Dear Adam (40 page)

“
Yes. He doesn’t let many
people in. And most wouldn’t know it, but Adam takes it very hard
when he loses someone he cares for that deeply.” He gave her a
thoughtful look. “When was the last time you and Adam
talked?”

“
About six …” Eden
faltered. The merciless vise around her heart wound tighter. It
choked all words.

Jack wasn’t accusatory or harsh but his
revelation knocked the wind out of her. She had no defense. She had
no ground on which to stand. Every doubt she had ever had was
diminished in face of this – Adam was missing.

If she hadn’t been sitting on the hospital
bed, she would have crumpled to the floor in guilt and despair. She
struggled to speak.

“
I … don’t know anything
about boats or sailing. What can we do to find out if he’s
safe?”

Jack put a hand on his brow, rubbing it.
Without the mask of charm and seduction, he appeared very serious,
on edge. “The man he left in charge of his business here –“

“
Luca.”

“
Luca.” Jack nodded. “I
spoke to him about what he knows. Adam didn’t leave him a sailing
plan or any destinations, just set sail in December.”

“
Just before Christmas, I’m
guessing.”

Jack looked surprised. “I take it back. You
do know Adam.”

“
That was one of our little
fights. I begged him to spend it with me. Couldn’t stand to think
of him alone.”

Jack patted her shoulder. “He doesn’t spend
it with anyone, no matter how many times he’s invited.”

“
Has Luca heard from
him?”

“
Once every two weeks or so
but not since the last.”

“
So no one has heard from
him?”

Jack summoned an encouraging smile.

“
Adam’s known for beating
the odds, doing the impossible. He’s been shot at, stabbed, left
for dead. People come to him when they’ve got no other hope and he
always pulls through. He was once asked to go after someone who
deliberately disappeared in Brazil. He was mentally unstable and
his family feared he would do himself harm. No one else could find
him. But Adam did. Adam found him and brought him home.” Jack’s
voice became emotional. He paused for a moment before continuing.
“He brought my brother home.”

The door squeaked open then, and her
physician came in, holding her x-rays. Her hand was not fractured,
as she had feared, but badly sprained and bruised. She was told to
keep it firmly wrapped and to use an ice pack, 20 minutes on, 20
minutes off. She was given extra strength ibuprofen for the pain.
Some paperwork, and she was discharged.

Instead of leaving the way they had come in,
Jack led her to a side exit. A car different from the one that had
taken them to the hospital was waiting outside, the engine running.
Tired and disoriented as she was, Eden halted before going in the
black SUV with tinted windows. She nodded to the driver, who was
staring straight ahead. He didn’t look at them when Jack had opened
the door.

“
Who is he?”

“
Someone who will keep his
mouth shut.” Jack’s tone was firm. “We’re not going back to your
hotel, Eden. You need to leave Sicily as soon as possible. We’re
going to the airport and you’re going on the first plane to Rome.
Your things are in the rear.”

Eden stepped away from the open door. “I’ve
got a few more days left, Jack. I want to be here when Adam comes
back.”

“
Jesus, woman! We don’t
know if that man was working alone or if he’s got friends still in
the area. If they were smart, they would have left already once he
got arrested. But they couldn’t have been smart, could they, if
they harmed you. Adam has a reputation for exacting vengeance. And
for what they did to you - he won’t rest until he has gone after
every person involved.”

“
I can’t leave. The police
told me to stay put while they investigate.”

Jack waved his hand dismissively. “Don’t
worry about that. I handled the matter. There won’t be an
investigation.”

“
What do you
mean?”

Jack stepped closer and lowered his voice.
“I’ll tell you once you get in the car. We need to hurry if we’re
going to make your flight. I made a promise to Adam, and by god,
I’m going to keep it.”

She stayed still, trying to process how
upside down everything had turned in 12 hours.

“
Please, Eden.”

She got in the car. Relief washed over his
face.

As soon as the door shut, the driver pulled
away. They were quiet until they got on the highway heading to
Palermo.

Jack turned to her. “Sometime tonight, the
man who attacked you will disappear from the jail in which he is
being held. No one will ever hear from him again. Adam will deal
with him. Do you understand?”

If Jack expected her to be shocked and
horrified, he was mistaken.

“
He threatened my son. I
don’t care what happens to him. In fact, if you hadn’t shown up
when you did, I would have dealt with him myself.”

“
I’ll get on that plane as
long as you promise that you’ll keep in contact with me about
Adam,” she told Jack before passing through to the boarding gate.
She forced the words out. “I want to know everything. Good or
bad.”

“
I will. I have a feeling
you’d fly back here if I didn’t.” He displayed one of his dazzling
smiles.

“
Thank you. You’re a good
and loyal friend.” She held out her left hand and he shook it,
chuckling to himself.

“
Eden, try not to worry.
Adam’s a survivor. And he has you – no greater reason for a man to
come home.”

Eden remembered very little of the plane
flights home. She was too shaken to fully appreciate the fact that
Jack had arranged everything for her comfort. If she slept at all,
it was because of exhaustion. The trip had drained almost all the
spirit from her and left only worry and guilt. They throbbed more
painfully than her injured hand.

Because of her, Adam might now be lost at
sea. Because of her, Dante might have been in danger. She was
returning home worse than a failure.

She alarmed her parents when she called from
the airport letting them know she had come home early. She had her
story rehearsed by the time she arrived at her own doorstep.

She was sightseeing in Agrigento, at the
ruins, when a man tried to grab her purse. A struggle ensued. She
got hurt, and the man ran off, but otherwise she was fine. She was
too upset to stay and decided to skip the rest of the trip. She had
never been so happy to be back on American soil.

Her mother was in tears, telling her how she
knew Eden shouldn’t ever travel by herself. Look what happens when
you go to a foreign country. “Stay home. Give my poor heart a
rest!”

Eden sat meekly, too tired to tell her mother
that there had been a string of muggings two months ago in the next
town over.

Her father made rice soup and ordered her to
eat. Food was his antidote for all ills.

She let them fuss over her until they felt
better. She had to restrain her own urge to envelop Dante in her
arms and keep him there. He acted embarrassed when upon walking
through the door, she went directly to him and started kissing his
face all over. “Oh, my boy!” she said as she hugged him tightly.
She stopped herself from crying openly.

She followed him around the next few days, on
hyper-alert about where he was going, who he was with. Dante seemed
to sense that whatever had happened in Sicily had shaken her badly
so he tolerated her wave of over-protectiveness. It lessened to a
degree as the days passed. The anticlimax of being back at home,
battered as she was, forced her to function more normally.

Clothes needed to be unpacked, meals needed
to be on the table, laundry needed to be done. She filled the hours
with routine tasks. But the longing only grew.

During the two-hour drive to the airport, she
had begged Jack for stories about Adam. Some made her laugh but
others filled her with awe and some sadness.

“
Adam was pretty reckless
when we were younger. He didn’t have the same fear that everyone
else had. When we were teenagers, our friends and I used to run
afoul of the police quite often. They’d round us up whether we did
anything or not, just because we were marked as trouble. It’s not
like the States, where people have rights. That neighborhood was
very rough. If the police got to us, we’d be beaten a bit, then let
go. That was the way it was over there. Adam was the biggest and
the strongest and he’d always protect the littler ones, you know,
the ones who couldn’t stand up for themselves. He’d take the brunt
of it for all of us. Always.”

“
He told me once that he
thought he’d be dead by 30.” Eden wanted to pull back the words as
soon as she said them. But the fear was overflowing by then. She
couldn’t contain it. There was a painful sweetness to talking to
someone who knew Adam.

He must have been afraid of her collapsing in
tears, so Jack launched into a happier memory and soon got her
laughing again. Then he had sat back and looked at her, musing over
something. He shook his head, incredulous.

“
So you were really just
going around Sicily looking for a man you’ve never met? A man
you’ve never set eyes on?”

“
It’s not that farfetched,”
she insisted. “I was making progress. I found his bookstore at
least.” Seeing the disbelief on his face, she continued.

“
Oh, I could probably pass
him on a busy street and not have a clue. But I know Adam. I could
write a book about him. I know that when he smiles, it’s usually
cryptic. I know that he seldom laughs. That he’s guarded with
almost everyone but a few. I know that if I were to search a crowd,
he’d be the brooding, quiet figure at its edge. That he can see
into people’s souls and that’s why they fear him. That his eyes
grow dark when he learns of terrible news. That he will never throw
food out because he had so little of it when he was a child. That
no matter how successful he becomes or how much he accumulates,
he’s still haunted by the poverty he grew up in, that he’ll wake up
one day and it will all be gone. I know that as strong as he is,
he’s afraid of being hurt. He’s afraid of being betrayed. But he’s
come to expect it, because he feels he doesn’t deserve happiness. I
know that he’s toughest on himself, and believes that he has too
many flaws, too many shortcomings to be loved. I know his heart,
you see. I know Adam.”

She could have legitimately called in sick,
but Eden returned to work. Staying at home, waiting for news would
have driven her crazy with anxiety. Although she couldn’t do much
with an injured hand, she could at least keep herself occupied with
a multitude of tasks. Unable to type, she was useless as a legal
secretary, so she temporarily filled in for the receptionist, who
was on vacation. She spent her days fielding numerous calls and
visitors, sorting mail. But soon even that lost its effectiveness
in keeping her fears from overwhelming her.

Jack had not called once. There was no
news.

“
Miss?”

Eden looked up from checking her phone for
the hundredth time that day to see if there were any messages or
e-mails. A courier was standing at the front counter bearing a flat
envelope.

“
I’ll sign for it,” she
said as she took the package.

Her phone vibrated then. A text message from
Jack had come in. Her excitement turned into perplexity when she
read it, for it contained only two words: “Bon voyage :)”