Page 41 of Harmless Secrets
He set his drink down on the counter and sighed. The sound was oddly lonely. She didn’t think a man like him lived a very lonely life. He was a millionaire, if not a billionaire. Those type of people always seemed to be surrounded by others.
But now that she thought about their time together, he didn’t seem to have anyone in his life. No handlers or hangers’ on. He didn’t have entourage. Unless she counted sister, brother-in-law, and niece.
“You said you couldn’t find me?”
Right to the point. This she could handle. She nodded.
“But, you found me once. I assume MI-6 sent you.”
“Yes, I found you, but that was all me. I worked outside of the borders of MI-6. I called in a few favors, but there was nothing official. They didn’t know your connection to my father, and I was on vacation when I went looking for you.”
He frowned. “Why?”
Those frantic days came rushing back to her with such blinding force it left her a little dizzy. She rarely thought of them now, but whenever she did, Alicia’s stomach pitched. Desperation had been her companion as she wondered if she was looking for a dead man. She had been trained for every situation in a spy’s life, but that. Searching for her father had been out of the realm of her knowledge.
“My father was missing. I’d been looking for three months before I found you.”
“I still don’t understand the connection.” Confusion stamped his features as his brow furrowed. “For the life of me, I really can’t remember his name. Well, the name is familiar, but I know nothing else. At that point, I’d moved on from the CIA and wanted nothing to do with them.”
“I went through some of his notes. I could read his shorthand, while others couldn’t. He was trying to find you. He was almost desperate with it.”
And he had never come to her. To this day, she wondered why he hadn’t. He was the one person she trusted in the world but after this, she had wondered if he hadn’t trusted her. That hurt almost more than losing him.
“I told you I didn’t know your father.”
“I believe you, now. Then, I didn’t know you at all. All I knew was that he was looking for you. I have no indication on why he was. It was right before he disappeared. I connected the dots.”
“Doesn’t MI-6 keep track of their spies?”
“Father was retired. Well, semi-retired. I know they consulted him from time to time, but he wasn’t out in the field.”
Devon frowned. “That young?”
She found a smile then. “My parents had given up on children when I came along. They were both spies, and after a few years of trying, they gave up. Then, when Mum was thirty-eight and my father was forty-five, I surprised them.”
“You loved them.”
She blinked. “Yes. They were stodgy and set in their ways, but they loved me. I didn’t have a traditional upbringing, but I never doubted their love.”
He said nothing as he sipped at his whiskey again. “So, your father was looking for me.”
“Yes. Father had been reviewing old cases and some old scenarios. We’d had a couple of embarrassing scandals right about that time, and the higher ups were worried something else would come back to haunt us. That’s all I knew about his work at the time.”
“He didn’t confide in you?”
“No. I don’t think he could. It would be a conflict of interest, and with me still being active, that made it difficult. Father would bend some of the rules, but when it came to me, he would not compromise.”
She could tell by his expression that he thought her father should have told her. Ali couldn’t argue with that because she had often thought the same thing. There was always a chance if he had told her what was going on, he might still be alive today.
“Did you ever find anything on his computer?”
“Father didn’t trust computers, but he had put a password that even my computer genius cousin couldn’t crack.”
“So, I was off to Hawaii and you were…what happened then?”
“My cousin called. My father had been shot. He was home then, although I found that surprising because he hadn’t answered the phone when I rung him up.”
“And he died.”