AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Evie smiled and wrapped her arms around his neck once more. “I’m sorry, Sam.” She leaned forward inch by inch, parting her lips seductively, getting Sam hot under the collar. At the last minute, she dodged and kissed him playfully on the cheek. That was Evie. She had a way of making even ordinary moments into fizzy affairs, and he was grateful for the distraction.
He smirked. “See, I don’t believe you’re sorry.”
“How about now?” Evie said, kissing him so passionately that Sam’s head went as buzzy as if he’d fallen from a great height.
“The question is, how sorry?” He wanted to hold her all day and all night.
“Very, very sorry,” Evie said.
She pressed herself against Sam, and he was overcome both with desire and gratitude. Kissing her pushed away his pain and made him feel, for the moment, that all their futures would be all right. He drew her in closer. He wanted more than just a kiss, and from the way Evie’s lips traveled his neck, Sam thought she did, too. Eyes closed, he moaned. “Whaddaya doin’ to my head, Baby Vamp?” He laughed and opened his eyes. “Say, that tickles!”
“Jeepers!” Evie jumped back as an elephant’s curious trunk explored Sam’s ear.
“Hey, what’s the big idea?” Sam said, whirling around. “Hattie? Aww, it’s Hattie! I guess she remembers me.”
“Doubtful,” Evie said, laughing.
“Yeah? How you figure that?”
“Hattie is a woman. If she remembered you, Sam, I’m sure she’d slap your face with that trunk,” Evie said. She looked up at him through her lashes. “Well. I suppose I’d better go cool off. Don’t want to cause a scandal on my first day with the circus.” She turned and walked back toward Theta and their cabin.
He didn’t want her to go. Ever. “Wait! You gonna apologize for that comment about Hattie?” Sam pointed to his lips.
Evie grinned and kept walking. “Not on your life, Sam Lloyd. You still owe me twenty clams.”
Sam watched her go, fighting the urge to run after her and beg her to stay with him all night. With a sigh, he turned to Hattie. “I think she might be part elephant, too, the way she never forgets.”
Jake Marlowe crumpled the note Evie had left on his desk for him. He was furious, Miriam Lubovitch knew, and this pleased her.
“How did she get in here?” Jake demanded of Jefferson and Adams, who had the audacity to act unperturbed. “This will not be appreciated by your employers.”
“You asked us to bring you the Russian. If you’d wanted two Russians, you should’ve said so,” Jefferson said and bit into a pistachio.
“My son is American,” Miriam corrected. “And he is missing?” A cruel mirth lit up Miriam’s eyes. “How is it people are always leaving you, Jake?”
Jake glared and Miriam sobered. He’d never hit her himself. But she could feel he was on the verge. Marlowe paced the length of the room, and Miriam wondered if he knew he was doing exactly what Will Fitzgerald used to do.
“Well,”
he said, running his fingers through his slicked-back hair. “We’ll just have to get him back. Along with all of his friends. You’ll help us with that, won’t you, Miriam?”
“Why should I do this? Why would a mother work against her son?”
“We could force you,” Adams said.
Miriam stared straight ahead and would not meet his eyes. “When I am free of these chains, I will break your mind into pieces.”
“Enough, Miriam,” Jake said. “You’ll help us because there’s a price on Sam’s head. Isn’t it better that we find him and the others and bring them in safely?”
Miriam scoffed. “Safe? This is safe?” She lifted her chin and spoke with pride. “I know my Sergei. He is clever. I will—what is it you say? Place my bets on him.” She nodded at the crumpled note. “And his friends.”
“The Eye is unstable, Miriam! You know this.”
“The Eye you built is unstable,” she said pointedly. “Maybe you should not have built it to begin with.”
Jake changed his tone. He smiled. “Miriam. Miriam. Think of all we’ve been through. All we’ve done toward this moment.”
“All you’ve done!”
