To not be so alone in the world.

Rand’s parents were gone, and, in the end, they hadn’t been close, but his sister and her family were the first people he wanted to see when he returned from a deployment. His nonmilitary family. Maggie was happily married with one child and plans to have more if biology allowed. He counted his brother-in-law as his closest male friend outside his military family. They lived only 200 miles apart, and he visited regularly.

Then there was that military family, which included SEALs and other special forces operators, like Pax and Cal, whom he’d worked with over the years. The longer he was on the teams, the more blood brothers he collected, Chris Flyte being the latest addition.

Rand was far from alone. He had blood relatives and found family. Kira, as far as he knew, had neither.

He watched the red Kira dot on his cell phone map as she entered a boutique hotel in the heart of Valletta. The cousin’s hotel. Rand stayed put, even though he was several blocks away at this point. If she and Andre Stoltz left the hotel to walk through the city streets, it wouldn’t be good for Andre to spot him tailing Kira.

Andre had to believe the cover story along with everyone else. Rand wished Kira had gone for a fiction that included a whirlwind romance in Malta that would put Rand at her side every moment, but understood why that wouldn’t work now. Or rather, yet.

Because at some point, that would be exactly the story they gave, and Kira would have to accept that.

For now, she’d look for opportunities to bring him in as an art enthusiast and potential buyer. Unfortunately, Andre, who lived in Berlin, had nothing to sell in Malta.

He left the restaurant and made his way to the archaeology museum. Inside, he wandered through the exhibits, pausing for a long time to take in The Sleeping Lady, which was one of the few named artifacts he’d read about on his flight. The tiny carved figure had exquisite detail, right down to textures that showed she wore clothing on her lower extremities.

That she’d been carved in the Neolithic period was incredible. He’d done a fair amount of research on the artifact trade—legal and illegal—since last December. His interest had been piqued, but also, he supposed he hoped to impress Kira at some point. Forget that it wasn’t her specialty.

She liked art and museums. He liked Kira. He did his homework.

He’d known that at some point, their paths would cross again. It was unfortunate it had happened when he was taking Staci home from a party, but how could he have known she’d show up so late to Morgan and Pax’s baby shower?

But even that was just a lousy excuse. He and Staci had ended their friends-with-benefits relationship over eighteen months ago, and falling back into it because they were both at the shower and the woman he really wanted wasn’t had been a terrible idea. As it was, he saw Kira duck down in her car and he’d gone cold, no longer interested in a no-commitment screw with his former lover.

He’d dropped Staci at her apartment and apologized for changing his mind. She’d given him a sad smile and agreed it was probably a bad idea from the start. They’d enjoyed their arrangement for a while, but they’d both known the spark for something more had never been there.

He’d returned to Morgan’s, hoping to see Kira, but she wasn’t there. As far as he could tell, she’d never joined the party at all.

She left because she’d spotted him with Staci. Now, knowing how lonely she was, he felt like an even bigger heel. She’d taken a night for herself, a break from caretaking for her father and an opportunity to deepen her friendship with Morgan, but she’d skipped it because of him and his stupid desire to scratch an itch that could wait.

He had no clue how to tell Kira how sorry he was without causing her more pain.

He was looking at an underwater archaeology exhibit when his phone pinged with a text from Freya.

Freya

Call me. Now. Urgent.

Rand looked around the museum. There was no one else in the room, but that could change at any moment. Freya wasn’t one to use the word “urgent” lightly, so he hit the Call button next to her name.

She didn’t waste a second. “The photo you sent, you’re sure that was Cousin Andre?”

“Yes. Kira introduced us.”

“We’ve got a problem, then, because I don’t know who that man is, but he definitely isn’t Kira’s step-cousin. As far as I can tell, no one has seen or spoken to Stoltz since a week before Kira’s dad had his first stroke.”

Chapter Nineteen

Cousin Andre’s hotel suite included a dining room and living room, Kira’s first hint the Stoltz family had done well in the decades that followed reunification.

“How often do you visit Malta?” she asked as she settled on a sofa in front of a thankfully empty fireplace. Given the heat outside, it was hard to imagine ever needing a fire, but she supposed winters could get cold. Maybe?

The hotel’s air-conditioning was set to a degree Celsius cooler than her own hotel, and that one degree was everything in the noonday heat.

“This is my fourth…fifth time here?” His voice rose in question.

“Did you ever meet with my father here?”

“No, but my father did, I believe.”

She felt a surge of jealousy that he knew about the relationship their fathers had shared when she knew nothing at all. “Were they close, our fathers?”

“Yes and no. They didn’t grow up together, so I don’t think they felt like real brothers. But there was a friendship that bordered on kinship, I think.”

Why had her father never told her of this family? She remembered Rand’s words about his protectiveness of her and wondered if she was supposed to fear this man.

Ridiculous.

Still, something prickled at the back of her neck. Had her desire for a family connection overridden her common sense?

The only person who’d known details about her trip to Malta was this man. They’d talked on the phone several times. Exchanged emails once she had her passport and booked her trip. He was also the only person she’d informed of her delayed travel plans. She’d emailed him immediately after rescheduling her flight that first time, providing him with the new arrival time. She’d told him she was needed to teach a class on a Navy base in Virginia. Subbing for a friend.

The shooter, Ben Kinder, had known about her trip to Malta.

Even though she hadn’t given Andre the name of the base, it wouldn’t be difficult to find which one. Posts for classes like that weren’t behind passwords because while many students were required to attend, some could opt in with approval from their commanders. It gave them training hours toward an amount they needed to accrue when not deployed.

“Would you like me to order tea from room service, my dear?”

The “my dears” were getting to be grating, as she’d been subjected to many the previous evening from men like Andre, who weren’t much older than her but took a paternalistic tone. It was a hazard of looking younger than her age, she supposed, but could be a cultural difference as well.

Rand might call her sweetheart, but that was an endearment and not meant to put her in an inferior place. Plus, when he was bossy, he was direct about it, and he accepted being chastised and even apologized when he was in the wrong.

Suddenly, she wished she’d come up with an excuse to bring him with her to this meeting.

“Kira?”

She shook her head and felt her face flush. “Sorry. No tea, thank you.” She inhaled slowly, centering herself.

“It was quite a surprise to meet your client last night.”

“Yes. I never expected to run into anyone I know in Malta. Small world.”

“Will you be meeting with him again while he’s here?”

“Yes. He’s interested in obtaining an original work by a Maltese artist and has asked me to make inquiries. It wouldn’t hurt for me to earn a private commission to offset my travel costs.”