Page 88 of Forging Caine

I had an in! “We could do some of those trips together. If we had to authenticate a real Chagall, we could travel to France together. Take some vacation days before or after the business, sample the wine, the food, everything.”

Her fingers brushed down my jawline. “That might be fun.”

I was getting ahead of myself. Papa and I hadn’t discussed any of the hiring plans for his investigative branch, but I could make it work. She was as qualified as anyone else we could find—likely more so. “And who knows? When Elliot has a case he needs you on, your staff could handle things for you.”

“My staff,” she chuckled.

“Is that not how things have wound up at Foster Mutual? You’re calling the shots for SIU?”

“I’m just a member of the team.”

I grabbed her hands so she couldn’t distract herself—or me—with them. “A member of the team who inspects the other members’ work? Who redesigned the workflows? Specified the software changes? This is not how amemberworks.”

“Huh.” Her gaze rose to the ceiling in thought. “I hadn’t really thought of it like that.”

“Everyone wins this way!” I pulled her onto my lap, the excitement overwhelming me. “My father gets an excellent staff he can rely on. You get an art investigation job, just like you’ve always wanted. You’d have the freedom to choose cases—within reason, of course—just like we choose which artwork we take on.”

“Slow down,” she laughed.

“We’d be together every day.” I narrowed my eyes before she could complain. “But not completely together, so you’d still have your space. And you wouldn’t be heading off on dangerous missions for the FBI, leaving me at home wondering when you’d—”

Her face pinched and the excitement fled as fast as it had come over her.

“I’m sorry, bella. I shouldn’t have—”

“No.” She pushed up from my lap and resumed a slow pace toward the window. It was too close to what happened with her parents. “Never apologize for your excitement.”

I got up and followed her. “Would it bother you to have your life so tied to mine? Working with Elliot, you have a great deal of autonomy, but working for Papa would mean I was involved. I know we say no secrets, but if you worked for Elliot, they’d be common. Like those crop circles I’m not supposed to see.”

“Even if I wind up staying on with Foster Mutual, I’d like to work small files here and there with Elliot. It feels like I’m contributing to something bigger.”

“You don’t want to stay at Foster, do you?”

She shrugged, staring out the large, thick window at the inky darkness. “I don’t know what I want, Antonio. When I moved back to Brenton, I didn’t have any choices I wanted. Now, it’s almost like I’ve got too many.”

“I hope there’s at least one thing you know for sure?”

“Yeah.” She stepped backward, pressed against my chest, and pulled my arms to wrap around her. “At least I’ve got one sure thing.”

“I promised I wouldn’t leave you.”

“Now you’re stuck on this crazy man’s boat with me.”

I kissed the side of her head, grateful she’d woken up and was safe. “When we arrived onboard, they took you from me, and you were still unconscious.”

Her breath shuddered, along with the rest of her. “The worst was the headache and nausea when I woke up. Plus, not knowing where you were really sucked.”

I laughed quietly at her attempt to be intentionally vulnerable. “I know you insist you don’t need a man to protect you, but it was like watching my future evaporate in front of my eyes and I couldn’t stay behind.”

“I put up a good fight, though.”

“You did.” I walked backward, not letting go of her. When my legs touched the bed, I picked her up and sat with her on my lap. “The one you knocked out didn’t recover until the helicopter was already in the air.”

“Good.” She snuggled closer. “None of the people at the restaurant did anything?”

“It was hard to tell, but there were screams and I heard tables and chairs flying. When I reached the helicopter, two of the bodyguards had their guns out, so they must have pulled them on the crowd.”

“What a mess.”

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