Page 85 of Duty Devoted
“Logan Kane. I have an appointment with the Valentinos.”
His eyes flicked to a list on his podium. “Of course, Mr. Kane. Penthouse level. The elevator on your right will take you directly up.”
The elevator was all polished brass and mirrors, highlighting my discomfort from every angle. As it climbed, my chest tightened. Too small. Too many reflective surfaces showing too much reality. Too many floors between me and solid ground.
By the time the doors opened on the penthouse level, sweat prickled along my spine despite the perfect climate control. I forced my breathing to even out.
Eight weeks of running, and where had it gotten me? Right back here, exactly where I should have been all along. The truth settled in my chest like lead—everything I’d done since Corazón had just been a long, winding road back to Lauren. Jace’s intervention yesterday had only accelerated the inevitable. I would have ended up here eventually, begging for forgiveness I didn’t deserve.
The hallway stretched ahead, pale carpet thick enough to muffle footsteps. Only two doors at this level. The Valentinos occupied the entire north side of the building, apparently.
I pressed the doorbell and waited.
The door opened to reveal Catherine Valentino, and I understood immediately where Lauren got her height and bone structure. The woman before me carried herself with the kind of poise that came from old money and absolute certainty of her place in the world.
“Mr. Kane.” Not a question. “Please, come in.”
She led me deeper into the penthouse, past rooms that looked like museum displays. Catherine paused at eachdoorway, gesturing with a practiced hand, while Richard’s voice carried from somewhere ahead—he was clearly wrapping up a phone call, his tone shifting from commanding to conciliatory as he finished.
“Richard’s in his study. This way.”
Richard Valentino rose from behind a massive desk as we entered. Same silver hair I remembered from the video call months ago, same aura of controlled power. But something had shifted—lines around his eyes that spoke of sleepless nights, a tightness in his shoulders that should’ve been gone since his daughter was home safely.
“Mr. Kane.” His handshake was firm, assessing. “Thank you for coming. Please, sit.”
I took the offered chair, leather soft as butter beneath me. Catherine settled onto a small sofa, ankles crossed, hands folded in her lap. Richard returned to his desk chair, adjusting a paperweight before looking up—they’d done this dance before.
“We’re grateful for what you and your team did,” Richard started. “Getting Lauren out of that place safely.”
That place.Like Corazón was something dirty to be scraped off their daughter’s shoe.
“She hasn’t talked much about it,” Catherine added, touching her pearl necklace. “But we know it must have been traumatic. That man—Silva?—the news reports were horrible.”
“She hasn’t told you what happened?”
Catherine’s fingers moved to the next pearl. Richard shuffled papers that didn’t need shuffling.
“Bits and pieces,” Richard said. “She’s been…reluctant to discuss it. You know how she is. Always trying to protect us from the harsh realities of her choices.”
Her choices. The disapproval threaded through his words like wire through concrete.
“We’re just thankful she’s home,” Catherine continued. “Where she belongs. Safe.”
Safe. I thought about the mugging, the fear that must have flooded through her in that parking garage. So much for safe.
“She’s struggling to adjust,” Richard said, straightening an already straight pen on his desk. “The hospital position, living here in the city again. But she’ll settle. She always does.”
“I’m surprised she didn’t join another medical mission. Compass must have openings.”
Catherine’s laugh was three notes of crystal breaking. “Thank goodness she seems to be outgrowing that stage. All those dangerous places, primitive conditions. It was never suitable for someone of her?—”
“Intelligence? Compassion? Skill?”
Richard’s eyes narrowed. “Background is probably more the word Catherine was thinking. But I can see you got to know our daughter during the extraction.”
Got to know her. If only they knew how well. How she’d felt beneath me during that hurricane. How she’d trusted me with her life, her body, her heart. How I’d thrown it all away.
“Tell me about the mugging.”
