Chloe sat on the bed in Alice’s bedroom, defeated, as she met Christopher’s eyes. “I don’t know. I even took the covers off the light switches.”
“You’re sure it’s here? She wouldn’t have hidden it anywhere else? Her car, maybe? Or the office?”
Chloe lay back, palms covering her eyes as she let out a sigh. “No. It’s here.” She saw it as she moved her hands. Her forehead crinkled and she stared at the ceiling. A dark spot on the inside of the light cover in the shape of something that wouldn’t normally be there. She let out a small laugh. “They key is in the light.”
As soon as Christopher recovered the key from the light cover, they were on their way to retrieve the box. They barely spoke on the drive from New Orleans to Lafayette, until Chloe told herself that she should take Elias’s advice and try not to let her emotions get the best of her. The drive to Alabama would be a long one, and they couldn’t ignore each other the entire trip. The only sound filling the silence was music, and, thankfully, Chloe had plenty of music stored on her phone.
She couldn’t help but think about Hunter, and with Christopher sitting next to her, she involuntarily began to compare the way she thought she felt about each of them. She wouldn’t deny that seeing Christopher again confused her, but there was a part of her that also wanted to make sure he was real, hoping she was waking up from an agonizing eight-year dream.
To her surprise, she had fallen in love with Hunter in a matter of hours. Somehow, Hunter had shattered her armor, and the thought of never seeing him again crushed her. She tried, and was failing, to convince herself that she didn’t have time to worry about Hunter; after all, now that he knew the truth about who she really was, why would he want anything to do with her? But he was taking up permanent residence in her thoughts and she just wasn’t ready to let him go. No matter what happened to her once she returned to Boston, she would never forget him. She didn’t want to.
“Stop that,” she snapped.
Christopher smiled at her. “Stop what?”
“Staring at me,” she replied, but he continued staring and smiling until she spoke again in a soft voice. “I have no idea what to say and your eerie silence is unnerving.”
“I’m sorry.” The remorse in his voice was sincere. “I know that probably doesn’t mean much, but I am sorry. Seeing you again wasn’t supposed to happen this way. Nothing went the way it was supposed to.”
“Then tell me how it was supposed to go and I’ll tell you how much ‘I’m sorry’ means.”
When he didn’t answer, she let herself get lost in the music, trying to relax, until she saw Christopher reach for her phone and she slapped his hand away.
Rubbing his hand and trying not to laugh, he said, “I just wanted to look at your playlist.”
“Did you consider asking me? And stop staring at me.”
Christopher couldn’t hide his smile. “I haven’t seen you in eight years. I’m going to look at you more than occasionally.”
“Yeah, well, whose fault is that?”
“We missed you by two hours in Cleveland a few years back, and then about a year before that we heard you were in Washington, but all we could find out was you were there and gone. Nobody knew where. We were going to tell you. The plan was that after a month, David would have you come to Chicago and we would tell you everything. Then you were gone and the plans changed. I know that Matthew didn’t expect you to take off, and for a while, Matthew was nervous when it came to David. You being David’s granddaughter is the only reason Matthew still has his position and his life.”
“Had I known this information,” Chloe said with irritation, “I might not have left.”
“Considering the circumstances, everyone involved, including your mother, knew it was best that Matthew played the role of your father and that you didn’t know about it.”
“Best for whom? Matthew? David? The Family? Me?”
“Yes.”
“With me as leverage.”
“When Elise and Wyatt died, David knew Matthew had something to do with their deaths, but you know David. He won’t do anything until he has solid proof. Michaelson gave the proof for your mother’s death but he wants the details of his son’s death before he does anything. So David used whatever he had to in order to make sure you were protected. He knew how Matthew felt, so when Sasha asked to leave, David didn’t have anyone to watch over you. He hired me and sent me to Boston.”
“So you knew?”
“Not everything at first. I mean, I knew the reasons why I was there. I knew that Matthew wasn’t your father and I knew David’s version of how Matthew felt about you.”
“Was it real? How you felt about me, I mean.”
“I didn’t plan on dating you, much less falling in love with you, but it happened and I have never regretted a single moment we had together. Even though your father didn’t approve our being together, David did. When I went to David and told him how I felt, he knew I would love you and protect you. I still love you and I always will.”
“I used to think it was all a dream and that I would wake up with you next to me,” she confessed. “After getting over the shock of seeing you again, I thought my first instinct would be to run to you and make sure you were real. Now I just don’t know how I feel.”
“Jack told us that you met someone else,” he said, sounding disappointed, and let out a sigh. “I couldn’t expect you to pine away for me forever. Especially since we didn’t know how long it would take to find you. Does he feel the same about you?”
She focused on the road and scorned herself for bringing up the topic. “It’s complicated.”
“I bet,” he said in agreement.
“You know what? You’re supposed to be dead, so I built up this wall and keep myself guarded so that I never have to feel the pain I felt when you died. Then I meet someone who breaks through that wall, someone I think about a future with, and then you come back to life and throw a wrench into everything. I’ve lied to him, deceived him, and betrayed him all for the sake of protecting myself. So, yeah, it’s complicated.”
Christopher nodded. “Fair enough. So tell me about him. All Jack said about this guy—”
“Hunter,” she interrupted.
“Hunter,” he repeated, “is that he’s an agent at the Bureau. Widowed, a good man, and completely distracted by you.”
She smiled at the last part, then asked, “Did he tell you that Saffron was Hunter’s wife?”
Christopher groaned. “Shit. Really?”
Chloe let out a long breath. “I just found out a couple days ago, so you can understand why Hunter went a little ballistic when he found out the truth about his wife.”
“How’d you meet him?” Christopher asked.
She gave Christopher a brief recollection of her short time with Hunter, all the while not knowing she was smiling.
“Why didn’t you think you would see him again?”
“I made it a point to keep my distance from others when it came to my personal life. I mean, it’s not like I could tell the story of my life to anyone.”
“And the other men you have dated? I mean, I’m assuming you have dated other men since you left.”
“Dated? No.”
Christopher raised curious eyebrows.
“Well, it’s not like I became a nun after you died.”
“And then you met Hunter.”
Chloe let out a heavy sigh. “And then I met Hunter.”