Girl of Vengeance by Charles Sheehan-Miles Read Free Book Online

wife.”
    “Yes. I’ll have an invitation sent. Is she likely to be at the condo?”
    “I have no idea. Last time I was there, someone was trying to kill us.”
    “Indeed. I’ll find out where they are. Is there anything you need in the meantime?”
    “I need to call my uncle and grandmother in Spain.”
    “Of course. Feel free to use the phone in the parlor, just through that door.”
    He stood, and so did she. She felt awkward. She didn’t even know what to call him. “Um … um … Your Highness?”
    George-Phillip’s eyebrows twitched uncontrollably. It was almost funny. His words were sobering, however. “I’d be grateful if one day you would consider calling me F ather . But in the meantime, George-Phillip will do. Please, no titles. Not between us.”
    Andrea swallowed. Then she said, “George-Phillip, then … I … I know I must seem ungrateful or … I don’t know.” She wanted to stomp her foot in frustration. Andrea didn’t get tongue-tied. She rolled her eyes up to the ceiling, because she felt a sudden welling in them. Then she said, “I’ve always wanted a father who loved me. Who cared about me. And I never understood why he didn’t. I never understood why they sent me away. So forgive me if you seem to be too good to be true.” Then she held her breath and blinked her eyes, willing herself not to cry.
    He looked at her with a loving expression and said, “Take as long as you need, Andrea. I understand that I’ll have to earn your trust.”
    Then he was gone. She considered storming outside where Dylan was. Yelling. Throwing something. She didn’t know what to think, how to react, how to behave. She didn’t know what to believe. There was no doubt what he said was true. He was her father.
    But the rest of it. Could she possibly believe him that her mother had told him to stay away? That she’d begged him to stay away. That he’d wanted to reach out to her, that he’d wanted to meet her all along, that somehow he’d watched her and paid attention and showed up at the festival when she sang.
    Why had Abuelita never told her?
Adelina. July 5, 1994.
    “All right,” Bear Wyden said. “You’re cleared to go, but I want you to check in with me when you cross into France and again into Spain. You understand? I know Washington says the threat to you guys is over, but I just want to be sure.”
    “Thank you, Bear,” Adelina said. “You can’t know how much this means to me.”
    “I got a pretty good idea,” he muttered, tugging at the straps on top of the Fiat Tempra station wagon, a vehicle that Adelina hated. The suitcases were just as secure as they’d been for the last fifteen tries.
    “Girls, get in the car, please,” she said. “Julia!” she called. Julia was clear across the garage, sitting on the hood of a highly polished classic Fiat. Normally she would have been horrified to see one of her daughters behaving that way, but Adelina had a special place in her heart for Corporal Barry Lewis, the strapping young Marine who had been assigned as Julia’s guard. Twelve-year-old Julia had a massive crush on her bodyguard—whenever he was around, her face would flush red and she would stammer and stutter. Lewis took it all in good humor and spent a lot of time with her even when he was off duty. In some ways he’d become a surrogate father for Julia. A father she needed, given the emotional absence of her real father.
    “Julia! Come!”
    “Go on, princess,” Lewis said. “I’ll see you in a few days.”
    Julia blushed bright red at the word Princess . Then she jumped off the hood of the car and ran across the garage. Carrie was already buckling in. Adelina winced a little as she lifted almost-four-year-old Alexandra into her car seat and began buckling the straps. She’d infuriated Richard again, this time by not remembering the correct military rank of the Danish military attaché. He only rarely used physical violence with her anymore, preferring to keep her in