Under Deepest Cover

Chapter 12

The moment Lucy had reached Icy Creek, she tried her phone again, and it worked perfectly. She dialed 911, and in an astonishingly short time, tons of people came to her rescue. Two off-duty paramedics were summoned to administer emergency care to Bryan while arrangements were made to airlift him to the closest trauma center, Saint Francis Hospital in Poughkeepsie.

Someone had given her a map to Poughkeepsie, and Lucy had made it there in one piece only by the grace of God, because her mind wasn’t on her driving. When she arrived, she could learn nothing about Bryan’s condition other than that he’d still been alive when he’d arrived, and he’d gone almost immediately into surgery.

During the drive, which had seemed to take hours, Lucy had made a decision.

Bryan was close to death, and she did not want him to die alone, with his family blissfully unaware of his condition. So she’d called first Daniel Elliott, then Amanda, then Scarlet. Bryan might not approve; explanations would have to be made, explanations Bryan would have just as soon skipped. But he would just have to be mad at her.

When his mother and father arrived, at virtually the same time, he was still in surgery.

“We couldn’t wait,” the young E.R. intern told them as they stood together, gripping each other’s hands. It was the first time Lucy had seen Bryan’s parents touch, or even acknowledge each other. “We’ll let you know as soon as he comes out of surgery.”

After the doctor walked away, Amanda’s face crumpled. “I never thought we’d be facing this again,” she said to Daniel.

Again? Lucy thought. Then she remembered about Bryan’s childhood illness. He’d had high-risk surgery to correct his heart defect. His parents had probably spent more time than anyone should in hospital waiting rooms.

They both turned to her. “Lindsay, can you tell us more about what happened?”

“We were in a cabin in the Catskills,” she said, choosing her words carefully.

She didn’t want to lie, not anymore. But she revealed only as much as she had to. “There was an intruder. He shot Bryan.”

“How did you escape?” Amanda asked. “Did the intruder get away? Did you call the police?”

“I honestly don’t know how or why I was spared,” Lucy said, tears pressing hot and insistent behind her eyes. “All I remember is that I got Bryan into the car and got out of there. I contacted the authorities, but I don’t know what happened to the man with the gun.”

She hoped Vargov was alive. She wanted to testify and put him in jail for the rest of his life.

“I don’t understand,” Daniel said, giving Lucy a hard look. “First someone tried to kidnap you, then you had some kind of home invasion. Are you involved with criminals?”

“Not intentionally. I’m a material witness in a criminal case.”

“But how does that involve Bryan?” Daniel wanted to know.

Amanda laid a quieting hand on her ex-husband’s arm. “I should think that would be obvious, Daniel. Our Bryan is a spy.”

Lucy gave a little gasp of surprise, but other than that she didn’t confirm or deny.

“A what?”

“I should have put it together earlier,” Amanda said. “The frequent absences, the injuries, the security measures at his apartment. And that phone of his-that’s not an ordinary cell phone.”

Daniel stared at Amanda in amazement. “You’re telling me our son is a spy? How could you know that?”

“A mother knows these things,” she said mysteriously.

Scarlet arrived with John, and then other Elliotts began trickling in. Some of them Lucy had met, some she hadn’t. But apparently, when one of their own was threatened, they banded together, because she heard none of the bickering that had characterized previous family gatherings. There were lots of hugs and tears.

Even the mysterious “Aunty Fin” showed up.

Lucy sat in a corner, feeling like the outsider she was, as Daniel and Amanda filled in family members as they arrived.

When two men in suits showed up, the mere sight of them filled Lucy with dread.

They came straight for her, as she’d known they would.

“Ms. Miller?” one of them said.

Lucy rose and walked with them into a hallway, where the Elliotts couldn’t hear the conversation.

They gave their names, claiming they were with the CIA.

“Listen, whoever you are, I don’t care if you were sent by the president himself. I know you want me to go with you. I know you want me to tell you what happened. But frankly, I don’t trust anyone right now. In the last forty-eight hours I’ve been almost kidnapped, shot at, and very nearly eaten by a bear. A United States agent tried to kill me-and he shot the man I love, who is in surgery right now fighting for his life. I’m not leaving here unless you remove me bodily from this hospital. I will report to the closest FBI field office tomorrow morning and give you and anyone who’ll listen a full report. But not tonight. Is that clear?”

The two men looked at each other as they inched away from her. “Yes, ma’am.”

And, amazingly, they left. She wouldn’t have believed that little Lucy Miller from Kansas, dressed in shorts and a tank top, could intimidate two federal agents, but apparently she had.

She returned to the waiting room to resume her vigil. Scarlet sidled up to her, giving her torn, filthy outfit, her messy hair and her scratched and scraped skin a disapproving look. “If fashion is a religion,” she said solemnly, “you’ve broken virtually every commandment.”

Bryan’s first conscious feeling was one of panic. Shots fired. Pinned down.

Pain, blood-then nothing. Lucy! Oh, God, what had happened to Lucy? Was she dead or alive?

“Lucy,” he mumbled.

Gradually sensation returned. Someone was holding his hand, but he couldn’t quite summon the strength to open his eyes.

Next he became aware of sounds and smells. Alcohol. Betadine. Sterile sheets and beeping machines.

Suddenly he was ten years old again, coming out of surgery to repair his heart.

“Bryan? Are you awake?”

It was his mother squeezing his hand. Except he wasn’t ten years old anymore.

“Lucy,” he said again. “Is Lucy okay?” He pried his eyes open to see both of his parents. “What are you doing here?” he asked, his voice sounding wispy and weak.

“Lindsay called us. How do you feel?”

Like his head was full of cotton and his chest full of knives. But he remembered how his mother felt every little pain right along with him, so he didn’t tell her the truth. “I’m good,” he said. And he was alive, at least, which was something. Then it sank in, what his mother had just said. “Lindsay” had called them. Lucy had at least made it off the mountain. “Is Lindsay okay?”

“She’s got a few scrapes and bruises, but she’s fine,” Amanda assured him.

“What about me?” His body didn’t feel normal, but he knew the surgical anesthesia always made him feel not quite connected to his body.

“You lost a lot of blood,” Daniel answered. “The bullet nicked an artery, but it didn’t hit any major organs. You’ll be fine.”

“And when you’re fully recovered,” his mother said sweetly, “I’m going to kill you. Why didn’t you tell us you were a secret agent?”

Uh-oh. His secret was out. Bryan supposed he should be surprised his perceptive mother hadn’t put it together earlier. “‘Cause you’d have grounded me.”

Amanda’s eyes filled with tears. “Oh, Bryan. We didn’t go to all the trouble to get you heart surgery and save your life so you could throw it away chasing down terrorists and whatnot.”

“Lucy-I mean Lindsay-told you everything?”

“She hardly told us anything,” Amanda replied. “She said something about an intruder, that’s all. But I put it all together. Bryan, I’m so angry with you.”

She sniffed back tears, and Daniel put his arm around her. “But I’m so proud, too.”

It occurred to Bryan that this was the first time he’d seen his parents together like this since their divorce more than a dozen years ago.

“Where’s Lucy?” he asked. “Hell. Lindsay-”

“We get the picture,” Daniel said. “Lindsay is Lucy. She’s in the waiting room.

Two goons who looked like they could have been from the cast of Men in Black showed up wanting to take her away, but she got rid of them.”

Bryan summoned a smile. That sounded like his Lucy. “Could you bring her here? I need to see her. I have to tell her-” Hell. He didn’t know what he wanted to tell her. But if he could just see that she was okay, then he could handle the aftermath of this fiasco. And there was going to be a hell of an aftermath.

“I’ll go get her,” Amanda said. She patted Bryan’s leg, then slipped out the door, leaving the two men alone.

“She’s really special, this Lucy?” Daniel asked.

“More than you can know.” Bryan shifted, trying to find a more comfortable position. The painkiller was wearing off, and the ache in his shoulder and chest were getting worse. “I don’t know that we can-I mean, the only reason we were together-”

“If she’s special, don’t let her go,” Daniel said solemnly. “No matter what anyone says. I’ll let you rest now.”

Bryan wanted to protest that he didn’t need rest. He wanted to see Lucy. But he did nod off.

The next time he opened his eyes, she was there, sitting in a chair next to his bed. Someone had given her an old college sweatshirt to put on over her tank top. She was scraped and bruised, no makeup, her hair looking as if it hadn’t seen a comb in some time. And she was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen.

“Lucy?”

“I’m here.”

“Sorry I’m not at my best.”

“You’re alive, which makes you exactly perfect in my book. And now you’ll have a new scar to go with the others.” She blinked back tears, proving she wasn’t as cavalier as she was trying to be.

“You saved my life,” he said. “There’s no way to thank you.”

She shrugged. “What else was I supposed to do? Anyway, there wasn’t that much risk. Mr. Vargov is dead-that’s why he stopped shooting at us. He apparently had a massive heart attack in the middle of trying to kill us.”

“That was decent of him.” At her stricken look, he immediately said, “Sorry. In my business, sometimes black humor gets us through tough times.”

“I know he was a criminal and a traitor and a terrorist sympathizer, but I have a hard time equating that with the man I knew who was so kind to me. I shouldn’t be sorry he’s dead.”

“You’re allowed. Not everything is black-and-white, good and bad. Most criminals have some good in them. Who told you he was dead?”

“Orchid got in touch with me-she seems to be running things for the moment-but she didn’t tell me much else. She said I should go home. Since Vargov’s dead, she says I’m out of danger.”

That was something Bryan would want to verify himself. “So you want to go home, then?”

She shrugged again. “Maybe I’ll still have a job. The bank will need someone to help them restore those pension funds. I could get my umbrella back. I liked that umbrella.”

Bryan thought for a long time before he responded to that. He thought about his longstanding rule to avoid commitments. He thought about how close he’d come to dying and how much he wanted to live to a ripe old age.

And he remembered what his father had said to him so recently, about not letting Lucy slip away. That was just what was going to happen if he didn’t take a stand.

“What if I offered you another type of job?”

“What?”

“You have an uncanny talent for solving puzzles and finding patterns. Such skills are invaluable in intelligence work.”

She looked at him like he was crazy. “You think I should become a spy?” she whispered.

“I was thinking more of a freelance consultant. Working behind the scenes. I’ll bet our government would even send you to code-breaking school.”

Her eyes widened. “Really? I’d love that.”

“And when you aren’t working a case, you could help me with the restaurant. The place needs a female presence. People respond to you-you’re a terrific hostess, you have good instincts when it comes to food…” He trailed off when he saw that he was not getting the response he’d hoped for. He’d been so sure she would love the idea. “You don’t seem too enthusiastic.”

“Oh, I would love the work, I’m sure. It’s just-”

“You don’t love me.”

“Of course I love you. Oh, shoot, I wasn’t going to say that. How pathetic is it, an accountant from Kansas falling for a millionaire superspy?”

Bryan couldn’t breathe for a moment. This was better than he’d dared hope for.

He thought maybe, if given more time, Lucy might be persuaded to fall in love with him. He’d never dreamed…

“If you’re in love, why do you look so miserable? Haven’t you figured it out yet? I want you to stay in New York because I’m head-over-heels crazy for you.”

She brightened, but only for a moment. Then her eyes filled with tears. “I couldn’t stand it, Bryan. I couldn’t stand having you disappear with no explanation, not having any idea when you’d be back-or even if you’d be back.

When I realized you’d been shot, I thought I was going to die myself. I’m not cut out to be a spy’s girlfriend.”

Bryan’s heart swelled. He held out his hand. “Lucy, come here, please.”

She did, though reluctantly, and he took her hand and squeezed it.

“If I was a little bit stronger, I’d pull you right into this bed with me, put my arms around you and never let you go.”

“But-”

“No, no, hear me out. As of right now, I’m retiring. No more fieldwork. No more danger, no more unexplained trips abroad. No more lying to my family.”

“But you…you love your work. You told me that yourself.”

“It’s exciting, yes. But staying alive is even more exciting. Particularly now that I have you to stay alive for. There are lots of other jobs I can do for the agency, or some other branch of the government. Intelligence gathering, sifting through data, coordinating efforts, debriefing agents, interviewing suspects-I’m trained to do all of that stuff. But I also want to spend more time at the restaurant. So we have lots of choices. If you stay in New York.”

“Can I keep the clothes?” she asked, and he suspected she was trying to distract herself from actually having to answer him.

“I’ll buy you all the clothes you want. Whoever that designer is who makes all those slinky dresses and whatnot, we’ll go talk to him. Maybe he makes wedding dresses.” He held tightly to her hand so she couldn’t escape.

She used her other hand to muffle a shriek. “Bryan. Don’t say things like that unless you mean it, it’s cruel.”

“You think I don’t mean it? I want you to be my wife, Lucy. And frankly, if I don’t marry you, my family is going to disown me. So, what do you say?”

“I think you’re crazy.” She tugged at her hand, but he refused to let her go.

“This isn’t how it’s supposed to be!”

“I’ll do the candlelight and violins as soon as they let me out of here. Put me out of my misery, Lucy.”

In answer she leaned over the bed and kissed him, until one of the machines monitoring his vital signs started beeping out an alarm.

A nurse rushed into the cubicle. “What are you doing?” She angled a severe look at Lucy. “You, out.”

Bryan kept hold of her hand. “Was that a yes?”

She nodded, her eyes filled with tears.

Two weeks later, on a hot day near the end of July, Lucy and Bryan were married at The Tides. Scarlet found her the perfect wedding dress, left over from a recent bridal spread Charisma had done. It was simple, with clean lines and unadorned silk. She paired it with an elegant pearl tiara.

Bryan sent Lucy’s parents two round-trip, first-class tickets to New York, and though they’d never been out of Kansas in their lives, they came. They’d never even realized their daughter had gone missing. They’d called once, got her answering machine, figured she was traveling on some lark and put it out of their minds. Since they didn’t know of her escapade, she didn’t fill them in.

She didn’t want them to spend the rest of their lives in church praying for her.

“You’re not pregnant, are you?” her mother had whispered almost the moment she got off the plane.

Lucy laughed, amazed that she could. “No, Mom. I’m just in love.”

“Well, I think you picked a good one this time. Have you ever traveled first class? Oh, my.”

All of the Elliotts came for the wedding, even a few more Lucy hadn’t met. She still hadn’t learned all their names.

Bryan closed down Une Nuit for the day and invited all the employees out to The Tides, except for the new busboys, who were now in jail.

Stash came, of course, driving his Peugeot, which now sported a few bullet holes. Bryan’s employer had offered to repair the damage, but Stash enjoyed showing off the holes and bragging, to anyone who would listen, about his small part in the takedown of international terrorists. Lucy tried to steer her parents clear of him.

Bryan looked dashing as ever. The bandages on his shoulder hardly showed through his tuxedo, and he dispensed with his sling for the ceremony and the photos, but put it back on shortly after. He wasn’t supposed to use his right arm while the tissues healed, but he claimed he wasn’t in any pain.

The ceremony itself was short and sweet. Then there was the feasting, the way only restaurant people and Elliotts could feast. Chef Chin took over Maeve’s kitchen like a general conquering a town. Maeve was more than happy to just get out of the way and enjoy the day.

The crowning glory of the reception feast was a four-layer cake, Bryan’s little surprise for Lucy. She hadn’t realized exactly what kind of cake it was until he fed her a piece of it for the photos.

Orange cake, garnished with chocolate and mint glaze. Not exactly traditional.

But at the first taste, Lucy could feel her face heating-and other parts of her as well.

“Lucy, something wrong?” Bryan asked solicitously.

“I’m just having a Pavlovian response,” she said, never imagining that orange cake could make her feel…amorous.

“I’m putting this cake on the menu, you know. Bryan and Lucy’s Orange Wedding Cake.”

She stood on her toes and whispered in his ear. “It would have been more appropriate as Bryan and Lucy’s Honeymoon Cake.”

“Don’t worry, we’ll take some with us.”

Amanda, Bryan’s mother, had arrived seconds before the ceremony, breathless and tense. Now he hugged her. “I was afraid you might not come, Mom.”

“I wasn’t about to miss my son’s wedding-even if I do have to be under the same roof with him.” She nodded toward Patrick, Bryan’s grandfather.

This family had more drama and intrigue than a soap opera. But all families had their little issues, and Lucy vowed to accept them all as they came along. She reveled in the laughter, the smells and tastes of the day. She even enjoyed the family bickering, which they simply were not able to refrain from. She loved that she was now part of this crazy clan.

“You happy?” Bryan asked Lucy quietly as they posed for yet more pictures.

“Deliriously.”

“You should be afraid. Very afraid.”

“Because…?”

“You fit in perfectly. You’ve become an Elliott.”

Lucy could think of nothing more wonderful.