“I’m happy with anything you’ve got on hand.”
While she appreciated his easygoing response, she wanted concrete details. “Tell me,” she said, just as she had the previous morning out on the seawall. She planned to keep saying it again and again until she knew him as well as she knew herself. “If you were at home, what would you eat right now?”
“Oatmeal, with raisins and brown sugar.”
“I’ll have that too. I’m usually a yogurt-with-granola-type myself, but it’s nice to mix things up.”
It was funny how happy making that oatmeal with raisins and brown sugar made her, probably because it was made entirely with joy.
“How do you like your coffee?” he asked her.
“With milk and two heaping spoons of sugar.” She grinned over her shoulder from where she was stirring oats in a pot on the stove. “Three if you’re feeling particularly generous.”
“I’m not surprised you like things sweet,” he said, grinning back at her. Then his eyes filled with renewed heat as he added, “So do I.”
Both coffee and oatmeal were momentarily forgotten as they kissed again. Were it not for the buzzing of the alarm she’d set on her phone as a reminder that they needed to be in her studio in thirty minutes, she wasn’t at all sure either of them would have had the self-control to let go this time.
Though they had an intense meeting ahead of them, once they finished eating, Lola felt as though she were floating down the street to her office. It felt so right to walk hand in hand, and every smile, every kiss, every little detail they shared about themselves seemed to build the trust between them even more.
At nine a.m., they connected with her cousins for the video chat. “Thanks so much for agreeing to help out,” Lola began after everyone had made quick introductions. “Duncan is…” To say he was her friend wasn’t enough, but calling him her boyfriend didn’t seem right either. Not when they were still walking a tightrope between friendship and ultimate trust. She reached for his hand, something everyone could see on the video feed. “He means a lot to me. And after what I’ve learned about his past and how it intersects with Moira’s business, I’ve decided that I want to help him make things right on all fronts.”
“Thank you for agreeing to be part of this call today,” Duncan said to her family. “Even if we don’t go further, I appreciate all of you agreeing to meet with me simply because Lola asked for your help.”
“We’ll do anything for Lola,” Suzanne confirmed. “And I’m even more curious about what’s going on than I was yesterday, given the breaking news that just popped up online about your involvement with Brilliant Funds.”
“What is it?” Lola asked, but Duncan was already searching for the news on his phone.
Within seconds of finding the story and quickly reading it, his expression darkened. “I shouldn’t be surprised.” His voice vibrated with barely suppressed fury. “Of course this is how Alastair would play it. Yet again, I’ve underestimated him.”
He gave everyone the URL so that they could read the news themselves, then held out his phone so that Lola could scan it. The article implicated Duncan in the embezzlement scheme that had nearly destroyed Moira’s company, along with the five other startups whose owners had signed on to Brilliant Funds. The story further accused Duncan of using those illegally gained funds to start his own company after breaking away from the family firm.
An anonymous source, described as a “close associate” of both Duncan and his brother, claimed that Alastair could no longer keep this information quiet when justice needed to be served. The source also stated that Alastair felt Duncan’s clients needed to know about these allegations against him, and that was why he’d gone to the federal authorities.
Lola hadn’t thought she could be more shocked by just how evil Duncan’s brother was. She’d been wrong. “He framed you for what he did.”
But instead of agreeing with her, Duncan said, “I can’t expect you to believe that, Lola.” He addressed the virtually assembled group next. “I can’t expect any of you to believe I’m innocent after reading this. Especially when I’m sure the evidence Alastair has given to the FBI will look legitimate, particularly in light of the fact he destroyed my own evidence to the contrary five years ago.” A muscle jumped in Duncan’s jaw. “What’s more, by bringing Moira back into the spotlight, he’s made it perfectly clear that no one is off-limits. I have no doubt that he aims to destroy anyone who gets in his way or dares to come between me and him.” The heavy weight on his shoulders and the dark cloud hanging over him were both back in spades. “I’m going to continue fighting him, to the very end, but this confirms that it will be better for me to fight him on my own.”
Duncan pushed away from the table, his expression so bleak that Lola’s heart broke into a million pieces as she looked at him.
In that instant, Lola knew. Knew with one hundred percent—no, one thousand percent—of her heart, mind, body, and soul that she trusted Duncan. That she believed him. And that she loved him.
Loved him unconditionally.
Loved him as she would love no one else.
Now and forever.
He would do anything to keep her safe—and she would do the same for him.
She reached for his hands and wouldn’t let him leave. “I’m not letting you fight this on your own. I love you. I believe you. And I’m going to stand beside you for as long as it takes, through any hardship, no matter what your brother tries to throw at you, or me, or both of us, until you prevail.”
Duncan’s stunned expression quickly gave way to pure joy. “Lola.” He looked as though she had just given him the greatest gift in the entire world. A gift he had never expected to have. “I love you so damned much.”
She threw her arms around him and kissed him. But though she never wanted to let him go, further declarations of love would have to wait, because there was no time to waste.
She turned back to the screen of her family’s faces. “Are you guys still in?”
Ian nodded from his office in downtown Seattle. “If Lola’s one hundred percent behind you, Duncan, then I am too.”
Suzanne nodded as well, from her New York City headquarters. “It sounds like your brother needs to be taught a lesson about what family is really all about.”
Sophie gave a thumbs-up from her desk at the San Francisco Public Library. “I’m in too.”
Rafe, who looked every inch the dangerous-to-deceive private investigator, said, “Count me in.”
Malcolm was the last to chime in, from London. Though he shared similar looks with his American relatives, his voice was all Brit. “What a bloody mess. But between the seven of us, I’m confident we can get this thing sorted.”
* * *
Duncan was blown away, yet again, by Lola and her family. They were so good, so kind, so willing to take a risk on behalf of a complete stranger, all due to their faith in Lola.
Once upon a time, Duncan had thought his own bond with his brother was that strong. It had taken evidence of his brother’s crimes for Duncan to finally let go of his belief that Alastair was a good man. And yet, even now, the truth was that there was a part of him, way down deep, that didn’t want to believe it.