Destiny continued, “Here with me tonight is my son Roger, who we adopted from Guatemala. He will be sharing later about his experience and the journey that brought him to us. In this trying time, the best thing for us to do is remember the good things we have in our lives.”
Kira leaned over and whispered in Luca’s ear. “Did you know Destiny and Ralph have a son?”
He shook his head.
“She never said anything about him to me.”
“Maybe it’s a new thing. Or an old thing, so it’s not news.”
Kira frowned, not sure what to make of it. Maybe Roger had been gone when they met, on a long trip or away for a while. Or Destiny was embarrassed by him. Kira had no idea.
“The auction is about to begin. This is your last chance to get bids in for our array of amazing experiences and items you don’t want to miss.” She leaned toward the microphone. “Thank you all for coming.”
“Is it just me,” Kira said to Luca, “or is this whole thing really weird?”
He nodded. “Something isn’t right here.”
Twelve
Luca looked at the text message on his watch.
Jamie
Done.
“Anything I should know about?”
He glanced at Kira, sitting beside him at the table. White tablecloth. A glass vase in the center had been filled with cut flowers and little twinkly lights. Even with how the space had been decorated for this event, she was still the most beautiful thing here.
The kind of woman who took his breath away.
“When I was in Alaska last year, one of the firefighters started dating this woman, Jamie Winters. She’s the CEO of a finance company and pretty amazing with numbers.” He left out how she had grown her business from nothing to the point she was in fact worth billions. “I asked her to make a donation to the foundation so she could track where the money went. It’s something she’s done before, so I figured it didn’t hurt to ask.”
“And she agreed?”
He nodded. “She jumped at the chance to help us figure this out. She was actually part of rescuing Hammer’s wife and son just a few months ago. She tracked Sierra’s cell phone, and Hammer was able to get there in time to save them both.”
“Wow, that’s pretty amazing.”
“I’m a lucky guy, considering there are so many amazing women in my life.” Enough that he had never given up the idea he might one day meet someone like that. A woman who would be his one and only.
Not every guy was wired to find the one person God had saved just for them. But he had always been traditional like that. Even before he became a believer, Luca had known that there was someone out there for him. It seemed as if the minute he met Kira, his heart already knew what she would mean to him, even if it had taken the rest of him a while to catch up.
“It shouldn’t take her long to figure out what’s behind the scenes of this foundation.”
Kira took a sip of her drink. “As long as the money actually moves. If Destiny and her people leave it where it is for a while, there’s not going to be anything to find.”
“So let’s hope they’ve got this thing on automatic and the money shifts accounts right away.”
Several of the items had already been auctioned off, and Destiny had told them all there would be a short reprieve before the winners of the next batch of items were announced.
An older couple came over to their table, striking up a conversation with Kira. She introduced them as being board members for the hospital. The husband just wanted to talk about an upcoming budget meeting while the wife stared into space, so when Luca’s phone rang and he saw the name Butler on the screen, he touched Kira’s shoulder.
When she turned to him, he kissed her cheek. “I should take this. I’ll be back in a second.”
She nodded. “Of course.”
Luca found a quiet corner of the room, away from where most of the crowd gathered. “Saxon.”