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“I still wanted to hear about it from you. I also saw an article about the Continental Alliance. Your name was in the headline, but I didn’t read it. Something told me that was a story you needed to tell me yourself.”
“Not while we’re driving. I don’t drink, but telling that story would be easier after a few shots.”
“Yes, I imagine that’s true, but would you be willing to settle for a cup of hot chocolate? I packed some packets in my bag. Something told me we’d need them.”
“Yes. I think I can open up to you as we sip cocoa. If there is a fire in the hearth, it’ll be even easier.”
“That can be arranged. I rented an Airbnb. It has separate bedrooms as requested. The view is fabulous, and there is a huge fireplace in the front room.”
She reached across the console and squeezed his knee. Thankfully, her hand returned to her lap. Otherwise, concentrating on the road would’ve been impossible.
Chapter Nineteen
“You ever going to tell me what we’re doing here?” Cate stared at the dancing flames and gripped her mug with both hands.
“Not until you open up to me.”
“I did. You know about my dad and my mom. You met my brother. You saw where I live.”
He took the cup from her hands and drew her closer to him on the couch.
“Just the facts. That’s your style, and I get it. I’m usually the same way, but I want more from you. Are you willing to share your heart with me, Cate?”
Her pulse sped up. What he was asking was risky. If she trusted him with her deepest secrets, and he walked away, she’d be crushed. And she wasn’t sure she could handle that. Life had been harsh enough. “My heart? What do you mean by that?”
“Relationships are built on more than facts. I’m not interested in a casual relationship. If we’re going to date, I want to know that there is a chance for a future between us. There isn’t if it’s going to be one-sided.”
“You wanted to know about the article.” Her eyes searched his as she made the conscious decision to trust him. “You really didn’t read it?”
He shook his head. “Felt something inside telling me not to. Don’t know if it was the Holy Spirit or simple intuition, but I chose to wait. I plan to read it, but I’d rather hear it from you first.”
Her mind raced. The Holy Spirit. She’d stopped listening years ago. Maybe if she trusted Him, it would be easier to trust Malachi. His motives seemed pure, but it was like taking a plunge off a cliff into ice-cold water. It would be exhilarating, but might also prove a fatal error. Lifting a prayer for it to all turn out all right, she sucked in a breath before starting her story. “A few years ago, a friend of mine disappeared from our campus. At the time, I was attending the University of Pennsylvania.”
“Wow. And you switched to Penn State. Why?”
“Let me finish, and you’ll hear the whole of it.”
He made a zipping motion across his lips and sat back, allowing her to continue her story.
“My roommate, Brittany, wanted to join a sorority. They’d asked me first, and I’d shot them down, but they wouldn’t let her join without me, so I agreed. The next thing I know they have us doing some questionable things as pledges, but I ignored all the warning signs because I didn’t want to disappoint my friend. I didn’t have many of them. Growing up a billionaire’s daughter can be isolating. I did have one other friend at the school, Emmaline. She was the daughter of one of my dad’s friends. A federal judge. Around the time we joined the sorority, Emmaline went missing. Everyone thought she’d run off with her boyfriend until he showed back up at school without her. That’s when things got weird.
“This older man, Mason, tried to get me to go to Emmaline’s house and steal something from her father. I suspected something wasn’t right, so I contacted another one of my dad’s friends who worked for the FBI. He convinced me to go undercover as a guest of the Continental Alliance. The cloak and dagger of it all intrigued me and I agreed to it. There was a problem though. One I didn’t find out until much later.”
“What was that?”
“The FBI agent I went to was a member of the Continental Alliance, and I wasn’t really going undercover, I was a captive.”
“Did they hurt you?”
She shook her head. “Thankfully, I was rescued before being ‘married off’, which was what they called it when they gave a woman to one of their esteemed members, but I’ll admit to having trust issues that weren’t present before the experience.”
Malachi tugged her closer and wrapped her in his arms. “That was so brave of you.”
She pulled back and wiped away a tear. “You mean stupid?”
“No. I mean brave.”
“If I had been smarter and gone to my father or my brothers instead of going to Dad’s friend, my friends might’ve been spared what they went through there.”
