More Than a Mission (22 page)

Once there, she hesitated and even from this far, the glint of tears was visible as she took note of everyone who was in attendance. “Thank you all for coming. I appreciate it. I know Dani does, as well.”

She struggled for composure and he wanted to rush up there, found himself beginning to rise when Walker laid a hand on his arm. “What can you offer, Aidan? You'll be long gone in a few days,” he whispered.

He hated that Walker was right. He dejectedly dropped back down into his seat and waited for Lizzy to go on.

“After my parents died, it was hard for Dani. She missed them terribly. She wanted justice for them.” Again she paused, as if reconsidering where she was going, but then she charged onward. “Dani always stood up for what she believed in. Always was there to help if someone asked. She was everyone's champion. She was
my
champion. My best friend. A sister who I will miss every day of my life, but who will always be alive in here,” she said and motioned to a spot above her heart.

“I know Dani is okay and in a better place. One where she's with her loved ones. One where she's happy. Because of that, I can't grieve for long.”

The tears finally came, spilling over to run down her cheeks, but she didn't wipe them away. Instead, she took a shuddering breath and said, “Thank you all for your kind words and support. For those of you who wish to stay a bit longer, please step into the back garden for some refreshments.”

Moving from behind the podium, she stepped into the crowd of well-wishers, moving from one to the next to give her personal thanks. Embrace one person or the other and motion them in the direction of the side door that led to the back patio.

Aidan waited alongside his colleagues until the room was almost empty and they were some of the last people standing there. Lizzy finally seemed to notice them. A guarded smile came to her face.

She walked over, embraced Lucia and shook Walker's hand. They both offered their condolences and then with a sidelong glance at him, excused themselves.

Lizzy stood before him, her hands clasped together. Her body language sending the clear signal that she was uncomfortable. That whatever he did, he shouldn't touch.

He broke the ice first by holding out the bouquet. “I came to say how sorry I am. I know how hard this is for you.”

“Thank you. I really do appreciate all you've done on behalf of Dani,” she said, but made no motion to embrace him or even shake his hand as she had with Walker. She seemed too fragile to do so. When she took the flowers, she cradled them tightly to her body. So tightly that a petal fell off one stem and fluttered to the ground.

“Well, I'll be going soon. In the meantime, I was going to drop by tomorrow and remove our surveillance equipment,” he explained and motioned to the room around them.

A stain of color came to her cheeks at his words. “You bugged my restaurant? What about my house? Did people see what—?”

“No, they didn't. Dani jammed the signal. I'm sorry. It was what we had to do to catch—”

She silenced him with a tense wave of her hand. “Don't. Dani said it wasn't what we thought. That's what I want to believe.”

Given what he had heard from person after person during the memorial service, he could understand why she wanted to hold onto that belief. So many people couldn't be wrong. It made him wonder yet again what Dani had meant when she had said she'd been doing a job. That it hadn't been what it seemed.

“I understand, and again, I'm sorry. About everything.”

She said nothing and for a moment, he thought the rigor might leave her body, but it didn't. Despite that, he embraced her awkwardly, needing that last touch since he had decided that tomorrow he would send the men from the guard detail to remove the equipment.

It would be better that way, he thought as he stepped away and raced out the door, eager to put some distance between them.

Lizzy roused too many feelings, some of them threatening to the way he lived his life—carefree, exciting and without any attachments.

It was the way it had been all his life.

He wasn't about to allow one woman to change it all.

D
ays had passed since the Lazlo Group technicians had come to retrieve their equipment, removing cameras from every room in the restaurant, the gardens and even her front parlor.

She assumed Aidan was long gone, as well, moving onto his next assignment. Did he ever look back? she wondered. Did he think about the job he had just finished and the people he had met?

The people he'd slept with and lied to? People whose lives he had irrevocably changed?

Rubbing her temples to quell her growing headache, she stared out her bedroom window. The ocean was calm tonight. Totally unlike the way she was feeling. Restless. Angry. Lonely.

Even though Dani had been gone often, there had always been the prospect of seeing her. That would never happen again. Ever.

Just as she would never see Aidan again. Ever. He and Dani had had so much in common. They were both warriors and wanderers. She only hoped that Aidan's life didn't end like Dani's. Or like his friend Mitch's.

If there was any consolation in either of their deaths, it was that neither had died alone. She and Aidan had been at Dani's side. Aidan had been with his friend.

And one day, Aidan would…

She shook her head and drove that thought away.

She wanted to wedge any remnants of him from her mind. Best to forget what had happened between them. It would only bring continued pain since, like Dani, Aidan was gone from her life forever.

Unable to stay in her room for another second since it brought too many reminders of what she had shared with him, she rushed from the cottage and out onto the beachfront.

A breeze, strong and brisk, washed over her. As she walked along the shore, she wished for it to wash away memories of him. To cleanse her spirit and bring peace to her heart, a heart battered by the loss of two people she had loved.

Dani and Aidan. Both lost to her. One never to return. The other…

 

He had given them the location of every camera except one. He'd known it was wrong, but convinced himself that he'd done it for her sake. So that he might keep an eye on her just in case Donovan returned. Just in case she needed him.

Her image filled his laptop screen. The smallish picture on the PDA didn't quite satisfy his need.

Lizzy was at the window facing the ocean. A familiar stance for her lately. She had been at the window every night since he had brought her home after Dani's death.

Unlike those other nights when he had watched her in silence, his observation was interrupted by the shrill ring of his cell phone. “Spaulding.”

“Aidan. Ms. de Hayes has advised that she should be arriving in Paris in two days. Are you prepared to meet her?”

Was he? he wondered. When Corbett had mentioned continuing with the next part of this assignment, he'd been eager. After all, it entailed tracking down Dani's killer and someone who might be a possible threat to Lizzy.

A good reason to leave Leonia and Lizzy. Or so he'd thought.

But faced with the prospect of it now…

“Aidan? You have terminated your surveillance of Ms. Moore, haven't you?” Corbett asked and Aidan sensed that the other man somehow knew about the remaining camera.

He didn't have it in him to lie. “No, sir. But…”

He could have said that he'd remove it immediately, but he couldn't. He needed that connection to her. Hell, he needed her.

For days he had been telling himself otherwise. Trying to convince himself that staying in Leonia would be as boring as shit. That there was nothing there to keep his interest.

Except Lizzy. And some really nice people. Her crazy friends. Some fine fishing and surfing areas. Beautiful gardens and cute little homes along the road and the stunning coast and beachfront.

“Aidan?” Corbett prompted again and this time, Aidan knew exactly what to say.

“While working with Rhia would be quite an experience, I've decided that it's time I resigned my position with the Lazlo Group.”

“Are you sure about this?” Corbett asked, and Aidan shot another peek at his laptop.

Was he?

The answer came immediately.

“I'm sure, Corbett.”

The other man chuckled, surprising him. “This is getting to be a costly operation for my group. First Walker resigns and now you.”

“I'm sorry if this leaves you in a lurch.”

“Not to worry, Aidan. Rhia can probably handle this job on her own for the moment. Despite the Sparrow's deathbed information, I can't see Nikolas Donovan as her killer,” Corbett advised, confusing Aidan with the statement.

“What? Donovan's Union for Democracy has splintered into two factions, one of them violent. What makes you believe Donovan isn't responsible for that violent bent and Dani's death?” Aidan questioned.

“Lord Southgate is quite familiar with Nikolas Donovan. He believes him innocent in Reginald's death and also in that of the Sparrow.”

Aidan wasn't quite as convinced. “If Rhia needs backup, I'm there,” he said, guilt driving him. He liked the woman, who had an adventurous streak and could be a refreshing smart ass at times.

“I appreciate the offer, but if I'm right, we won't be needing your muscle on this one,” Corbett advised and then quickly added, “And you, Mr. Spaulding, have a lady to contact.”

He peeked at the laptop and cursed beneath his breath when he saw her room was empty. But he knew where she would go. Where she always went when she was troubled. “Goodbye, Corbett. It's been a pleasure.”

“Not goodbye, Aidan. I do expect an invitation to the wedding.”

He chuckled at the other man's audacity. “You'll get it,” he said, not that Corbett Lazlo would show. In the seven years that he had worked for the man, he had never met him.

But that was for another day. First he had to get the lady in question to agree to marry him.

Grabbing his jacket, he raced out of the hotel and down the public-access ramp to the beach. Much as he had expected, she was walking down the beach, headed in his direction. When she noticed him, she paused and wrapped her arms around herself, waited there for a moment before continuing toward him.

No coward, his Lizzy.

He didn't wait. He hopped down onto the sand and raced in her direction. When they finally stood facing one another, barely a foot apart, he said, “Lizzy.”

Duh. Totally stupid. Inane.

“Aidan. I would have thought that you'd be gone by now.” Her arms remained wrapped around herself and she rubbed her hands up and down in a telling gesture.

He reached out, laid his hands over hers to still that motion. “I would have thought so, too, only…I couldn't imagine leaving you, Lizzy.”

Elizabeth's breath caught in her throat with his words. Was she imagining this? She shook her head in disbelief. “I don't understand, Aidan.”

He smiled and his blue eyes glittered with joy as he said, “I don't understand, either. Maybe it's because I've found an adventure more compelling than any other.”

“An adventure,” she repeated, unsure of what he meant.

“Yes. You. And if you'll have me, I can't imagine a more interesting and challenging way to spend my life,” he said and took hold of her hands, dropped to one knee.

“Marry me, Lizzy.”

This was insane. Totally outrageous. And yes, possibly an adventure. One she was willing to risk with the man kneeling before her. “On one condition.”

“Just one? As I recall, you had quite a few that night,” he teased, raising one sandy brow playfully.

She laughed and embraced him, urged him to rise. “Do you think you could be happy here in little ol' Leonia?”

“I can be happy anywhere you are, Lizzy,” he answered and as she searched his features, she recognized the truth of his statement.

She trailed her hands down and twined her fingers with his. “Can you be happy being my bartender?”

Aidan grimaced. “That may take a little…No, make that a long while. Unless I can develop something,” he said and pulled out his PDA, began explaining to her how he had managed to survive behind the bar.

“So let me get this,” she began as he sketched his idea for a new bar area filled with electronic gadgets with the stylus of his PDA. “You're ex-military. An MIT grad in electronics. Anything else I should know?”

“That I love you. Totally and completely love you. All the rest, you can learn in the years to come,” he said and, grabbing hold of her hand, gave it a playful shake. “So, will you marry me?”

“When you put it that way, how can a girl refuse?”