“A million dollars? To a doorman?”
“Let us deploy the new privacy upgrade after breakfast, and we shall have that talk we came for. Shall we?”
After a delicious breakfast, Leo gave the order to his men to “deploy the package,” whatever that meant, and they all went below deck to Leo’s library.
“Okay, now we may speak freely, I hope.”
“Do you know if they’re alive? Or do you suspect they are?” Imogen asked immediately.
Leo shook his head at her question. “I do not. I have suspicions, but no facts.”
“So, you brought us all the way out here because …” Imogen prompted.
“I was intrigued. By both of you.” His gaze cut to Jury. “Especially you.”
“This was just another leg of a wild goose chase?” Jury replied.
“No. More so to tell you that there is nothing to be gained by going further down this road. I am one of the last people to have a conversation in New Orleans with Lachlan Mount alive. We helped him … dispose of some of his personal effects. And then the keys.”
“You really don’t know anything else?” Jury asked.
“No facts. Just suspicions.”
“Are you going to share them?” Imogen asked.
“Of course. Why else bring you here? Well, why else in addition to my own personal satisfaction?” He paused. “Lachlan Mount was not a stupid man. He had a profession one does not retire from. You die—most likely. Or go to prison—less palatable. He knew this. This was why he would never entangle himself with a woman for the long-term.”
“Until Keira.”
“Indeed. I believe he had an exit strategy. He was too intelligent and resourceful and in love not to. Maybe it was possible to put her at risk for a time because she had been so unexpected, but not once they had thebébé. There was no way he was leaving things to chance after that. Not the man I knew.”
“What kind of exit strategy?” Nic asked.
“While I can prove nothing—which was the whole point of the explosion—I know he would have protected that woman and his child with his life. He was willing to die for them. But them going out like that? In an explosion? Doubtful but convenient, if you were leaving the country, never to be seen or heard from again.”
“But what about us?” Jury finally asked. “Even if Mount had no family, Keira did. She wouldn’t have just faked her death and disappeared without a trace and left us in the dark forever.”
“To save her husband and child? To give them a future together? You think not?”
Imogen thought of the letter her sister had written them.
Marrying my husband has taken me down a very different path, one you will never understand.
“Yes, she would have,” Imogen said. “She loved us, but she would have done anything to protect her daughter. She would have done anything to protect her husband. She absolutely would have.”
“Im, no.”
“Yes, Jury. You read the letter. You don’t know the world she lived in. We don’t know what she’d been through. And besides, the alternative sucks way more.”
Nic wrapped his arm around her and pulled her into his side.
Leo looked at Jury. “I happen to agree with your sister. Mount was ready to leave. His planning would’ve been elaborate. Is there a chance they’re dead? Of course. But to my mind, no. Not at all. But how else does one escape the Feds? They were never going to stop. They were recruiting help from dark places too. It is a subject matter best left alone. If they are out there and they ever want you to know the truth, then you will know.”
“I agree,” Imogen said. “I would rather live with the hope that they’re all safe and happy and not accidentally put them in danger by digging into things that are best left alone.”
“Give it a year. Maybe ten. Let things cool off. Let speculation die down. You never know what may come your way.”
“Patience is not my—” Jury started, but Leo interrupted her.