by Mae Clair
“He didn’t know.” Reagan walked to his side and gripped his hand. “Please hear me out. A few more minutes so I can explain.”
He nodded, unable to refuse her. The woman had stolen his heart. Even frustrated and angry, what he felt for her was stronger than his aggravation. He leaned into the Jeep and hooked an arm around her shoulders. “Tell me.”
She was tense, but his touch helped her relax. A quiver ran through her slender frame as she raised her eyes to his. “Brody met Eden shortly after he met you. According to her, he stopped at a cafe where she was waitressing and they were both immediately smitten.”
“This is the same Brody who is really St. Croix? A man reputed to be so wealthy he could buy and sell entire countries?” The idea that he would fall in love with a waitress was laughable. The Brody he knew was a playboy flirt who liked to live in the fast lane, and St. Croix’s reputation was one of excess.
Reagan nodded. “St. Croix is a front, and he role-plays as Brody because he feels it’s expected in his position as St. Croix’s buyer. Eden said they have a comfortable home in Maine, a condo in Paris and a sizeable estate in Ireland. She also mentioned a yacht.”
Elijah snorted. “That sounds more like Brody.”
“The point is he loves her.” Reagan dipped her head, a veil of red-gold hair hiding her face. “She said it took a while to get clean and put her life together after she left you and your father. She didn’t want to contact you until she’d made something of herself. She was waitressing and setting money aside for college when she met Brody. After they were married, he started talking about this amazing marine archeologist he’d met on the antiquities circuit who’d earned a PhD by the time he was twenty. When he mentioned your name, she told him the truth about herself. How she’d left you and your father, and had regretted it since.” She raised her head and looked into his eyes. “She sounded so sincere when she told me everything. Can’t you give her a chance? Isn’t that what your father would have wanted?”
He sighed. What would his father want? The way Reagan explained it, Brody was a white knight who’d rescued his sister from a life of drudgery, and Eden was the proverbial prodigal daughter, lessoned learned. He thought about the second clue, the albatross, a sign of regret and sorrow.
He dropped his arm from her shoulders and slipped his hands into his front pockets, crossing his legs at the ankles as he rested against the Jeep. “What about your uncle?”
“Brody knew my uncle was a collector, and that the two of you had become friends. He knew if he offered the journal to Uncle Gavin, he would ask you to authenticate it.”
“What about Tarvick and the others?”
She winced. “I’m afraid to tell you.”
“That bad, huh?” Strangely, he wasn’t angry any longer. That Brody would concoct such an outrageous scheme to pave the way for reconciliation between him and Eden made it hard to be irritated. Whatever else he believed of his onetime friend, Reagan was right. The man had to love his sister beyond sanity to devise anything so convoluted. “Tell me.”
She bit her lip. “They’re, um…actors.”
“What?”
“All of them. Pellar, Monica, Livy and Alan. Tarvick was included to make you believe the treasure hunt was real, but Brody hired the rest to play parts. Pellar and Monica are actually husband and wife.”
He burst out laughing. It was ludicrous. Inconceivable. Humiliating. All those times he’d traded barbs and insults with Pellar. “What a fucking idiot I’ve been.” Shaking his head, he began to pace, his laughter trailing away on a bitter snort. “Actors? Unbelievable! Why go to all this trouble? Why not tell me the truth and level with me?”
“Would you have listened?”
He came to an abrupt halt, zeroing in on her. She stood still, her back to the Jeep as she faced him, the sun brightening her hair with highlights of amber and gold. He knew what it was to be crazy-in-love. To want to do the impossible, nothing too far-fetched for the person he cared about. She was that person. He couldn’t blame Brody for going over the top. But Eden?
“No. I wouldn’t have listened. She made a choice when she left.”
“And she’s regretted it since. You said yourself your father put too much pressure on her.”
“And that gave her the right to take off? She was looking for an excuse.”
“She loves you, Elijah. Haven’t you ever wanted to see her again?”
Of course he had. He’d imagined it countless times. How she’d come back, filled with remorse, ecstatic over all he’d accomplished. She’d be proud of him, bursting with pleasure over his achievements. He was Dr. Elijah Cross, a renowned marine archeologist and leader in his field. Even without her, he’d survived. His father had seen to that.
“Does she know our father died?”
Reagan nodded.
“She didn’t come to the funeral.”
“She was afraid of causing a scene. And she was ashamed. She said she couldn’t face you as a failure. You were brilliant and had accomplished so much. She needed to make something of herself before she approached you. Brody eventually convinced her it wasn’t necessary.”
“Convenient.” The bitterness was back, but it was tangled with a strange sense of gratification she’d gone to extremes to make amends. He grinned, struck by an amusing thought. “Tarvick is going to be pissed. I’m not the only one Brody played for a fool.”
“No. The treasure hunt is real. If he figures it out before you do, he’ll get to keep the journal.”
Elijah stared. “You mean Brody isn’t keeping it?”
She shook her head. “It’s between you and Tarvick. Now that I understand Brody’s role, Tarvick had to be the one who slit your tire and locked us in the wax museum.”
It made sense. Tarvick had no qualms about playing dirty but, damn, Elijah owed Gavin Cassidy a journal. He motioned to the Jeep. “Get in. We’re going back to Sothern’s estate.”
“To find the journal?” she asked.
“Yeah. Beneath the Southern Cross.”
* * * *
As they drove back to Sothern’s estate, Reagan shared more information, hoping to pave the way for a reunion between Elijah and his sister. It would be difficult for both siblings. And then there was Elijah’s friendship with Brody, which had already suffered a blow from the night they’d gone swimming. She’d contributed to those suspicions, certain Brody had been conspiring against Elijah. Now she realized everything he’d done had been for his friend. What a mess!
Worried Elijah held a grudge against Brody, a man who was actually his brother-in-law, she tried to smooth things over. “You realize that night on the beach Brody shoved you under water only because Eden was on the shore. She didn’t know the two of you were in the ocean and he couldn’t risk you spotting her. Not then.”
Elijah nodded, his attention on the road. Ahead of them a red pick-up slowed for a turn, forcing him to apply the brakes. She couldn’t tell if he was anxious or reluctant to reach the planetarium, and guessed the reality was somewhere in between.
“Don’t worry. I’m okay with Brody. Eden too.” Passing the truck, he picked up speed, the rush of air through the Jeep rifling his long hair. Reagan resisted the urge to touch it. To touch him. How had she fallen so hopelessly in love, tangled up in his life in such a short time?
“What do I gain from being pissed?” he continued. “And you’re right–my father would have wanted us to be brother and sister again. I’ve wanted it too. I’ve missed her.”
Reagan wet her lips. “Eden feels awful.”
He snorted softly. “Weird, you know more about her than I do.” He cast her a glance before turning his attention back to the road. “It wasn’t all her fault. Even my dad admitted he screwed up after my mother’s death, dumping the responsibility of holding our family together on her. She didn’t deserve that.”
“So you’ve forgiven her?”
“Long ago.” He smoothed his hand over his pocket where she knew the skewed od
dly-shaped cross was hidden from sight. He might not say it plainly, but he’d never severed his connection to Eden. Without doubt he’d harbored bitterness, but he’d clung to hope too. It was one of the things she loved about him, that life and experience hadn’t made him jaded and cold. With all his brilliance it would have been easy to embrace a stark black-and-white reality, built solely on fact with little or no room for emotion.
“You really are amazing.”
He flashed a blinding smile. “Did you tell my sister that?”
“I didn’t have to. Brody’s been singing your praises for the last three years.”
“Yeah?” He quirked an eyebrow at her. “It’s about time he got something right.”
Reagan grinned, warmed by the notion the worst was behind them. Twenty minutes later, when she and Elijah stepped into the planetarium on Sothern’s estate, she realized how naive that assumption was.
* * * *
Elijah had purposefully avoided the planetarium since arriving. It was a painful reminder of the Southern Cross and the bond he’d shared with Eden in his childhood. The sea and sky had always been woven together in his mind, as intrinsically linked as he and his sister. Stepping beneath the small dome, he tilted his head to observe the constellation splayed overhead in pinpricks of artificial light. Crux in all her glory glittered as brightly as the story of John Feather in his memory. No surprise someone had projected it there for him to see.
Reflexively, he reached for Reagan’s hand, twining his fingers with hers. He caught the glint of her eyes, green as her Irish homeland, her face caressed by the soft velvet of shadow. He’d come to help her uncle, but had ended up dragging her into the middle of his problems. The women he’d dated in the past would have dumped him in a heartbeat, citing too much baggage. She’d not only stayed, but took an active role in working through the kinks. At the very least, he owed her uncle Jeremiah Rook’s journal. If he believed everything he’d been told, it was here, in the planetarium.
“That’s Gamma Crucis,” he said, pointing to the star in the lower left quadrant of Crux. “If I follow it up on an angle, I’ll hit Alpha Crucis. Do you see it there, above and to the right?”
She nodded. “It’s brighter than the others.”
“Exactly.” Releasing her hand, he took several steps down the center aisle, moving past the projector, which squatted like a large insectoid on a raised dais. Beams of light radiated from its bulbous head, splattered in a dazzling display on the dome above. “If I wanted to hide the journal…if the idea is to use Crux to navigate home, then it has to be under Alpha Crucis.”
Elijah waited for his eyes to adjust to the cool white of the artificial starscape, the only source of light inside the dome. Doing a quick mental calculation, he drew an imaginary trajectory from the star to the ground and followed the point to the middle of the left row. It would be like Eden to focus on the brightest star in the Southern Cross as a hope for healing. Stooping, he searched the nearest seats, feeling beneath them until his fingers blundered up against a small box.
Reagan hovered behind him. “Well?” she asked, craning to see.
He stood and passed her the box. “Open it.”
Her eyes flashed to his face before dropping to the small wooden container he’d placed in her hands. It looked nearly as old as the journal, a scarred vessel that smelled faintly of linseed and sandalwood. Carefully, almost reverently, she raised the lid. A slow smile spread over her face.
“You did it. It’s the journal.”
“We did it. Together.” He liked the sound of the word. Moving closer, he looked over her shoulder as she brushed her fingertips across the worn leather cover.
After all these years…decades, even a century of speculation, the truth of the Twelfth Sun’s demise would soon come to light. Whatever had sent the ship to the bottom of the sea–storm, shoal or crippling damage, Jeremiah Rook was sure to have written about it. The journal would go to Gavin as promised, but Elijah couldn’t wait to dissect it page by page and uncover the truth. The details would keep him occupied with writing and on the lecture circuit for years to come. It was amazing to think Brody was willing to walk away from such a valuable treasure, given his true identity as St. Croix. Had love turned his friend into an idiot? Then again, his own priorities had shifted since meeting Reagan.
“Took you long enough to find it,” a man said behind him.
Elijah tensed, relaxing only when he saw Brody stroll beneath the curved dome from a side door. His friend flipped a switch on a wall panel and a ring of up-lighting washed through the dome. The black sky faded to pale pewter as if claimed by pre-dawn, and the interior of the planetarium took on the hue of a rain-washed day. “I was worried Tarvick was going to beat you to it.”
“It would have helped if you and Eden came clean from the start.” Elijah walked toward Brody, conscious of the wariness in his friend’s stance. The older man had reason to be uncertain, but Elijah was done with games. No sense in prolonging the strain. “You could have told me you were St. Croix.”
Still cautious, Brody arched an eyebrow. “You figured it out?”
“More or less. Reagan filled in the gaps.”
“And you’re okay with that?”
“It’s not like I have a choice. I understand you’re my brother-in-law.”
Brody grinned. “Small world, huh?”
Rather than reply, Elijah stuck out his hand. Brody took it in a firm grip, his grin growing wider. A second later, he tugged Elijah into an embrace and gave him a slap on the back. “You have no idea of the grief you’ve caused me, Doc.”
“I feel your pain.”
“Bullshit. If you don’t make nice with your sister, I’m going to make you walk a plank.”
Elijah tugged free, enjoying the return of their familiar bantering. “Where is she?”
Brody sobered slightly and glanced behind him. Elijah followed his gaze to a door recessed beneath the overhang of the dome. At first all he saw was a silhouette, then Eden stepped into the dim light and he felt his heartbeat quicken. She looked frailer than he remembered, but stronger too, as if life had battered her, armoring, her with a fierce resilience to its buffeting. She’d let her hair grow long. It carried the same unruly wave as his, was the same dark-coffee brown. She hesitated, fear, tension and a staggering tangle of regret wrapped up in her eyes. He could almost see her thoughts. How he’d aged, grown from boy to man, the genius inquisitive child now a respected academic.
“Lij?” she asked tentatively, terrified to move.
A staggering spike of emotion streaked through him. “Hell.” He held out his arm and she flowed into his embrace, a ghost of memory and forgotten warmth. A sob caught in her throat and she quivered against him, holding tightly. “I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry,” she babbled over and over.
“Shh.” He palmed her hair, brushing it back from her face. “It’s in the past. It’s alright.”
Slipping his fingers beneath her chin, he tilted her head up. He’d never realized how tiny she was; he towered over her by a good eight inches. Fifteen years accounted for an amazing difference in perspective. For a time he simply stared as she searched his face, her eyes swimming with tears. The bond they’d shared was still there. He felt it, sharp and fierce as a rapid-fire bolt of lightning. It ripped through his soul with the taint of heartache and regret, swiftly cauterizing the wound with compassion. He grinned.
“You didn’t have to go to all this trouble. You could have called me on my cell.”
Eden’s bottom lip quivered. The tension shattered, and she bowed her head against his chest with a choked sound that was half laughter, half sob. “Brody said you had a strange sense of humor.”
“Given you married the guy who’s been my main competition on the antiquities market for the last three years, I need one. Sounds like we’re going to have a lot of catching up to do.”
She raised her head. “Then you’re okay with everything? You’re not angry?”
He
heard fear in her words and shook his head to reassure her. “I’m flattered you went to all of this trouble. It wasn’t necessary.”
She gave a watery laugh and sniffled. “I would have done a lot more. I’m so proud of you, Elijah. I…I wanted to be there for Dad’s funeral, but I was so afraid how you’d react.”
“It’s alright.”
“No, I let you down. I let you both down. I was stupid to leave.”
“It’s in the past.” He hooked his arm around her shoulder and hugged her close. “Dad would be happy we found each other.” He glanced aside at Brody and the corner of his mouth curled. “He might even approve of the guy you got stuck with.”
“You’re all heart, kid,” Brody said.
Elijah grinned. He looked to Reagan, who hovered a few steps away. The box containing Rook’s journal was still clutched in her hands. She smiled, but seemed uncertain, as if abruptly believing herself to be an outsider in the circle. That notion couldn’t be further from the truth. “Reagan told me everything,” he said.
Eden nodded, looking to the other woman. “She could have ruined all of it when she saw me last night, but she gave me the chance to explain. I’ll always be grateful for that.” She tugged free from Elijah and extended her hand toward Reagan. “Thank you for listening to me, Reagan. You don’t know what this week has meant to me.”
Elijah watched as Reagan squeezed her hand, holding on to express support without words. He sensed a kinship between the two, and was surprised to realize they’d established it so quickly until he realized the cause. Him.
He swallowed awkwardly. Well, damn.
“I hate to break up such a sappy group,” a man inserted coolly, “but Ms. Cassidy has something that belongs to me and I’d like to have it delivered.”
Elijah stiffened. He knew without looking who stood behind him.
What he didn’t expect was the barrel of a .45 Glock pointed at his gut when he turned.
