Page 6 of The Spy

Lucan pulled out his paperwork, studied the files and prepared himself for the role he would have to play, the people he would have to associate with in order to again bring this brave woman back into safety.

His phone dinged. His secure line.Sammy.

He mentally pulled himself out of the deep research he was in and read her text. “Lucan, my mom is worse. She is shallowly breathing and may leave us tonight. Come. I do need you. I can’t do this alone.”

He gripped the phone until the edges of his hand turned white.No.

And he froze in indecision. He could send the jet to Spain. He could be there in less than an hour. Sammy. She needed him. She asked for him, pleaded. He closed his eyes, her pained expression came to him immediately in his mind. There was nothing he would not do for her. Nothing, except possibly this.

Who would carry out this mission? He searched his brain, pulled out his lists, ran a finger down the possibilities in the area. No one knew the ring, the black market, the trade, like he did. Theymightbe able to find the woman, but Lucanknewhe could. Given a week, he could track them down. Any longer and they would have disappeared forever. He groaned, but he wanted to shout. The agony, the sacrifice of what he was about to do nearly brought him to his knees.

He tilted his phone so that he stared again at her typed words. Then he moved his thumbs, slowly, one letter at a time. “Left today. Trouble abroad. My heart is with you. I’ll return when I can.” But he couldn’t push send, not yet. Instead he called Nico.

“Brother.” Nico picked up immediately.

Lucan was silent, collecting his thoughts.

“You are traveling.” Nico waited.

“I am. Nico. Look. I don’t know what to do.” His voice caught, and he surprised himself by the surge of emotion that vocalizing his thoughts created. Perhaps this was a bad idea. He couldn’t be sobbing to Nico on the phone.

“What’s at stake?”

His brother knew just what to ask.

“Lives, two.”

“Or…”

“Anna. Her mom is worse. She asked me to come.”

Nico’s silence filled Lucan with despair.

“A lesser man would go to Spain.”

“This may be my last chance with Anna.”

“She is not a lesser woman. She would want you to save lives.”

While that was true, Lucan also knew that this very situation proved why he and Anna could never be together. She needed a king, someone who could be married to her and her crown. But Nico was right. “Goodbye brother. I’ll miss breakfast.”

“Go with God.”

Lucan hung up and clicked send on his text to Anna, and then dove back into his work. He chose the life he lived and found great purpose doing so. He always knew his choice came with sacrifice. Though his body shook with the pain it caused him to leave, he turned off his phone to stem further distraction.

Hours later, Lucan was dressed in a black suit, black shirt, several layers of gold around his neck, and a black tie. He entered the waiting limo that would take him to a hotel downtown. The thick air stuck in his throat. The rain fell in sheets against the useless windshield wiper. Lucan tilted his wrist to check the time on the oversized gold watch. They would arrive at the first location in time. He let his breath trickle out slowly and with it all thoughts of home. Time he immersed himself in the dark and evil world of human trafficking in East Asia.

Chapter 6

Anna held her mother’s hand, listening to the rasping, shallow breathing. Her phone lay at her feet, Lucan’s message mercifully now hidden by a black screen. The cruelty that she must lose him all over again at the same time she lost her mother twisted her insides with a sorrow she didn’t allow to show. Instead, she hummed her mother’s favorite lullaby. She had sung it since before Anna could remember. It spoke of full meadows, green valleys, and cool waters. Her father joined her and held his wife’s other hand. “It’s almost time.”

His kind eyes never left his wife’s face as he said the words. And Anna wasn’t sure he saw it, but she nodded in response. They sat in vigil, silent but in communion, their family of three, until the wee hours of the morning when Anna watched the last breath leave her mother’s chest, her face, serene, full of peace while Anna’s tears fell without her notice. She sat with her father for many minutes more and then as one, they stood. She kissed her mother’s head, smoothed her hair, squeezed her hand and whispered, “I love you.”

She retreated to give her father a moment and whispered the news to the aide outside the door. Soon the legal paperwork would be drawn, the coronation ceremony planned, and the press releases out. Soon her public appearance would be required. Words of comfort and encouragement to look to the future and remember with gratitude the past would need to be drafted and spoken by her. The eyes of Spain would turn to her, standing alone. Oh she ached for Lucan. She had never considered another would actually stand with her in these moments, in her mind it had always been Lucan.

But he had denied her. She didn’t doubt his reasons, that he was needed elsewhere. She didn’t blame him or wish he had stayed. What she wished, longed for with everything inside, was that he wasnot neededelsewhere. That he could come to her unfettered with life and death emergencies.

But how could she hope such a thing when she herself had lived his life for so many years, would still now be living it, were it not for her present circumstances? With a broken heart, she recognized she would need to find someone to marry, to serve at her side. That someone could not be Lucan. And in the meantime she knew her father would help. But he couldn’t stand beside her, not when she addressed the nation, not when she waved from the balcony. That responsibility was hers. And she would have to go it alone for awhile.

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