Page 34 of Code Name: Reaper (K19 Allied Intelligence Team Two #5)
AMARYLLIS
“ T his place is daunting,” I said as we descended the staircase that looked like something out of a movie. “I mean, we’re staying in a suite in a wing.”
Reaper chuckled. “It rivals the White House, except without the Oval Office, press room, and situation room—on the other hand, given this family is behind one of the most secret and elite intelligence organizations in the world, one that even agencies like the NSA, CIA, and SIS knew nothing about, maybe it does have all that.”
“Right?” I clasped my hands together to keep them from shaking. “I was nervous enough without the reminder of who I’m dealing with.”
Reaper put his arm around my shoulders. “It’s going to be fine. And you aren’t ‘dealing’ with them. They’re your family.”
When we reached the bottom step, Lyra came around the corner and tucked my arm in hers. “Ready?”
My stomach clenched, but I stepped forward when she did. Kingston squeezed my other hand as she led me through the house to a warmly lit sitting room. Classical music played softly from hidden speakers, and everything was bathed in golden lamplight.
A woman sat on a cream-colored sofa, and my breath caught as I approached. Her silver hair was pulled back, and in her eyes, I saw my own—the same blue-green color, the same shape.
“Charity,” Lyra said softly. “This is my mother. Your grandmother.”
Anna rose slowly, her hands trembling as she reached for me. “My dear child,” she whispered in accented English. “You look so much like Amelia.”
She pulled me into an embrace that smelled of lavender and roses, and I clung to this stranger who was my family. Anna held me tight, and I could feel her crying.
“I thought I would never meet you,” she whispered against my hair. “All these years, watching over you...”
When we finally pulled apart, she cupped my face with shaking hands. “Let me look at you properly. Amelia’s smile, yes, but Horatio’s stubborn chin,” she said through her tears. “You are perfect.”
Another woman joined us. “I am Polina.” Her accent sounded Russian. “Katarina’s grandmother.”
She embraced me too. “I am so sorry we could not know each other until now. But you are here, you are safe, and that is what matters.”
They invited me to sit between them on the sofa, and Anna took my hand in hers. “I want to know everything about you.” She looked around the room. “Lyra, where is the young man?”
“I thought it best for you to have time alone with Charity first, Mama.”
“Yes. Of course.” Anna returned her gaze to me. “Norman and Dorothy—your grandparents were lovely people.”
“I miss them so much.”
She tightened her grip on my hand. “You must understand that they did what they knew was best for you. And you must forgive them.”
“I have,” I responded honestly.
“And us,” she added.
“There’s nothing to forgive. I promise.”
As I talked about my childhood, my studies, and my life with the Beaudoins, Anna and Polina listened with the intensity of people starved for details, wanting to know everything from my favorite foods to my college graduation.
“Dorothy sent photos when she could,” Anna said at one point. “Through careful channels of course.” Her voice broke. “I have watched you grow up, but pictures are not the same as holding your granddaughter.”
The door opened, and Katarina joined us.
“Hello, Grandmother.” She kissed Polina’s cheek, then turned to me. “And cousin .”
I stood to greet her. “It’s so nice to finally meet you in person.”
She hugged me tightly. “Likewise.”
“Lyra, bring in the young man now, yes?”
“Of course, Mama.”
“What is his name?” Anna asked when Lyra left the room.
“Kingston. His code name is Reaper.”
She chuckled. “My husband’s was Minerva.” Her voice turned wistful. “Things were very different from how they are now, where entire identities—families—can be erased as if they never existed.”
“Not erased, Aunt Anna. Hidden. Kept from danger,” Katarina reminded her.
She nodded once. “When Horatio and Mikhail were agents starting their careers, our lives had to be shielded in other ways. Peril—” Her voice broke. “Your mother and father were so young when we lost them. Katarina’s too.”
My eyes met my cousin’s. “The same year. The same way,” she told me.
“While Horatio and Mikhail couldn’t prove it, they knew neither was an accident. That’s when everything changed for us.” She looked over at Polina.
“Our hearts were so broken.” The other woman spoke so quietly I could barely hear her. “And we were so afraid.”
“Redbird—that’s Katarina’s grandfather—and my husband were partners,” Anna explained. “They were among the very best intelligence agents there were. They uncovered corruption within the very agencies they worked for, and that put us all in so much danger.”
Lyra returned with Reaper—Kingston.
“This is my…”
“Boyfriend,” he answered for me, winking. “Please, don’t get up,” he said when Anna reached for a cane I hadn’t noticed. He stepped closer and shook her outstretched hand. “It’s an honor to meet you, Mrs. Hyde.”
She squeezed his fingers like she had mine. “The pleasure is mine, Kingston. And you must call me Grandmama.” She looked from him to me. “Both of you. I sense your boyfriend will soon be joining our family as well.”
I felt my cheeks flush and thought about his earlier words.
“Whatever your family needs, whatever this mission requires, whatever dangers come—I’m with you,” he’d said.
Had he meant as more than colleagues? When I met his gaze and, in it, I saw the same depth of love I felt for him, I knew he had.
“I was telling Charity about the days when Horatio and Mikhail first discovered Argead,” my grandmother continued while Katarina introduced him to Polina.
“After the accidents, that is when we moved here, to Switzerland.”
“This estate belonged to my mother’s family,” Lyra added.
I turned to Anna. “Is your family Swiss?”
“We are British by nationality, but we had homes in various places around the world.”
“It was one of the reasons we went into what was tantamount to hiding. The wealth meant all of us were even more at risk. Not only from Argead, but from anyone who knew of it and saw it as an opportunity to exploit,” Lyra explained. “My father and Uncle Mikhail believed we were safest here.”
“That must have been difficult. The time apart.”
“It was. Polina and I worried endlessly. More so when Eleanor, Edgar, and Lyra announced their intention to follow in their father’s footsteps.”
“Eleanor joined the CIA, Edgar joined MI6, and you joined the NSA. Is that right?” I asked Lyra.
“Mama was not happy.” She smiled at Anna. “Not that it happened all at once.”
“My mother was the oldest, right?”
“Yes. Amelia was the firstborn, then Eleanor. Edgar and I are the youngest.”
“They’re twins,” Anna added.
We talked, sharing stories and filling gaps that had existed for decades. Anna told me about my mother’s childhood, how she’d always been the peacemaker among her four children. Polina shared memories of Katarina’s parents and how gentle Pavel had been despite his dangerous work.
When a woman—Mrs. Egger, as she was introduced—entered the room to say a dinner buffet had been laid out for anyone who was hungry, Lyra suggested everyone who wanted to should eat, then retire for the evening.
“There will be time for more sharing tomorrow and in the days that follow,” she said, approaching me. “I hope you’ll consider staying here.”
“Thank you. I would like that very much.”
As Kingston and I walked out of the room together, hand in hand, I felt the weight of what had been lost. Underneath the joy of meeting the family I never knew existed was sorrow.
Anna had buried her husband and three of her four children.
Polina had lost her son and daughter-in-law.
Neither Katarina nor I had the chance to truly know our parents.
We were both the remnants of something that had been systematically destroyed.
After we’d eaten, Anna approached and I stood. She squeezed my hand one more time. “You will not disappear on me, will you? You will stay?”
“I’m not going anywhere,” I promised.
Katarina motioned to Kingston as we were walking out. “If you have a minute, I have a message to deliver.”
“Of course.” He held my hand tightly as she led us a few feet from the others.
“Dagger wanted me to let you know he’ll be in touch soon.”
“He’s all right?” I asked.
“He is. There were things both he and I, as well as other members of Minerva Protocol, had to do in order to ensure Eleanor’s and Mercury’s safety. For him, it meant making you believe his cover had been blown so he could go dark.”
I understood, as I was sure Kingston would. I’d done something similar when I left the villa in Montenegro, letting him and the rest of the coalition wonder if I was dead or alive. He had too when he resigned from the coalition and went dark himself in order to look for me.
As Kingston and I headed to our room after thanking Katarina and saying good night, Lyra caught up with us and looked between him and me.
“If you’d like, the three of us can meet tomorrow morning or whenever you’re ready.
There’s more about the family, about why all this happened, and about Minerva you need to know. ”
“I’d like that.” I hugged her after we ascended the stairs and were about to go in opposite directions. “And thank you for keeping me safe and for letting me know you cared about me, even though you couldn’t tell me who we were to each other.”
Her bottom lip trembled like mine so often did. “I love you, Charity. I hope you know how much.”
“I do, and I love you too.”
“Would you like to read some of the book?” Reaper asked once we were in our suite.
“I should, but…”
“Too much?”
“For now, and I’m so tired.”
“Then, we’ll call it a night.”