I’ll pay you back, Eve.”
“Catherine, we found your son. That’s payment enough.”
She shook her head. “I’ll pay you back.” She gave her a final hug and strode out of the room. Kelly hurried after her.
They had already boarded the helicopter when Eve and Joe walked out to join them.
“Let’s move.” Venable hopped into the helicopter. “I’ve got a ream of paperwork waiting for me in Moscow. Besides meeting with the reps from Homeland Security.”
“Wait!” Kelly was looking toward the house. “Just a minute.”
Luke was walking toward the helicopter. He stopped a few feet away from the aircraft. The wind from the rotors was blowing his dark hair about his face and his clothes against his thin, muscular body.
“You came to say good-bye?” Catherine asked. “I’m so glad, Luke.”
He shook his head. “I’ve never been to Hong Kong.”
She tensed. “I know. You said it sounded funny.”
“It does. And I’ve never ridden in a helicopter.”
“What are you saying, Luke?”
“I thought…I might go with you. If it’s all right?”
Catherine’s expression lit with a luminous smile. “Oh, yes. Yes, yes, yes. It’s very much all right. Get on board.”
“Take my seat, Luke.” Kelly unbuckled her seat belt and jumped out of the helicopter. “I’ve decided not to go.”
Catherine pulled her gaze away from Luke. “Of course you’re going. There’s another seat in back for him.”
“No, I’ve decided I want to stay with Eve for a while.” She smiled. “I’ll see you when you get back to Atlanta. Good-bye, Catherine.” She turned to Luke. “Get going, Luke. You’re keeping everyone waiting.”
“You’re the one who can’t make up your mind.” He jumped on board, and Catherine helped him fasten his belt. His gaze was suddenly searching Kelly’s face. “Or can you?” He was still staring at her intently as the helicopter lifted off the ground.
Kelly waved and stepped back. Her smile faded as the aircraft disappeared over the trees.
“You want to go,” Eve said. “Anyone could see it. Why didn’t you, Kelly?”
“Do you mind me staying with you?”
“Of course not.” She repeated, “Why, Kelly?”
“It’s not my time,” she said simply. “It belongs to Catherine and Luke. I’d get in the way.”
“Catherine would never say that. She cares about you.”
“No, she’d never say it. But I’d interfere with their pattern. Right now, it could go either way. I want to give Catherine the chance to concentrate on Luke so that it will go her way.” She smiled at Joe. “Eve told me once that you taught her karate so that she could take care of herself. I think that would be a very useful thing to study while we’re waiting for Catherine to come back. Would you teach me, Joe?”
Joe’s brows rose. “Karate? It’s certainly different from your usual academic pursuits.”
“I want it to be different. Oh, I’m smart enough, but it didn’t help me when I was with Daddy in that camp. Maybe if I’d known more about defending myself, the pattern wouldn’t have gone in that direction. I don’t want to ever feel that helpless again. Will you help me?”
“I imagine I could teach you a few moves.” He smiled. “There are patterns to karate, too. Some of them can be very intricate.”
Kelly took Eve’s hand and looked back in the direction where the helicopter had disappeared. “Yes, some patterns can be terribly complicated. You just have to try your best and hope.”
Eve’s grasp tightened on Kelly’s. She said gently, “And have a few good friends to help you work through them. Let’s go home, Kelly.”
“It’s your home, Eve,” Kelly said. “I’m like Luke. I don’t really have a home.”
“Yet,” Eve said. “It will come, Kelly.” She led her toward the house. “You just have to find your way there…”
Epilogue
Lake Cottage
Atlanta, Georgia
Three Weeks Later
“Catherine’s coming. She’s at the airport and should be here in about twenty minutes.” Eve hung up the phone and turned to Joe. “It’s about time. Kelly is getting restless.”
“She’s been content enough here,” Joe said. “And we’ve been keeping her busy.”
“Venable’s been keeping her busy,” Eve corrected. “Trying to work out a pattern to track Ali Dabala and his group down.” She went to the window and gazed down at Kelly, strolling by the lake. “But she’s only been marking time waiting for Catherine.”
“Is Catherine bringing Luke?”
Eve nodded. “Though she said she’d been trying to give him space for the last couple weeks. They only stayed in Hong Kong for five days. Luke found it interesting, but she thought it was too frenetic an adjustment for him. She rented a place outside Louisville, Kentucky, with a library that would rival the one at Biltmore House. He dove in and hadn’t surfaced except for meals until she told him that she wanted him to come here.”
“And how is his adjustment?”
“Slow. She’s taking baby steps, letting him call the shots.” She paused. “She gave him a book on psychology and psychiatric sessions. She asked him if he’d like to talk to someone. He looked at her as if she were crazy.”
Joe made a face. “You can’t blame him. I’d probably react the same way.”
“But you don’t have nine years of emotional and physical mistreatment to handle. He needs to talk it out to someone.”
“And he won’t talk to Catherine?”
“She won’t push him. She said that he could have a deep-seated resentment for all she knows. He’s begun to talk to her about things that are happening here and now. That’s enough for her.” She added, “I noticed that he appears only to live in the present. It may be a long time before he does anything else.”
“Living in the present isn’t all that bad,” Joe said quietly as he moved to stand behind her at the window.
He meant that she found it impossible not to live in a past that contained the taking of her Bonnie. He had always told her it might destroy her, and maybe he was right. What she feared most was that it would destroy him.
She turned and buried her face in his shoulder. “No, it could be pretty wonderful.”
His arms went around her. “You’re tense as a board,” he said roughly. “I should have kept my mouth shut. Sometimes things just come out.”
“Because they’re always with you.”
“It will end. It has to end.”
When she brought her Bonnie home. When she found Bonnie’s killer. Right now, that seemed a distant dream.
It would change when she got back on the hunt. Then there was hope. Then there was purpose.
And then there was the chance of losing Joe because of that eternal obsession.
She kissed him. “It will end, Joe.” Her arms tightened around him. “I love you,” she whispered.
“Do you want me to tell you I love you, too?” He kissed her back, hard, with a passion that took her breath away. “That’s never going to go away. Not until the day I die. And maybe afterward. That’s not the issue.” He let her go and turned to the door. “I think I’ll go down to the lake and tell Kelly Catherine is coming. Maybe well have a barbecue this evening.”
He was gone.
She stood watching as he ran down the porch steps to where Kelly was standing. So strong, so confident… Dammit, so good. He deserved more than she was giving, more than she asked of him. That bittersweet moment
