“That’s what I told Gabrielle,” Sebastian said. “If we’d known that was their destination, it would’ve raised a lot of red flags.”
“Questions we’d want answered,” Lachlan said.
“Answers they likely didn’t want to give,” Gabrielle said. “That’s why I need you to find out why my parents went to Lesotho and if Ike is undercover there trying to get those same answers.”
His parents’ humanitarian work had always been important to them, but Ike sensed something deeper—something that could’ve run afoul of the “dirty work in Africa” that Alexei Brazhensky was involved in.
And if that was true, the Brazhenskys could be behind his parents’ deaths.
Chapter 38
“I don’t want it,” Paloma said, pushing the salad back toward Britt.
“Can’t you give it a try? For me? Please,” Britt said, hoping to coax her little girl into a few healthier eating habits. She’d made the salad with different vegetables—spinach, broccoli, edamame beans—and added mango and strawberries for a splash of color to entice Paloma into eating it. After watching what Lachlan fed the child over the last few days, she worried that Paloma wasn’t getting the vitamins and minerals she needed to grow healthy and strong.
“No, thank you,” Paloma said, blanching.
“Why not?”
“Because it’s … green. Green food is yucky,” she said definitively.
“Salad is green but also yummy and good for you. Don’t you want to eat food that will make you feel good and give you the energy to play more?” She tried a different angle.
“I’m five. I’m too young to eat food that’s good for me.”
“I see. So, what would you like for dinner?” Britt asked, leaning against the kitchen island. She could only imagine thatthe child would say something like pizza, or a hamburger, or macaroni and cheese?—
“Goat fingers!” Paloma said, raising her arms triumphantly.
“Goat fingers,” Britt said, nodding her head. Her child was a Palmchatter, through and through. “Okay, let’s see if your Daddy has some goat fingers in the freezer.”
“He makes them himself with goat meat that he covers in colorful sprinkles,” Paloma explained. “We call them rainbow goat fingers.”
“Rainbow … sprinkles?” Britt was going to kill Lachlan if he was coating meat with candy to feed to their child. Even he knew better than to do that. Right?
Paloma jumped from the bar chair and ran to the pantry, disappearing inside. A few seconds later, she re-emerged with a box of colored goldfish—cheese snacks shaped like little fish in every color of the rainbow.
Britt chuckled under her breath, relieved.
“Do you think you can make it like Daddy?” Paloma asked, leveling her with a skeptical gaze. “Maybe we need to wait for him to get home.” She clutched the box of goldfish tight to her chest. Her eyes shifted from her to the salad that Britt dared to suggest she eat.
Britt wondered if the child was concerned that she would sneak something green and good for her into the goat tenders.
“Good point,” Britt said, glancing at the clock. Lachlan would be home soon, and he could be in charge of dinner. There was no point in wasting time making something else her daughter would turn her nose up at. Besides her meal faux pas, day one of caring for her little girl had left her blissfully exhausted. Whoever questioned whether being a full-time mom was a real job was crazy. She was just happy that Lachlan had been right—Paloma loved the idea of forgoing Goat Scout Camp to spend her days with Britt.
They’d had a busy day filled with subtle educational activities of identifying tropical fruits at the King Family orchards, counting seashells, and practicing writing letters in the sand. Paloma finally mastered writing an M without the extra peaks with her help. A win in Britt’s book. But it wasn’t all work and no play. They’d built a sandcastle and followed it up with splash time in the backyard pool.
It was enough distraction to stop Britt from thinking about the mystery man who’d stopped by, which the sex-fueled night of multiple orgasmic bliss had properly erased from her brain. And she didn’t have time to think about Lachlan’s plan to pass off intel to Alejandro Cerundolo as a trade to keep her alive, either. But she was determined to get an update on both when Lachlan got home.
“Why don’t you put the goldfish on the counter,” Britt said, then reached for Paloma’s hand. "We can look at the boats from the patio while we wait for Daddy to get home."
They walked out to the patio that overlooked the Caribbean Sea. The sun was dipping lower toward the horizon, and beautiful yachts bobbed in the crystal-clear turquoise water.
"That one's so pretty!" Paloma exclaimed, pointing to a yacht with gleaming white sides.
"It is beautiful," Britt agreed. "Look at how clear the water is. You can almost see the fish swimming underneath."
"I bet there are treasure fish down there," Paloma said, her eyes wide with excitement. "And rainbow coral and maybe even baby sharks!"
