AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Even if you were targeted because of him?” Natches asked softly.
Graham knew what they were doing now. Attempting to break her trust in him, to break her desire to stay, and he was damned if he could blame them. If it were Kye in this position, then he’d do the same thing.
Lyrica’s gaze met his then. “What are they talking about?”
The time for explanations had come, far sooner than he’d ever imagined. Hell, he’d hoped never to have to reveal exactly what had happened to him. That part of his life had nearly been over. They were growing closer to whoever had been tracking the diamonds and when they found him, or her, then the threats from that particular direction would cease. Graham’s part in the investigation into Secure Sector would be finished.
It hadn’t waited, though.
Briefly, keeping details to as much of a minimum as possible, he told her their suspicions. As each of her questions was answered, he watched her grow quieter, her gaze become cooler. Sitting beside him in the chair Dawg had vacated, her hands linked in her lap, she was silent, wary, as the last of the explanations were given.
“I actually suggested an answer to the question of how they learned about you,” Natches drawled in irritation. “Memory enhancement protocols are a series of drugs that, with the subject’s cooperation, have actually been known to draw out details the person was unaware existed. And in some cases with agents who have agreed to it, they’ve actually learned they are susceptible to some truth serum drugs.”
Lyrica was shaking her head slowly.
“It’s an option,” Natches growled, his anger finally showing. “And by god, I want answers.”
Her head jerked up at the sharp demand and, for the first time, Graham saw the fear in her eyes.
“Lyrica?”
She swallowed tightly. “You’ve never mentioned the one letter I sent you two years ago, just after you were home for that short leave.”
He stared at her, watching as her gaze dropped to her fingers once again, a flush mounting her cheeks.
God, he remembered that summer. He’d found her in the gardens beyond the swimming pool, stepping along the cool, shaded stones in nothing but that damned emerald bikini. He’d joined her beneath the arbor, watching as she settled in the thick, heavy cushions of the swing before joining her.
“I didn’t get a letter, Lyrica,” he finally told her, feeling the certainty that somehow Betts or Dorne, her lover, had found that letter first.
She nodded then. “I thought perhaps it had been lost in the mail.” A bitter smile shaped her lips. “When you came back last winter, though, it seemed that perhaps you might have read it.” A little shrug lifted her shoulders as she reminded him of the blizzard and how close he had come to taking her as another woman lay upstairs awaiting him.
“What was in the letter?” Natches asked, his voice silky soft. A second later he shot Graham a glare as a flush broke over her face.
“It wasn’t what I said that was imp
ortant,” she whispered. “I sent a picture, though. One I thought he might keep.”
Lyrica could feel the chill of guilt racing over her as she lifted her gaze to Graham’s, seeing the heavy regret in his eyes and hearing his voice as once again he whispered how sorry he was.
If his enemies had found the picture of her, in the green bikini, that Kye had taken by the pool earlier that day, and they’d read her letter, then they could have assumed she was the weakness they needed.
She would have been the weakness they needed.
The one woman he didn’t think he could have because of her family and her innocence, and added to that, her deliberate flirtation and teasing. He could have returned to battle distracted, only to come face-to-face with a woman who resembled her. A woman he thought he could have without ties, in ways he couldn’t have Lyrica.
“You’re coming back with us.” Natches’s tone brooked no refusal.
“No matter the reason, it’s me they’re after,” she told her cousin softly. “Whether because they believe Graham has the diamonds or to make him pay for another woman’s death, I’m still the bait.”
“You’re no fucking bait.” Natches came to his feet furiously, his emerald gaze burning with anger now. “You’ll not stay here.”
“I’m over twenty-one, Natches—”
“Then act like it, by god. Start thinking with your head instead of your damned hormones,” he told her roughly as he shot Graham a killing look. “Does he love you, Lyrica? When this is over, will he have been worth risking your life for?”
“Enough!” Graham straightened from his chair then, his voice a lash of fury as he and Natches faced off. “I’ll be damned if you’ll stand here and insult her for something she has no fault in, Mackay. Stop acting like a damned prick for five seconds—”
“So you don’t have to lose your flavor for this month?” Natches snarled then.
