Frailty of Things

by Schultz, Tamsen

  Only that wasn’t how he saw it at all. He wanted her to be happy and he knew, bone deep, that she’d be happy with him. He just had to convince her of that. Of course, it wasn’t entirely about her. What he felt for her, the almost physical punch to the gut he’d felt when he first saw her in his campsite, was something he would never forget. He didn’t need her. He didn’t need anyone. But he sure as hell wanted her—mentally, emotionally, and most definitely physically.

  That last little thought brought a smile to his lips. The memory of his brief time with Kit, especially the physical parts, had kept him going throughout the last five months. He couldn’t wait to touch her again, to feel her hands on his skin.

  Finally, as his mind focused on Kit, the other thoughts and worries slowly slipped from his mind and he drifted off to sleep.

  ***

  Five hours and one cryptic phone call from Kit later, Garret stood on the bank of a tree-lined, narrow canal in South London and stared at his phone.

  “Cantona? Are you there?” He could hear Caleb’s voice despite not having the device anywhere near his ear. He looked at the houseboat he’d been studying again. Looked at the woman standing on the deck and shook his head.

  “Garret!”

  Finally, Garret put the phone back to his ear. “Yeah?”

  “What the hell?” Caleb demanded.

  “I just,” he paused and looked at the woman again. She raised a mug in his direction, silently inviting him aboard.

  “You just what?” snipped his partner.

  Garret felt the last of the cobwebs shake free of his brain and he narrowed his eyes. “I think you need to get down here,” he said.

  “I think you need to get back to the hotel,” Caleb countered, his measured tone revealing just how irritated he was. “It’s ten o’clock and I haven’t seen hide nor hair of my sister. It’s time she woke up.”

  “She’s up,” Garret said, taking a step toward to the boat.

  “How would you know that?”

  “Because I’m looking at her. In fact, she just offered me a cup of coffee,” Garret said. He still had no idea what was going on, but as he got closer, he was relieved to see Kit looking fit and well rested.

  “Like hell. You saw her in her room last night and she hasn’t left.”

  “Well, she didn’t leave by the lobby or the front door, but I assure you she left because she’s here.”

  He heard Caleb grumble something under his breath before speaking again. “You’re sure?”

  Garret stepped onto the deck of the houseboat and handed Kit the phone. She wore a thick, wool sweater that fell to her mid-thigh and a hat and gloves to ward off the February chill. Her auburn hair fell free down her back and her golden eyes looked more alert and less ringed with fatigue than they had the night before. Whatever she’d been up to since he’d last seen her, she’d gotten a good night’s sleep.

  “Good morning, Caleb,” she said, then grinned at Garret as she listened to her brother‘s response on the phone.

  “Well, I have a few tricks up my sleeve,” she said into the phone as she motioned Garret inside the quaint and warm cabin. She listened to her brother as she pulled off her hat and gloves, laid them on the small table, then walked to the tiny kitchen. Grabbing a mug, she poured him some coffee.

  “You know, Caleb,” she said, handing Garret the steaming beverage. “You do realize that whatever you say isn’t going to change the fact that I am, in fact, on a boat and not in my hotel room.”

  She met Garret’s gaze and rolled her eyes at something her brother was currently saying. He removed his leather jacket and slung it over one of the chairs.

  “Be that as it may, if you would like to know what is going on, you are more than welcome to join us. Garret and I were just getting ready to sit down and have a cup of coffee. Well, I’m having tea, but you know what I mean.”

  With that, she handed the phone back to Garret, and he provided Caleb with their location then ended the call.

  “You really shouldn’t take such glee in one-upping your brother, you know,” he said as he sat down at the small table, not meaning it at all. As far as he was concerned, it was about time someone one-upped Caleb Forrester. Garret had the utmost respect for his partner, and actually liked him as a person, but that didn’t mean eating a slice of humble pie every now and then wouldn’t be a good thing for Caleb.

  “Of course I should,” she shot back, taking a seat beside him. “He’s too arrogant and too controlling for his own good. I don’t often get the chance to talk to him, let alone needle him, the way a sibling should.” She grinned again and took a sip of her tea.

  Sitting back, he took a sip of his coffee. The hot liquid tasted good and felt even better sliding down his throat. Logically, he knew it wasn’t as cold in London as it had been in Windsor, but there was something about being in a city in the winter that made him feel like he’d like entered an ice palace, like he’d never be warm again.

  They sat in companionable silence for a few minutes. He wanted to know what was going on, but figured it would be better to wait for Caleb to arrive so that Kit wouldn’t need to repeat herself.

  “You look good, well rested,” he said, studying her face as she sipped her tea.

  She offered him a smile. “Thanks, I am. This boat is surprisingly comfortable. I don’t know what I was expecting when I came here last night, but the bed is a real one and there’s always something nice about being on the water.”

  She liked the water—a little something he’d file away. “What time did you get here?”

  She wagged her head. “I don’t know, I guess at around ten last night.”

  He coughed and set his mug down. “I saw you through the window of your hotel much later than that.” He’d assumed that she’d snuck out at some point this morning, maybe when Caleb had stepped away to grab some coffee.

  Kit laughed. “I’m not sure whether to be offended that you were all but stalking me or offended that you couldn’t differentiate my form from someone else’s. Especially, considering...” She let her voice trail off.

  Yeah, considering he’d spent a good deal of time remembering her form, it seemed surprising that he would have mistaken hers through the window.

  Kit laid a hand on his arm and gave him an indulgent smile. “I’ll let it slide this time, since it’s been five months and Dani and I are built a lot alike.”

  He looked at her hand on his arm and a sudden surge of frustration swept through him. How did they come to this? Kit shouldn’t be in a position where she was sneaking around, hiding out, and hanging out with spies and people that got shot. She should be hanging out with him, maybe on a beach somewhere, laughing and driving him crazy with her golden eyes.

  “Garret?”

  He raised his eyes and saw a frown of concern touching her lips.

  “I’m fine, I was just wondering how we ended up here,” he managed to say.

  “I was wondering the same thing,” Caleb said, as he opened the door and stepped into the lounge area. Garret hadn’t heard him approach, and the boat hadn’t rocked at all when he’d boarded.

  Kit let out a little yelp of surprise and her hand went to her heart. “Jesus, you startled me,” she said.

  Caleb gave her a hard look. “Good,” was all he said. He stood there for a moment and just looked at her. She didn’t bat an eye at his scrutiny, but Garret suspected Caleb’s study was more to assure himself that his sister was okay than to intimidate her, which seemed to be the way she was reading it too.

  “Coffee?” Caleb finally asked. Kit waved to the pot on the counter behind him. After pouring a mug, he joined them at the table.

  Kit’s eyes went from her brother, to Garret, then back again.

  “Well?” Caleb demanded. “What the hell is going on, Kit?”

  Her eyes dropped to her hands wrapped around her mug, then she looked up and met Caleb’s gaze.

  “Several years ago, I met a few people who work for the CIA. We
became friends and since then, as my travel and schedule permits, I occasionally carry and deliver information for them.”

  Garret blinked. That sure wasn’t what he’d expected to hear. He glanced at Caleb, who wasn’t bothering to hide his expression.

  “Try again, Kit.”

  Garret swiveled his gaze to Kit in time to see her eyes drop and a look tinged with disappointment and resignation wash over her face at her brother’s reaction.

  While Garret hadn’t initially believed her either, that look changed his mind. When she turned to look at him, he met her gaze. “For how long?” he asked and was gratified to see her shoulders release some tension at his belief in her.

  “You don’t believe her, do you?” Caleb asked.

  “Actually, I do,” Garret responded, holding her gaze. “Honestly, it’s the only thing that makes sense. Why else would she be hanging out with spooks and have people to step in for her to make it look like she was somewhere she wasn’t,” he added, referring the figure he’d seen in the window. “I don’t know how or why, but I do believe her.”

  Her eyes softened and her lips tipped up into a small, fleeting smile. “Thank you, Garret.”

  “Why don’t you tell us about it,” he prompted.

  Caleb, who for some reason was being more of an ass than usual, sat back and crossed his arms over his chest, not saying a word.

  “There’s not much to tell,” Kit began after she’d taken another sip of her tea. “I was introduced to Drew Carmichael by a friend right around the time our father died. I knew they both worked for the CIA, so when my travel schedule picked up and I started attending some of the events I attend, Drew and I just started talking one night about ways I could help.”

  “Ways you could help?” Garret repeated, not sure he’d heard right. “In what ways would a CIA operative ever need to drag in a civilian?” He actually knew a few, but he was starting to feel a little pissy that this Carmichael guy had dragged Kit in.

  “Don’t get so moody, Garret,” Kit shot back. “It was my idea, actually. I was at an embassy party in Cairo several years ago and happened to overhear something. When I got back to the states, I called Drew and told him what I’d heard. That started the whole thing and I’ve been doing it ever since.”

  “You’re a CIA asset?” Caleb clarified, disbelief still ringing clear in his voice.

  Kit shook her head. “No, I’m not an asset, more like a mule. I just carry information around. I don’t do anything else, and I only do it if I happen to be going to a particular place. And just to clarify, I don’t think Drew is an operative—he used to be out in the field a lot when he was younger, but now he does a lot of work out of Langley.”

  Garret shook his own head. In his mind, once CIA, always CIA. Whether Drew was active in the field or not, he shouldn’t have dragged Kit into his game.

  “When he was younger? How old is he?” Garret asked, suddenly realizing what else she’d said. It would just be so much worse if the guy behind all this was some old-school spook.

  Kit lifted a shoulder. “He’s not old by any means, late thirties, maybe forty, but he’s always saying field work is a young man’s game.”

  “He may not be old in years, but I tell you he’s an old man at heart,” a woman said, stepping into the lounge much the same way Caleb had. In an instant, both he and Caleb were on their feet, blocking Kit. He had a gun, so did his partner, but neither wanted to pull it unless necessary.

  A tall, blonde woman stepped farther into the cabin and a dark-haired man came in behind her. Her big brown eyes bounced between them and she let out a little laugh. “Stand down, gentlemen. I’m a friend.”

  Neither of them did, but then, judging by the way she seemed perfectly at ease with their vigilance, Garret would guess she hadn’t expected them to.

  “You okay?” the woman asked, her eyes landing on Kit, who was still sitting.

  Kit nodded. “I’m fine, well rested. Thank you.”

  “My husband didn’t keep you up with his snoring?” the blonde teased.

  The man snorted. “You’re the snorer in the family, babe,” he shot back.

  “Am not,” she retorted with a smile that led Garret to think this was a long-standing faux argument between the two.

  “Yeah, you are,” Kit interjected. “Caleb, Garret, this is Dani and Ty Fuller,” she added making the introductions.

  Dani gestured with her hands in mock exasperation. “So much for girl power, Kit. Did you tell them?”

  Again, Kit nodded. “Yes, but my brother doesn’t believe me.”

  Dani’s sharp brown eyes flitted to Caleb. “I can hardly blame him for that, Kit. You’re too good to be a part of this world in any way.”

  Garret found himself liking this woman, whoever she was.

  “You’re CIA,” Caleb said, meeting her eyes.

  For a moment, she didn’t answer, then she glanced at the man beside her and spoke. “Former CIA,” she clarified. “And my husband is former vice and a former SEAL. We both work with a private security-consulting firm now. But,” she paused and let her eyes fall to Kit again. “What’s relevant for this conversation is that I’m a friend of Kit’s. We’ve known each other a very long time.”

  “So you’re the one who brought her into this?”

  “Don’t be a jerk, Caleb. Dani didn’t do anything I didn’t initiate,” Kit cut her brother off. “And it’s none of your business how it all started or even whether I’ll keep doing it, but it is the reason I was seen with the two gentlemen you saw me with yesterday. So, now that you know my deep, dark secret, you can go back to whatever it was you were doing before you followed me here,” she snapped.

  “Are you ready?” Dani asked.

  “Ready? Ready for what?” Caleb demanded.

  Garret could see Caleb’s tone was quickly wearing on Kit’s temper. He could see her startlingly colored eyes debate whether or not to even answer her brother. Finally, she sighed as she rose.

  “If you recall, I’m expected at a gathering in Rome. Dani and Ty are going to escort me.”

  “Like hell. I want to know what you were talking to Jonathon Parker about. You must know—” Caleb cut himself off, and for the first time in probably ever, Garret saw Caleb act unsure. He could tell that his partner of so many years didn’t know how much to say. He wanted answers, but didn’t want to drag his sister in any deeper.

  “I must know that Jonathon Parker is being investigated by MI6?” Kit supplied, surprising everyone there.

  Caleb blinked. “Yes.”

  “Yes, I do know. Drew told me everything when he asked if I would meet with Jonathon to begin with. That meeting was different than others, obviously. But Drew and I have been good friends for a number of years and he asked me to do him a personal favor. He didn’t hide anything.”

  Garret saw Caleb’s jaw working furiously. He wasn’t ever sure what Caleb thought of Kit, but Garret was pretty sure her brother had never suspected she did anything other than write. Finding out she was hooked up with the CIA and had been for years was a lot for someone like Caleb to stomach. It was a lot for Garret to stomach too—and he wasn’t doing it very well either. He ran a hand over his face and through his hair.

  “Kit, why don’t I take you to the airport?” he said. And get on a plane with you, was what he wanted to say. He didn’t doubt her, not for a moment. And that was what made it all worse. Now that he knew what she did, even if she didn’t think much of it, he was pretty sure he was going to have an ulcer every time she traveled out of the country.

  “I’ll take her,” Caleb interjected.

  But Kit shook her head. “Neither of you will take me. Dani and Ty will. Caleb,” she said, turning to her brother. “I don’t know why you came to Windsor a few days ago or why you followed me here. This,” she said with an encompassing gesture, “was obviously news to you, so not the reason. I know there’s something you want from me.”

  Caleb opened his mouth to say something, but she cut
him off.

  “Whatever it is, it can wait. I have friends I want to celebrate with in Rome, friends who mean a lot to me. Please, just leave it be for now and we can talk when I get back. I can’t imagine what you think I might know, but all you ever had to do was ask.”

  Something in the vicinity of Garret’s chest ached at the sorrow he heard in her voice. One day, he’d figure out what had happened between the siblings. If he couldn’t make Caleb be a better brother, maybe he could at least help Kit feel less sad.

  “Ready, honey?” Dani asked her friend, her voice quiet.

  Kit moved her gaze from her brother to Garret, and they shared a brief moment in which he told her much more than he could say in words. She dipped her head in a small acknowledgement.

  “Yes, Dani, I’m ready.”

  CHAPTER 7

  GARRET STOOD against the wall and watched Kit dance in the arms of another man. Another man who, if the way his hand was spread across her lower back was any indication, felt completely at ease with Kit’s body pressed against his.

  Marco Baresi. The celebrated writer. The good friend. The author Garret used to enjoy reading.

  He watched them turn slowly, engaged in conversation as they flowed across the floor with a familiarity that would be hard to mistake. Kit, clad in a dark red silk dress that draped across her shoulders and down her body to mid-thigh, leaned back and smiled at something Baresi said. Her auburn hair, held back with a clip above her ear on one side, swayed as they danced.

  A few people walked by and eyed Garret, no doubt trying to figure who he was and whether or not he was important. The party was invite only, so no one doubted he belonged there, even if they couldn’t place him.

  Garret waved to one of the servers, who immediately brought him a glass of champagne. He sipped it as the music played, waiting for the dance to end. He tried to turn his eyes from the couple to take in other parts of this opulent party he’d managed to snag an invitation to through an old contact who’d owed him a favor. But he didn’t try very hard; after only a few seconds, his eyes drifted back.