Awakening Book One of the Trust Series(88)

She scrunched her head in thought. “Okay. Should we go separately or together?”

“Together. Otherwise, you would have no idea if you reached the right location.”

She agreed. “Hold on to me and then begin thinking of the destination in as much detail as possible. I will mimic those thoughts and hopefully we will end up there. You and I have always gone to places I’ve known before.”

“Do you think you can do it?”

“I think so. Let’s try it. Worst case scenario, we end up in the middle of the Atlantic ocean or something like that.”

Declan laughed lightly. Declan grabbed her hand, focusing in on his London flat, sending her the thoughts of the location such as the street address, the description of the apartment, where it was in relation to major tourist attractions. Her face was twisted up in concentration. A moment later, they were in a tiny London apartment that he used sparingly when on international assignment.

“Is this your apartment?” Caitlyn asked, taking in her surroundings. When Declan affirmed that it was, Caitlyn wore a subdued look of accomplishment. “I did it!”

He couldn’t help but smile broadly at the achievement. Lionel had been right about one thing, she really was impressive. Declan admired her as she walked around the flat. He liked watching Caitlyn in his apartment. He envisioned her living here with him, laughing, cooking, and making love in the bed in the other room. It took every ounce of his willpower not to walk over to her now and kiss her. She commented that she liked the place, and it felt cozy. It pleased him that she thought that. The place was decorated sparingly, but still held a few comforts from home, as it was his favorite. He was last here two months ago, just for a day to talk to some of the European faction of the Trust. Europe was not faring as well with the fight against the Cine Tofa. Their numbers were increasing and the Trust was losing valuable members to their recruitment. Declan knew that something would need to be done quickly about that. Unfortunately, he now had bigger issues to focus on.

He reached out to her, touching her arm lightly. “Caitlyn…”

He felt her relax at the touch. “Yes, Declan?”

“Before we begin, why don’t we start some tea?” He wasn’t here enough to have much else, but he did have tea. What sort of proper London flat did not have tea?

“I would like that. I need something to soothe me at the moment.”

He wrestled through the kitchen cabinets, to the tin of chamomile tea. He prepared two cups, one for himself and one for her. She gratefully accepted it when he handed her the mug. She took a sip, her eyes rolling back a little with pleasure. “Thank you. This is what I needed.”

“Good.” He sat down next to her on his loveseat. He took a sip himself. Caitlyn was finally becoming relaxed; you could see the past twenty-four hours had taken its toll on her. Her eyes were blood shot from the tears and her usually straight hair was frizzled. She was still stunningly beautiful to him however. The last thing he wanted to do was have her recount her time with Garrett and Lionel, but he knew he must. “Caitlyn… I need to talk to you about Garrett.”

Her body began to tense but he continued. “I met with the Council late last night. After briefing them on what I knew, they wanted to bring you in for questioning to be on the safe side, even though they appeared to know more than either you or I did. I convinced my father that it was not the best idea at this time. The full Council’s sessions are intense to state the least.”

She eyed Declan appreciatively. “Thank you. I don’t know that I could handle that today or the next few days.”

“But I still need to ask you questions. The Council… well, as you and I discussed yesterday morning, Garrett is not who everyone thinks he is.”

She sighed, and placed down the tea after taking a small sip. Weariness surrounded her body. “No, he is not.”

“Did Garrett ever talk at all of Nathaniel Livingston?”

Caitlyn clenched her fists lightly at the mention of Nathaniel. So he was not surprised when she answered softly, “No. I’ve only known as long as you have. A little over twenty-four hours ago? Until yesterday, I knew him as Garrett Stevens and there was definitely no mention of Nathaniel Livingston. In fact, he talked very rarely of any specifics regarding the Cine Tofa. When you came to me with that information, I was as shocked as you were.”

“He never mentioned anything?” He could not believe that. He knew that Garrett treasured Caitlyn more than life itself. That was a major secret he kept from her. Declan knew he needed to ask more, but she looked so hurt, he couldn’t bear it. Declan wrapped his arms around her, comforting her. “Are you okay?”