Drake Sisters 03 - Oceans of Fire

an accent.”
    “Only when he wants to have one. I minored in languages, Jonas, and I speak six fairly well, but nothing like Aleksandr. He speaks with a perfect, native accent whenever he wants to. And depending on the local dialect he can change the sound to blend as well. He’s a genius when it comes to languages.”
    “Then why does he speak with a Russian accent?”
    Abigail turned around at a sound in Jonas’s voice. He was no longer sitting slumped, but was fully alert, his eyes diamond hard. “I don’t know. That’s a good question. He spoke with an accent when we were in Russia as well, but I’ve heard him speak flawless English and he can sound as if he’s from the South or a native of California. I wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. He said he was trained that way.”
    “I’ll just bet he was.” Jonas leapt up. “You have any coffee around here?”
    “We don’t drink coffee, Jonas, you know that. What’s wrong?”
    “He’s an operative, that’s what’s wrong. He’s probably a spy.”
    “There isn’t a cold war going on—do we still have spies?”
    “You know, Abbey, you’re not funny. You need to be serious about this. Aleksandr Volstov is bad news any way you look at him.”
    Abigail dumped a handful of vegetables into the middle of the egg mixture. “I’m well aware of what Aleksandr is and what he isn’t. He says he’s here on Interpol business, Jonas. I was not-so-subtly giving you a heads-up.”
    There was a small silence. “Thank you,” Jonas acknowledged.

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    “You’re welcome.”
    “Turn on the tea water.” He looked around. “Where’s Hannah when you need her? In fact, where is everyone? They all disappeared.”
    “She was afraid you’d be mean to her.” She leaned her hip against the counter and pointed the spatula.
    “Did you really call her a wire hanger?”
    “Damn it, Abbey, let’s not go there.”
    “You did, didn’t you? That was cruel, Jonas. Why do you do that to her? Don’t you think she has feelings?”
    “She knows she’s beautiful, Abbey. Hell everyone knows it. She’s on the cover of every magazine from here to hell and back. It would be cruel if it were true. You can’t tell me I’m hurting her feelings when I tell her to gain a little weight.“
    “She doesn’t need to gain weight to be beautiful, Jonas.”
    “No, she needs to gain weight to be healthy. Are you going to stand there and tell me you haven’t noticed how pale and fragile she looks lately? A good wind could knock her over. They work her too hard.”
    Abigail carefully turned the omelet. “Let me get this straight. You observed that Hannah was pale and seemed fragile and underweight and you were upset because you think she’s working too hard so your solution was to tell her she looked like a wire clothes hanger?”
    “When you put it like that, it doesn’t sound very good, but that’s not the way I said it.”
    “Yes, it did sound that way. How else could it sound?” Abigail waved her hand toward the bread drawer and it opened. “You’re a moron, Jonas. And all this time I thought you were charming with the ladies.”
    “I’ve just been keeping an eye on her lately and she doesn’t seem well. I thought about asking Libby to take a look at her while she’s here, but then all hell broke loose around here with this murder and I haven’t had the chance to catch Libby alone.”
    “Hannah’s fine.” Even as she said it, Abigail wondered if it was true. Did she really know? She’d been so caught up in her own problems since she’d arrived home, she hadn’t really paid much attention to any of her sisters. It made her ashamed. “We’d feel it if she wasn’t.”
    “Would you? She hides things from people. I didn’t know she had asthma until last Christmas. I’ve known her all of her life. How could I not know that?”
    She scooped the omelet onto a plate and handed it to him. “There are a lot of things you don’t know about Hannah.”
    “I’m beginning to realize that. And I don’t think I’m alone. I watch her now when she’s home. She’s always doing for everyone else. Who does for her?” Jonas took a bite and grinned at her. “You can cook. I had no idea.”

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    Abigail found herself laughing. “Amazing, isn’t it? Self-preservation. Some of the places I went to do