Secret Agent Boyfriend (17 page)

Derek scrambled to sit up. “Why do you think that?”

“Come on.” She sat up next to him. “Let me walk you through it and you can tell me if you see what I see.”

* * *

Landry laid out the papers she’d organized. She pulled the tie of her robe tighter before pointing at the ones on top of the stack. “Take a look, then tell me what you think. I want to see if your interpretation is the same as mine.”

Derek picked up the stack and laid each page out, side by side. She stood back to give him time and reached for the mug of coffee she’d had sent up.

Maybe she was being silly. What had seemed like a lead after staring at pages all night might be nothing. Sleep deprivation had a way of blurring information and blowing things way out of proportion.

“Here.” Derek pointed toward the birth certificate and that last thread she was hanging by snapped.

“Yes. That’s the one.”

Landry sat next to him and pointed out the details. “Right there. I know the dates are written in the European standard of day, month, year. That’s why the birth certificate caught my attention. When I looked closer I could see the dates look adjusted.”

“February second, 1978.” Derek read the form. “That matches his age, right?”

“Yes, but look at the zero before the month. Doesn’t it look like a one turned into a zero, written over with dark ink?”

Derek nodded, his gaze scanning the document. “And here, as well.” He pointed to the year. “The last seven on 1977 was rewritten into an eight. Even on this photocopy you can see it.”

“So they forged government documents?”

“Where would they have gotten a birth certificate in the first place?”

Landry had wondered the same until the truth slammed into her with absolute certainty. “The baby who died. The one my uncle Sheldon was talking about. That’s got to be it.”

“This is easy enough to verify. I’ve got my laptop in my room. Let me get it and log in to the Bureau database and we can check the records.”

He’d put his slacks on when they had dug into the records, but she couldn’t help being fascinated with the play of muscles across his back when he bent down to grab his shirt. Her gaze was drawn to the hard lines of his shoulders, and sparks shot off under her skin.

He was so strong. So capable. Even with the latest events—and she knew his confidence had been shaken by Rena’s case—he was still determined to do what was right to see that a young girl got her life back.

As they’d done since the previous evening, her emotions batted between Derek’s case and the situation with Noah. And swung right back to Mark.

Was that part of the problem? Had Mark lived in Derek’s shadow for far too long?

She’d have believed one of the most elite organizations in the world knew how to weed out problems, but what if Mark had circumvented the system at the FBI? Toed the line just long enough to gain trust before he did damage?

The questions were still swirling when Derek returned with his laptop. She’d nearly put voice to the most pressing ones about his partner when Derek turned the laptop around in his arms. “You were right. Look here.”

She leaned forward and studied the original copy of the birth certificate on the screen.

“Scroll top to bottom.”

Landry did as Derek asked, taking in the birth records of a child named Noah born to Emmaline and the late Nicholas Scott in December of 1977. “The child in this record was born in December.”

Landry picked up the altered birth certificate and held it up to the screen. “Yet my cousin was born on February second of the following year.”

“I did a quick search query on a death certificate.” He sat on the love seat, the laptop on his knees. “Let me see if it’s come back yet.”

Concentration limned his features, reinforcing her earlier thoughts. He was innately competent, likely to a degree he didn’t even realize.

Derek Winchester was a man who knew how to take charge. And for a lesser man, that could either be an inspiration or a threat.

An awful, terrible threat.

Landry took the seat next to him and laid a hand on his arm. “Is anything there?”

“The birth certificate on record for everything Noah’s ever done states a birth date of February second. Paperwork. Job applications. His driver’s license. All say February second.”

“That’s the date we’ve always celebrated his birthday.”

“So what happened to the Noah Thomas Scott born on December second?”

Chapter 17

L
andry knocked on Whit’s door, a wash of nausea coating her stomach. The reason Derek was here—the real reason—had been proven true.

Noah was Jackson. All the evidence added up and a simple DNA test would finalize the results.

Not that they needed one.

Derek had done some additional digging now that they knew what they were looking for, and he’d uncovered flight plans from the night of March first, filed when Noah’s grandmother flew a transatlantic flight from Raleigh to Lyon, France.

Derek reached for her hand, linking their fingers together. “We will help him get through this.”

“I know. We’re all committed to that. But—”

Whit opened the door, immediately taking in what had to be somber visages from her and Derek. “Come in.”

Elizabeth slipped from the small study that occupied the far corner of Whit’s wing and stood beside him. “What did you find?”

“What Georgia suspected all along. Take a look.” Landry handed them the birth certificate as Elizabeth gestured them back into the study.

Derek walked them through everything they believed, then opened up his laptop to outline the flight plan details. Both a departure to France and a return the following evening.

Elizabeth had laid a hand over her rounded stomach in the retelling and hadn’t moved since, her fingers splayed over her belly. “Who would do that? And a parent, no less. Your grandmother stole your father’s son.”

Whit kept his arm around her, pulling her close. Despite all the pain at the evidence of what they’d found, Landry couldn’t help the small spark of joy that filled her. Her brother had found love with an amazing woman and they were bringing a new life into the world.

She glanced at Derek’s strong jaw and wondered if they’d ever get to that point. She loved him, yes. And she believed he loved her in return. But they still had a lot to work out. His job. Her dysfunctional family. And the truth of his past. While he hid it well, his failed relationship with Sarah had done damage.

And he still didn’t see her as a full partner. She gave him all the credit for wanting to—and believing he did—but in the end, he still saw her as a responsibility instead of as an equal. That wasn’t how she wanted to live her life. She’d had the bright, shining example of Reginald and Patsy and she knew what an imbalance of power in a relationship did in the long run.

She wouldn’t live the same way.

* * *

Derek linked his fingers with Landry’s, a small bedside lamp keeping the darkness at bay as they walked back into her room. They’d stayed late with Elizabeth and Whit, turning the situation over and over until they had a workable solution.

They needed Noah’s agreement to take a DNA test. Derek had assured all of them he could get the test done via something as simple as a glass the man had used, but the Adairs were firm in vetoing that approach.

The next step required Noah’s full participation.

Georgia had kept a small bit of hair from Ruby’s brush in the eventuality of a DNA test, but had kept that news from her stepmother. The risk of getting the woman’s hopes up had forced more stealth into the situation than any of them were comfortable with and they refused to do the same to Noah.

He admired the hell out of their approach and respected the fact that it was time to tell Noah the truth. What he hadn’t quite reconciled himself to was his future.

It was time to go home.

He’d done the job Kate asked—finding the missing heir—and he needed to move on. Even if a pervasive stain lingered over Adair Acres. Reginald’s murderer still walked free and the faceless saboteur who’d used a snake and a blackout as weapons had yet to be caught.

Stay or go?

Derek knew what he wanted to do, but he also knew he needed to get back to his life. Even if Rena Frederickson was never found, there were others who’d go missing.

Others who were already missed.

And it was his job to find them.

He knew returning to LA shouldn’t change things with their relationship, but the reality of distance and his reinstatement in the Bureau would change the dynamics between them. It was only a matter of time before Landry grew tired of his caseload and fieldwork. The travel and the endless hours of not knowing when he’d be home.

Landry fiddled with the edge of her bedspread, her anxiety palpable. “It’ll be an early morning. Noah’s up at the crack of dawn to get down to the stables and we need to get to him first.”

“We’ll tell him over breakfast. You’ll all be there with him and you’re coming clean on what you suspect.”

“We’re ruining his life.” Landry sat down on the edge of the bed. “He went to sleep this evening as Noah Scott and tomorrow we’re going to tell him he’s Jackson Adair. What kind of people does that make us?”

“The fact that you’re this upset and worried about telling him makes you very good people in my eyes.”

Derek sat next to her and took her hand in his, the mattress sagging where he sat. He’d recognized it before but it struck him once again how easy it was to be with her. To laugh and love, yes, but to comfort and share the more difficult moments, too.

“That’s what will get him through this. You care for him. This is eating you all up yet you’re willing to do what’s right. You’ll do right by Noah, too.”

“And what of his mother? Will we just arrest Aunt Emmaline?”

Tension tightened her slim shoulders and he pressed a hand to her back, rubbing light circles. “It’s ultimately up to Ruby to press those charges. But at this point I suspect the joy of a reunion will overshadow the immediate need for punitive action.”

“He’s an adult. Ruby’s spent her life missing him. Noah’s spent his life thinking he was another man. And Emmaline’s spent her life hiding the truth. What does that do to a person? To all of them?”

“People can grow twisted, Landry. The things they want that they don’t have. The dreams they have that go unfulfilled while they’re unable to find a new direction or a new goal. The changes life brings, oftentimes that are painful or terribly unfair. It’s a thin line to cross before those perceived injuries are seen as punishment instead of what they are.”

“Life.”

“Exactly.”

Myriad expressions tumbled over her face, lining that porcelain skin with any number of concerns. He knew her love for her family. And he also knew the tentative bonds she and her brothers had worked so hard to create since Reginald’s death.

Yet all three of them had been in unison when it came to Noah, proving those bonds were stronger than any of them realized. They were a family and the core of that—the core of what made them a unit—would see all of them through the new reality of uncovering the missing Adair heir.

The deep blue of her eyes was nearly purple in the soft light of the room when she turned to him, studying his face. “You see it all. The lowest depths of people’s souls, yet you keep on. That’s a special gift, Derek.”

He waved off her words, uncomfortable with the praise. “It’s what I do.”

“No.” She reached for him, one hand on his shoulder while the other took his hand. “What you do every day. That’s real strength. You’re brave beyond measure. And you give up your life in service of making others’ better. First your willingness to protect my aunt. Now the victims you work so hard for. That’s rare, Derek.”

Her compliment and the sincerity buried deep in her words touched him on a level he’d never known. Had anyone ever really seen him like that? Understood his need to help others and how it pulsed in his soul, as necessary to his life as the beat of his heart?

Yet she’d seen.

“There are many who would argue it’s selfish to those I care about.”

“Then that’s their shortcoming.”

The fresh shoots of love that had been growing for days sprouted deep roots in those quiet moments together. He’d looked for someone to share his life with. Had thought he’d found someone—had believed they’d make a good life—but now that he saw Landry he knew how wrong he’d been.

And just how far he’d missed the mark in all the moments of his life that had come before.

In Landry Adair he’d found a partner and champion. He’d found a woman who believed in him.

* * *

The early notes of morning lit up the windows with pale light, visible through a small break in the curtains she’d forgotten to close all the way. She hadn’t slept well, and the first signs of morning had her rising from bed, ready to do battle with what lay ahead.

She had another brother.

From the moment her father’s will had been read up to now, it was so strange to realize just how monumentally her life had changed.

In addition to a brother, she had sisters now in the form of Georgia and Elizabeth. She had the new reality of a life without her father and—whenever Patsy was eventually caught—likely not her mother, either.

And she had found love.

Derek’s breathing was heavy and even where he still lay in bed, and she took a moment to simply watch him as she pulled the tie of her robe around her waist.

Connections.

And they all circled around her father.

Whether the mantle had ever set comfortably on his shoulders or not, Reginald Adair had been the center of AdAir Corp, the heart of Adair Acres and the foundation of their family. Through that connection, Whit found Elizabeth. Carson found Georgia. And they’d all found Jackson.

She turned from the bed and crossed to the window, parting the curtains slightly so she could look out over the grounds. Landry knew she was apprehensive about what was to come. She also knew a strange sentimentality she couldn’t quite shake.

It was so odd to reflect on it all now and see how everything had unfolded. Because even in the sad reality of what her aunt and grandparents had done to her father and his family, those connections had been vibrant and strong, iron bands tethering them all together.

Jackson Adair had lived right under their noses, but alive and well. Whatever fear her father and Ruby must have lived with could finally be assuaged. Their baby boy was a grown man.

“You’re up early.”

Derek wrapped his arms around her from behind, his large body like a shield, protecting her from all that was still to come. “I didn’t sleep well.”

“It’s to be expected. You’ll feel better once this is behind you. Once you can begin again as a family.”

“Which means you’re going to leave.”

The statement was out, so simple, really, she hadn’t even realized it was lingering, lying in wait for the perfect moment to leap out.

“I... Well...” His arms tightened before he dropped them and stepped away. “My responsibilities to Kate will be completed.”

“And you have a life to get back to.”

“You don’t have to make it sound like a duty.”

“Neither is staying here.”

“Landry—”

She wrapped her arms tight around her waist, holding back whatever pain threatened to swamp her. They’d made love. Had even told each other their feelings. But they’d never discussed a future, and it was silly to pretend there was one.

“We can talk later. We need to get downstairs.”

* * *

That went well.

Landry hadn’t stopped berating her impulsive tongue since she reached the dining room. A part of her—the small, petty part—wanted to blame her “state of our relationship” question on sleep deprivation, but she knew that was unfair.

She’d asked because she wanted to know, plain and simple.

And hadn’t been prepared for any reaction besides an unequivocal desire to stay.

The large silver urn of coffee that had stood sentinel at the end of the breakfast sideboard for as long as she could remember greeted her as she filled a mug. Landry watched the rich black coffee fill her cup, hot and strong, and wished for a do-over. All at the tender hour of 6:00 a.m.

Maybe if she had enough coffee she might find a way to put the genie she’d inadvertently unleashed in her bedroom back in the bottle.

She risked a glance at Derek, busy fetching cream from the small fridge the staff kept stocked in the corner. The hard lines of his body had remained stiff as he finished dressing in her room, then left to change into fresh clothes in his own room. He’d donned a button-down shirt and faded jeans, and she wondered how she could be so attracted to him, even as her thoughts were in a million different directions.

They didn’t live that far away from each other. A relationship wasn’t out of the question, and it was barely even long distance considering how often she was in LA for her charity work. They could find a way. And if things continued to progress, she could eventually see herself moving to Los Angeles full-time.

Except he hadn’t suggested that would be a welcome next step.

The truth slapped at her and Landry busied herself with making a plate of fruit to pass the time until Noah arrived. Just when she thought she couldn’t dither over selecting one more strawberry, her brothers’ arrival in the dining room ratcheted up the tension several more notches.

“Anyone see Noah yet?” Carson kept his tone casual as he beelined for the coffee, but Landry sensed the notes of unease under the gruff demeanor.

He was a man used to giving orders and expecting them to be followed. Process. Rules. Order. Carson had lived by those principles for his entire adult life. Which made what they were about to do that much harder.

They were about to unleash chaos.

“Everyone’s up early.”

Noah’s voice rang out from the doorway. He looked comfortable, Landry realized, his usual work outfit of jeans, T-shirt and chambray button-down like a second skin. Yet even if the dress were casual, she knew it was something more.

He was comfortable with who he was. Even the jokes the other day before the baby shower had held more frustration at his mother’s insistence on his settling down than any real upset over the matter. He did as he liked and lived as he pleased and by all accounts, Noah liked it that way.

With the truth of his parentage, his life was about to grow considerably more attached, with responsibilities and expectations.

And with the complete annihilation of anything he believed to be real.