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She laughed. “You mean the takeout from the Mexican place, the Chinese place and the pizza place?”
“Details, details. Want some tea?”
“Tea would be wonderful.”
Dec rose, got a small tin canister from a shelf, opened it, dumped tea leaves in their mugs and then added boiling water as Annie gave each of them another serving of oatmeal.
“My mother taught me to cook,” she said. She laughed at the doubtful expression on his face. “Well, okay. Not really. She could only make one thing. Brownies. She’d learned how from a roommate when she was at school, and she made them for me a few times a year. They were a special treat.”
“My mom’s specialty was corn fritters. She’d tell me to bring in a couple of dozen ears of corn and I’d run out and pick them as fast as I could ’cause the faster I picked ’em and husked ’em, the faster those fritters got into my belly.”
Annie smiled. “You grew up on a farm?”
“You could call it that, I guess.” Dec drank some of his tea. “We had a few acres.”
“But you didn’t want to be a farmer.”
“Me?” He smiled. “I wanted to be the quarterback for the Green Bay Packers. Or maybe pitch for the Red Sox. Somehow get to the UK and be drafted by Manchester United.”
“A sports hero,” she said, laughing.
“Uh huh. Only one drawback. I was good at sports, but not good enough to win a scholarship. And I knew I needed a degree if I was going to get out into the world.”
“So you joined the Navy?”
He pushed his empty bowl away. “I had this thing about computers. Kind of a skill.”
“I remember what you did for Chay and Bianca.” Annie smiled. “Very impressive. I mean, I’m good at computers, but you…”
“I just have a feel for coding.” He grinned. “And especially for hacking. Of course, I didn’t mention the hacking part when I applied to a bunch of colleges. NYU—New York University—offered me a scholarship, but after I graduated the idea of sitting at a desk for the rest of my life…” He shrugged. “Then I lucked out. I met this guy, a friend of a friend. He was a SEAL. He wouldn’t talk much about his work, but the little he said… I knew it sounded right. So I asked him how to become a SEAL. A long time later, I realized I was lucky he hadn’t laughed in my face…” Dec rolled his eyes. “Man, just listen to me! You’ve got me babbling.”
Annie reached for his hand. “I want to know everything about you, Declan. Everything! Your favorite color. Your favorite book. What you were like as a little boy…” She hesitated. “But right now—now, I guess it’s time for me to tell you about me.”
Her voice was low; her face, when she lifted it and looked at him, wore an expression that made his throat tighten.
Dec knew she was about to tell him what he needed to hear, what they’d both done a good job of avoiding, and suddenly he thought, to hell with putting her through this. He knew the bad guys who were after them—her uncle, her would-be bridegroom, the bastards who’d kidnapped her, the terrorist who wanted her, and what did it matter if he knew how all of them came together?
He didn’t even have to know why she’d left him.
Not anymore.
She was his. That was all that mattered—although yeah, some day he’d want the whole story so he could deal with the uncle, the groom, the kidnappers, the so-called Deliverer, but the bottom line was that getting her home had nothing to do with any of that.
“Annie,” he said, “you know what? You don’t have to do this. I believe everything you told me abou
t your uncle, and I’m sure you had a good reason for leaving me, and—”
“I have to talk about it.” She laced her fingers through his and drew a long, deep breath. “Because here’s the most important thing. I didn’t leave you. I mean, I knew I had to—it was why I’d started to see you less often—but I couldn’t bring myself to make the break.” Her eyes filled with tears; she brought their joined hands to her face and pressed kisses to his knuckles. “I loved you. I loved you. I would never have—”
“Anoushka.” Declan pushed back his chair, reached for her and drew her into his lap. “Don’t cry, baby. Please. Don’t cry. Remember what I said? If you can’t talk about it—”
She put her fingers lightly over his mouth, took another deep breath, and began with her childhood in Qaram.
“I was always happy. Nobody’s always happy, but I really was. My parents loved me and I adored them.” She smiled. “I have lots of wonderful memories. Seeing mountain gorillas in Rwanda. Going to the top of the Eiffel Tower. A trip to Disneyland.” Declan raised his eyebrows and she gave a soft laugh. “I had my picture taken with Minnie Mouse.”
Dec smiled and gathered her closer. “Not Mickey?”
“I thought Minnie had been overlooked. She was a girl mouse, but that didn’t make her less important than Mickey.”
