Page 38 of Don't Look Back

He had no clue how to tell Kira how sorry he was without causing her more pain.

He was looking at an underwater archaeology exhibit when his phone pinged with a text from Freya.

Freya

Call me. Now. Urgent.

Rand looked around the museum. There was no one else in the room, but that could change at any moment. Freya wasn’t one to use the word “urgent” lightly, so he hit the Call button next to her name.

She didn’t waste a second. “The photo you sent, you’re sure that was Cousin Andre?”

“Yes. Kira introduced us.”

“We’ve got a problem, then, because I don’t know who that man is, but he definitely isn’t Kira’s step-cousin. As far as I can tell, no one has seen or spoken to Stoltz since a week before Kira’s dad had his first stroke.”

ChapterNineteen

Cousin Andre’s hotel suite included a dining room and living room, Kira’s first hint the Stoltz family had done well in the decades that followed reunification.

“How often do you visit Malta?” she asked as she settled on a sofa in front of a thankfully empty fireplace. Given the heat outside, it was hard to imagine ever needing a fire, but she supposed winters could get cold. Maybe?

The hotel’s air-conditioning was set to a degree Celsius cooler than her own hotel, and that one degree was everything in the noonday heat.

“This is my fourth…fifth time here?” His voice rose in question.

“Did you ever meet with my father here?”

“No, but my father did, I believe.”

She felt a surge of jealousy that he knew about the relationship their fathers had shared when she knew nothing at all. “Were they close, our fathers?”

“Yes and no. They didn’t grow up together, so I don’t think they felt like real brothers. But there was a friendship that bordered on kinship, I think.”

Why had her father never told her of this family? She remembered Rand’s words about his protectiveness of her and wondered if she was supposed to fear this man.

Ridiculous.

Still, something prickled at the back of her neck. Had her desire for a family connection overridden her common sense?

The only person who’d known details about her trip to Malta was this man. They’d talked on the phone several times. Exchanged emails once she had her passport and booked her trip. He was also the only person she’d informed of her delayed travel plans. She’d emailed him immediately after rescheduling her flight that first time, providing him with the new arrival time. She’d told him she was needed to teach a class on a Navy base in Virginia. Subbing for a friend.

The shooter, Ben Kinder, had known about her trip to Malta.

Even though she hadn’t given Andre the name of the base, it wouldn’t be difficult to find which one. Posts for classes like that weren’t behind passwords because while many students were required to attend, some could opt in with approval from their commanders. It gave them training hours toward an amount they needed to accrue when not deployed.

“Would you like me to order tea from room service, my dear?”

The “my dears” were getting to be grating, as she’d been subjected to many the previous evening from men like Andre, who weren’t much older than her but took a paternalistic tone. It was a hazard of looking younger than her age, she supposed, but could be a cultural difference as well.

Rand might call her sweetheart, but that was an endearment and not meant to put her in an inferior place. Plus, when he was bossy, he was direct about it, and he accepted being chastised and even apologized when he was in the wrong.

Suddenly, she wished she’d come up with an excuse to bring him with her to this meeting.

“Kira?”

She shook her head and felt her face flush. “Sorry. No tea, thank you.” She inhaled slowly, centering herself.

“It was quite a surprise to meet your client last night.”

---