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“Your chopper is here.” She walked up to him. “Aleksei. I got news. Your father is dead. The official statement is he died of a heart attack. I’m so sorry, Alek.”
He felt a sharp pain in his chest. He hadn’t thought it was going to hurt, but it did. He could only wish things had been different with his dad. He nodded. “Thank you for telling me, Isabelle.” He resigned himself to the fact that he had done what his conscience dictated, glad that his mom wouldn’t have to endure her husband’s abuse ever again.
She squeezed his arm. “I’ll see you in Athens,” she said curtly. “Stay safe.”
“Isabelle,” Aleksei called out and she turned around. “The same for you. Don’t do anything too heroic.” His voice was low, his words heavy with the emotion trapped in his chest.
She gave him a wan smile, then turned and left.
He looked at Harley, but she was watching Isabelle’s back with a kind of deep sorrow that twisted him up inside. He had put this wedge between them, and he regretted it. But he couldn’t regret his feelings for Harley. They were too strong, too real, and simply too dangerous…for her.
Maybe he should persuade her to get out while she was still alive. As much as it pained him, he couldn’t bear it if he lost her…was responsible for her death.
“Maybe I should go to Athens alone. You should stay here, Harley. Help Isabelle, then go back to DC.”
Harley froze. Only for a second, but it was telling. To Aleksei, anyway. She simply stared at him and abruptly dropped her guard. She was tired. But, if he wasn’t mistaken, she was also more than a little unsettled. She was dealing with him on two fronts: his protection, and her feelings for him. Her argument with Isabelle told him that much. She wouldn’t have fought with her best friend and coworker over him if her feelings weren’t strong. Perversely, that made him happy, but he still wanted her out of the picture, especially when Olenska found him.
“You can forget it, Volkov, and stuff your concern. I have a job to do and I’m going to do it, regardless of your attempts to get rid of me.” She jerked her chin toward the door. “Let’s go.”
He found himself smiling.
“I am armed,” she reminded him flatly when he passed her.
“I’m just touched by your concern.”
She grabbed his arm, and he winced as the pain, a dull ache thanks to the doc’s ministrations, reminded him he’d been shot.
She eased up, shooting him a sideways glance, and he was surprised to see the flash of real anger, not just irritation. He doubted she was more angry with her reaction to him than anything else, and he understood that reaction all too well.
“Harley—” he started, wanting to clear the air, but by the set of her chin and the look in her eyes, she wasn’t going to give him an opportunity.
“Can it. We don’t have time for this.” She glanced at him, then shifted her gaze firmly back to the winding hallway.
“We have an almost four-hour plane ride. I’ll wait.”
She snorted at that, then looked almost surprised at her own outburst. “Good luck with that,” she said, shifting uncomfortably, possibly feeling his steady regard.
He didn’t look away. Couldn’t, actually. She was just so beautiful and tough. Maybe if he could get through to her about how he felt about her as his bodyguard, he could find a way to take her out of his present and set her in his past—to protect her.
“I don’t need luck,” he said, and she reacted to his confident tone as the corner of her mouth quirked for a split second.
She looked at him, clearly as determined as he was. “Yes, you will. You don’t really know me, Alexsei. There’s a reason they assigned me to you.”
“Immune to my charms?”
“No, just immune to anything that interferes with my job.” She wasn’t looking at him, and her tone was flat and hard. But he saw the tremor in her jaw, the vein standing out in stark relief along the side of her neck, and the white knuckles gripping the sleeve of his jacket.
“You’re in the worst trouble of your life and you can’t talk yourself out of it with that golden tongue. You need a keeper,” she said. “You may think you’re going to protect me by getting me off this assignment, but you’re dead wrong. I have the resources to help you get out of whatever it is you’ve gotten yourself into with Olenska.”
His heart skipped a beat. She wasn’t going to leave him, and he couldn’t help but feel better about it, even if he still feared for her life.
“You don’t know what you’re up against,” he said quietly.
She swung her gaze to his, and there was no mistaking the fatigue, determination, and the healthy dose of confidence he saw there. His admiration for her rose ten-fold, and he just wanted to get her someplace private.
“Don’t underestimate me, Aleksei. Others have and it didn’t end well for them.”
“Oh, I don’t intend to underestimate you, Harley. I find you devastating to all my senses and if you think I wasn’t sincere two nights ago when I was deep inside you, you’re mistaken. Don’t underestimate me.”
