it was the little black book I’d slipped deep between some shirts when I’d been getting out the cash cases from Kington Peak. The book I’d always used to record the most private of my affairs, in scrawled handwritten text, safe away from the virtual world. I’d been writing in it for years. Passwords, and ID numbers, and names and connections. The most important keys of the most important locks of my life.
Elaine lay down on the bed next to me as I thumbed through the pages.
“What’s that?” she asked, her pretty eyes shining bright in the lamplight.
“It’s our future,” I told her, and turned the book around to face her.
She scrunched up her face as she stared at the numbers and letters. “Business stuff?”
“Financial security of the very highest order.” I flicked through a few of the pages, until the numbers and letters turned to names and numbers. “Associations of the highest power. This is where we’ll get started.”
“Some of those are from the UK, right?” she asked, and took the book from my hands.
“Some very important ones of those are from the UK,” I said. “So I’d best get taking advantage of them before my father realizes this is where I’ve gone and starts reaching out to them himself. I need to get a head start on the battle.”
She handed the book back. “So, we’re really doing this? We’re really going to be Elaine and Lucian?”
I knew it, right down in my core. Yes. We were going to be Elaine and Lucian. Running away as damn Penelope and Jason would be a pitiful last resort. Elaine deserved to be a Constantine even more than I deserved to be a Morelli. She was too regal to carry any less of a crown.
I smiled at her. “It would be a travesty to call you anything but Elaine. You are Elaine. You will always be Elaine, not just to me, but to the world.”
She let out another one of her sweet little giggles.
“I never, ever thought we’d be holding up each other’s names as some kind of pride thing. We were born to hate each other’s names. I was told to hate the Morelli family as soon as I could understand the words.”
“I was taught to hate the Constantines with so much venom it would kill a whole fucking nation,” I replied. “You were nothing but pieces of shit since the moment I first opened my eyes.”
“Strange, isn’t it?” she asked. “It’s insane how the universe turned so damn weird and brought us together.”
“The universe is a strange fucking place,” I said. “Only it isn’t. Not when you really think about it. Not so strange as it seems. The whole world is magnetic. Opposites. It’s full of poles apart in the most extreme of ways with the most potent attractions. Darkness and light. Fire and ice.”
“Constantine and Morelli,” she finished.
I put the book down and took her hands in mine, squeezing her fingers.
“Just imagine the beautiful combination that Constantine and Morelli could bring together.”
“Let’s find out,” she said, and her stunning smile was at full volume.
“I’d best get started, then,” I told her and kissed her fingers before turning my attention back to the pages.
Dawn was just creeping in outside when Elaine put the TV on and flicked through the channels. There was no doubt about it—her wound was recovering nice and fast.
She dozed there, watching the screen while I scoured through my book some more, creating a strategy in my mind. I plotted out the most important connections, and what I’d like to propose to them. I considered just which of my investments would be the most valuable assets in this new world and how best to exploit them.
Elaine was quiet, relaxing in a way that spilled over to me like a drug, helping my focus rather than hindering it. She was an asset valuable enough to put all of my others to shame.
I could hear the street coming to life outside the hotel when she pulled herself up from the bed and stepped up to the window. The light shining through her blonde hair was divine.
“London,” she said. “Wow. I still can’t believe we’re in London. There are so many things I want to do here, to see here. I just can’t believe I’ll be doing them with you.”
So many things were unbelievable in our life, it was insanity.
“I need some things of a more practical nature,” I told her. “A cell phone is at the top of my