Drake Sisters 03 - Oceans of Fire

of comforting him. She detested that particularly empathic part of her she could never control.
    “What was he like?”
    Aleksandr was silent for a long time. The ocean boomed against the rocks as the waves washed in and out endlessly. He sighed. “I worked with him, Abbey. I didn’t socialize with him. I wish I could have gotten past that part of me, the kid raised by the state to work for the state and never trust anyone, but I’ve only done that one time.” He pushed his hand through his hair, a sign of agitation she had rarely seen him make. “I should have talked with him more. He had a family, people he was close with.” Aleksandr swore in his own language and looked away from her.
    Abigail thought back to all the time she’d spent in his company. They had been so wrapped up in one another she hadn’t considered that he’d never introduced her to friends. Coworkers, many times, but never friends. “You were so wonderful with Joley, Sasha, you knew exactly the right thing to say to her.”
    “I’ve had a lot of training, Abbey. I read people.”
    “Were you ever really in love with me?” The moment the words slipped out she wanted to stuff them back down her throat. Her throat was raw with pain and it came through in her voice.
    He swore again. “How can you ask me that?”
    “You just told me our meeting wasn’t an accident, that you knew about my abilities before you ever met me. I may have been naive, Aleksandr, but I’m a thinking person again. You arranged that meeting with me and you pretended to enjoy my company so I’d help you with your case.”
    “Damn it, Abbey. Children were dying. Do you want me to apologize because I wanted to use every tool available to me? I was fighting red tape, my superiors, parents, other agencies. He’d been killing for over two years. Do you want to know what my nightmares were like?”

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    For a moment his chest burned and his stomach knotted and churned. He wanted to shake her. He wanted to drag her off where they could be alone and she couldn’t get away and would have to listen to him. It was a dark, primitive urge and he was slightly ashamed of it, but he wasn’t going to apologize for the things he had to do. She hadn’t been the one to examine the little bodies. And she wasn’t the one to tell the parents their child wasn’t coming home because a sick and twisted monster had taken them. And she wasn’t the one fighting day and night to get assistance, any assistance, when no one wanted to admit it was happening. Or even that it could happen.
    She studied his face. His anger turned his eyes a dark blue and put small white lines around his mouth.
    “Why didn’t you just ask me to help you?”
    “I didn’t know you. I didn’t know what you were like. You were from another country and you had a talent I didn’t really understand. If I had it to do over again, Abbey, I’d have told you the truth from the start, but even if I wasn’t truthful about having prior knowledge of your abilities, believe that my feelings for you were—and are—genuine. You didn’t just change my life, you changed me . Something inside me is different. I thought I could exist without you, but I can’t. I can’t and it doesn’t make any sense.”
    “Aleksandr.” She tried to stop him but he shook his head.
    “No, you did this. You made it impossible for me to be alive without you. The work doesn’t matter the way it did. I go through the motions and I get the job done, but it isn’t the same. I had purpose and drive and you took that away with you. I’ve thought a lot about this. God knows I’ve had enough time to think about it. You’re angry and you’re hurt and I accept that you have a right to be, but it doesn’t change the fact that we’re supposed to be together. I’m not willing to just throw away what we had.”
    A strong wave crashed through the chamber, booming and spraying water high. “We’d better get out of here,” Abigail cautioned. There was no talking to him. If what he said was the truth, it broke her heart. If what he said was a lie, it was broken anyway. She wanted to go home and be comforted by the warmth and love of her sisters. “We still have to get to the harbor, Sasha. It’s getting late. At least you know this is where they hid that night.”
    “It isn’t where they keep the boat. We have to find the boat.” Abigail frowned, trying to