“Tell me what to do,” he implored. “Surely someone can help. Philip Ransom? A politician here in Cuba? Tell me what to do!”

Luke smiled sadly. “Gray . . . there’s nothing you can do. Go home and get the upper hand on the Magruders. Sell your spices and build your magnificent empire and don’t look back. Forget about me.”

“That’s not possible. Tell me what I can do.”

Luke looked prepared to deny him again, but then he paused. A hint of mischief lurked behind his eyes, and he leaned forward. “Actually . . . maybe there is something you can do. Before I left, I was working on a plan to bring the Magruders down a notch.”

“What kind of plan?”

Genuine amusement lit Luke’s face as he outlined the plan. He quivered in excitement as he laid out the details, but Gray was appalled. It was typical Luke. Audacious, extravagant, and fiendishly clever.

“Almost everything was in place,” Luke said. “All I need is someone to carry it out.”

“Absolutely not.”

Luke reared back. “Why not? It’s brilliant.”

“It’s nothing more than a juvenile prank.”

Luke shook his head. “It will peel back the veil and show the world who the Magruders really are. It will throw a little egg on Clyde Magruder’s face right before his run for Congress. And lest we forget, it will be fun.”

Gray folded his arms over his chest. He didn’t like the Magruders any more than Luke did, but it was important to play by the rules.

Except . . . Luke hadn’t really spiraled off course until four years ago when the deal with the Magruders went south. That was the incident that started Luke down this destructive path.

Someone banged on the door. “Five more minutes,” a guard shouted through the grate.

Gray stood, as did Luke. “You still haven’t told me how I can get you out of here. There has to be a way.”

“There’s not,” Luke said, trying to smile but almost weeping. “Don’t worry about me. Tell Caroline the same. I want her to soar and accomplish great things. I knew this was dangerous work, and I knew the price I might have to pay. I rolled the dice and lost.”

The worst thing was that for the first time in his life, everything Luke said was entirely correct. That didn’t make it easier as Gray bid his brother farewell, possibly for the last time on this earth.

Caroline would not accept it. The morning after his ship docked in Alexandria, Gray headed straight for the White House to see his sister. She’d just come from facilitating a luncheon with a group of congressmen’s wives and still wore an elegant day dress of pink-and-black-striped taffeta.