a lingering vision of his old friend’s face and a sharp sense of loss.

Corbett stepped silently into the steel-walled soundproof room deep in the bowels of the Lazlo Group’s basement keep and closed the door behind him. Hope flashed briefly across the face of the only other person in the room, before a shield of desperate bravado replaced it.

“Corb! What the devil is this all about? I demand-”

“Save it, Edward. I know,” Corbett replied quietly. He was gratified to discover he felt nothing. Numbness…contempt, perhaps. But that was all. He watched dispassionately as his brother’s normally florid face turned pasty, then seemed to collapse in on itself.

“Corb, I swear, I never-”

“I said, save it. I only want to hear enough of your voice to answer me one question. Why’d you do it? Why betray the Group? Why betray me?”

“It was that bloody sod, Viktor-he was blackmailing me, Corb. I swear, I had no choice.” Edward came toward him, babbling, hands outstretched, entreating. Corbett folded his arms on his chest, barricading himself and his emotions against the onslaught. “I’d got myself in a spot of trouble-my gambling. Look, I’ll get help, I swear, I will, if you’ll just-”

“People have died, Edward. Good people. People I cared about.”

His brother’s face spasmed with pain. He drew a shaking hand over his eyes…shook his head. “I never meant to hurt anyone-you must believe that. Least of all you. I thought Viktor only wanted the information to steer clear of our agents…SIS, you know? How was I supposed to know he’d turn around and peddle the stuff to Cassandra DuMont? Viktor promised you’d never be hurt. Devil take him-I trusted him, Corb. He was family.”

“Family?” It took all the self-control Corbett had to keep his voice quiet. Steady. Rigid as steel. “I’m your family, Eddie. You could have come to me.”

“Come to you?” Edward halted, his face contorted with anger, eyes filled with tears of resentment, pain. “Mister High-and-Mighty? Mister Perfect?” He made a fist and pounded himself in the chest with it. “I’m your big brother! When we were kids, you looked up to me. When you were in trouble, you came to me. I was the golden boy, not you. And look at you now. You’ve never set a foot wrong-even that dustup with SIS wasn’t your doing. That was the last time I felt like you needed me, wasn’t it? You think I don’t know you gave me a job out of pity? Come to you for help? For God’s sake, leave me some pride!”

“Pride-is that what you call it?” There was no contempt in it, only sadness for all that had been lost. Wasted. Corbett turned, unable to bear looking at his brother’s face a moment longer.

“What are you going to do? What’s to become of me now?”

Corbett shrugged and said without turning, “As someone once said, frankly, I don’t give a damn. You’re through with the Lazlo Group, of course. And with me. We’ll carry on as usual through Josh and Pru’s wedding-I won’t spoil that for them, or for Mum and Dad. After that…well, I’ll call in a few markers, I suppose, see if I can arrange some kind of deal that might keep you out of jail. If you’re willing to tell everything you know about Cass and her operation-and testify against her at trial, of course. After that, I don’t want to see your face. Ever. Do I make myself clear?”

He waited for the whispered, “Yes,” opened the door, then paused. “Oh-and Eddie, you won’t make the mistake of trying to run off, will you? Because if you do, I will find you. And all bets are off.” He went out, leaving his brother standing there. Alone.

Alone.

He stood in the empty corridor…Corbett Lazlo, legendary head of the most respected private-security agency in the world. Powerful…invincible…unknowable. The man in the shadows. Alone.

Except-it came to him then: He didn’t have to be alone anymore. And, more important, didn’t want to be. He needed…yes, needed…warmth, comfort, support. Love. He needed with every fiber of his being, every breath in his body. His need overwhelmed him. And his need had a name. Lucia.

Lucia. It was true, he didn’t just love her, want her. He needed her. Needed her with him, supporting him, comforting him, amazing and confounding and exasperating him. Laughing and weeping with him. Making babies with him. Growing old with him.

Halfway down that empty gleaming corridor, Corbett Lazlo began to run.

Epilogue

“Edesem…Can you ever forgive me?”

“That depends. Did you really think I could…”

Corbett looked down at the heart-shaped face nestled in the hollow of his shoulder. Luminous eyes gazed back at him, shimmering like quicksilver in the dim light. “Not for even a moment,” he said, shaken by the weight and depth of his feelings for her.

“Are you sure?” Her long thick lashes dropped like curtains over her eyes. He felt her deep breath. “Corbett, I saw your face. When she-when Cassandra said that I was-”

“What you saw on my face was sheer horror, no doubt,” he said, his voice coming deep and rough from the place inside him that still felt the agony of that moment. “I couldn’t believe you were there, after everything I’d done to keep you away.”

She sighed again and nestled closer, and he saw a suspicious glimmer under her lashes. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered, and the tear quivered free and rolled away down the side of her face and into her hair. Her eyes opened wide again. “Not that I came, though-I had to, Corbett. Once I knew. Even though I thought you might never forgive me.”

“I know,” he growled, hugging her close. “I know. I just can’t imagine how you managed it. You owe Josef and Kati an enormous apology, you know.”

She nodded, sniffed and pulled a hand from under the covers to wipe her eyes. “I’ll make it up to them, I swear.”

“Kati, especially. You know she thought it was her fault? Evidently, when you went off to the cave to look for your…uh, glasses-supposedly-she thought she had time for a bathroom break. When you didn’t show up, she was