“You think it’s this Sofia person,” he assumes.
“I don’t know what to think, but I believe someone was in the store. I believe it was someone who was with Gio those three days.”
“And they didn’t get what they wanted,” he supplies.
“Exactly. Which is pretty disconcerting. Why are they here, looking for answers here with me, when Gio’s at the heart of all of this? Where is Gio?” I slide the letter to him. “Read that, please.”
He grabs my cup and sips before he glances down. He reads maybe a line at most and sets the cup aside, eyeing me. “I feel like I’m invading his privacy.”
“Yeah me, too, but I still need you to read it.”
He gives a quick nod and starts to read again. I have the letter memorized I’ve read it so many times. In my mind, I repeat Sofia’s words:
When you touch me, I tremble. When I close my eyes and you’re not here, I remember your touch, your hands on my body, your tongue on my skin. And when you kiss me, as silly as it might sound, I melt. I go places with you, do things with you that I never knew I could welcome in my life. But it’s all about you. It’s all about what you make me feel.
I know you feel that I’ve become your “reckless note” in the never-ending pursuit of a story you cannot leave without a proper ending. But that’s just it. I’m part of this story now. I’m part of your story. And I never meant for any of this to happen. I couldn’t know that we’d meet and the world would spin beneath my feet, and somehow ignite a million shades of beauty in my life. I couldn’t know that I’d change how you saw, well, everything.
Please don’t do this. Don’t shut me out.
I don’t know who I am without you anymore.
We will find the answers you need together. We will find your family “recipe.” I wasn’t lying. The answers you need can be found with me and at the Riptide Auction House. I promise you. Come see me. I won’t keep secrets any longer. I’m done with secrets.
Love forever,
Sofia
I sip the coffee and Kace glances up at me. “That’s an intense letter. I have questions.”
I set the cup down. “That’s how I feel, too, and I’ve read it about a hundred times. I thought the ‘come see me’ thing meant at Riptide, but that isn’t the case.”
“We’ll talk to Mark and Crystal about her.” I open my mouth to object and he holds up a hand. “We can do that without telling them who you are. And after you figure out how much you want to tell Walker. Because I think they need to be in on all of these things. Obviously, he busted her telling lies and maybe even fell in love with her.”
That idea punches hard. “And I didn’t even know her. He never so much as said her name to me.” I press my hand to my forehead. “The divide between us these past few months was about his need to hunt our heritage. She replaced me in that hunt. And perhaps to his demise.”
He rounds the island and pulls me close, stroking hair behind my ear. “Don’t think like that. He’s disappeared before and reappeared. “
“It feels different and maybe if I would have listened to him instead of shutting him down—”
“You didn’t cause the divide. It just happened, baby. The past and family are pulling you both, and at the time, with two different perspectives in your minds. You know that, right?”
“I just want him to come home.” I pick up the letter. “She’s the answer. I know she is.”
“Then we’ll find her. One way or another, we’ll find Sofia.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Kace hangs out in the kitchen to make a few business calls while I rush through my shower and make-up, dressing for our meeting with Mark and Crystal in my go-to black slacks, heels, and a black silk blouse. Once my lips are painted pink and glossed, I grab the bag I’d collected of Gio’s things and head downstairs. I’m halfway to the living room when the doorbell rings. Kace hurries down the kitchen stairwell and we meet in the center of the two stairwells in the living room.
“I’m nervous,” I declare, catching his waist and leaning into him, some remote part of me aware of how easily I now touch him. I’m comfortable with Kace in ways that defy all my walls and worries. Walker Security is another story. “It’s just Savage and Blake Walker we’re meeting with, right?”
“Right,” he confirms, folding me into the warmth of his body. “Relax, baby. Say only what you feel comfortable saying. I believe in Walker, but you are the one who matters here. You need to believe in them, too.” He kisses my forehead and sets me away from him. “I’d better go let them in. We’ll meet here in the living room.” As if driving home his words, the doorbell rings again and he heads in that direction.