“He’s a software producer,” she said quietly. “He has his own business, centered in New York, but, once he realized that we were having a family,” she said, “he had always talked about raising them in his hometown in England,” she said. “Plus I am okay with that.”
“You’ve always talked about England too. You love it.”
“I do,” she said. “I’m actually pretty happy to go.”
“Good,” It was easy to say good, but, at the same time, it felt like a loss all over again. But Brenna kept up a cheerful banter, as they worked their way through the various flights.
By the time they landed in London, Brenna was sorry she had agreed to go the circular route. It probably wouldn’t have taken that much longer than any other flight, but she was tired as they landed. Then she finally got out of her seat and stood in line and worked her way through the crowd, until they picked up the luggage and walked out onto the fresh air. “Now I’m really tired.”
“Nothing quite like traveling to wear you down,” Killian said, with a bright smile.
“Isn’t that the truth.” She instinctively navigated toward Jerricho. He wrapped an arm around her and pulled her gently up against him. “You okay?”
“I am,” she said, “but I’m exhausted.”
“With good reason,” he said. “But we’re back on English soil, and pretty soon we’ll be in the US.”
“Good,” she said. “What are we doing here then? Another short flight? Another short turnaround or what?” She couldn’t believe she hadn’t even asked before this. She’d left all the arrangements to them. She yawned.
“Nope, we’ll stay here for the night,” he said.
“Okay, and then leave in the morning?” she asked.
“Yep, a transatlantic flight, where you might be in your bed tomorrow night.”
“Wouldn’t that be nice,” she murmured.
He led the way to the hotel, but, as they stepped out, Jessie cried out, and Brenna turned around to see Jessie throwing herself into another man’s arms. This must be the fiancé. They all shook hands and then shared quick tearful goodbyes, and, just like that, Jessie was gone. It was just Brenna and the two men.
“And then there were none,” she murmured.
He looked at her curiously.
She shrugged. “Ten Little Indians.”
“That’s one way to look at it,” he said. He watched as the couple left. “Did you recognize him?”
She shook her head. “I’ve never met him.”
“So do you actually know if that was her fiancé?”
“Who else would it be?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know,” he said, still staring at him.
She asked, “Is there a problem?”
“I hope not,” he said, but he didn’t stop following them with his gaze.
She turned to look at Killian, and his gaze was hard too. “Okay, I don’t get it,” she said. “What’s the matter?”
Killian turned to look at Jerricho. “We’ll need to confirm that.”
“I know.” And his voice was hard. He turned to face her. “What was Jessie’s last name?”
“Hadrehan, I think,” she said. “Why?”
“Because that man who just picked her up and walked away with her as if she were his fiancée and as if they were fully in love,” he said, “I’m pretty damn sure was a dead ringer for somebody on the Interpol watch list.”
She stared at him. “What? No, no, no, no,” she said. “You don’t understand. That’s her fiancé. That’s the father of her child.”
“Do you know that for sure?”
“I can go one better,” Killian said. “Do you even know if she was pregnant?”
She stared at them and felt the color bleaching from her face. “What are you implying?”
“How long have you worked with her?”
“A few weeks,” she said.
The men studied her. “And who did you work with before that?”
“Somebody else,” she said, raising her hands in the air, frustrated. “Now you’re scaring me. What’s going on?”
“We have to confirm that man’s identity,” Jerricho said. “Come on. Let’s grab the rental vehicle and get to the hotel.”
Killian led the way, as Jerricho sent short terse text messages.
“How could that possibly be who you are thinking about? It must be a case of mistaken identity,” Brenna said.
“We didn’t come on a commercial flight. This was a special flight, and it feels like we were just used,” he snapped, looking at Killian.
Killian nodded, his face grim.
“What do you mean?” And now Brenna was completely lost and not liking anything about where the ugliness of their thoughts were.
“We’ll be at the hotel in a few minutes,” he said.
And, with that, she hopped up into the center seat of the truck, and Killian and Jerricho slammed the doors shut, as Killian drove to the hotel. She looked at Killian, who hadn’t said two words since getting into the driver’s seat. “If that were true, then what?”
“That’s what I don’t know,” he said.
She let out a slow deep breath. “No way that she was a part of this.”
“Part of what?” he said.
“The kidnapping,” she cried out.
“No, I don’t think she was,” he said. “I did see her the whole time we were transporting all of you, and Jessie was really scared.”
“Yeah,” she said, “that was a pretty rough experience.”
“But, since she was rescued, I’m not so sure what’s going on.”
Brenna had to admit that absolutely nothing made any sense here. She just knew that Jessie was in no way culpable for anything that had gone on. Brenna sighed, sat back, and said, “I need my phone.”
“Yeah, you need to get a new one,” Jerricho said. “We’ll pick you up one.”
“Where from?” she asked. “At the hotel?” She shook her head. “Somehow I thought I’d be visiting with Jessie for a little bit, before she took off. I don’t know why though.”
Jerricho looked at her in surprise. “I don’t know why either,” he said. “When you think about it, she obviously wanted to be with her partner.”
“I know that,” she said, feeling foolish. “I just can’t …” And, with that, she shrugged and subsided into silence.
“When you were singled out, inside the journalist circle,” Jerricho asked, “what was she doing?”
“She was handling her cameras,” she said. “That’s what she does.”
“Any other cameramen with her? Did she have all the same equipment?”
“Yes,” she said, bewildered.
He just nodded.
“Why?”
“That was always an interesting topic as to why you were singled out,” Jerricho said. “Because, in theory, you were a journalist, and you should have safe passage. Not that the system is perfect by any means.”