Page 46 of Code Name: Dante

Lark stood too. “Gram, please.” Her voice cracked. “Why won’t you tell us what you know?”

She stepped closer and touched her granddaughter’s cheek gently. “You should look ahead rather than behind. There is no future in the past.” Her gaze flickered between us. “Some questions are better left unasked. Some answers are best left unknown.”

“Argh,” Lark groaned. “Why are you being so cryptic?”

We watched her make her way to the elevator without answering, each step measured and careful. Only when she stepped on and the door closed behind her did Lark turn to me, her eyes bright with unshed tears.

“She knows so much more than she’s saying. What I don’t understand is why she’s being so belligerent.”

“My guess is she thinks she’s protecting you.” As much as I believed Lark should know if her mother had been murdered, until I had proof, I couldn’t suggest the possibility.

I sat on the sofa and held my hand out. When Lark stood and took the seat next to me, I pulled her close, breathing in her intoxicating scent. “Whatever happened, whatever secrets she’s alluding to—we’ll find the truth.”

She nodded against my chest, then stretched up to brush her lips against mine. The kiss was gentle, a reminder of everything we now knew we could have. But there was an urgency too. Was it the desire we knew we wouldn’t be able to deny much longer? Or was it a fear that time was not on our side?

Outside, the storm had intensified, rain drumming against the windows with renewed fury. The feeling that we were in the eye of a different kind of storm—one that had been building for years—nagged at me. In solitary confinement or not, Vincent had already put several pieces into play on a board we knew very little about.

Lark snuggled her body closer to mine, making me wish we could be alone. Not just for a few minutes, but for hours on end.

“Where is everyone?” I asked.

“In the boathouse. Alice said she’d be up in a little while and we’d talk about dinner.”

“Talk about it?”

She giggled. “Yeah, not sure what that means. I guess I could look in the kitchen and see what I can find to make. Until now, Bryar has been bringing food over most every night, and when she didn’t, Gram cooked. I don’t think we can rely on that anymore.”

How I longed for a simpler life. One where Lark and I could leave the Kane Mountain Great Camp grounds and go out for dinner on our own, maybe even find somewhere else to stay.

“What are you thinking about?” she asked.

“How much I want to be alone with you without fear that someone will walk in on us at any moment.”

“That sounds really nice, but…”

“You know I’d never suggest you leave your grandmother.”

Lark nodded. “I know. And even if I wanted to, I doubt you’d let me. At least not for very long.”

“We’ll get through this.”

She sighed. “Promise?”

“Promise.” It wasn’t a word I used lightly. Given everything I’d been through in the last few years and the number of times I’d put my life on the line, I had to believe there’d be some kind of reward waiting at the end of all this. More than anything, I hoped it was the kind of simple life shared with Lark that I’d been thinking about a minute ago.

16

LARK

While Gram and I had had plenty of arguments over the years, this felt different. It was as though she was shutting down, shutting me out, and I had no idea how to keep the lines of communication open between us. She’d been my lifeline since I was born, and I needed her now more than ever.

How would she react if the tables turned and I refused to answer her questions? Most likely, she’d be relentless until I did. So, should I give her a taste of her own medicine? Should I refuse to leave her alone until she stopped talking in circles?

“What are you thinking?” Alessandro asked me like I had him a few minutes earlier.

“How to get through to my grandmother.”

He was thoughtful for a few seconds. “I’m wondering if…”

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