Drake Sisters 03 - Oceans of Fire

interrogating her had whispered among themselves, casting glances her way, obviously very frightened of even talking with her. She had been afraid, at first, that she was going to be shot “accidentally,” but then she heard Aleksandr’s name whispered and the things they said had terrified her.
    “I did what I had to do to protect you and get you safely out of the country. In doing so, I made a bitter, relentless enemy and he retaliated by putting out a hit on me.”
    Abigail shook her head. She didn’t want to know what he’d done to get her out of the country. She’d been glad to go and was grateful she had gotten out, but she was very much afraid it had cost lives and she already had enough blood on her hands.
    “Aleksandr, how can you be so calm about it? How can you sit there calmly and tell me someone is going to try to kill you?”
    “It’s a way of life, Abbey. It’s the only way I know.”
    “Well, it sucks.”
    “Quite possibly.”
    He was looking at her with his heart in his eyes. Not pleading. Aleksandr never pleaded, but all the same, he looked at her as if she belonged to him. She shook her head fiercely. “It isn’t my world. I can’t live like that and you can’t take back everything that happened. You just can’t.”
    “I’m not trying to take it back. There were mistakes, I’ll admit that, but we have to find our way back to one another. I know you don’t love Jonas Harrington. And I can’t look at other women. What are we doing apart?”
    Abigail shook her head, her hand going defensively to her heart. “There is no way back. I’m not willing to risk who and what I am again. I don’t trust you enough to hand either my life or my magic over to you again.”
    “Damn it, Abbey. You had to have understood I couldn’t be implicated in any way. In my country there is always a scapegoat. I was so close to catching the killer. If I were removed from the case, he would have had months, maybe years to continue. It took me so long to even get close to him.”
    “Whatever you did afterward to get me out of the country, I’m grateful for, but you gave me to them.
    You sacrificed me.”
    “There was no other choice. You would be detained and interrogated, but I knew with my contacts I could get you free and out of the country immediately. It never occurred to me that Ignatev would choose that opportunity to strike at me. It should have, but it didn’t.” Aleksandr could see the hurt on her face. It ran deep and he hated that he’d been the one to put it there. “I was so close, Abbey, to catching that Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
    child killer. I could reach out and touch him, I was that close. If I had come forward everything would have been lost and I would have been responsible for any children he killed after that. My every instinct was to protect you first, to protect you , my heart and soul, but it would have been selfish.”
    “How was it selfish to tell the truth? You saved your career and you obviously got a promotion. You’re working with Interpol so you’re still in good standing. You weren’t the one being slapped and kicked in that interrogation room. You weren’t the one with that poor man’s blood all over your clothes. They didn’t even let me change. It doesn’t really matter that you thought I’d be all right. You let them take me.
    It was a betrayal whether you want to see that or not. You let them take me .”
    “Damn it, Abbey.” Aleksandr rubbed his face hard to rid himself of the image of her, crying, covered in bloodstains, two men towering over her to intimidate her, shouting at her, accusing her. “If it hadn’t been for those children, don’t you think I would have stepped forward right away?”
    “I don’t know, Aleksandr. How could I know? I lived through hell and I couldn’t even come home and get comfort from my sisters. How could I tell them what I’d done, what I’d been responsible for? A man died because of me. I used my gifts for something I should never have been involved with because of you. Because I loved you and I would have done anything for you. Because I believed in you. You took everything away from me. Even this.” She spread her arms wide to encompass her home. “You left me nothing.”
    He touched her because he had to, even though he knew she would flinch away from him. “I never meant to hurt you.”
    “Well, you did. You destroyed me. I don’t know why