The older man’s gaze is fixed on the waves.‘My sons are important to me.’
‘I know that.’Lachlan moves closer.‘What don’t I know?’
‘There is much you do not know.’
‘You didn’t seek me out to talk riddles.’
‘No, I did not.It is hard to trust you,’ Mikhail utters quietly, line between his eyes.‘I want to trust you, Lachlan Tanner, but I know Alistair very well.’
‘We can’t talk here for long.’
‘I know.I am sorry, but I must put you in a difficult position now,’ Sorrenko says in a voice Lachlan’s never heard him use.Weaker, softer, more nasal.‘I wish I had known you sooner, but time cannot be reversed nor deeds undone.’
‘What’s wrong?’
‘I need you to—’
‘Mikki.’Alistair Penhalyx ambles towards them both with no urgency whatsoever.Lachlan stands to attention anyway, helplessly so.‘There you are.’
Sorrenko’s formerly blank expression comes to life.He grins, smarmy and arrogant, becomes the Mikhail Sorrenko that Lachlan has always known.‘Five minutes more and you might have caught me in flagrante, Alistair.’
Alistair looks between them, expression searching.
‘Is that so?’Dressed in board shorts, a pressed shirt and sandals, Alistair has never seemed so casual to Lachlan, but nothing obscures his sharp interest.‘Do you need more time?I don’t mind standing watch.’
‘I was asking your bodyguard for a favour.’
‘Another?’
‘It was your suggestion that we find a distraction for Roman, was it not?’Mikhail pats Lachlan’s forearm.‘He isverydistracting.’
‘And were you sampling him first?’Alistair comes closer, voice silky soft.
‘Testing the waters.’
‘We can both do that, can’t we?’
Throughout their entire conversation, Lachlan keeps himself still and quiet.He’s furniture, he’s a wall, he stays still like the lizards and the snakes.
He has a truly awful feeling in the pit of his stomach.
‘Alistair, we should—’
‘Lachlan,’ the old man cuts over Mikhail sharply.‘Kneel.’
He doesn’t let his eyes close.
He doesn’t let it show.
He kneels in the sand, efficiently obedient.
‘Good boy,’ Alistair says, the affectionate tone spreads afever itchof hatred and revulsion through Lachlan, hidden only by skin.He plays with Lachlan’s hair, touch lingering.‘You never had aDaddy, did you, hmm?Not a nice one.’
Lachlan stares ahead.
Go where it’s quiet.
Where there’s grass and mud and sunshine.
