Dani
It took a few days for us to get the news that Gregory Becker had finally been arrested. Some of the information I’d been able to obtain had finally tied him to a number of crimes.
Ruby was fine, staying with Jett in Florida for now to give her statements as a key witness to the human trafficking charges.
It made me feel good to know that at least something I’d done in the last year might prevent Becker from hurting anybody else. I would have preferred to move quicker, but Marcus was always there to remind me that I’d been responsible for putting the last nail in Becker’s coffin, no matter when it had happened.
The bastard was finally off the streets and unable to finance rebel troops.
I’d quickly finished my investigative exposé and turned it in to my old boss, giving my previous employer a pretty big scoop. The article had just been published as the news about Becker had come out today.
I was in Marcus’s office, a room that was masculine and stuffy, but reminded me so much of the man who owned it. Strangely, over the last few days, I’d started to like his extremely dry humor and previously annoying arrogance. He’d finally decided he didn’t have to wear a suit and tie when he wasn’t working, even if it was a workday. And if he was somewhat aloof and haughty, they were qualities he’d needed to do the things required of him by his company and his country.
He could be teased out of his autocratic tendencies, and he occasionally even had the ability to laugh at himself.
Okay…the laughing at himself wasn’t all that common, but had happened a few times in the last couple of days.
One important thing I’d discovered is that no matter how hard he blustered, Marcus loved his family, and he cared about far more things than he’d ever let on. I couldn’t say that I’d learned all of his secrets, but I was on to him. There was so much more to him than what a person could see with a casual acquaintance. He just usually chose not to show what was beneath the surface.
Maybe he had no idea how to really relax, but then, neither did I. We were learning together, seeing what it felt like to just take some time off. Granted, we used a lot of that time having sex, but we’d also played a few games of chess, caught up on movies we hadn’t seen, and I was experimenting with cooking. Yeah, maybe I wasn’t ready to become a chef, but Marcus’s mom had stopped by yesterday to help me fix a casserole I’d totally screwed up. Luckily, she was willing to give me a hand learning basic cooking skills. Surprisingly, I was learning to enjoy cooking and baking now that I had some time and was in one place for more than a day.
I scrolled down the full-page piece I’d written on my laptop, satisfied to see my name as the byline. “It’s live,” I told Marcus excitedly.
He was behind his massive oak desk, dressed casually in a gray polo shirt and a pair of jeans. I was seated on the comfortable leather couch in his office with my computer.
“I know,” he drawled. “I’m looking at it now.”
Smart-ass. I should have known he’d find it before I did. It was kind of sweet that he was actually looking. “It was good,” I stated without any kind of arrogance. I was a good writer and reporter, and it was no great accomplishment that I was able to push out a good piece when I had a decent story.
“It was fantastic,” he corrected. “You’re talented, Dani. I’ve always known that. Your correspondent stories were always brilliant. You have a knack for taking the perfect approach to any subject.”
I looked up from my laptop and saw his broad smile. My heart skittered as I absorbed his compliment. It meant a lot coming from a guy like Marcus. He wasn’t the type of person who threw out praise very often. “Thanks,” I said, smiling back at him. “I’m glad it’s all over.”
“What are you working on now?” he asked curiously.
I shrugged. “Nothing important. Mostly my personal journal.”
“And what do you journal about?” he pushed.
“Whatever I feel like writing,” I answered. “Right now, I’m writing down my bucket list.”
“Don’t you think you’re a little young for that?” he asked with a frown.
I shook my head. “Not at all. I thought I was going to die when I was a prisoner. It’s funny what happens when you feel that way, and how many silly little things you regret not doing.”
“Like what?” he asked huskily.
I’d gone to college right after high school, and then spent the majority of my adult life chasing stories in the Middle East. “Silly stuff,” I evaded.
“Tell me,” he insisted. “Maybe I’ve done some of them and I can tell you if doing any of those things are worth it.”
I evaluated my list. “I’ve never built a sandcastle on the beach. I’ve never actually spent any time on the ocean. It was one of the many things I thought about while I was a captive.”
“Never done that,” he replied. “Never spent much time on the beach. I spent plenty of time flying over them, though.”
“I’ve never been bungie jumping or zip-lining,” I continued.
“Me neither,” Marcus admitted. “Both of them are pretty dangerous—”
“Says the man who spies as a hobby,” I finished.
“Makes more sense than jumping from a bridge counting on a big rubber band to save my ass,” he grumbled.
I bit my lip to keep from smiling. “I think I can cross out the ‘learn to cook’ item off the list. At least I have been trying.”
“What else?”
“I’ve never been drunk, not even a little,” I confessed. “I was too busy in college trying to do everything I could to try to get hired as a journalist when I graduated.”
“Done it. You aren’t missing anything,” Marcus rumbled. “Hangovers suck.”
“Do you think going into the hot springs naked qualifies as skinny dipping?” I asked, my eyes on my list.
“In the water. Outside. Naked. Yeah, I highly recommend that one, especially if you’re there with a beautiful redhead who makes you crazy.”
I rolled my eyes at him. “I was with a handsome, dark-haired man who drives me insane. Will that work?”
“For now,” he said agreeably. “Go ahead and remove that one. Tell me the rest.”
“They’re personal,” I said hesitantly.
“You don’t want to share?” he inquired, sounding slightly hurt.
“Okay,” I agreed. “But they’re kind of silly.”
“Read them,” he demanded.
“I’ve never kissed a man in the rain. I’ve never had a guy who really loved me. I’ve never been proposed to. And I’ve never had a child.”
“You want kids?” he asked in a low, inquisitive baritone.
I shrugged. “Someday. Yeah. I never really thought about it until I got kidnapped. I guess those are the things you think about when you know your life might be over so early. Did I make the right choice? Did I put enough effort into relationships? Did I love my family and friends enough?”
Marcus leaned back in his leather chair, his entire attention on me. His eyes were intense, as though he was thinking about what I said.
“I can’t say I know how you feel,” he finally admitted. “But I understand reconsidering some of your choices in life.”
“Aren’t you doing exactly what you want to do?” I asked with surprise.
“Not always. I’m not as close to my family as I’d like to be, and I have no idea what I would have done for a career if I’d felt I had a choice.”
“You didn’t want to run your father’s conglomerate?”
He shrugged. “I never thought about it. I was the oldest, and our father died young. He was killed in a terrorist attack—in the wrong place at the wrong time in the Middle East.”
My heart clenched. No wonder he wanted to keep Americans safe. His own father had been a victim of unstable circumstances in a foreign country.
My mother and Marcus’s had been friends. I knew his father had died, but I’d been too young to understand where or how it had happened back then.
Marcus continued, “As far as running Dad’s conglomerate…I guess it was always assumed that I would. I was groomed for it, and it never occurred to me to argue. I know my mother would have wanted me to do whatever made me happy, but there wasn’t really anything else I wanted to do.”
“So you don’t regret doing it?”
“I don’t. I’ve become damn good at what I do. But I do regret the distance it’s caused with my family. Hell, I don’t even connect well with my own twin anymore. I told myself that I was doing it to protect them in case somebody found out about the government work I was doing, but I think I pretty much isolated myself because I knew I’d miss them if I didn’t.”
“Does that work?” I asked.
“Not really. It just makes the empty feeling easier to handle.”
“Traveling around the world is hard,” I commiserated. “Sometimes I’d be gone for months at a time on assignment. I missed my family a lot.”
Marcus shrugged as he replied, “It was great when I was fresh out of college. But just like you, I wonder what I missed by not being here at home.”
“No long-term relationships?” I asked. I couldn’t even remember Marcus being linked with any one female other than my sister. That hadn’t exactly been long-term, and that incident—as I now knew—had been a case of mistaken identity.
He shook his head. “No.”
“Because you were traveling,” I commiserated.
“I don’t think that was the problem, actually,” he corrected.
“Then what was it?”
He shot me a sharp look and then glanced back at his computer again. Still staring at the screen, he answered, “I guess I just never met anybody worth bothering to stay at home for until now.”