Page 122 of The Honeymoon Hack
Even if we’d obtained everything required to free him, we’d never be able to reproduce this again. My father was gone, leaving nothing but memories. And my mother?
Brie reached the last page of the scrapbook. It was all white and cream, with paper flowers. Two photos took up the left page. One of my parents at their wedding, and the other of Brie’s parents at theirs. I’d never met Joseph, but I looked forward to it.
“What’s this?” asked Brie, tapping the page on the right side. It bore one photo, of my sister and her husband on their wedding day. Four empty frames waited for more.
“The book’s not done yet.” Mum pointed at the top left frame. “Scarlett’s the oldest, so this one’s waiting for her. Evie tells me her wedding is happening soon?”
“She got engaged just over a month ago. Her fiancé’s a real charmer.” Brie flipped to the first page and smiled at baby pictures. “I doubt he’ll wait longer than spring. He’s pretty keen to lock her into marriage.”
Mum wrinkled her nose. “I hope he’s better than that other fellow she was engaged to. What was his name?”
“Noah.” Brie grimaced, but didn’t add any further commentary.
“Not to speak ill of the dead,” said Evelyn, as though reminding us Mum wasn’t privy to the fact that Noah was alive, “but he was such a tosser.”
Brie turned to a page showing eleven-year-old versions of us hunched over some project on my father’s workbench, Dad watching with a bewildered expression in the background. He was a talented carpenter and spent hours teaching me how tobuild things and take pride in my craftsmanship. But that was the day he started coming to me to fix the electronics.
Evelyn checked her watch and stood. “I should get to the office. Will I see you two at the team meeting this afternoon?”
“We’ll be there,” Brie confirmed.
After Evelyn left, we spent another hour with my mother, looking through the scrapbook and chatting. I watched Brie with my mother, taking in the ease with which they interacted and the tenderness between them.
For the past year, I’d shouldered the weight of my mother’s care alone, terrified of what each new day might bring, what memories might slip away forever. Now, watching Brie with her, I realized I hadn’t been alone at all. Physically, yes, but not in all the other ways that mattered.
The woman I’d loved for over half my life was finally, completely mine.
And we were going to fill one of those empty frames on the back page as soon as possible.
Epilogue
RAV
The boardroomat Reynolds Halifax HQ buzzed with the familiar energy of a mission debrief. I sat at the conference table, my back to the wall out of habit, watching the team process what we’d been through three days ago. Ashley’s sling didn’t slow her down as she and Brie huddled over their laptops, picking apart the Fenix data they’d extracted from the Meridian server.
Another operation closed. Another set of problems to solve.
Will and Brie weren’t acting much differently than usual—they’d always shared a brain—but now they kept stealing glances at each other, thinking no one noticed. Small looks that lasted for a heartbeat too long.
Good for them. Although she had a lot of processing ahead of her after what Lark put her through, and maybe some therapy if she took my advice. Hopefully, she’d be more open to it than Emmett had been after his ordeal in Venice.
Jayce picked at the corner of a cannoli from the Russo’s pastry box Evelyn had brought—she always brought their pastries for big meetings—while Drew read something on his tablet.
“We know they’re consolidating their team in Naples.” Evelyn stood at the large monitor on the wall, pointing to a map we’d found in Fenix’s files. “And they plan to assemble the phoenix soon.”
Brie’s data upload was far from intact. Lark had blown the Orchid server and destroyed the Meridian server before Brie’s upload could finish. We had too much incomplete intel.
I glanced at the tablet in front of me, studying the map of Naples, which featured a large circle encompassing the entire city, including Capri and the volcano. If we were going in, there would be too much ground to cover without better intelligence.
Brie adjusted her glasses, the focus I’d seen a thousand times settling over her features. “There’s so much damage to the files, we’ll be working on it for weeks to sort everything out. But we’ll feed you all what we can, as it becomes available.”
Drew shifted in his seat, his leg finding Jayce’s under the table, a gesture so subtle most people would miss it. Scarlett and Malcolm exchanged one of their wordless communications across the room. These people had found something I’d given up looking for years ago. It was beautiful to see.
Memories surfaced before I could stop them—Brooke in tactical gear at Mnemis, radiating the same confidence I remembered from Afghanistan. But more than that. Brooke laughing at something ridiculous I’d said during a briefing, the sound like music cutting through the tension in the room. Brooke falling asleep in the back seat of a transport after a long day, trusting me to keep watch. Her eyes lighting up when she explained a tool she’d designed herself to check for traces of weaponized chemicals.
That spark was gone when I’d seen her at Mnemis, replaced by something harder, more guarded. She’d probably met someone who had made her forget all about a broken soldier who’d been too distracted to protect her.
“The Carabinieri aren’t taking the threat seriously,” Evelyn said, pulling me back to the present. “I can’t blame them, given how vague the information is. Massimo de Rosa’s arrest should have put a significant dent in their funding. However, based on what Brie and Ashley have uncovered thus far, I suspect there’s more money behind Fenix than we initially thought.”
