“Thanks so much.” Anna started out the door. “A courier delivered a letter, but I think it was a mistake. I didn’t recognize the name. I’ll check into it tomorrow.”
Anna thanked her again and Kim walked out to the front register. The shop was quiet, but she could hear the murmurs of customers wandering through the back shelves. At least it wasn’t a cruise ship day where she would be bombarded with tourists. She glanced out and it looked like a storm was moving in. The afternoon had turned cloudy.
Did she have an umbrella?
She sold a couple some postcards and a book on the underground tunnels of Valletta and then opened her laptop. She could check the CCTV files from here.
A package caught her eye. It was in one of the courier services flat-rate envelopes and covered in plastic. The markings were in German and claimed it was an overnight guaranteed envelope.
She sighed. It was likely legal papers, and someone was going to be pissed. It wouldn’t be the first time they’d gotten someone else’s mail. She turned it over and then the room seemed to go cold.
K. Solomon
The reason Anna hadn’t recognized the name was because Kim had never told the woman her real name. She went by Kay Bruno.
No one outside of her family knew what her real name was.
Her heart started to race, and she had to force herself to breathe.
Seven years. She’d been all right for seven years. How had they found her?
She tore the letter open and inside was a single slip of paper.
Remember, remember the fifth of November. The People know Reva. Find her.
What the hell did that mean? It didn’t matter because someone knew her real name.
She shoved the letter and packaging in her bag and dragged it over her head, securing the crossbody against her hip. She couldn’t stay. “I’m sorry. I need to close the shop. My son is ill, and I have to pick him up.”
The few patrons in the front of the store walked out without an argument, though she heard a few curse as the rain started.
It didn’t matter. The CCTV tapes didn’t matter either. The letter was all that mattered. That and getting to her son. Her mind raced as she walked the store to make sure she wasn’t about to lock anyone in.
She would need two new passports, but she would take the ferry to Sicily tonight. She would pack up Roman and they could be in Rome by tomorrow. They would rent a room and figure out how to make their way to Australia. Yes. That would be a good start. She had a small flat in Sydney no one should know about.
But then no one was supposed to know she was here in Malta.
She turned down the last aisle and there was a man in a black trench coat, his back turned as he looked up at the books in her biography and memoir section. “Sir, I’m sorry. I’ve got to close the store. I have to pick up my son.”
It wasn’t a lie. She was probably going to pick up her son and take him to an entirely different continent.
God, she wanted Beck. It was right there. She wanted to call him and ask him to help her and not be in this all alone. She wanted him to care about Roman, to know Roman’s dad would do anything to save him.
“Your son?” That voice sent a chill down her spine. The man turned and he was staring at her, his gaze burning every bit as much as it had seven years before. “I hope you’re lying because there’s no room for a child in my plans. Hello, Solo. Long time no see.”
Levi Green started to walk down the aisle, and she knew her life was over.
* * * *
“The storm’s coming in,” Jax said over the headset. “I looked it up and it’s a doozy. We might want to pull up stakes and get back to base before it really hits.”
“She hasn’t come out of the store yet.” Beck sat in the building across the street from the bookstore Kim owned. “I want to follow her home to make sure she gets in all right.”
Three days. They’d been in Malta for three days, and this was the closest he’d gotten to her. She’d been holed up in her tower. He knew it was a fort, but he’d come to think of her as a princess in a tower, hiding away from the big bad wolf.
He’d torn her apart once. Did he have any right to ask her to risk it again?
“All right, boss. I’ll send Tucker out in a car to get you. I think the boat would be risky,” Jax replied. “I’ll let Rob know you’re coming in.”
Robert was on a boat in the marina. It was a small yacht that included a bedroom and everything a person needed to hang out for days peeping up at the princess in the tower. “I’ll let Rob go back to base. I’m going to stay here in Birgu. Now that she’s left the fort I want to track her movements. Hopefully she leaves more often than she has this week.”
“Seriously?” Theo Taggart was in the flat with him. They’d been taking shifts going between Birgu and an isolated farm on the south side of the island where no one would question six Americans coming in and out with tons of equipment. And a chopper. Robert had outdone himself. “You’re going to stay in town again? How much sleep have you gotten?”
Not nearly enough, but that didn’t matter. “I’ll sleep on the boat. I’ll be fine. I would rather stay close to her.”
Theo moved in beside him. “She looks good.”
She’d looked gorgeous when she’d walked down the narrow road and strode into her little bookshop. Her hair had shone in the sunlight, but she’d had a frown on her face. “She’s worried
