Mission: Irresistible

by Lori Wilde

  He woke at 2 p.m. to find his bed empty. Cassie was gone. She’d crept away while he slept.

  His sheets still smelled of her, vibrant as a summer garden. He squeezed her pillow to his chest and inhaled the scent of her.

  Where had she gone? Why had she left?

  The bedside phone rang. He snatched it up, his pulse bumping. Was it her?

  “Hello?”

  “It’s Clyde. I’m at the hospital.”

  Simultaneously, Harrison sat up and dropped the pillow. “Adam—is he …”

  “Awake, and he’s regained his memory.”

  “Thank God.”

  “He wants to see you. He won’t tell us what happened to him. Not until you get here.”

  “Us?” Was Cassie at the hospital already? Was that where she’d gone? But why would she go without him?

  “I called your mother,” Clyde said. “She’s here.”

  Ten minutes later, Harrison walked into Adam’s hospital room. On the drive over, one specific memory from the night before had stuck in his brain.

  Ahmose, flinging Kiya’s amulet into the Trinity, and saying, “Ask your mother.” He hadn’t known what Ahmose meant, but he did know his mother had been keeping too many secrets for too many years. It was long past time for a showdown.

  But first things first. He had to speak to his brother.

  Adam was sitting up in bed. Dark circles ringed his eyes, and his cheeks were sunken. He had an IV in his arm and he wore a hospital gown.

  “You look as bad as I feel,” Adam said.

  “Dude.” Harrison grinned and touched his blackened eye. “If you feel as bad as I look, you are so screwed.”

  Adam blinked. “That doesn’t sound like you. You never say ‘dude.’ Or tease me.”

  Harrison shrugged and felt his cheeks heat. “Guess I’ve been hanging out with Cassie Cooper too long, searching for your sorry butt.”

  “I like the changes. She’s good for you.”

  “Where’s Mom?” He plunked down in one of the chairs for visitors at the side of Adam’s bed.

  “Right here.”

  Harrison looked up to see Diana and Clyde walking through the door carrying a Burger King bag. Adam held out his hand. “Thanks, Mom, you saved my life. The hospital food is bad enough to kill a guy.”

  Diana handed Adam the sack, then turned to Harrison. “Hello, son.”

  “Hello, Mother.”

  This is how it had always been between them. Distant, tentative, wary. He wished it did not have to be this way. He used to long for the sort of mother you could throw your arms around and wrap in a bear hug. But Diana was who she was.

  Diana took the chair next to Harrison. Clyde went to stand at the back of the room, his arms folded on his chest, his eyes on Diana. Adam focused on wolfing down his food.

  “So tell us everything that happened,” Diana said. “Start from the beginning.”

  “Well,” Adam said, “I was born in a—”

  “Don’t be a smartass,” Diana interrupted. “You’d think after everything you’ve been through, it would have taken some of the starch out of your sails.”

  “Or some of the spunk out of the punk,” Harrison muttered.

  His mother grinned at him. Hey, for once they were on the same wavelength. Adam didn’t seem to mind that they were ganging up on him. He waved a hand. “You guys are just jealous because I have an amazing ability to bounce back.”

  “So talk.”

  “All right.” Adam wiped a smear of mustard off his cheek. “Here’s where it started. Dad put me up to searching for Solen. I wasn’t really interested. Had a hot girl I was dating and she was trying to get me to move to France with her, but Dad kept telling me how I had to beat Harrison. He said he would finance the dig, no strings attached. He’d never done that before. I thought it might be a chance to mend fences between us.” He polished off the last of his hamburger, and with a free-throw toss landed it in the trash can. “He shoots; he scores!”

  “Don’t get distracted,” Diana said.

  Adam sighed. Harrison could tell this was painful for him, vocalizing the truth about his father.

  “Dad had a lot of detailed information about Solen’s tomb and where it was located. He refused to tell me where he got the info, and for the longest time I thought the data must be totally bogus and I wouldn’t use it. I kept reminding him that he’d told me no strings were attached to the money.”

  “Harrison,” Diana interrupted, giving him the once-over. “You’re not wearing your glasses.”

  “Broke them in a bar fight. Long story.”

  Diana looked taken aback. “A bar brawl? You?”

  “Dude.” Adam gave him a thumbs-up. “Way to go, bro.”

  “Sorry, go on. I didn’t mean to interrupt.” Diana shook her head but looked at Harrison differently, as if she suddenly respected him more.

  “Anyway, I finally followed Dad’s instructions because I didn’t know where else to look, and hey, I found Solen right where he said I would.”

  “And among Solen’s artifacts, you found the scroll,” Harrison supplied.

  “Yeah, written in Minoan hieroglyphics. And I translated it,” Adam boasted. “Took me several weeks of trying, but I did it. Dad pressured me.” His face sobered. “Once I knew what it said, I wished I hadn’t.”

  Diana fisted Adam’s covers in her hands. “And what did you learn?”

  Harrison caught the recriminating look his brother sent his mother. “You’ve known all along about Dad,” Adam accused.

  “Not known. Suspected. But I never knew for sure.”

  Harrison was startled to see tears misting his mother’s eyes. He could never remember seeing her cry.

  A nurse came in to take Adam’s vital signs, and they had to wait until she was finished before he could continue his story. The tension in the room was palpable.

  “Everything was in Solen’s scroll,” Adam said. “The legend of the star-crossed lovers. The curse he’d placed on Vizier Nebamun’s family. And the reason my father wanted Solen resurrected. The formula for immortality.”

  The room fell silent for a long moment as Adam’s words echoed off the walls.

  “There were sayings in that text.” Adam took a swallow of water. “Things my father often said. And the symbols that match the signet ring he wears. Since the hieroglyphics had never been translated, only someone versed in the oral tradition of the Minoan Order could have possessed such knowledge. That’s why he had funded my dig. That’s where he’d gotten his information. I had no idea what he was going to do with the formula, but I knew I couldn’t turn it over to him. Not if he was in the Minoan Order.”

  “Adam called me when he got in trouble. He remembered me from his childhood and thought I could help since I worked for the Kimbell,” Clyde interjected. “His plan was to split up the artifacts. Ship me Solen in his sarcophagus. Hide the scroll in a crate with a false bottom and leave it for Harrison to find, and keep the amulet on his person.”

  “When I got to Fort Worth,” Adam picked up the story again, “Clyde wrapped me in the mummy linen. I had to be unrecognizable. I went to the museum masquerade party to tell Harrison what was happening, but I was afraid to approach him directly because Ahmose Akvar kept hanging around. I had no idea whom I could trust, who might be watching, and the last thing I wanted was to put them on his tail too. In the meantime, Dad sent Anthony Korba and Demitri Lorenzo to bring me back to Greece. Demitri cornered me in the courtyard at the Kimbell and tried to get me to tell him where Solen’s half of the amulet was. When I resisted, he stabbed me in the back with a knife he’d filched from the caterers. Only Cassie’s arrival in the courtyard saved my life.”

  “I’ve got to meet this Cassie,” Diana said. “She sounds special.”

  Special wasn’t the half of it. “You’ll like her,” Harrison said.

  Adam kept talking. “I was in the courtyard bleeding, slowly losing consciousness, and I saw this red leather handbag. I dragged
myself over to it and hid the amulet inside.”

  “It was Cassie’s handbag,” Harrison said.

  Adam brightened. “So she has the amulet? Everything is okay? We can still reunite the rings?”

  Harrison glanced over at Clyde. “You didn’t tell him?”

  Clyde shook his head.

  “What?” Adam looked from one to the other. “What is it?”

  Harrison blew out his breath. “We have Solen’s half of the amulet, but Ahmose Akvar destroyed Kiya’s half.” He looked over at his mother. “Ahmose said to ask you why.”

  “What?” Diana looked startled.

  Then, because he was beginning to suspect the answer, Harrison asked her the question he hadn’t asked her in sixteen years.

  “Who’s my father?”

  CHAPTER 24

  You’ve already started to figure it out, son. Why else would Ahmose Akvar destroy one-half of the amulet?”

  Harrison’s gaze locked with Diana’s. “Because he’s descended from Vizier Nebamun. Ahmose destroyed Kiya’s ring in order to prevent the reunification. He was desperate to prevent the curse.”

  “Exactly.”

  “What does that have to do with me?” he asked.

  Clyde came over and placed both hands on Diana’s shoulders. She leaned against Clyde and squarely met Harrison’s glare. “You’re upset about losing the amulet.”

  “How could I not be? It was my life’s work. Your life’s work too. Aren’t you upset? Your opportunity to disprove the legend is gone forever.”

  “What does it matter if Solen and Kiya are reunited? If you don’t believe.”

  “What if I do?”

  Diana smiled faintly. “Which is it, son? Do you believe in the legend or don’t you?”

  Odd, but when he tried to think of Kiya, it was laughing, outrageous, fun-loving Cassie who popped into his head. And when he tried to imagine Solen, he saw only his own face. He shook his head, feeling disoriented. What was wrong with him? He turned the tables, answering his mother’s question with the eternal question that so badly needed answering.

  “Who is my father?”

  “Are you certain you want to know?”

  “I wouldn’t be asking if I didn’t.” Harrison curled his fingers into his palms, bracing for the news he’d waited thirty-two years to hear. His heart curiously slowed. “I’ve always wanted to know.”

  “He was Egyptian. As you’ve always suspected. That’s where you get your olive complexion.”

  Reaching up, Harrison touched his cheek. Half Egyptian. Somehow he’d always known this. Egypt was in his blood. It was as much a part of him as his color—

  blindness.

  “Your biological father is dead. He passed away four or five years ago. I think it was a heart attack.” She said it so emotionlessly, as if she had never made love to the man, had never given birth to his child out of wedlock.

  And Harrison realized he’d been like his mother for far too long. Holding back, denying his feelings, living too much in his head and not enough in his heart.

  He had not expected the news of his biological father’s death to hit him so viscerally. He hadn’t known the man, but he couldn’t shake the feeling of having been cheated out of something vital.

  “What was his name?”

  “Mohammad Akvar.”

  He sucked in his breath as the impact hit him. “The former Egyptian prime minister?”

  “Yes.”

  “Ahmose is my brother?”

  “Your half brother, yes.”

  The full implication finally sank in. “That means I’m also descended from Vizier Nebamun. The man who poisoned Kiya and Solen.”

  “You are. So I ask you again, son. Do you believe in the star-crossed lovers or not?”

  He recognized what she was getting at. If he believed in the star-crossed lovers, then he must believe in the curse. You couldn’t have one without the other. But he did not believe in the legend. There was nothing to fear from the curse. As his mother had once said, there was no such thing as soul mates and undying love. No such thing as love at first sight.

  What about Cassie? whispered a voice in the back of his head.

  “It’s a moot point. Kiya’s half of the amulet is no more. Ahmose threw it into the river. We’ll never be able to prove the legend of the star-crossed lovers one way or the other.”

  “Don’t be so sure about that.”

  “Enough secrets.” Harrison jumped up from his chair, no longer able to tolerate his mother’s games. “Just tell me. Tell me everything.”

  Diana hesitated.

  “You’ve got to let me have control over my own life. Stop withholding information.”

  “Are you certain?”

  “Positive.”

  “As you wish.” Diana nodded. “After you discovered Kiya’s remains, I couldn’t help worrying. What if I’d been wrong about the legend? What if it really was true? And what if either you or your brother one day found Solen and the other half of the amulet? You were extremely determined, and Adam is very competitive. Throw Tom Grayfield into the mix, and I knew it was inevitable that one of you would find Solen.”

  “What did you do?”

  “I had a replica of Kiya’s amulet made.”

  “You’re telling me that you switched the amulet?”

  “Yes.”

  “But when and how?”

  “Ten days ago. When you first arrived. Clyde made the switch at the Kimbell while you were setting up the exhibit.”

  Excitement took hold of him. All was not lost. The pieces could still be brought together, the amulet made whole. Solen and Kiya reunited.

  “Ahmose did not destroy the real half?”

  His mother reached into the pocket of her sweater, pulled out a small white jeweler’s box, and pressed it into his hand. “I can’t protect you anymore. It’s your decision to make. If you’re willing to take the gamble, then reunite the lovers.”

  Cassie had just finished burning the last memento from her collage wall when the doorbell rang. She rocked back on her heels and watched the picture of Peyton Shriver go up in smoke. She had thought that burning the photographs and memorabilia would be bittersweet.

  But it was not. She felt empowered. She felt excited. She felt free.

  The bell chimed a second time.

  She closed the fireplace screen, dusted off her palms, and rose to her feet. She figured it must be Maddie and David. She was expecting them any minute.

  She was surprised but very pleased to find Harrison standing on the landing.

  “Harry!” She flung her arms around his neck and hugged him tight. She was so happy to see him, she barely noticed he did not hug her back. “What are you doing here?”

  He held out a white jeweler’s box.

  For one heart-stopping moment she wondered if it was an engagement ring and her hopes leaped with joy. But the box was wider and flatter than a ring box, something more like what a bracelet or a brooch would be in.

  “You brought me a present? Aw, Harry, you didn’t have to do that.”

  “It’s not a present.”

  “What is it?”

  “Open it up.”

  She lifted the lid and stared down at an ancient copper ring. Confused, she glanced at Harry. “What?”

  “It’s Kiya’s half.”

  “The half Ahmose threw into the river?”

  “No. The real half.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “Can we sit down? This conversation is going to take me a while.”

  “Sure, sure.” She ushered him into the living room.

  He sniffed the air. “You had a fire.”

  “Yes.” She wanted so badly to tell him she’d destroyed her collage wall for him, but the timing had to be right and she wasn’t sure this was it. “I was burning a few things.”

  He sat down on the couch and Cassie curled up beside him, kicking off her flip-flops and tucking her legs underneath her.

  “Have you talk
ed to Phyllis yet?”

  “No.” Cassie shook her head.

  She’d procrastinated, not wanting to face the curator and tell her that not only was the reunification ceremony not going to take place, but the amulet stolen from the display was gone forever. Her dreams for the Smithsonian were officially over. But she realized she didn’t feel so bad about that. She studied Harry’s face and her pulse leaped. She had other dreams now.

  “Good,” he said.

  Then he told Cassie everything he had learned from his mother. How she’d been madly in love with his father and been heartbroken when she’d discovered he was married and she was pregnant. He told her how Diana had left Egypt and gone to Greece to search for Solen and had met Tom Grayfield. He had been the rebound guy for her, and she had been a means to an end for him.

  Harrison told her that he’d learned he and Ahmose were half brothers and that they were descendants of Vizier Nebamun. He even told her about Jessica and his teenage feelings for her and how he’d caught her in Adam’s arms.

  “So if we reunite the pieces of the amulet at the reunification ceremony, then you will be forever cursed.”

  “I don’t believe in the legend, remember? I don’t believe in curses.”

  “You want to do this?”

  “I want you to have everything you’ve ever wanted, Cassie. If we make this right with Phyllis, you’ll get your recommendation to the Smithsonian. Kiya and Solen are reunited. Everyone is happy.”

  “Well, except for Vizier Nebamun’s descendants. Even if you don’t believe in it, clearly they do. Belief can do strange things to people.”

  “Like the belief in immortality? Tom Grayfield was ready to kill his own son over it. Call Phyllis, tell her that everything is a go for the reunification ceremony. Your brother-in-law even got the police to release Solen and his sarcophagus. Clyde’s gone over to pick up the mummy.”

  Cassie glanced at her watch. “It’s five-thirty.”

  “We have plenty of time.”

  “No. I can’t let you do this.”

  “I want to do it. I’ve spent my life chasing this legend. The rings belong together.”

  “But you could be cursed. Are you willing to take that risk?”

  “Yes,” he said. “I am.”