Where the Library Hides (Secrets of the Nile #2)

by Isabel Ibañez

“Won’t your betrothed be upset?” “Darling, I don’t give a damn about her.” He leaned forward and held my gaze. His voice dropped to a husky whisper. “I’m still waiting for your answer, Inez.”

A zip of electricity went through me, and I fought to keep myself from trembling. It was a big decision—the biggest of my life. “Are you sure?” “I’ve never been more sure of anything in my entire life.” “Let’s get married, then,” I said, breathless.

“In the utter chaos of my life, you are the only thing that makes sense. You asked me what my reasons are, and I don’t know all of them yet, but I do know one important thing.” He took a shaky breath, his eyes never leaving my face, and the raw emotion lurking in their depths almost keeled me over. “You’re the one I want, Inez.” My lips parted. His voice dropped to a husky whisper. “Please make me the happiest man on this earth.”

“Inez, I will honor and protect you and lay down my life for you. In sickness and in health, I will be by your side.” He gave me a faint smile. “And I promise I will never expect obedience from you.”

“And what about you? Are you ready?” He gave me a slow smile, tender and rueful. “Since Philae, Inez.”

But Whit stepped between us. “You can yell at me,” he said quietly. “You can be disappointed, feel betrayed. But you do not raise your voice at my wife. If you want someone to battle, you battle with me, Ricardo.”

And when Isadora spoke again, I felt her words like a kick to the teeth. “I’m your sister.”

She knew how to behave, but that didn’t mean she was stuffy and prim. It meant she knew how to play the game to her advantage.

My heart locked itself away, tight in my chest, and I vowed I would never be so stupid as to reveal any part of it to Mr. Hayes ever again.

Isadora narrowed her eyes at me. “You like to rush headlong into situations before really thinking them through, don’t you?” “I’m told it’s one of my more exasperating traits,” I admitted.

Hours later, I was already lying to her.

My crafty wife. I stood up as I slung my jacket on. Out of habit, I checked to make sure my knife was safely embedded in my boot, and then I followed after them, my temper rising like steam. Inez, darling, where are you off to?

My erratic heartbeat had slowed, and I found that my earlier fear had all but vanished.

“I’m going to Alexandria,” I said with a finality I didn’t feel. But should have. My voice snapped him from his thoughts. The corners of his mouth tightened as he leaned forward, so close the brush of his words caressed my mouth. “Not without me you’re not.”

“So if I don’t answer your call, you can call again and again and again, flooding our room with water?” Ricardo asked in an aghast tone. “You’re welcome,” Lorena said, grinning.

Doubt crept into my mind. I had great instincts, and there was something off about this girl. But what if I was wrong about her?

He hadn’t touched me since our wedding night—and I was glad of it. Part of me knew what would happen if he crossed that line: I’d have to fight myself tooth and nail to walk away. A battle I wasn’t sure I’d win. And wasn’t that sobering?

She flushed but didn’t look away from me. “Why is it so hard to stay mad at you?” Tension pressed down hard on my shoulders. “Because I did it to save my sister?” “It must be part of your charm,” she remarked. “To be able to do a horrible thing and get away with it.”

I hadn’t just lost a friend or a wife. I’d lost Inez’s love. Something I didn’t know that I’d had. I closed my eyes, wishing I could scrape that truth from my mind, because it was tearing me apart. I opened my eyes slowly, in time to see a small smile on her perfect mouth. Small, but brave and edged in sadness. I’d done that to her. “I understand,” I whispered.

I could picture that room exactly as I found it, every item laid out before me. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. But my gut told me I had seen something and missed its significance entirely.

For the millionth time, I held on to one reality: he did not love me.

But it wasn’t all anger … not quite. If I didn’t know better, I would have named his emotion something else entirely. It looked a lot like jealousy. But that was impossible. The idea that he was jealous about my relationship with my sister was ludicrous. Wasn’t it?

I looked away from her, wishing I didn’t agree with her. It was easier to think of her as an enemy. Easier than recognizing all the ways we were similar, and how that didn’t stop Inez from trusting her. Because then I’d have to sit with how Inez could no longer stand the sight of me.

My body was on high alert—enemy-beyond-the-hill high alert. Something was wrong. Or about to be wrong.

“Inez, you are the love of my life,” Whit roared. “I will not lose you now.”

She was dead, and I knew that her father would not let me live after this.

“Inez,” he whispered. “You want to know why I saved your life? I can think of no better act to show how much I love you. This world would not be the same without you in it, and I don’t ever want to find out what that feels like. If I have to follow you across a desert, I will. If I have to jump into the Nile, again and again, I will. If I have to leap in front of a thousand bullets, I will.” He closed his eyes, breath shuddering. “I will always love you.”

Sometime during the night, when he held on to my hand in a death grip, I had forgiven him for what he had done. It seemed he would always do the extreme to help the people in his life. Steal a fortune to save his sister. Jump in front of a bullet to save me. Fight crocodiles.

I looked to the hotel entrance, gripping the card. Then I deliberately tore it in half.

A man I had looked up to, a man I’d played with as a young girl, dressing up to perform Shakespeare for the household running the estate in Buenos Aires.

But whoever I thought my father was, whatever I had believed, was lost to me forever. All it took was a few seconds, the time it had taken him to remove his appalling disguise.

The man I had loved all my life was gone forever, and what killed me most was that I had never known who Papá was at all, or what he was capable of. If I had, maybe I could have protected myself from ever loving a monster.

But I didn’t need to—I knew who had come for me. Whitford Simon Hayes.

Death would find me down here—I was sure of it.

He looked back at me with a mixture of resignation and determination; there was nothing soft about his expression. Perhaps he knew we would always come to this moment. A father threatening the life of his daughter.

My hands stopped shaking, my entire being focused on one thing: I would not let her die. I would burn the world twice over to save her life.