want any curious onlookers.” He looked to Romero. “Romero will keep guard up here.”
“Yes, sir,” Sam said before leaving and closing the door to the outer hallway.
“Romero,” Mason said as he went to pick up the duffel bag, “take the post in the hallway and connect to the closed-circuit security. Ryan and Sam can’t patrol the entire building, and I don’t want to be interrupted.” He turned to me. “You’re free to leave at any time.”
“I guess that depends on what I find out about my wife.”
Lorna
“I don’t know why I’m nervous about this,” I said as I sat forward in the kitchen chair, placing my hands on the table. Across the table were Laurel and Patrick.
“There are no right or wrong answers,” Laurel said with a reassuring smile.
Taking a breath, I savored the familiarity of being in the large penthouse kitchen. I knew every inch of this room, the contents of every drawer and every cupboard. This glass tower was my house, and since the day, nearly a decade earlier, when Sterling Sparrow told me that he wanted me to stay, it’s been my home.
I’d lived within this glass palace in the sky longer than any other place. It was funny to consider Araneae’s theory—that to the rest of the world, these floors didn’t exist. And yet within them, I’d found everything I ever wanted and more than I ever dreamt. It wasn’t the luxury of the furnishings, the clothes in my closet, or the jewelry I had in my jewelry box. What I’d found here was more valuable.
I had the love of my husband and friends. In those people, I’d found my family, one that extended beyond my brother and husband to everyone present.
Gathering my thoughts, I peered toward the large windows.
The early afternoon sun streamed through the panes, bringing shine to everything in its path. The sunshine was a welcome change from this morning’s rain and wind. That was Chicago in a nutshell. The weather could change on a dime. Heck, this time of year, in another hour, we could have large flakes of snow fluttering past our windows. For now, the clouds had lessened with peeks of blue sky and intermittent streams of sunlight.
“Before we begin,” Patrick said, “can you tell us what you’ve remembered?”
I inhaled as I looked down at my hands, my fingers interwoven on the top of the granite table. “My mom.”
“You remember seeing her?” Laurel asked.
“I do. Remember when I told you about my dream?”
“You now are sure that it wasn’t a dream?”
“I think it was real.” I closed my eyes and tried to bring back the scene. “It was raining.” I remembered something else. “I was cold. I’d taken off my clothes.” A cold shiver came over me. “Ants. I remember the ants. They woke me. After I brushed away the ants, I saw this woman. I didn’t know who she was at first. It was dark and beginning to rain. I went to her, to help her. She was so thin.” A lump came to my throat. “Her voice was scratchy.” I looked up to Patrick’s blue eyes. “You know how someone sounds who has been a smoker? That was her voice. And her skin was thin. I thought she looked hungry. I told her I could help her.”
“In the wilderness?” Laurel asked.
The tips of my lips moved upward in a sad attempt at a grin. “I couldn’t. I couldn’t even remember the last time I’d eaten, but I wanted to help her. I guess to give her hope.”
Patrick flashed a real smile. “Lorna, for over nine years you’ve been feeding us. I would never doubt that was your intention.”
I shrugged one shoulder. “I know what I do isn’t much. I’m not you,” I said, looking at Laurel. “What I do here” —I gestured around the kitchen— “is just my...contribution.”
Patrick nodded my direction. “Don’t sell yourself short. Taking care of this ragamuffin crew is something substantial. Did she accept your help?”
The room around me disappeared as I tried to recall that night. The rain began falling harder, large raindrops plopping upon the hard ground. Thunder rolled in the distance, its rumble came closer as its volume grew, and streaks of lightning zigzagged across the sky.
I looked down. Instead of the shiny tile floor beneath my shoes, I saw the rising water around my bare feet and the way the earth dampened and morphed from solid to a rising stream. “I was worried about the rain.”