Sea Haven 01 - Water Bound

above, wings silent as they dropped lower.
    “Friends of yours?” Jonas asked.
    Lev didn’t answer. The owls pushed the image of water and rocking boats into his head and he took off running. Jonas kept pace.
    “Tell me,” he snarled. “I’m not joking around with you. This is my town. My people.”
    “He’s at the harbor.”
    “You armed?”
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    “Yes. And Levi Hammond has a permit to carry a concealed weapon.”
    Jonas spat out another curse and waved Lev toward his vehicle. “I’m calling for backup. Don’t shoot the bastard. I mean it, Levi. You’ll create a tangled mess just when you don’t want one. Let me do the shooting if there has to be any. You sure as hell can’t afford to draw attention to yourself with a cleaner in town.”
    “You going to hesitate?”
    Jonas glanced at him briefly, face grim, mouth set, eyes hard. He turned his head and backed out of the driveway, spinning the wheel with one hand while reaching for his radio with the other. “Which harbor?”
    “Albion.”
    Yeah. Jonas Harrington could and would pull the trigger. Lev could see why Ilya had befriended this man. He was fiercely loyal, not afraid to take command, and he would get the job done, no matter how abhorrent. But he’d feel it. He’d go to bed at night with it. A measure of respect crept in.
    “So how many shots am I going to have to take to live here?” It was a concession. The only one he could give. He knew what he’d do to any man who had anything to do with harming Rikki. He might not have been able to understand had he not met her. They were on the highway, lights flashing, sirens blaring. “Maybe we should go in quietly and not tip him off. Just a suggestion.”
    “Just clearing the way. I’ll cut the lights and siren before we turn off the highway.”
    “I see the heavy traffic,” Lev said. There wasn’t a car on the road.
    Jonas sent him a look. One. Lev repressed the urge to laugh. Jonas was trying very hard not to like him, but the man had a sense of humor. If Lev was going to do this, convince this man that he meant to stay and live in peace, he had to trust his brother’s judgment and give Harrington a reason to trust him. It wasn’t easy. He was a man who kept secrets close to his chest and certainly didn’t share with strangers—American strangers. He took a breath and jumped off the cliff.
    “The government secrets I was referring to earlier weren’t only being siphoned off by my government, but yours as well. Three countries I knew of. Someone went after one of your big thinkers, a man named Wilder.
    Damon Wilder. Tried to kidnap him, killed his partner. Word is, Wilder’s still working and whatever he’s been designing they want.”
    Out of the corner of his eye he caught Harrington’s reaction. To the name? To his knowledge? Jonas didn’t look at him, but his body posture had changed subtly and he was definitely listening, paying attention.
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    “We have the equivalent to your Wilder. A man by the name of Theodotus Solovyov. His bodyguard, a man by the name of Gavriil Prakenskii, was severely wounded, stabbed seven times while preventing a kidnapping. He was able to prevent them from getting Solovyov, but he was permanently injured. He was forced to retire, to take on a new identity in order to stay alive.”
    There was a short silence.
    “So going after Stavros and finding who he was working for...”
    “Partners with,” Lev corrected.
    Jonas nodded. “It’s personal. Another brother?”
    “We don’t get retirement like other people. We’re part of a shameful past. No one quite knows what to do with us. It’s easier to kill us than to wonder if we would ever expose the past and the secrets we carry. They do not trust us, yet in our way, we are all patriots. We love our country. This information I’ve given you on Theodotus Solovyov is hardly a state secret.
    It’s public and was in the newspaper, as was the attack on Wilder. With a little work, it is easy enough to find.”
    “Do you know where Gavriil is?”
    That information would never be shared. They’d set up an emergency signal when they’d met, passing it from brother to brother. Gavriil had checked in. When he knew he was safe, Lev would check in as well. He remained silent and Jonas didn’t push.
    “Jackson is one scary son of a bitch,” Jonas offered in return. “Kind of like you. He’ll have a few things to say. He’s damn good with a sniper rifle.
    I’ve seen him make shots only