Baba looked up, startled. “What?”
“The night Hannah died. All those long weeks and months afterward. Even the day we buried her.” His hands clenched at his sides. “I never cried. I was trying so hard to be strong for Melissa, for the people who depended on me, I never cried for my own child. What kind of father does that make me?” His voice cracked at the end, although his expression never changed, as bleak and empty as when she’d first walked over to stand by his side.
Baba finally gave in and pushed the hair out of his face, but the wind promptly blew it back. She kissed him lightly on the lips instead.
“The kind of father who locks his heart up in a shell and does his job, I guess,” she said softly, one arm winding around his waist of its own volition.
Liam snorted. “Gee, remind you of anyone else you know?”
Well, there was that. “Yeah, just a little,” Baba said. “We’re a pathetic pair, aren’t we?”
He picked up his head and gazed at her steadily, locking his eyes on hers until she was forced to stare back. “Are we?” he asked, in a voice that tried to make it sound as though the question were more casual than it was. “A pair, I mean.”
Baba’s heart jumped, giving its own automatic answer, but all she said was, “I don’t know. Sometimes it seems like the entire universe is designed to keep us apart. I don’t know if we can work past all of that.”
She remembered their passionate encounter, when for a few golden moments, everything had seemed possible. Even now, she wanted him with a longing that shook her to the soles of her boots. But there was no way they could resolve anything until the current situation was dealt with.
She touched her lips softly to his and said, “One thing I do know—we’re going to work together to bring Maya down, once and for all.”
Hope leaped into Liam’s face as if the sun had come out, although the sky above was still as gray as ever. “Does that mean you believe me? And not Melissa, with her horrible lies?”
Baba tightened her grip into something that was almost a hug before letting go. “Yes. Yes, I do.” She wasn’t even sure when she’d decided to believe, she just knew she did. “The old Baba used to tell me that the heart is as important to magic as power—and my heart says you’re innocent.” A tiny smile twitched up one corner of her mouth. “What it’s saying beyond that, frankly, is still a mystery.”
Liam gave her a brief hug back, releasing her almost before she’d realized his arms were around her. She missed them as soon as they were gone.
“I’ll settle for that, for now,” Liam said. He knelt down to pat the top of the tombstone one last time, a solitary drop of moisture sliding unnoticed down his sun-browned cheek.
“Don’t you worry, baby girl,” he said. “Daddy is going to take care of everything. But I’ll be back. And I’ll cry for you then.”
*
MAYA LET HERSELF into Peter Callahan’s palatial rented house and let the door click shut behind her. She’d been there before, of course, so the luxurious furnishings in shades of white and taupe didn’t surprise her, nor the smooth marble floors resounding coldly under the click, click, click of her stiletto heels. What kind of person rents an all-white house when they have a four-year-old child? Not that there was any sign of the usual youthful disarray; everything was pristine and in its proper place.
A sneer distorted her unnaturally lovely face. She’d despised the ambitious businessman since the day she’d met him, applying for a job he’d had no chance of denying her. In truth, she’d been looking forward to this moment for every hour of every miserable day of the six months she’d spent putting up with his smug superiority, greedy ambition, and the twice-a-week unimaginative coupling on the top of the walnut desk in his office. What was coming next would be infinitely more pleasurable.
At least for her. She suspected he wouldn’t share her sentiments at all.
Drawn by the sound of her laughter echoing through the house, Peter appeared at the top of the stairs. An alarmed look wiped away the self-satisfaction that usually sat so comfortably on his aristocratic face.
“What the hell are you doing here?” he asked, glancing down at the fancy diamond-studded wristwatch he always wore. “My wife and son will be home any minute now.”
“Good,” Maya said, teeth gleaming, “I was hoping to see them before I left town.”