Heart & Soul: A Guitar Girl Contemporary Inspirational Romance (A Guitar Girl Romance Book 3)

by Hope Franke

  Gabriele flashed Callum an angry glare when he returned to the table.

  “Is something wrong?” he asked.

  “Am I the girl?”

  Callum’s shoulders jerked and his jaw twitched. “You weren’t supposed to hear that,” he said.

  “Well, I did. And I want answers, Callum. You are driving me crazy!”

  Callum ran a hand over his head and held his neck. “Why are you so stubborn?”

  She shot back, “Why are you so secretive?”

  “I’m just trying to protect you.”

  “Maybe I want to protect myself. It would help a lot if I knew what I was protecting myself from.”

  “The less you know, the safer you’ll be. Just trust me for once, Gabriele.” He grabbed his coat. “It’s in your best interest to leave England as soon as possible.” He softened his tone. “I’m not leaving Emsworth until you do, so, let me know when you’re ready to go and I’ll drive you to the airport.”

  GABRIELE STARTLED awake to banging on the door. At first she thought it was the storm that had gathered steam overnight. The wind whistled through the bedroom window and the nearby bush scratched aggressively against it. The banging persisted and Gabriele fussed with a cardigan overtop of her pajamas as she rushed for the door yelling, “Who is it?”

  “Callum!”

  Of course it was him, but she’d wanted to make sure. He’d put the fear of the boogey man in her.

  She unlatched the locks and Callum blew in with a good amount of sand.

  “The storm is worse than was originally forecasted. You need to come with me to my house.”

  “Why?”

  “It’s set back further inland and has two floors. There’s a danger the tidal surge could flood the cottage.”

  “Really? It’s happened before?”

  “Not often, but yes. It’s why we buy expensive insurance.” He waved a hand. “Hurry. Grab your things.”

  Outside the patio furniture tumbled loudly along the terrace, setting Gabriele off on high speed to do what Callum requested. She scooped her makeup and toiletries into her overnight bag. She strapped her purse over her shoulder.

  “I’m ready.”

  Callum snapped his umbrella open and pulled Gabriele under his arm. They pushed against the wind and rain through the patch of trees and up the walk to Callum’s house, but even with the protection, rain blew at sharp angles and stung her face.

  They were both drenched when Callum locked the door against the storm.

  Compared to the screeching howl outside, the sudden muffled quiet in Callum’s house felt jarring. She watched Callum as he looked at her, his eyes narrow and inquisitive as if he was searching her soul. Water collected like crystal drops on his dark long lashes. It ran in thin rivulets down his temples and along his cheeks. His jaw, so much like Lennon’s, was covered in bristles that glistened in the foyer lights like dew-covered grass in the sun. Gabriele stared, mesmerized. He was beautiful.

  “Are you okay?”

  She snapped to attention, chiding herself. “Yeah, I’m fine. Just wet.”

  “You know where the loo is if you want to freshen up. There are clean towels in the cupboard.”

  She remembered where the loo was, though this was her first opportunity to enter it. This time she’d refrain from snooping. At least for now.

  The bathroom had a large tub, the old kind with claw feet. It took up most of the space, leaving just enough room for a sink with cupboards underneath and a toilet.

  Gabriele had never been more thankful that she’d taken the time to grab her makeup and toiletries bag than she was right now, looking into the mirror. What a horror! No wonder Callum stared at her like that and encouraged her to clean up. She could try out for a role in a zombie film.

  She got to work washing her face and brushing out her hair. She applied just a touch of makeup, enough to make her green eyes brighten. She brushed her teeth and felt marginally better. At least she was presentable now.

  When she returned to the living room, Callum was crouched down beside the fireplace, stoking a fire. She bent down beside him. “This is nice.”

  Her coat had taken the worst of the wet weather, but her pajama pants were damp and she shivered. Perhaps she should’ve grabbed a pair of jeans. Callum stood and returned wearing dry clothes and carrying a blanket. He wrapped it over Gabriele’s shoulders, then pushed the sofa closer to the wood stove so they wouldn’t have to sit on the floor.

  “I’ll make coffee.”

  Gabriele curled up on the sofa, tucking her feet underneath her, and stared at the flames. They danced and crackled and hissed in a way that felt hypnotic. Her mind swirled with emotion as she let herself get drawn in.

  Lennon.

  Callum.

  She’d come to England for closure. Was she finding it?

  Callum returned with two steaming mugs in hand and gave her the one with the foam on top.

  “You don’t have to go to the trouble of foaming the milk,” she said softly. “I can drink it the regular way.”

  “I don’t mind. It’s not like I have a lot of other business I can do at the moment.”

  “Your city job seems to be pretty flexible,” Gabriele said after her first sip. Callum had barely let her out of his sight since she arrived. “Didn’t you say you worked in London?”

  Callum twisted from his spot on the other end of the sofa to face her. “I can work from anywhere as long as I have a laptop and internet.”

  “I see. I was under the impression you didn’t like to hang out at this house much?”

  He nodded. “That’s true. Too many memories.”

  “Not all bad, I hope.”

  “No, most of them are good.” He sighed. “Those are actually the hard ones.”

  Gabriele tucked in tighter. “I understand that. My memories of Lennon are good, but they hurt like hell.”

  Callum leaned forward, resting an elbow on one knee. “Tell me about him. The last year. Tell me what his life was like.”

  Gabriele eyed him. “I thought you kept in touch?”

  “We did, but I’d like to hear it from your perspective.”

  Gabriele sipped her coffee and closed her eyes, remembering. “He was happy. At least he seemed to be to me. Always smiling. Quiet, didn’t talk much. Now that I think about it, I did most of the talking. We spent all our free time together, but I really didn’t have that much free time. My workload at uni was heavy and my parents insisted that we spend some of that time with the family. When Lennon and I decided to get married, life got really busy with the wedding plans.”

  Her mind flashed to an image of Lennon slouching on the sofa with eyes closed and earbuds in his ears. “Though he wasn’t a musician, he loved music. Especially the Beatles.”

  Callum nodded. “That’s why he chose the name Lennon.”

  Right. She kept forgetting his name was really Mick. Could she ever get used to that?

  The wind whirled and whistled through worn window panes. The lights from the dated chandelier flickered. Callum left the room and returned shortly with a stubby white candle in a brass stand. “The electricity won’t last in a storm like this.”

  He lit the candle, then laid it and the lighter down on the coffee table.

  “Are you going to tell me why he changed his name?” she asked.

  He took his place on the sofa and said, “When Mick and I were fifteen our dad took us on holiday to Europe.”

  Right. He’d mentioned a trip. Not the answer to her question, but she let it go, wanting to hear the story.

  “Dad wanted us to be cultured,” Callum continued. “Nothing off the beaten path, just the regular tourist stops—Paris, Barcelona and Berlin. I thought it was interesting, but I’d just as soon have stayed at home and partied with my friends. But Mick was enthralled by the history, the architecture and the different languages.” Callum laughed. “And the food.”

  Gabriele considered him. “Was that why he chose to move to Europe?”


  “Yes.”

  Her instincts told her there was more to this story. Much more. She leaned forward and begged, “Please, Callum, tell me what happened. I have to know. Why did he relocate to Dresden? Why did someone kill him?”

  Callum’s eyes locked on hers and he took in a long, hard breath. “You’re not going to give up, are you?”

  “No.”

  He sighed again with resignation. “Mick was in his third year of computer science studies at the University of London. He had a roommate for all those years. Sati Habib.”

  This was the name she’d heard Callum mention on the phone the day before.

  “They became good friends. Chummed around, hang out after class in the neighbouring pubs. At least that’s what they did the first year. The second year Sati became more withdrawn and serious. Mick thought it was just the pressure of his studies. He didn’t just want to be in the top of his classes. He wanted to be the best.

  “During the summer break after the second year, Sati returned to Syria to visit family. That’s what he told Mick he was doing anyway.”

  Callum rubbed his forehead then glanced up at Gabriele with an intense, conflicted gaze. She knew this was the crux. The information that came next was going to turn her life upside down. She gripped her coffee mug nervously.

  “Sati trained with an extreme Islamic group that had formed as a result of the Arab Spring. His mandate on his return was to join an Al Qaeda cell with other British nationals who were sympathetic to their cause and assist in planning a terrorist attack.”

  Gabriele blinked hard. “What did Lennon have to do with all this?”

  “He discovered the plan. Sati had saved the details of the attack on a flash stick, which he left in his desk drawer, hidden in plain sight as they say.

  “Except that Lennon had misplaced his and needed one to save a report. He didn’t think Sati would mind if he borrowed one from him, so he searched Sati’s desk and took the first one he found.”

  He paused to sip his coffee.

  “There were a lot of files on the stick with course names and projects that Mick recognized, but there was one with the title, “London Bridge is Coming Down.”

  “Mick, always the curious one, clicked on it. That’s how he stumbled across their plans to bomb the Tower Bridge.”

  Gabriele let out a breath. Meine Güte. “What did he do?”

  “He told me. I’ll never forget his frantic voice when he rang me on my mobile. At first he thought Sati was just messing about, but as he read the details of the planned attack and Sati’s part in it, he knew it was real. I insisted he approach the police with it at once.

  “And that was the beginning of the end. Mick submitted the flash stick to the police department and Sati was arrested and put in prison. A short time later Mick began receiving threatening emails.”

  “He thought he could hide from a terrorist group in Germany?”

  “He didn’t just go on a whim, Gabriele. Mick was put in the witness protection program.”

  Gabriele’s mind folded over with slow comprehension. Lennon’s name change, the lies about his family, his refusal to visit England. This espionage story was something straight from a movie. She pinched her eyes tight, commanding all the emotions that ran rampant to line up and submit to her control. Lennon was a victim. Wrong place, wrong time. His life was turned upside down. And not only his.

  “That’s why he left Clover so suddenly without a word?” And the reason he hadn’t stayed in Emsworth and married her?

  “Yes,” Callum said. “The authorities asked Mick where he wanted to go and he said Germany. He started off in Berlin, and took some time to travel around as Lennon Smith.” His jaw twitched and his eyes darkened. “Then he met you.”

  “Does that make you angry?” Gabriele felt all the muscles in her body tighten. She folded her arms across her chest. “I made him happy.”

  “You made him vulnerable.”

  “Are you blaming me?”

  “Do I believe that if he hadn’t married you, had all those silly pictures of himself taken, that he’d still be alive? Did I wish he’d just shagged you and moved on? Yes.”

  Blood rushed to Gabriele’s head and she let out a strangled gasp. That was why Lennon had pushed for a quiet wedding. It was why all the pictures of his face were missing. He’d removed them, trying to cover his trail.

  Her eyes welled with tears as her grief turned to remorse. She closed her eyes and curled inwardly into a tight ball. Oh, dear Lord. Lennon was dead because of her. Because they had fallen in love. Her chest shuddered as hot tears streamed down her cheeks

  “I blamed you because I wanted someone to blame.” Callum’s voice softened. “The fact is the blame belongs on Sati and the terrorists. It’s not your fault.”

  Callum shifted closer. He took her empty coffee mug and set it on the table. “Mick couldn’t help falling for you. I think I understand that now.” His eyes took her in with such intensity, Gabriele’s breath hitched. He stroked her hair pushing it off her face and behind her ears, and the touch of his fingertips along her jaw burned a line across her skin. Her throat grew dry and she could barely swallow.

  He leaned closer and her heart thundered like a train out of control. If he tried to kiss her, she’d let him. Even though she knew it would be the dumbest thing in the world to do, it was something she suddenly wanted. Her skin ached for his touch. She stared at his lips and tilted her head towards him.

  The wind roared, slapping against the house and exploding through the weakened glass of the dining room window with a deafening crash. Glass shattered on the floor. A siren blared. Gabriele screamed.

  The lights went out.

  CALLUM SWOOPED UP THE CANDLE, dashed to a panel near the front door and quickly tapped in numbers that turned off the alarm.

  He returned for Gabriele and took her hand, leading her up the steps and down the hall to the bathroom. “This is the only room without windows. They might all burst out before this storm is through. They’re originals and should’ve been replaced long ago.” He put the candle down and eyed Gabriele as he removed his phone from his pocket. He flicked on the torch.

  “Wait here. I’ll be right back.”

  Callum dashed to the storage room near the end of the hall and opened the door. He flashed the beam of light coming from his phone onto the contents inside. He gathered a foam camping pad, a large pillow and a blanket, and deftly carried the pile blindly as it filled the area in front of his face. He had no choice but to slip the phone back into his pocket and follow the wall back to the bathroom where Gabriele waited.

  Gabriele. He wanted to kiss her. He almost did. Maybe it was a good thing nature intervened. He wasn’t sure. He wasn’t sure about anything any more. His feelings were betraying him. In two days he moved from being indifferent to regarding Gabriele Baumann, seeing her only as an annoyance that needed to be removed, to struggling with feelings inappropriately directed towards his brother’s widow.

  All he wanted to do now was to protect her. She projected a tough exterior, but on occasion, like tonight, he spotted her vulnerability. He wanted to keep her safe, ease the pain in her heart and soul.

  He wanted her.

  He dropped his cargo on the bathroom floor when he entered the bathroom. Gabriele sat on the lid of the toilet, legs and arms crossed. The wind rattled the whole house and she stiffened. She blinked like she was trying to reboot her circuits and her wide-eyed expression flattened. Callum admired the way she tackled fear head on.

  “What’s that?” she asked.

  Callum plucked the camping foam from the pile and laid it on the bottom of the tub. He covered it with a blanket and propped the pillow at the end opposite the faucet.

  Then he crawled in.

  He sat with his back leaning against the pillow, his long legs bent, his feet propped against the edge of the tub. He grinned at Gabriele as he put his hands behind his head. “Not bad.”

  She smirked. “Yeah, fo
r you.”

  “You’re right. You do look a little uncomfortable sitting there.” His grin deepened. He couldn’t stop staring at her. The candlelight reflected the gold flecks in her big green eyes and she stared back like she was mesmerized. His focus locked on her lips and when she self-consciously nibbled on them, heat flushed his body.

  “Well, if you were being a good host,” she said huskily, “you’d give your guest the best spot in the room.”

  “Hmm. You’re right.” He closed his eyes and worked to settle himself down. “I guess I’m not a very good host.”

  Gabriele threw a towel at him. It landed on his face, but he didn’t move. It felt cool and calmed his breathing.

  “Oh, meine Güte,” Gabriele finally said. “You’re going to suffocate under that thing.”

  “If you’re worried for my life,” he mumbled from beneath it, “perhaps you should remove it.”

  He heard Gabriele huff. He sensed her movement as she approached. She sat on the edge of the tub and reached for the towel. Callum’s arm snapped up and grabbed her wrist. She squealed as he pulled her on top of him.

  She let out an adorable giggle. “What are you doing?”

  “There’s room in here for two. No sense in you being uncomfortable.”

  He shifted over and her slender form slid in beside him. He left his arm opened, inviting her to nestle in. She looked down at him for the briefest moment before accepting his silent invitation. She nuzzled in and rested her head on his shoulder.

  He felt the softness of her body against his and his head rushed with blood. He wasn’t certain where to place his hand. With the length of his arm, it naturally landed near the curviest part of her body. He crooked his elbow and laid his arm over her waist, which was a pleasant alternative. His chin rested in her hair and he breathed in the fruity scent of her shampoo. Her palm lay on his chest and his heart beat wildly at her nearness. He knew there was no way he could conceal how she affected him.

  “Are you all right?” he choked out.

  “Yeah,” she whispered. “I’m good.”

  They lay quietly together in the dim light of the flickering candle, neither of them moving. Gabriele’s breath matched his. Callum ran his thumb along the flesh of her arm, relishing her softness, wishing for the first time that things were different. That he had met this girl under different circumstances. That he didn’t have to drop her off at the airport the next day and say good-bye forever.