A Love that Endures 3 Page 8

  “Oh, yeah. Definitely. And, uh, congratulations to you, too. A duke! He must be a really great guy.”

  Katy didn’t respond. There was a pain and a tension in the sudden space in the conversation—from both ends—that spanned the thousands of kilometers between them. But it didn’t need to be addressed.

  “Nur sends her best too, of course.”

  “Thank you, Zeke. Both of you.”

  It was nice hearing Zeke’s voice again, but Katy didn’t want to keep him waiting for good news that she couldn’t provide. She steeled her nerve and continued.

  “And thank you for reaching out. But I’m afraid I haven’t spoken to, um . . . him.” Why was it so hard to say his name? “I can’t help you. I’m terribly sorry.”

  “Oh.” The disappointment in Zeke’s voice was apparent, but he tempered his tone, perhaps better than the Zeke of five years ago would’ve. “Well, that’s okay. I appreciate you calling to let me know, at least.”

  “Yes, of course,” Katy replied. Her knuckles were white against the phone in her hand. From somewhere deep inside of her, memories were threatening to rise to the surface. She wanted to get off the call.

  “Okay. Well,” Zeke stammered, obviously building to a request. “If you do hear from him, would you mind letting me know? Or giving him my number? I don’t want to involve you if you don’t want to be involved, but I . . . I really miss him. And I want to check in on him, you know?”

  Katy sighed. “Okay, Zeke. But to be honest, it’s been years, and I can’t really imagine hearing from him. Have you tried his cousins?”

  “Yeah, no luck there either. David just kind of vanished when he got released a couple of months ago.”

  Katy’s ears pricked. He had only been out for two months? Had she heard that right?

  “Well, I don’t want to keep you. I just figured if he reached out to anyone, it’d be you. So just let me know if you hear anything, please.”

  Maybe it was the honest emotion welling in Zeke’s voice, just the concern of missing his friend, that did it—that threw her straight back to Harvard. Katy’s eyes went blurry. Memories of her ex—of him—came rushing into her mind faster than she could shove them back down. She could feel years of repression threatening to blow up in her face. She had to get off the phone. Now.

  “Yes, I will. Goodbye, Zeke.”

  Katy hung up without waiting for a reply. She didn’t want to be rude, but she also didn’t want to force Zeke into a therapist’s role. Or maybe she just didn’t want him or anyone to hear her breaking down.

  The tears came almost immediately upon hanging up. And with the tears came memories.

  The minty pine smell of his skin.

  The dark curl of his hair.

  The broadness of his chest and the strength of his arms, combining to make her feel so safe and calm when he held her.

  The way his eyes crinkled when he smiled.

  The way her hands felt when he touched them.

  His blue eyes.

  His British accent.

  His kiss . . .

  David.

  And worst of all was the memory of the ferocious, fiery way that he’d loved her. And the undying love that, even now, after all these years and so much between them, she knew she still felt for him.

  A sob wracked Katy amid the English roses. As she brought her hands to her face, she felt five years’ worth of emotion hit her all at once, rushing through her like an avalanche on the slopes of Northern Lorria.

  11

  David

  David thrust his hands deep into his jeans pockets and looked around again. No sign of Mia. And in the current environment, a dimly lit alleyway between two crumbling brick buildings, the posh Spanish woman would’ve been easily recognizable. Any other human would, actually.

  He was all alone and feeling quite trepidatious.

  The night before, David had been full of questions. Why had Mia come looking for him? What business could they possibly still have? Was this about his mother? His father? The dangerous Moreno family of Bahia, Brazil, who’d bribed, then threatened him to put a stop to his search for his parents just before everything had gone down?

  Or was it about Katy?

  But Mia had hushed him.

  “Too many ears here, Señor. I came here to find you, but now we need a place to safely speak.”

  David had, quickly and ashamedly, invited her to his “home,” but Mia had other plans.

  “Tell me a place you know that is always empty. I will meet you in the morning,” she had said, her accent thick and lovely. “And then, when I know we are far from others, I will tell you why I came here tonight.”

  So David had had no choice but to wait—wait and try to sleep with all these questions, worries and hopes warring in him through the night. Now he was expecting Mia at any minute in an area once notorious for crimes and drug deals, but now almost completely deserted. It was a block of closed businesses that had gone into complete disuse. Even the tramps had deserted it when the final roofs fell in, since there wasn’t anything to protect them from the rain anymore. David knew it was slated to be razed entirely soon, but, like everywhere else in the world, the construction money always seemed to favor the better areas of town first. Something that he was coming to notice more and more in his new position in life.

  David looked up at the sky, shielding his eyes from the sun with a flannel-covered forearm. It was a brighter, warmer day than usual. Spring was finally peeking out from the long, wet months of winter cold. And maybe it was the warmth, or maybe it was the plan he had more or less come to terms with, or maybe it was Mia’s fortuitous reappearance . . . but David was feeling . . . hopeful.

  A strange, almost pleasant sensation that seemed to light up this derelict, musty, abandoned place.

  David returned his hand to his pocket and looked around again. Nothing. He strained his ears to hear approaching footsteps or a cough, any sign of a human being near him. All he heard was the barking of a stray dog and the distant sound of traffic.

  He sighed. He had spent all night trying to figure out why Mia had come looking for him. How much longer would he have to wait?

  The answer to his question came in the sound of a car slowly approaching on the street. From the enclosed alley, David could only see a thin strip of the potholed road. He waited until he could see the car before doing anything. There was always the chance it was the police patrolling for unsavory characters. And David knew he looked pretty unsavory.

  The car inched forward, and, as its black front bumper came into view, David held his breath. But it wasn’t a cop car. It moved forward and stopped by the alley, revealing an all-black luxury sedan.

  The back door opened.

  “Get in,” Mia said from within, sounding every inch the secret agent straight out of a blockbuster.

  Swallowing a little, David quickly obeyed. The driver began moving immediately after David closed the door.

  “Disculpame, David. I know this is unorthodox. But I have to be careful. You never know who’s watching.”

  Mia was dressed in a skirt and blazer. She wore oversized dark sunglasses and her dark hair swept back into a low bun. She pulled her sunglasses down to make eye contact with David.

  “Thank you for meeting with me,” she said. “I’m sure you have a lot of questions.”

  “Mia, what is this about? Why do we need so much privacy? I don’t understand.” David was forgetting his manners. But he’d had enough waiting for answers.

  “I couldn’t be sure I wasn’t followed last night. But I’m fairly certain we’re in the clear currently.” Mia pushed her sunglasses back up over her eyes.

  “Followed by who?”

  “Anyone who wouldn’t want us to speak,” Mia replied cryptically. David couldn’t see her eyes, but he felt like he was being intently stared at. “Tell me, David: how much do you know about what happened in Cambridge five years ago?”

  David’s eyes narrowed. He had been expecting th
e question, but he didn’t understand why it would be important. Or what Mia could possibly need from him now. How was that sordid, pathetic tale even relevant anymore? “Well,” he began slowly. “I was framed. Lost Katy. Got expelled from Harvard. Went to prison. What else is there to know?”

  “Do you know anything about the campaign against you? Do you have any evidence to circumstantiate your claims?”

  David shook his head. “No evidence. What I briefly had was lost or destroyed. And I’m pretty sure it was the king and queen of Lorria who did it, or at least they were behind everything. They were the only ones with something to gain.” David exhaled, feeling the usual sense of defeat that came with considering his plight. “And they got what they wanted, right? Now Katy is engaged to a duke, and I’m . . . ”

  Mia nodded so that David didn’t have to finish his statement. She was still looking closely at him through her dark glasses.

  “But why are you asking?” he ventured.

  “David,” Mia said in a low voice, perhaps the first time he’d heard a trace of discomfort along with her usual professional confidence. “Firstly, I want you to know how sorry I am for what happened to you. And especially for what I had a hand in. With the Morenos.”

  David’s eyes narrowed as he tried to remember what Mia was referring to, thinking back to any pain between them.

  Ah, yes.

  Mia had given David’s uncle Adriano his phone number. That detail had slipped his mind in the ensuing chaos, and even later, he’d thought there was a good chance that Adriano had been lying about getting David’s contact info from her. Apparently he had been telling the truth. She’d played an integral part in getting David down to his grandfather’s estate in Bahia. But . . .

  “Why?” David asked strongly. He knew he didn’t have to remind Mia what exactly she’d done. Obviously she still carried the guilt of it.

  “I didn’t know what they were planning to do, Señor. You must believe me,” Mia defended herself. “But I did sense that no good would come from it. I’m deeply sorry.”

  “Why?” David asked again. “I mean . . . why would you do that if you knew that it wasn’t good?”

  Mia’s perfectly made-up face hardened, her mouth turning into a harsh line. “I was being extorted, David. By Cassandra, the princess’s cousin. If I didn’t comply with her demands . . . She’d set me up to be framed, just like you. I admit, at first I didn’t believe she could do such a thing. But she proved persuasive in the end.”

  David cocked his head. Cassie. Again.

  “What about the king and queen?” he asked.

  “Involved, I’m sure. But I don’t know how much. All I know is that Cassandra sent some ‘fixers’ to deal with me after I found the Morenos, when they were setting up your downfall. Confiscated one of my computers. Threatened me with violence. And told me that if I didn’t reach out to Adriano Moreno with news about who was looking for him and why, they’d come back. Same if I talked.”

  Her accented voice became hard and brittle as she talked; though it had been five years, clearly what had happened still rankled her as it did David. His heart beat loudly in his ears as the evidence piled up.

  “Wait,” he said, putting a hand up to stop Mia as the car ambled on. He needed time to process all of this, and he had more questions along the way. “So Cassie wanted you to set me up with the people who would ask me to go to Brazil? And that’s how they framed me in the end. That part makes sense, but how do you know Cassie was involved? Did you talk to her directly?”

  “No,” Mia replied.

  “Okay, so,” David tried to reason, but Mia continued, holding up her hand to signal he should contain himself.

  “I did get video footage of the break-in. And one of the fixers sent to my home had just been given a high-up palace job in Lorria. Some digging proved that he got a personal reference from Cassandra.”

  David balked. It all fit together like puzzle pieces. It was seeming more and more likely that Cassie was using a similar tactic in London now, to root out palace staffers who could turn against her. Surely three different stories, from mostly unrelated parties, lent that suggestion more weight.

  As the car moved smoothly across the London streets, he voiced out loud the thing that still needled him about it all, the thing that just didn’t make any sense. The Cassie David had known at Harvard had been socially awkward, blunt, protective, and hotheaded. But this?

  “But why? Why would Cassie do something like this? What would she get out of it all? Are they paying her?”

  “I haven’t ascertained that yet,” Mia replied. Her face was sober and determined, the face of a woman used to getting her way. “But that’s why I’m here. I think you and I together can figure this out. And then . . . we can start to make things right.”

  Make things right. That was something that David had only dreamed of since the arrest, since it seemed like such an impossible task. How do you go up against some of the world’s most powerful people when you have nothing? David didn’t have a pound to his name currently. No car. No phone. No reputation. And his only friends were fellow vagrants, though each of them did have their surprising skills and connections.

  He had just begun considering a plan to talk to Katy, to explain his side, and maybe even deliver some justice for Cassie’s “hiring policies” along the way. But taking down the king and queen and Cassie? That seemed like a pipe dream.

  “Do you have a plan?” he asked hesitantly.

  Mia looked away. “No. But I have money, and—more importantly—an invitation to the grand engagement party at the palace. Though I’m sure Cassandra wasn’t too happy about that.”

  David’s ears perked at the news. He couldn’t imagine confronting Katy during such a well-guarded and meticulously planned event—even if it weren’t incredibly public and risky, if Katy really was happy about her engagement, then he hated the thought of making her unhappy on such a special day.

  But perhaps, if Mia could speak to her there, she could convince Katy to meet up with David later.

  Per usual, Mia was already two steps ahead. She went on.

  “I was considering asking the princess to meet me somewhere private at the party and then presenting her with some evidence against her parents and cousin, but I’m not set on it. For one, because I don’t have any hard evidence linking any of them to the crimes, and it appears that neither do you. And for two, I will need you there to confront the princess, but I can’t imagine getting you into that party. And if Cassie finds out about it, she may threaten me with the same trap all over again.”

  David nodded, considering the angles. Mia was right. Trying to use Mia’s access to the engagement party, though it was a tempting idea, was too brash, too risky.

  But they had to think of something. David breathed out heavily.

  “Why can’t you tell Katy about all of this before the engagement party?” he asked. He didn’t mean to sound accusatory; it just seemed like that might be the simplest option. Unfortunately, Mia had thought of that already, too.

  “I believe the princess’s means of communication are all being monitored,” Mia replied. “I will only speak to her in person. And, since the scandal, she isn’t an easy person to talk to. You two have that in common.”

  Gears began to shift into motion in David’s brain. “What if you could get her to meet you somewhere and I was there to speak to her? Maybe she’d listen to us if we told her in tandem.”

  “They barely let her leave the palace alone, I’m afraid. Someone always seems to be accompanying her. Fairly standard practice.”

  David chewed his lip. “Well . . . what if I could get into the palace somehow, then? Still risky, but not quite as bad as at a party where the entire world is watching.”

  “Sí, Señor,” Mia said, looking deep in thought. “I think that might work. But the problem remains: getting you there.”

  But that was where Mick and Giles came in. “Actually, I’ve already been kind of working on a p
lan for that. But I’d have to work quickly. I might have a connection for some fake documents.”

  Mia seemed to sense the direction that David was heading. “Documents that could fool the palace? Don’t trust a low-level con for something like that.”

  David frowned. That pretty much describes Mick.

  “I might be able to do something that high-level,” Mia went on. “But it will be substantially more difficult on such a tight deadline.”

  “Well, we don’t have time to spare.”

  Mia nodded slowly. “No, I suppose we don’t.”

  For the first time, David looked out the dark-tinted window and registered where they were. The driver was heading back to the homeless camp. They were already almost there.

  “I can’t be gone from my hotel room long,” Mia said, seeming to notice David’s realization. “I can’t be too cautious; there is a possibility that Cassandra could be keeping an eye on my whereabouts. But I will begin work on the documents immediately.”

  “Okay,” David replied. “I think I can handle the rest.”

  The car pulled up to an embankment near the camp and stopped. David turned to exit but was stopped by one of Mia’s petite, manicured hands.

  “There’s one more thing you might need my help with, Señor.”

  David turned back to her. She reached into her purse and then palmed something crisp and papery into one of David’s hands. He immediately knew what it was.

  “Buy yourself a nice suit. Get a burner phone and text the number on the paper.”

  David nodded in quiet appreciation.

  “Oh,” Mia added as he stepped out of the car. He turned back to face her. “And get a haircut and a shave while you’re at it. Let’s impress her.”

  David half-smiled at her words, still feeling anxious and surprised. But he was incredibly grateful.

  “Thank you, Mia,” David said, looking intently at the petite woman still seated inside the car. “Truly.”

  Mia cocked an eyebrow. “Don’t thank me yet, Señor.”

  The car rolled off quickly, almost before David was even able to shut the door, leaving him with a few answers, a lot more questions, and a sum of money in his pocket the likes of which he hadn’t even seen in a month.