Air Bound

11

MAXIM moved with blurring speed, clearing the couch to catch Airiana up, holding her body in front of his as a shield as he whipped out his pistol. He aimed it at Theodotus’s head.

“Wait! Wait!” the Russian yelled as three men burst into the room.

Maxim gestured with his gun at the physicist. Theodotus reluctantly took the few steps to stand squarely in front of them.

“You don’t understand,” he said. “I had no choice. I had to cooperate.” He glared at the three men. “Put your weapons down. You can’t chance hitting my daughter or me. Russia needs us.”

He sounded so pompous, Maxim wanted to hit him with the barrel of his weapon, but the three members of the security team—and Maxim was certain they were agents loyal to Sorbacov—obeyed.

“Step away from the door and get around behind the chairs. Kneel and put your hands behind your heads. Lock your fingers together. Do it fast.”

Can you walk on your feet? Crazy woman, he added affectionately.

Yes. She hoped there would be time to take the glass out, but she wasn’t going to mention that to him.

Maxim set her down and pulled several zip ties from his pocket. “Start with dear old dad. Bind his hands behind his back and then the others. They’d better be tight,” he added for effect.

Airiana took the ties and pushed air beneath the soles of her feet to cushion them as she took the few steps necessary to get to Theodotus. She slid the ties over Theodotus’s wrists and pulled them tight before making her way gingerly to the three men.

Stay out of the line of fire, Maxim cautioned.

She had been concentrating on not cringing when her feet touched the carpet, driving the glass deeper. She walked on the outside edges of her feet and kept the air flowing beneath them so that the glass couldn’t push deeper into her flesh as she took the quickest route to the three men.

Damn it, Airiana, look what you did to yourself.

She glanced behind her and saw the bloody trail of her footprints on the carpet. Let’s just get these men taken care of and then you can pull the glass out of my feet.

Maxim swore in Russian, a blistering attack on just what he thought of her diversion. She ignored him and used the zip ties on the three men.

“Pick up their weapons and step away from them,” Maxim instructed next. Clearly he didn’t want her walking around on her cut feet, but he kept the others thinking she was as much a prisoner as they were.

Maxim stalked across the room and slammed his gun into each man’s head, sending him slumping to the floor. He wasn’t gentle about it. Bending down, he patted down each man and removed several other weapons before taping their mouths closed. He turned his attention to Theodotus.

The physicist trembled visibly as Maxim approached him. “Don’t hit my head. I’m not going to give you any trouble.”

“I need to know how many soldiers you have on board. How large of a security force did you bring with you? Don’t be stupid and lie. I’ll come back and kill. You know me. You know my brother. When I say something I mean it.”

“I had no choice,” Theodotus blurted out. “I’m telling the truth.”

“How many, Solovyov?” Maxim was relentless.

“Eight altogether. But I’m telling you, I had no choice. You have to believe me. Uri Sorbacov approached me and told me he knew I was in touch with Gavriil Prakenskii. He wants Gavriil dead. He lent me this yacht. The men are under his orders. I’m as much a prisoner as you are.”

Uri Sorbacov is the son of Kostya Sorbacov, the man who murdered my parents and forced us into the schools, Maxim told her.

“Who knew Gavriil passed on the tip that your daughter was in danger?” Maxim persisted. He lifted Airiana to the desktop and set her there, right in front of her father. Grasping her ankle, he lifted her left foot in order to see the sole.

Damn it, honey, this is a big chunk of glass and several small ones. Did you have to be so thorough?

It wasn’t like I had time to figure out the best place to step.

“No one. The message came in by my phone. A text message. In code.”

“So your phone is being monitored,” Maxim said.

“They wouldn’t dare.” Theodotus scowled at him. “No one would dare.”

“It’s either that or you’re lying to me. And if the message was in code, who wrote the code?”

“I did, of course. I use it for my work. No one knows it.”

“Someone does. My guess would be Uri Sorbacov. He’s having your phone monitored, and he knows your code. Is he the one that told you about the terrorist threat?”

Theodotus nodded his head slowly. “I knew Gavriil would send someone, but I didn’t know it would be his brother. I thought I could have whoever he sent get my daughter for me, and then if he was killed and his body buried at sea, Sorbacov would be satisfied that Gavriil was dead and Gavriil could slip away and live out his life somewhere. That’s the truth.”

“You were going to have the man who helped you killed?” Airiana asked.

Maxim extracted the largest chunk of glass from the bottom of her foot. She gasped and clutched at his shoulder.

Ouch. A very big ouch.

Serves you right. There will be no more of this. With bloody fingers he put the chunk of glass on the table and turned her foot up to the light to get the rest of the smaller pieces.

“You don’t understand the politics in my country, Airiana. Uri Sorbacov wields a tremendous amount of power. It’s rumored his father did some disgraceful, shameful things, and those rumors are true. Uri wants the presidency, and he has to clean up his father’s image.

“I don’t understand how this person wanting the presidency could possibly be a threat to a man of your stature, Theodotus,” Airiana said and jerked her foot away from Maxim—or tried to. His fingers shackled her ankle, refusing to budge. That hurts, you cretin, she hissed at him.

“Those of us who remember such things about his father have to prove our loyalty to him. No matter how important we are, we could disappear just as easily as anyone else. He has assassins at his fingertips, men trained in schools . . .” He trailed off, looking at Maxim, his eyes going wide. “Of course. That’s why he wants Gavriil dead. Gavriil was part of that program.”

“In case you’re wondering, and you’re thinking of double-crossing me, so was I,” Maxim said. “Trained in those schools. You don’t want me coming after you.” He picked two more small pieces of glass out of Airiana’s foot.

“Ow.” She glared at him. “Is that the last piece?”

“I hope so. I have to take a look at your other foot.”

“I was trying to save your brother’s life,” Theodotus said. “You didn’t introduce yourself as a Prakenskii. You said your name was Maxim Kamenev. I had no idea you were Gavriil’s brother. Not,” he added truthfully, “that I could have done anything to save you. Uri Sorbacov wanted a body and I had to give him one. If I didn’t, I would be dead and so would my daughter.”

“Not if the terrorist threat is real,” Maxim said mildly, inspecting Airiana’s right foot. “There’s two more shards of glass that I can see,” he added.

“No, he wouldn’t have killed us outright, but we’d be imprisoned, still working for him, and we’d never see the light of day again. You know how ruthless his father was. Uri is every bit as much or more. He’s as brutal behind closed doors as he is charming in his television interviews.”

Is he telling the truth? Airiana asked.

Sadly, yes. Both Kostya and Uri Sorbacov can make people disappear. We’re certain Uri’s the one putting out the hits on our family and all the others his father created in those schools. In spite of the fact that we’ve always been assets to our country, they don’t want the existence of the schools and the way the children who were taken there were orphaned to come to light. That would pretty much guarantee no presidency for him, and his father would be brought up on criminal charges.

Airiana sighed. I can understand Theodotus trying to survive. It seems like every step could be the wrong one. Clearly these men want you dead as well.

Clearly. He extracted the last two pieces of glass and drew a medical kit from the belt around his waist. “Hold still. I have to clean those wounds.”

“Still, Theodotus,” Airiana said, “you might have at least warned Maxim. He did save my life.”

“I wanted to keep you alive,” Theodotus insisted. “Both of us alive. And we have to have a decent place to work. If I can find the way to counter this threat and get the defense system up and running, Uri will think twice before he tries to make either of us disappear. It’s possible even that I can align myself with his opponent, and we can get rid of the threat to us altogether.”

“I’m not the least interested in political intrigue,” Airiana said. “I don’t want to live that way, or work that way. I want to go home and just work my farm and be with people I can trust. I can’t live like you.”

“You have no choice,” Theodotus snapped, his brows drawing together in a black line. “You’re part of this whether you like it or not. You started this all those years ago.”

“I was a child, playing. Nothing more. I saw patterns in weather and duplicated them on a computer. The computer generated most of the data.”

“And the computer-generated data was incorrect,” Theodotus insisted. “You did something else, something you didn’t tell anyone. That’s why I need you in order to complete this weapon.” His face had gone red and his voice had raised, as if she was still a child and did not understand the importance of his work.

“You just told the absolute truth,” Airiana said. “You developed a weapon, not a defense, and certainly not what I had envisioned—something that would predict terrible storms and help calm those storms. Something that could stop global warming and keep our planet safe.”

“A child’s dream,” Theodotus sneered. “Impractical.”

“Maybe, but it was my goal. Not a weapon to cause drought and hunger in countries a government doesn’t care for. Not to use as a threat. In any case, I can’t reproduce material that I randomly put together so many years ago when I was a child playing with a computer program. If you can’t remember what you did, why would you think I could?”

Maxim washed both of her feet while she was arguing with her father. He could have told her it was useless to quarrel with Solovyov. When it came to his work he was single-minded. Quite frankly, he didn’t care who he worked for as long as they provided him with the materials he needed and the space to be comfortable. Theodotus needed to work, and he needed the admiration of the world around him.

“I know you can help me with this project, Airi,” Theodotus insisted. He scowled at Maxim. “Get me out of these ties. This is ridiculous. We can find a way out of this without you dying.”

“Thanks.” Maxim couldn’t help the sarcastic note creeping in. He covered the soles of Airiana’s feet with an antibiotic cream.

“What are you going to do?” Theodotus asked, fear creeping into his voice, replacing some of the arrogance.

“I’m going to bandage your daughter’s feet, and then put a muzzle on you.” Maxim glanced over his shoulder at the physicist. “I know where you live. I can get to you anytime, anywhere. It won’t matter what kind of guard you have. I’m a ghost. I’ve taken out heads of state, toppled governments and killed drug lords surrounded by their private armies. You won’t be much trouble.”

“I’m not a threat to you. It’s Uri and his father,” Theodotus hastened to explain. “I told you, I didn’t know Gavriil would send his brother.”

Airiana sighed as Maxim began to bandage her feet. “The point that you don’t seem to be getting is, whoever Gavriil sent was helping you. They risked their own life to infiltrate a criminal group so they could keep me alive for you. Knowing they were doing that, you still were planning to repay them by having them murdered.”

“It wasn’t me. I didn’t want that to happen, but I had no choice.”

“You had a choice. There’s always a choice,” Airiana said, exasperated. “You can’t shift all responsibility to someone else. You could have warned Maxim before you ever sent him after me.”

“Then I would be dead,” Theodotus said. “Uri or his father would have had me killed.”

There is no point in arguing with him, Airiana, Maxim said. He will not take responsibility for his own actions. I doubt he ever has. He certainly took no responsibility for you and your mother. I’m rather ashamed I brought you to him at all. I should have killed the extraction team and left you on the farm.

Airiana wanted to agree, but she’d learned too much in the last couple of days. He would have sent another team after me. And those children would be dead. Let’s get out of here. I want to make certain the kids are all right. They must be so frightened and feel all alone.

Maxim taped Theodotus’s mouth closed. He leaned down to put his mouth close to the physicist’s ear. “You won’t have to worry about Uri coming after you. You know Gavriil better than nearly anyone. When he finds out you were going to have his brother murdered after he sent me to help you, no one is going to be able to stop him.”

Theodotus’s eyes went wide. Fear crept in. He began to kick the bar with his shoes, drumming out his alarm in hopes the other agents on board would hear him. Maxim knocked him out with the butt of his weapon.

Airiana winced at the casual way he took care of business, but she didn’t protest. “What are we going to do? He said there were eight members of a security team on board.” She gestured toward the three on the floor. “That means there are five more, just waiting outside that door.”

He shrugged. He wasn’t worried about the five agents on board, only about what waited for them when they reached their destination. He lifted her off the table and put her in a much more comfortable chair. “You’re not going to be walking for a few days. Your feet will be tender.”

“I can walk,” she protested. “I’ll use air to keep me from putting too much weight on the soles of my feet. But seawater is probably really bad for cuts,” she added, giving him a quick look from under the sweep of long lashes.

Maxim laughed as he retrieved his war bag from the corner of the room where he’d stashed it when they first entered. He set it on the bar and poured himself a tall glass of water, taking his time drinking it while he figured out their next move. “It might be time to get creative, especially if you’re not terribly keen on swimming.”

She regarded him with suspicion. “What do you have in mind?”

“The yacht is headed to a harbor, someplace where they’ve got another form of transportation. Theodotus wasn’t going to sail to Russia. He had a plane waiting.”

“You aren’t going to confiscate the plane?”

She didn’t sound convinced that he wouldn’t, and he found himself wanting to laugh again. Airiana sat in the luxury yacht, surrounded by men who had plotted to kill him, and she managed to look ready for adventure.

Her platinum hair was carelessly tousled and fell around her face, giving him far too many fantasies when he needed to keep his mind on business. The bruise around her eye, marring her soft skin, bothered him, but her eyes were as blue as ever, those eyes that seemed to look right into him. Her mouth curved into a smile.

“No. That might draw a little too much attention to us. But we definitely have to take over the yacht.”

He was watching her eyes, trying not to fall into them, but waiting for that answering brightness, the storm clearing away to give him blue skies. She’d slept on the submersible, something he hadn’t thought she would do, but she’d curled into him and managed to sleep with him holding her in his arms. He treasured those few hours, knowing it was ridiculous, but he would always remember her like that.

“We spent nineteen hours on the cargo ship and another twenty-four on the sub. The cargo ship had been heading to South America. The submersible rendezvoused with this yacht just off the coast of Cabo and we’re somewhere near there. Theodotus supposedly has a plane waiting in Colombia to take you to Russia. He had planned to go up the coast to his waiting plane, using the time to persuade you to join him voluntarily. We’re not that far from the United States. If we take over the yacht, we can pull into any number of harbors and hire a plane to take us back to Sea Haven.”

“The big airports like San Francisco and Oakland are a good four hours’ drive from Sea Haven. Santa Rosa about two, but the airport is small in comparison to San Francisco. There’s a tiny airport, Little River, very close to Sea Haven, but we’d have to have a small, private plane,” Airiana said.

He sent her a small grin. “I wasn’t planning on confiscating a jumbo jet. I don’t want to steal one, just hire a private plane.”

Airiana curled up in the chair again. “I’m exhausted. You must be too. I did get some sleep on the sub, but honestly, I was scared, and you didn’t get any.”

He sent her a sharp glance. “You don’t need to be afraid when you’re with me. I told you I wouldn’t let anything happen to you.”

“It was more the thought of meeting my father—if he really was my father.”

“He is. I’m an excellent forger. I can put together a complete history for a new identity that will pass any investigation, so I know how complicated it is to do it. Those letters from Marinochka were very real. It was her handwriting, and the letters and photographs of you had begun when you were under a year.”

“Please call her Marina. I know you love your country, but my country is the United States. I don’t care if I was born in Russia. As far as I know, I’ve never been there. I don’t remember anything but my childhood with my mother in the U.S.” Airiana pressed her fingers to her eyes as if she had the beginnings of a headache. “I will accept that Theodotus Solovyov is my father. I will even accept that my mother lovingly sent my projects to him, unaware he would use them for anything. But that’s the end of it. I live in Sea Haven with my sisters on a farm, and that’s where I belong. Please just take me home.”

He crossed the room to crouch down in front of her, still looking into her sky blue eyes. “I’m taking you home, honey. I’ll get you there, but we may have a little more work to do before we’re finished here.”

“You can’t kill my father. I want to kick him for being such a sorry excuse for a human being, but I don’t want you to kill him—maybe dunk him in the ocean, but you just can’t kill him.”

“I hadn’t planned on it. Russia needs his mind, although in all honesty, when he returns without you, Uri may try to dispose of him.”

She took a breath and leaned her forehead into his. “I figured as much, but that’s his choice, returning to Russia and facing this despicable man, knowing Uri is ordering the deaths of men and women his own father took from their homes and trained to be agents. Most of those people defended their country, and for his own gain, Uri wants them eliminated. How can Theodotus work for a man like that?”

He had to smile at the fierce tone. She was a little warrior at heart. In the back of his mind he’d been a little worried about the four children making their home with Airiana. She had said she’d take them in, but they would have problems and she was such a little thing. Now he knew better. She would fight for them, give them rules and standards and make them stick to them. She would see to it that they got any help they needed, and she was capable of loving them.

He tipped her chin up and kissed her, just because he had to. He didn’t let himself think about why he had to, he just kissed her. She melted into him, sliding her slender arms around his neck and turning her mouth up to his. Her lips were soft and firm, her mouth the same paradise he’d remembered. He could lose himself so easily in her, but one of the agents was stirring and they had work to do. Regretfully he pulled back. Her blue eyes had gone midnight dark. Just for that he kissed her again, tenderness creeping in, shocking him.

He lifted his head and sank back onto his heels. “Woman, you’re driving me crazy.”

“You mentioned that once before.”

His smile was slow in coming. “I did, didn’t I? Well, it’s the truth.”

He dug around in the war bag and came up with a pouch filled with small, hollow darts. He filled several of them with a clear fluid from one of two bottles.

Her eyes widened. “What in the world is that?”

“If I remembered which bottle contained the knockout serum, we’re golden.” A teasing note crept into his voice.

“And the other bottle contains?” she prompted.

“That is much more lethal. Ten steps and you’re dead. It really wouldn’t be a good idea to mix them up.”

“You really have a wicked sense of humor,” she accused, her eyes laughing.

He had never considered that he had a sense of humor at all, but with her along, this mission was turning out to be far more fun than he’d ever imagined.

He inserted the little darts into a small gun and added the extra ones to a wide leather wristband.

“That is seriously cool. Where do you get all these toys? You’re kind of like those agents in the movies with all your gadgets.”

“My brother Gavriil likes inventing things, particularly weapons for the field. I test them out for him occasionally.”

“I thought you never saw one another.”

Maxim darted each of the three agents before answering. “We don’t. But we leave things for one another on occasion. My work and Gavriil’s overlapped a bit. He’s like you, quite a genius.”

She laughed. “He’s definitely not like me. I’m kind of a nutcase.” She watched him dart her father. “How are we going to take over the yacht? The moment you go out of this room, someone is going to shoot you. I’m surprised no one has tried to come in.”

“They’re out there,” he said. “I can feel them.” He indicated the west wall. “Two there. Two on the other side and one by the door.”

“Do you know how many others are on board?” Airiana asked.

“A chef and steward and the captain and his mate. I don’t think any others. I didn’t get much of a chance to look around. I knew when we were brought here directly that there was something—or someone—on board I wasn’t supposed to see. Otherwise they would have taken you to your cabin to rest, and Theodotus would have asked me for an update as to your state of mind.”

“Show me how to use those darts,” Airiana said. “No one is going to shoot me, and I can get close to them.”

“I’m not letting you go out there alone.”

She raised her eyebrow. “Since when do you get to tell me what to do?”

“I kidnapped you, remember? That puts me in charge.”

“That puts you in jail. I’m making sense, and you’re going all macho weird on me. What happened to all that survival training? Aren’t you supposed to use every resource available to you?”

He winced. She was right, but she wasn’t a resource and he damn well wasn’t using her. He detested that she’d walked on glass to give him the opportunity to get the upper hand just before the agents had come in. Granted, he was certain she hadn’t planned on cutting herself so severely, but he didn’t want a single injury to her body.

“I’m not going to argue with you.”

Deliberately she misunderstood him. “Good. Teach me how to use the darts. I’ll walk out the door and get close enough to the one standing right outside to dart him. You don’t have near the chance I do, unless you’re planning on killing them all. They’re expecting you, not me.”

He hated that she had a point. The agents were set to ambush him. Even knowing where they were, he’d be caught in the cross fire. “Suppose one of them is trigger-happy?”

“They’re trained agents or they wouldn’t have been sent here. I don’t have to get to all of them, only the ones on one side. You can take the others without having someone shooting you in the back. If I feel I’m in danger, I’ll bring in the wind.”

“The last time you did that, there was nearly a hurricane.”

She laughed. “True, my adrenaline was running a bit fast. I’m getting a feel for this type of work.”

He leveled his gaze at her, doing his best to look intimidating. It worked on everyone else. She just raised her eyebrow.

“You know I’m right. Don’t be all silly and macho. This will be a piece of cake. I’ll take a little stroll around the deck. In fact, the smart way of doing it would be to go past the one at the door with a little cheery wave and stroll right up to the other two and dart them. The one guarding the door will get curious and look inside.”

“Don’t get clever, Airiana,” he cautioned. “These are trained killers.”

“Exactly. And they’re expecting you, not me. I’m the merchandise, the reason we’re heading for Russia as fast as possible. No one wants me dead. You, on the other hand, seem to be very popular with killers. You’re the favorite on everyone’s hit list.”

The little snippy note in her voice made him laugh. “I’ll give you a lesson, but if your aim is lousy, you’re staying here and I’m going alone.”

She rolled her eyes. “Have no worries, my aim has never been my problem. Until your undoubtedly dubious influence, I’ve never been an advocate of killing anyone.”

“While I’m thinking about it,” Maxim said, “keep your eye on Benito. That boy needs some guidance. He’s a little too much like I was as a boy. I don’t blame him, but I don’t want him to have the opportunity to turn out like me. His anger issues and penchant for violence need to be cultivated into a much more positive channel.”

Airiana’s blue eyes fastened on his and he knew he shouldn’t have said anything aloud. He kept forgetting she could see inside of him, in a place he thought was well hidden, the one that still worried about children whose lives had been shattered.

“I’ll watch him,” she said quietly, “no worries.”

He winced. She was making it very clear she didn’t need his help with the children. He’d said he was taking her to the farm and leaving her there. He’d rejected her offer to stay with her. She wasn’t going to make it again, and he couldn’t blame her, nor did he know what he’d do or say if she did. To distract her, he pulled out some empty darts and showed her how to load them in the small dart gun.

He made a small circular target and hung it on the cupboard. “They’re light, but the velocity coming out of the gun keeps them from dropping too fast. You’re a good shot with a pistol, so you should be good here.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Do you want to play for points?”

“We’ve got killers waiting outside.”

She shrugged. “If they come in, you have the advantage and they know it. Right now, they can’t just spray the room with bullets because they’ll hit Theodotus as well as me and their own men. We’ve got time . . . unless you’re too chicken to lose to a woman.”

“I won’t lose.”

“I hear you talk, but talk is cheap, buddy. I happen to be the champion dart player four years running at my school. No one could beat me.”

He rolled his shoulders, loaded a smaller dart gun with empty darts and indicated the target. “You first. Let’s see what you’ve got.”

She stood up gingerly, but there was determination on her face. She lifted the gun and squeezed off three shots rapidly. It was a good grouping and he was impressed. There was no recoil on the small dart gun the way there was on a pistol and she had a steady hand, a good eye and true aim. He had no doubt that she’d hit what she was aiming at.

Maxim stepped back, crowding her so she couldn’t accuse him of having any advantage. He took careful aim and slowly began to squeeze the trigger. Her hand slid up the back of his thigh to his buttocks, the lightest of brushes, but it nearly stopped his heart. His cock jumped and then swelled in response. He barely managed to stay his shot. The woman was one hell of a distraction. He’d spent months learning to condition his body against just such things and she blew his training out of the water. Training was everything.

“That was so unfair.”

“I’m helping you,” Airiana said, her smile just a little too complacent. “I wouldn’t want anything to distract you when we’re out on the deck fighting for our lives. I noticed you sometimes get a little sidetracked.”

“You did, did you?” He turned fully to her, allowing his gaze to fall into hers. Distractions were bad in most cases, he’d learned that, but sometimes one just had to go with the flow.

He wrapped his free arm around her and dragged her into his body, his hand sliding down her back to shape her bottom, pressing her into him. She just seemed to melt, until he wasn’t certain where he began and she left off. He wanted to be skin to skin. Inside her. Surrounded by her.

He brought his mouth down hard on hers, wanting to devour her. Needing the taste of her. There was such a brightness in her. She made him feel alive. Worse, happiness had found him. There was a part of him that was alarmed over her hold on him. She was making him more vulnerable by the moment. When he kissed her, he never wanted to let her go.

He kept kissing her, over and over, until neither of them could find air to draw into their lungs. Only then did he lift his head and look down at her face. She reached up with one hand, trembling fingers tracing his lips.

“I don’t want you to die, Maxim,” she said softly. “I know you’ve accepted death, but don’t let it happen here. Or after you bring me home and go on your way. I think you’re a good man, and the world needs you. Don’t throw your life away because someone powerful decrees you’re of no more use to them.”

“Is that what you think I’m doing?”

She nodded slowly. “I don’t think it’s a conscious decision, but in your mind, you want to protect the people you love. In order to do that, you think you have to die. They made you believe that, right from the beginning. They separated you from your family and then held them over your head. To this day, after all that training, they’re still doing it. All of you are lethal, and yet, to protect one another, you stay away from each other. Don’t let them dictate to you anymore.”

He studied her face. She believed what she said, and there was truth to her statement. He couldn’t pretend there wasn’t. He followed orders to keep his brothers safe. He refused to even consider the idea of staying with her in Sea Haven, no matter how strong the lure was, because he didn’t want her in danger.

“Just please think about what I’ve said?” Airiana asked.

“I will.”

“You know when I go home, this Evan Shackler-Gratsos will send someone else after me, don’t you?”

He’d thought of that. But Lev and Stefan were there. They’d be alert to the danger now. He knew no one would get onto that farm without their knowledge. Still, if he was there as well, it would guarantee that no one would get to her. And there were the children.

“I’ve been giving that some thought. Staying until the threat has passed would also allow me to help you with those kids,” he said.

She shook her head. “That’s not what I was trying to say, Maxim. All four of those children have fixated on you as their safety net. If you come back to the farm and stay, even for a few days, they’ll count on you more than ever. They’ve lost their parents and their sister. They’ve been abused and traumatized. I don’t know if the best thing for them would be to think you’ll always be there for them and then to lose you too.”

She was basically telling him once he delivered her to the farm, he could leave. That anger, always buried deep, surged through him. She had awakened something in him he thought long dead, left him naked and vulnerable, and now she was going to decide whether or not he could be around her.

“I don’t think you have a say in the matter of whether I decide to stay or not,” he snapped, and turned away from her.