She hadn’t heard from Julian in weeks.
She didn’t know if he was alive or dead.
The sun had set hours ago before Mena was allowed to leave.
Mena thought about Linda’s theory. She wasn’t dismissing the prediction of Julian’s behavior, but Linda didn’t know the man her son had transformed into. The man Mena had fallen in love with. Julian wouldn’t go on the run without making sure Mena was safe. He still knew Priscilla Dumay was a threat, not just to him, but to her as well. To Mena, that meant Julian hadn’t gone far. Not yet.
Sunny Tate had already used her security team to bust him out of Tiverton. Maybe Julian had called her for help after he survived jumping into the waterfall. If anyone could help him get away, wouldn’t it be the team he worked with in Kenya?
All Mena needed to do was have one conversation with the woman. She was sure she’d be able to get the truth out of her. If that didn’t work, Mena could always lure Julian the best way she knew how—use herself as bait. Hadn’t Julian risked his life, time and again, to save her. Mena bristled at the thought of tricking Julian out of hiding, but what other option did she have?
Steering the car along the curb in front of the home, Mena exited the vehicle and bounded up the steps to the front door. Mena paused, resting her hand against the ornate glass. A sob rumbled from deep within her and escaped her lips. Her eyes stung from the unshed tears. Crying wouldn’t solve anything.
The only thing that brought her peace was being in the Valley of Waterfalls. The place Julian had last been seen. The trek she made each day fueled her, and oddly, comforted her.
Truthfully, going back to St. Basil, to the penthouse suite they shared in Harmony Towers filled with all of Julian’s things and all of their memories was a torture of its own. Courage to face living without Julian would have to come from some place deep inside of her. A place she hadn’t found yet.
Linda was right. Julian wouldn’t expect her to save him, nor would he want her pressing pause on her life while he ran from the police. She could do nothing to help him, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t be of use to Octavia in clearing Julian’s name. If she helped the attorney prove Julian was innocent, then he could stop hiding and come home to her.
Resolve strengthening, Mena knew that was her best move. She was going back to St. Basil and would work tirelessly to make sure that Julian was cleared of any wrongdoing. Once Julian knew the charges against him had been dropped, there would be nothing stopping him from coming back. Slipping the key into the door, Mena turned the knob and stepped inside.
The air of the lodge was charged and tense. Mena stood poised in the doorway, eyes darting around the open foyer and into the picturesque living room that overlooked the Valley of the Waterfalls. Someone was in here.
Slipping her hand into her purse, she wrapped her palm around the Beretta and lifted it slowly. The gun was heavy in her hands as she stepped inside the lodge and nudged the front door closed with her foot.
Water puddles pooled along the wooden floor, leading into the sunken living room. Mena approached slowly until a figure appeared, standing near the wide windows. She raised the gun higher, pointed toward the intruder.
“Who are you?” Mena asked.
Turning slowly, the lamps illuminated the water-soaked face of Sunny Tate. She was drenched, dressed in a diving wetsuit. Her hair slick next to her face. But her eyes arrested Mena. Puffy and red, swollen from shed tears.
“Never thought we’d meet like this,” Sunny said, wringing her hands.
“I just called Wangari trying to reach you,” Mena said, lowering the gun back into her purse.
“You should sit.”
“Why?”
“Please, Mena. What I have to tell you is going to be hard enough.”
Mena approached the high-backed chair near the windows and sat on the edge. Resting on the side table next to the chair was a burner phone coated in algae and seaweed. The small device sat next to a ripped black, long-sleeved combat shirt. The shirt Julian had put on before he’d kissed her goodbye in the basement of the Genesis Gallery.
Recoiling from the items, Mena stood. She had to put distance between herself and those … things.
Sunny said, “It didn’t make sense that there was no sign of Julian in the Pourciau River. That is, until my team discovered about a dozen caves behind the waterfall where Julian jumped. The coast guard searched a few of them, but the others are treacherous to reach. Too risky to search, especially since the likelihood of surviving a fall into one of them was really slim. So, we mapped the rest of them. After the coast guard moved further down the river, we explored a different cave each night hoping to find Julian.”
“But you didn’t?”
“No. We didn’t find his … body. We entered a cave tonight and saw this shirt floating on the surface of the water. We dove in, trying to get to the bottom to see if we could find Julian, but all we found was that burner phone. One of a half dozen I left behind for him at the basement in the Genesis Gallery. We kept diving to find him, but the cenote was dark and too deep. It was impossible to determine if his body was down there without risking our own lives.”
Mena shook her head. “Well, that’s okay because his body isn’t in the bottom of some damn cenote cave. He had to have gotten out of there some kind of way.”
“We found blood on rocks leading down into the cave. Julian’s blood. Our tests confirmed it. When he jumped, the force of the waterfall slammed him into that cave. He must have hit his head hard and tumbled unconscious into the cenote. If he hadn’t been knocked out from the fall, I know he could have gotten out of there.”
“What are you saying?” Mena felt the roar of blood rushing in her ears. Her sight blurred as her body swayed.
Sunny dragged a hand down her face. “What you have to understand is that Julian and I were trained to weigh all options and every threat. But no matter how much you plan, train and prepare, there will always be something that you didn’t account for. Something that could end your life. I believe Julian knew all the risks when he jumped from that mountain and that he would never regret his choice.”
