“My family?” Lucas didn’t have any family. Really, he never had.
“Us. Elskov,” she said. “You can’t just walk away when we need you.”
He sat the glass back on his desk untouched. “I’ll think about it.”
The queen nodded. “I know you’ll make the right choice. You always do.”
“And Bendtsen,” the king said. “We really are sorry about Ruby. I can’t even imagine what you’re going through, but we’re here for you, even when it may not seem like it.”
In that heartbeat he knew he couldn’t leave. He was as much a part of Elskov as it was a part of him. This is what Ruby had meant that night at dinner when he’d asked her why she hadn’t just walked away from her family and started fresh. He finally understood—you couldn’t leave family behind, not even if you physically walked away.
“Thank you, Your Majesty.”
“It’s Dom, Lucas.” He gave him a gruff smile. “And there’s no need for thanks. That’s what family does.”
…
Later that evening, Lucas sat in the sitting room in Moad Manor and poured another glass of akvavit and another and another. He should be drunk by now. That’s what he wanted, to finally fall into oblivion so that he couldn’t even remember Ruby’s name or hear the soft moan she made or smell the exotic scent of her perfume. But it didn’t work. He was stone sober staring out at the garden and the chairs sitting out in the field of lavender barely visible because of the clouds blocking most of the light from the new moon.
Staring out, his eyes tired and unfocused, he nearly missed it but years of training worked when the rest of him didn’t. The glint of moonlight off something metallic. The sudden silence. The extrasensory awareness creeping up the back of his neck.
A holdout from Hendriksen’s camp?
A rogue Macintosh operator?
He was a man with enemies. It didn’t matter who had finally tracked him down because without Ruby he had nothing to lose and he was itching for a fight, for someone to bear the b
runt of the fury burning a hole in his gut. There was nothing more dangerous.
Keeping his movements controlled but natural, he crossed to the open French doors and strolled out into the garden, keeping his face tilted up toward the night sky even as he scoped out the area with his peripheral vision.
His gut tightened a half a second before the snap of a twig off to his left.
He pivoted and launched himself at the intruder. His shoulder connected with something hard. They went down in a tangle of limbs, but he managed to land on top of his opponent, whose face was hidden by the night’s shadows. It didn’t matter. He pulled back his arm, ready to deliver a knockout blow.
“Lucas, it’s me.”
And just like that, Ruby KO’d him without lifting a finger.
…
Ruby cringed as Lucas scrambled up off her as if she was radioactive and she couldn’t blame him. She was as bad for him as anything that set off a Geiger counter. Giving in to the urge to see Lucas one last time had been a mistake. If she’d just disappeared into an American big city, Ruby could have saved him this, but she’d been weak. She’d thought sneaking a peek of him one last time would ease the marrow-deep misery of leaving him forever. He wasn’t supposed to see her. She should have left the garden half an hour ago, but as soon as she’d spotted him pouring himself a drink alone she hadn’t been able to take even a single step away.
“I’m sorry. I’m so very sorry.” She got up and shoved her hands in the pockets of her black jeans to keep from reaching out for him. “I should have left before now.”
Walk away, Ruby. Leave. Get out of here before you can’t.
He didn’t make a move toward her. Was that the best thing to have happened or the worst? No fucking clue. Everything hurt too much to know. They just stared at each other. She took in all the details. The dark circles under his bloodshot eyes. His unshaven jaw. The overall haggard weariness in his stance. Whatever revenge the queen had inflicted for Lucas disobeying her orders, it obviously had affected him deeply.
“You’re alive,” he said, taking half a step closer before stopping himself. “It doesn’t make sense. I heard the report from Clausen. I saw the satellite imagery showing the fire and the burning husk of the house after it was over.”
They hadn’t planned that part, but it covered their tracks better than anything they could have done. “Jasper and I faked my death.”
That statement of the obvious broke through whatever shock had wrapped itself around Lucas. His entire body went ridged and he stalked toward her, a predator stalking its prey with every intention of shredding its prey.
Lucas stopped an arm’s reach away from her, everything about him wound tight. “Why would you do that?”
The question was quiet, so quiet it sent a frightened shiver up her spine. “I did it for you.”