Decode (Luke Series, #7) (2 page)

Chapter Two

Every time I’m on a
business trip, I worry about Brina and the kids endlessly until I
get back home. Though I’m not exactly looking forward to spending
eleven hours in the air with Lucas and his need to jump off
anything higher than two feet off the ground, I’m ecstatic that
I’ll have my family by my side where I know they’re safe. Of
course, I’m beginning to get a strong vibe from Brina that she
suspects something is going on between Violet and me. We’ll have to
be extra careful about what Brina sees and hears over the next few
days if Violet and I are going to keep our secret hidden.

By the time Brina and I
are dressed and make our way down to the kitchen at 6:30 a.m.,
Violet has already dressed the kids and served them breakfast. Like
yesterday, Violet is wearing a dress that shows just enough
cleavage. She’s always trying to impress me with her hair and
clothing, but Brina knows I’m more turned on by jeans and a tank
top than a tight dress and heels. Brina’s skinny jeans and the
black Vandals T-shirt she has tied in a knot at her waist is hot as
hell.

“Good morning, sunshine,”
Brina says as she bends over to kiss the top of Lucas’s head.

Lucas ruffles his golden
brown hair in an attempt to wipe away her kiss. “I don’t want to
go. I want to stay with Violet.”

Rhianne giggles when her
mom plants a loud kiss on her cheek. Brina grabs a lemon muffin
from the basket on the table and takes a seat next to Rhianne. I
never get tired of the look of utter joy on the kids’ faces when
they see their mom.

“You can’t stay with
Violet because she’s going to London, too,” Brina says and Lucas
narrows his eyes at her.

I tap him on the shoulder
as I take a seat across from Brina, between Lucas and the empty
seat on my left. “Don’t look at your mom like that or I’ll tell
Polly to hide your tablet.”

Brina flashes me a quick
smile before she pops a chunk of lemon muffin into her mouth. She
pulls three-year-old Rhianne out of her booster seat and into her
lap, whispering something in her ear that makes Rhianne giggle.

“I think we should build
a fort on the plane. What do you think?” she asks Lucas and, as
much as he tries to hold onto that sourpuss expression, he can’t
help but break into a wide smile. “Violet, make sure to bring some
fort-building materials onto the plane.”

Violet rises from her
seat on the other side of Lucas and she looks slightly annoyed as
she sets off to retrieve some blankets and such to take on the
flight. Violet is the niece of my mentor, Jerry Wilshire. She was
Jerry’s nanny for three years until Jerry’s son, Harry, turned
nine. Now, Jerry’s personal assistant has taken over the management
of Harry’s extracurricular activities. When Myrna quit, Jerry
offered me Violet, giving her the highest recommendation. I
submitted her resume to Brina without Jerry’s contact information
on it. I didn’t want Brina to feel pressured to hire Violet just
because she’s Jerry’s niece. After four weeks of interviews, she
chose Violet based on how well she got along with the children
during the interview and how well she understands and works with
our schedules.

Two months after hiring
Violet, I’m not certain why, but I still haven’t told Brina that
Violet is Jerry’s niece.

“We arrive in London at
four a.m. London time. You’re never going to get them to sleep on
the plane if you build a fort,” I say as I grab the mug of black
coffee next to my plate of steak and egg-white omelet.

I had to hire three
people to replace Myrna: a housekeeper (Polly), a cook (Oliver),
and a nanny (Violet.) I thought Myrna would appreciate the $85,000
bonus, which happened to be a little more than the amount she once
mentioned she needed to pay off her youngest son’s student loans.
Brina told me I was crazy for giving her such a sizable bonus, but
I think it’s important for people to feel appreciated. And I
definitely appreciated the fact that Myrna took care of the kids
and
the house. Plus, I thought she’d be
less stressed if her son didn’t have $80,000 in student loan debt
hanging over his head.

Of course, Brina was
right. The day after I handed Myrna the bonus check, she handed in
her resignation. The most upsetting part of it was that I really
thought I was right. I thought I knew Myrna better than Brina did.
I guess you never really know a person until you present them with
the ultimate incentive—or temptation—to show their true selves.

“They only need to sleep
for a few hours on the plane. I want them to be tired enough to
fall asleep eight hours early tomorrow.”

“You’re always thinking
ahead.”

She smiles as she offers
Rhianne a piece of her muffin. Rhianne grins as she shakes her
head. I glance at Lucas’s plate and find he’s left more than half
of his pancake and scrambled eggs.

“You’re not hungry,
buddy?” I ask him and he raises his eyebrows as he stares at his
plate, as if the plate is enough evidence. “Then go upstairs and
brush your teeth. We’re leaving in twenty minutes.”

He climbs down from the
chair and his golden brown waves bounce as he trots off. His
stubborn nature boils over into just about every aspect of our
lives. He refuses to cut his hair, and he often refuses to wear
anything more than underwear. He can often be found standing on
chairs and sofas beating his chest like a gorilla. Brina laughs and
calls him Mowgli, which only encourages him. Somehow, Violet is
able to get him dressed without the fuss he used to put up whenever
Myrna tried to dress him.

After Violet gets the
kids into their booster seats, she takes a seat in the back and
Brina sits up front with me. I drive us all to the airport while
Violet sings songs with the kids. Once we’re on the plane, Brina
sits next to Lucas and I sit behind them next to Rhianne. Lucas may
have Brina’s personality, but Rhianne looks like a miniature
version of Brina. She has the same beautiful brown hair and round
brown eyes that melt my soul.

Once we’re at cruising
altitude, we unbuckle the kids and set off for the sitting room to
build the fort. Violet is already there with the pillows and piles
of blankets. Lucas runs and dives on top of the pillows.

“My pillows!” he shouts
as he wraps his arms around two pillows and attempts,
unsuccessfully, to pick them up.

Violet kneels next to him
and tickles him until he lets go. Brina looks uncomfortable as she
watches this.

“Violet, we’re okay for
now. You can go back to your room and relax, if you want,” I say as
I scoop Lucas off the floor and he laughs as I hold him above my
head.

She stands there watching
as I slam Lucas onto the sofa and he giggles uncontrollably.
“Actually, I’m not tired at all. I don’t mind hanging out with the
kids.”

“Stay!” Lucas shouts at
her.

I turn to look at Brina
and she’s sitting on the sofa on the other side of the sitting room
with Rhianne in her lap. They’re engaged in a conversation, but I’m
certain Brina is paying close attention to us.

“We’re fine for now.
Thank you,” I insist to Violet.

“But,” she whispers as
her eyes burn into me. “We need to talk.”

My heart pumps wildly as
I see the plea in her eyes. She knows we can’t talk about this
here. We’re 30,000 feet in the air. Maybe she thinks this is the
only place we can talk about it where I’ll have nowhere to go to
escape. I won’t deny that I’m a hard man to get alone when we’re on
solid ground.

“Later,” I whisper.

“Talk later!” Lucas
shouts.

“Talk about what?” Brina
asks as she approaches us with Rhianne balanced on her hip.

“Daddy said to talk
later,” Lucas says and I want to kick myself—or Violet—for being so
inconspicuous.

“Talk about what later?”
Brina continues as she sits Rhianne down on the sofa next to
Lucas’s head.

“Nothing. I was just
telling Violet that we’ll talk about the schedule later. Right now
it’s fort-building time. Right, buddy?”

“Right!” Lucas slides off
the sofa and grabs the blankets to start building.

Brina appears skeptical
of this explanation. She can always smell bullshit from miles away.
I just hope this trip doesn’t become more trouble than
vacation.

Chapter Three

By the time we’re
checked into our suite at Claridge’s at four in the morning, I’m
thoroughly annoyed with Luke. I don’t think Luke would ever cheat
on me, but I’m getting a sick feeling that he’s holding something
back.

Violet takes the kids to
their room to get them changed and into bed while Luke and I change
so we can get a few hours sleep before he has to wake up and go to
his first meeting in Covent Garden. As I watch him undress on the
other side of the king sized bed, the voice of insecurity in my
head keeps telling me to talk to him or at least give him something
to think about while he’s in all those meetings later today. But
the voice of reason wins. He needs his rest.

As soon as we lie down, I
hit the button for the lights and we’re plunged into a cold
darkness that penetrates through the blankets and sheets. I’ll have
to adjust the thermostat in here tomorrow. I pull the covers up to
my nose and curl up on my side. Luke scoots closer to me until his
warm, solid chest is pressed against my back. He rubs my arm gently
as he lays a soft kiss on my bare shoulder.

“Are you okay?” he
whispers, and a slow warmth spreads through me as my muscles
relax.

“Yes.”

“Good night,
sweetheart.”

I turn over so I can face
him and, through the darkness, I can barely glimpse the curves of
his cheekbones and lips. But I can see that look; the look I’ve
come to know only as the look of love.

“I love you,” I
whisper.

He lays a soft kiss on my
lips. “I love you most.”

When I wake, the room
is dark and quiet. It takes a moment for me to remember where I am.
I turn over and the empty space where Luke lay last night taunts
me. I grab my phone off the nightstand and I’m appalled to find
that it’s 12:42 p.m. local time.

I hop out of bed and
quickly pull on my robe so I can go to the living room to see if
the kids are awake. I find Violet and the kids in the dining room
eating what looks like a light lunch.

“Good afternoon, Mrs.
Maxwell,” Violet says without looking up from the plate where she’s
busy picking the stems off a bunch of red grapes for Rhianne.

“Why didn’t anyone wake
me? We have so many things to do today.”

“Lu—Mr. Maxwell said not
to disturb you, that you needed your rest.”

Taking a deep breath, I
try not to make a catty remark about her almost calling Luke by his
first name. I kiss both the kids on the tops of their heads and
wish them a good afternoon before I leave to get showered and
dressed as quickly as I can.

Luke’s final meeting ends
at two p.m. We were supposed to finish our sightseeing by then so
he could join us downstairs for afternoon tea. Rhianne has been
dying to do this ever since I bought her a tea set. She was beyond
excited when I told her Daddy would be joining us for tea. Now
we’ll have to put off the sightseeing until tomorrow and Lucas will
be upset.

Luke will also be
disappointed. We had plans to go over my speech for tomorrow’s
charity dinner. He wants me to discuss Maxwell Computers’ new Give
Love website.

The Give Love Foundation
is something we both envisioned to help boost individual donations
for any non-profit organization that meets the minimum
requirements. Consumers can trade in old computers and electronics
from any manufacture and those devices are then refurbished by
Maxwell Computers and donated to schools, veterans, and low-income
households. But the biggest potential comes from the Give Love app
and plugin. People can download the app or plugin so that a certain
percentage of every purchase they make goes to the charity of their
choice.

Just like Blaze
revolutionized the way people interact with every device in their
homes, we think this will revolutionize the way people spend their
money. We just need a lot more corporate support.

Maybe we can squeeze in a
quick trip to the London Eye today before we have to be back for
afternoon tea at three.

I shower and dress as
quickly as I can, leaving my hair loose and purposely messy so I
can hide behind my hair if I suspect someone has recognized me. For
this same reason, I don’t bother putting on a whole lot of makeup.
It’s a little annoying to have to constantly think about this sort
of stuff when I want to go out and do normal things, like
sightseeing. I don’t really do it for myself; I do it for the kids.
Luke and I have managed to keep them out of the spotlight and
that’s the way we’d like to keep it. If no one recognizes me, then
we’ll be anonymous; just your average group of American
tourists.