CHAPTER TWELVE
Antonio led Serena around the side of the house and across the patio. She looked around at the chairs and table, along with pots holding a plethora of greenery thanks to his mother’s green thumb. The spot was cozy, a place where he knew she’d spent many afternoons with his momma, sipping sweet tea and talking about work and whatever else women talked about when they got together and there weren’t any men around.
Curiosity filled her expression when he kept going, past the patio and headed to a spot he knew she’d never been. A place reserved for family, one very few outside their close-knit clan were privileged with an invitation.
He guided her through a strand of tall pine trees several more yards before he stopped, giving her time to take in the idyllic scene, one that always filled him with a sense of awe. A conical-shaped, white-roofed gazebo sat in the center of a clearing. White lattice surrounded the bottom, with a circular roof perched atop the structure. Its graceful lines and angles of the structure blended into the surroundings like something from a fairy tale, the otherworldly beauty seeming unnatural yet inviting, the perfect escape deep in the heart of this spread of Texas earth. This was his mother’s favorite spot on the ranch.
Intertwined around the base and pillars of the gazebo were climbing pink and white roses and ivy. Tall ornamental grasses lent to its fairy tale-like appearance. Inside the gazebo, at its heart, sat something even more surprising—a wishing well. Smooth stone and wood, its incongruous appearance should have been out of place on a working Texas ranch, yet somehow in Antonio’s mind it fit.
Taking Serena’s hand, Antonio led her to a white painted bench partially hidden away within the gazebo’s walls. Tiny white lights wrapped around the tree bases, and along the inside of the roof. He flicked a switch by the entrance, and smiled as the lights turned on, the soft golden glow wrapping the entire place in beauty.
“What is this?” He heard the wonder in her voice, watched as she traced the petals of the roses. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“Momma’s secret garden. She loves this place.”
“I never knew this was here. She must have spent years getting it to look like this.”
Antonio nodded, joining Serena on the bench. “You ready to talk?”
When she looked at him with those big eyes, he swallowed hard. He tried to picture her without the colored contact lenses. Didn’t matter, no matter what color her eyes were in his imagination, she still looked like his Serena. Her darker hair was windswept from the cool afternoon breeze, darker than her picture in his FBI file. Her eyes gleamed in the dappled sunlight shining through the gazebo’s walls.
“I know everything, Serena.”
He didn’t think her eyes could get any bigger, but she proved him wrong, reminding him of the anime characters from comics he’d devoured as a teen. Her indrawn breath gave away her nervousness. “How?”
“Did you forget I work for the FBI?”
“Of course not.”
He held on when she tried to pull her hand away, needing to keep contact between them, more for his own sanity than any real desire to keep her captive. Telling her what he knew was going to be hard enough, he didn’t want a chasm between them.
“The case they assigned me when I came to the Austin office was to look for Sharon Berkley. Imagine my shock when I saw the photo in the case file. Different hair, contact lenses. At first, I didn’t want to believe it. I didn’t say anything to the special agent in charge of your case; instead, I hightailed it back to Shiloh Springs. I wanted to see with my own two eyes what my brain told me was fact.”
“Why didn’t you confront me right away? If you knew who I was—”
“This morning I got to Shiloh Springs, and went to see Rafe. I wanted to talk with him, figure out what I should do because I didn’t trust my instincts. Before I could say anything, do anything, your townhouse was broken into. Should I have pounced on you the minute I crossed the threshold, told you the FBI wanted you back in protective custody? Even I’m not that much of a monster, Serena.”
“So much has happened in such a short time, I guess I forgot we hadn’t spoken in a while. But you could’ve taken me in, or had the FBI pick me up and put me back into protective custody. Why didn’t you?”
Antonio looked down at their joined hands, needing to find the right words to convince Serena he was on her side. “I persuaded Williamson, he’s the SAC on your case in Austin, you’d be safer staying at the Big House where we could keep you close, but still out of the public eye. We didn’t have any idea Big Jim already knew you were in Shiloh Springs. Rafe and I talked to Williamson, because I’m still not totally convinced there isn’t a leak further up the chain with the feds. How else could your uncle have found you?”
Serena pushed her hair behind her ear in an unconscious movement, her head dipped low. She was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. He wished for the millionth time they’d met under different circumstances. One where she wasn’t on the run for her life. Where he wasn’t the FBI agent whose job it was to bring her in, even if it meant keeping her safe. But those were the facts, and until he could figure a way around it, he needed to keep his emotions under check, no matter how much he wanted to pull her into his arms and shield her from everything the world tossed her way.
“I might have the answer to that.” Her voice was barely above a whisper. “The magazine article about Boudreau Realty.”
Antonio stared at her, trying to understand what she was talking about. He didn’t
