Page 93 of Her Brother's Billionaire Best Friend

Of course I didn’t. But then, I thought to myself, I hadn’t had time to talk to my mom for the last fifteen years.

*

“And what did he say?” asked Tracey. We’d gone to a small coffee shop in town. I could tell my mom was a little uncomfortable at being anywhere closer to civilization than Caluga Lake. But she sipped her coffee nevertheless.

“He told me to get out,” I said. “I still don’t believe it. Mom, you should have seen it. When I walked out on him a few months ago, he came down to the house and persuaded me to come back.”

“So I guess this Barnes fella really doesn’t want you to know anything about him, huh?” Tracey said.

“I guess,” I said. “But what can it be, Mom? What would Lucien be doing?”

Tracey looked thoughtful as she stared around at the busy place. “Look at ‘em all,” she murmured. “Love complications?”

“Huh?”

“People love to complicate things,” said Tracey. “Don’t you find? They go here, they go there, making up all kinds of fantastic stories.”

“Is that what you think I’ve done with Lucien.”

“You remember what I said, the first time I saw him?” said Tracey.

I shook my head. Then, gradually, I remembered. Tracey looked at me, raising an eyebrow.

“Well?” she said. “It’s true, isn’t it?”

I shrugged. “I…I guess,” I said. “But not really.”

Maybe I was even crazy to think of it that way. But Lucien did share some of Conor’s features. His hair, though cropped close these days, was the same brown with flecks of red. He had those same, livid, shining green eyes. The same broad-shouldered, buff physique. But the truth was Lucien didn’t really look anything like Conor, not the Conor I’d known. His muscles bristled, not like Conor’s slim swimmer’s frame. And Lucien was a scarred, bearded, tense creature, who moved with all the predatory instinct of a big cat. He was a million miles away from the handsome, arrogant small-town boy I’d met.

But then I thought again. The tea-drinking. And hadn’t Lucien said to Kyle once that he swam?

And they’d both been in the Navy. Maybe they were in the same unit.

“What’s the simplest explanation, Laura?” said Tracey. “Come on. You were always a smart girl. You tell me.”

“That Lucien knew Conor,” I said. “That he knew him, and for some reason he…heard about us.”

“You think they could have been related?”

“I don’t know,” I said. Was it possible that Conor might have had a brother? A cousin? I shook my head. I was convinced he had no family. All the time I’d known Conor, he’d never mentioned it. Hell, he even told me once or twice how he wished he’d had family.

Maybe he’d found family. Maybe he’d found Lucien and Lucien had lost him. Maybe Conor wasn’t just missing.

Maybe he was dead, and this was some sick, twisted way of Lucien keeping him alive.

“I don’t want to think about it,” I said.

“Well,” replied Tracey. “You’ll have to, if you want an end to this. What’s David going to do?”

“What do you mean?” I said.

“You think this billionaire’s just going to let your brother get away with a burglary?” said Tracey.

*

She was right. I had to get back to the house, had to warn David. Talking to Tracey had cleared my mind. Whatever Lucien’s secret was, it was dangerous. Maybe even lethal. And he’d do anything to protect it.

I parked the car in the driveway and ran up to the front door of the house. It was early evening now, and the shadows were cresting over the valley. At the top of the valley, Lakeview twinkled, a dark diamond nestled above the waterfalls.