I was completely done. I’d go to Europe with her and she could do what she wanted. There were many things I was good at so I wasn’t worried about myself.
When I asked her to be mine, I felt it was right to ask, so she would know I wasn’t just with her for now.
Talking to Jack about her though would be difficult. The only woman I’d ever spoken to him about was his daughter.
“I’m not going to let her father get her Jack,” I declared.
He nodded. “Because you love her.”
It wasn’t a question. It was a statement.
I nodded but I knew the awkwardness of the affirmation was evident.
I hung my head down feeling the weight of it, feeling a little more of that failure of being unable to take care of his daughter like I said I would.
Then he reached across the table and tapped my knuckles.
I looked up, met his gaze and pressed my lips together.
“Xander, you don’t have to feel bad admitting your love for someone else. It’s been five years since Claire. I would have hoped you’d move on. She would have definitely wanted you to.”
“It’s hard. It was hard. I will never stop loving Claire, Jack. I never forgot her.”
He gave me a curt nod accompanied by a warm smile. “I know, that’s something I know and you don’t have to explain anything to me when it comes to that. Way back when, there would have been very few people I would have allowed to date my girl. I could see your love for her from day one. It was never a question to me or a wonder. And I know it wasn’t the kind you forget.”
“Thanks, that means a lot.”
“Good. By the same token I know this girl, this woman –Jia Marchesi –must mean a lot to you to put your neck on the line with the mob.”
Jesus, when he said it like that I definitely felt the gravity of the situation weighing down on my shoulders.
“What the hell am I gonna do Jack? It’s all so complicated.”
“One step at a time boy. What have I always told you about complicated?”
I smiled. “Complicated is a bullshit word to cloud over something thatlooksdifficult.”
He chuckled and nodded. “And what have I always said about difficult?”
“Go back to the place where it all began, the part where it was easy. Start from there and work my way forwards.”
He made a show of clapping. “Well done my boy. So let’s do this. Start where it all began.”
I thought for a moment and decided to retrace the events that had occurred. “Giovanni steals the blueprints and becomes a threat to national security. The Ra try to steal them from him but are unsuccessful. He gets away and hides the prints then I get hired to steal them back.” That was the first part.
That was exactly what happened at the beginning.
Jack narrowed his eyes though. “There are missing parts to that story.”
“What do you mean?” I wasn’t following what he meant. That was what happened.
“It doesn’t fit. Giovanni is small time and The Chameleon does not work like that. Not so messy so that the Ra would simply find out. They would have been told, the question is by who.”
Shock seized my next breath. Giovanni had said the same thing. So did Frankie. Jack saying it too was absolutely something to take note of. It carried all the weight of significance it could have for a man like him to point that out. I hadn’t even thought of it myself. Me with all my exposure to The Ra and Balthazar.
“There’s a rat in Giovanni’s circle,” I informed him. I was sure now from what Frankie had said that the rat had to be Armand. It made sense and fit.
“The rat is just a rat, an enabler. Less than small time. There’s no way that guy would have been able to make contact with the Ra much less be in touch with a man like Balthazar.”
