Agent with a History (22 page)

“I do.” I said somewhat startled.

He pointed at himself figuratively, “I do
too. I now pronounce us man and wife; I may now kiss my bride.”

I stopped his heads decent by placing my hand
over his mouth, as I looked around it at him in shock, “You’re a
preacher too!”

He shrugged, “Admittedly it’s a bit of a gray
area. Technically James Kilroy isn’t, but one of my aliases is. You
wouldn’t believe the things people will tell a man of the
cloth.”

I just shook my head in wonder, “Will I ever
know all there is to know about you James Kilroy?”

His eyes turned serious and he brought up one
of my hands to lay over his heart. “Whatever I’ve been, whatever
I’ve done and whatever I do from here on out, the very best part of
me will always be yours.”

I kissed him. We were both breathing heavy
when we broke apart. James looked down at my neckline and said, “I
think it’s time that the Empress lost her clothes.”

I gave him a sultry look and leaned up to
whisper in his ear, “Only if you promise to punish me for stealing
your tablet like you said you would.”

His face grew red, but his gaze didn’t falter
from mine in the slightest. “I can arrange that.”

I arched up an eyebrow commandingly, as I
began to unbutton the front of my blouse, “See that you do.”

He shook his head, “You’re such a sexy queen,
don’t ever change.”

“Your wish is my command sire.”

Our honeymoon was the best two weeks of my
life. I never would have believed life could be so good. How had I
missed out on so much of life before now? Didn’t matter, I was
catching up now on lost time and experiences.

The top was down in the convertible, the sun
was warm and the breeze blowing my hair out behind me was
refreshing. I opened my eyes and stared at my man behind the wheel.
I loved him so much.

We had just driven our way through Europe for
our honeymoon. No schedule, just each other with no interruptions.
I didn’t even know where we were right now and I didn’t really care
to know.

Out of idle curiosity though I asked, “Where
are we?”

He looked over and smiled, but I couldn’t see
his eyes behind the sunglasses.

“Italy, Tuscany to be exact.”

I reached over and traced the outline of the
muscles in his forearm as he gripped the wheel, “And what will we
be doing here?” I asked suggestively.

“I’m taking you home.” I sat up straighter in
the seat a sense of nervousness hitting me.

“You’ve never told me that you have family?”
I said frantically trying to comb my hair into some semblance of
order.

He shook his head, “I have a brother, but we
don’t talk. All I have is you and some close friends that I work
with.”

I caught the sad note underlying his words
and I reached out and touched his face, “I’m sorry. On the brighter
side though that makes two of us alone in the world that now have
each other to hold onto.”

We were quiet for a while and then he glanced
over at me curiously, “Were you nervous about meeting my family, if
I had any?”

“Heck yeah!” I exclaimed.

“Why?” He asked out of seemingly genuine
cluelessness and I just stared at him, as if he was missing it big
time.

He spoke up to defend himself from my obvious
look of consternation. “I can understand some nervousness I suppose
over meeting new people for the first time, but in terms of being
excepted, what’s not to approve of about you? You’re highly
intelligent, successful in your own right and utterly
gorgeous!”

With emphasis I stated somewhat bitterly,
“I’m half black with Italian features and hair and sport a healthy
dose of Jewish blood! Any of those three or a combination of them
is enough to arouse prejudice in just about everyone.”

He shook his head and said, “Personally
speaking, I thought I’d never seen a better combination of fifty
percent of Adam and fifty percent of Eve as when I first saw you.
My thinking hasn’t changed any since I’ve known you either.”

I looked down and then away as I said, “I’m
really grateful for that, but that’s not how the world looks at me.
I wish there were more people like you in the world, I really
do!”

His touch on my arm had me turning my head
back to him. He’d taken his sunglasses off and I could see his eyes
now, which were serious in their intent, “Forget the world! I’m
just grateful that someone exactly like you exists in this world
just for me!”

I nodded smiling a little. It was so amazing
to have an articulate and powerfully dominant man such as James so
completely enamored with every facet of me. It was the best
confidence booster I’d ever had in life.

“We’ll be home soon.”

I had forgotten about that as I had been so
lost in thinking down on myself. I looked around at the countryside
around me and had to admit I hadn’t seen much in life more
beautiful than these rolling hills.

It seemed to connect with some deep part of
me and I stared with interest at the passing scenery. We exited off
the main road such as it was and started down a private drive. We
passed rows and rows of idealic grape arbors, pastures and
orchards, I glanced over a little breathless, “Is all this
yours?”

“Yes and so is that.” He said pointing and I
looked up ahead.

I gasped at the beautiful sprawling red tiled
villa that lay before us located upon gentle rise of land. It was
like a fairy tale!

Was I really going to get to live in such an
amazing place? We passed through a massive rod iron gate that broke
up the wall surrounding the huge villa. The architecture was warm
and exquisite in every detail.

The profusion of flowers and the entire
artfully landscaped setting of the villa was spectacular. The car
pulled up under a pillared archway and the smell of flowers wafted
into the open space of the car. I felt like I’d just won something
far better than the lottery.

Half laughing I turned to James, eager to see
the rest of his home that was now also my home. The laughter fell
from my face as I saw the seriousness of his gaze on me.

“What’s wrong James?” I asked, feeling alarm
at the seriousness that I saw.

“Do you believe in coincidence Lisa?”

“I… I’m not sure, why do you ask?”

He didn’t directly answer my question but
continued on with his own thought.

“I used to believe in coincidence, but not
anymore, instead I think a lot of what transpires in life that is
termed coincidence, is in fact the hand of God at work.

Seven years ago I reached a critical point in
my life. I was lost, for lack of a better way of putting it. I had
my work, which has always been meaningful, but my life just felt
empty somehow. I decided I needed to make some changes, because in
some ways I’d given up on wanting to continue living. I was jaded
by the pointless quality of it so to speak. I decided to make my
life less pointless.

I went back to church and discovered a lot of
what I had been missing out on. I cultivated a few friendships that
didn’t relate to my work. I’d always given generously, but I’d
never given generously of my time.

It was an eye opening experience and the
biggest thing it helped me to do was stop feeling sorry for myself,
because of what I had suffered through as a child. Around that time
it occurred to me that I needed some place to call home. I had my
hotels, but they were never really home. I started looking around
and it took about a year before I found what I was looking for,
this place.

It was pretty run down at the time, but even
then I could see the charm and former glory of the place. What I
liked most was the privacy of it and it was relatively cheap for
its location and acreage.

It was a foreclosure and I snatched it up. It
wasn’t till after I bought it that I learned from the bank that
with my purchase I would be evicting the old woman and her two
daughters that lived with her on the property. That didn’t set
right with me, especially as they weren’t seeing a dime of the
purchase price of their estate that had been within their family
since Roman times.

I met with them and offered to let them stay
and in return I asked for them to help care take it while I was
gone on business and to help me restore it to its former glory as
well.”

“That was very sweet of you.” I interjected
softly.

He shrugged as if it was no big deal, but I
could well imagine what a big deal it had been to those three
women. He continued on with his story, “It took a while, but with
their very helpful advice the place became what you see it as
today. It is very much the home that I never really had before and
I cherish my time here. As time went on I learned more of the story
of why such a once proud and prominent family had become so
indebted, from the three women, who in their own way have all
become like doting mothers to me. Theirs is a sad story full of
heartbreak. The Contessa was born here, but she had no brother to
inherit so a marriage to another prominent family was arranged.
Arranged marriages were fast going out of style, but both families
were still locked in the old of traditions of the past and the
Contessa was married to a man she did not love out of duty to her
family. On the surface everything appeared to be fine, but the
Contessa knew her husband was no good. In twenty years he spent and
gambled his way through the bulk of the family’s wealth. He kept
the depleted wealth a secret, until his creditors threatened to
expose him if they didn’t get the money that was owed them. To one
of his noble birth and standing the social disgrace that would
result from such an exposure meant everything. So he went about
finding a way out of his dilemma before he was socially disgraced.
The Contessa had blessed him with three beautiful daughters, which
he had largely ignored up to that point. An idea occurred to him
and he acted on it. He had his oldest daughter kidnapped and sold
her in a black market sex slave ring auction. She brought a very
high price. No one suspected what he had done. Instead the family
received the well wishes and prayers of the entire worldwide high
society for their loss. Five years passed and the count was back in
the same hole as before and in desperate need of money to keep his
charade of wealth and prominence going. His plan had worked so well
the first time, why not try again. This time he kidnapped both of
his remaining daughters and sold them in the same manner he had his
oldest daughter. The outcry over the kidnappings was epic even more
so than the first one. An intensive investigation was enacted, but
the count had covered his tracks well. He even put up a reward for
the return of the girls. This time however he was caught. Strangely
enough it was his creditors that helped lead to his arrest.
Apparently selling one’s own children into sexual bondage was
something even lower then there low standards could tolerate. They
had thought it strange the first time he had become suddenly flush
with money, the second time they knew something was wrong and they
came forward with what they knew about the count. The count was
tried, convicted and sent off to rot in jail, where he didn’t last
long. The black market ring was broken up, but there was no sign of
the girls. The Contessa took the blood money and spent it in search
of all three daughters. When it was gone she sold the rest of the
families holdings. When that was gone she sold everything of value
within the villa and mortgaged the estate to the hilt. Four years
after the last kidnapping the second oldest daughter managed to
escape from a Middle Eastern sheiks harem. Later that same year the
youngest daughter was rescued from a Brazilian oil tycoon’s
residence. The Contessa continued to search for her oldest
daughter, but the trail had gone cold and she could never find her.
All the family’s wealth gone and essentially existing on the
charity of others, she was forced to give up the search for
her.”

Tears fell in a steady river down my face as
I listened not wanting to believe, but knowing he wasn’t lying to
me.

“Then in the course of my work I heard
chatter of a treasure of legend being hunted for by a lot of
international entities. My associates and I looked into it and
surprisingly found good bones to back up the possible existence of
such a treasure. It became immediately clear what a disaster such a
treasure in anyone’s hand could wreck. So we went about finding it
too, only we intended to destroy it. I delved into the history of
the treasure I learned about the Candace’s, in particular the last
one and then the rumor that she’d had a protégé for two years. I
traced the girl back to Iya Muatombo and found out his affliction
in the whole deal. I’d had a run in with him in previous years so I
kept my distance, but I did find out that the girl ran away and got
a description of her. Later a savvy New York detective butts into
my fact finding mission. You matched the descriptions and I was
almost positive it was you. You verified it when you went to go see
your father. I payed your father a visit like I told you and he
told me your life’s story. In the process he told me about where he
had gotten your mother and I couldn’t believe it. In a way I think
I had known there was something familiar about you, but I couldn’t
place it until he told me what he did. I know this is hard for you
Lisa, and I’m going to help you get through every step of it.”

He got out of the car and came around to my
side and opened the door.

He extended his hand to help me out, but I
shook my head no, “I can’t! I need more time!”

“There’s already been too much time Lisa.” He
said, as he stooped and pulled me up out of the car.

I resisted his advance toward the huge front
doors, but the steady firm pressure of his hand on the small of my
back forced me along.