Sea Haven 01 - Water Bound

bizarre war she didn’t even know she was in?
    He turned the idea over in his mind. He had to find a way to get her to talk to him about the events leading up to the fire, the days and weeks before the fire. The event was so traumatizing he doubted if she remembered much before that. And right now, he wanted to lie down for a good ten hours and try to keep his head from falling off. Unfortunately, he had a lot of work to do before he could rest.
    With a small sigh, he made his way back to her home—the home he wanted for himself. He found his gut tightening, hard knots developing, which was a little shocking. He wasn’t exactly a tense man, but then he’d never had anything this big at stake. He wanted to see her eyes when he walked through the door. Rikki could hide a lot of things behind her still face, but she couldn’t hide anything she felt behind those dark, liquid eyes.
    Tension didn’t suit him. He was a man who cared little about the pleasures in life. He had been programmed nearly from birth to do a job—
    exterminate the enemy. There had been no other way of life for him. His emotions should have been gone—had been. He killed coldly and efficiently, just as his handlers had taught him. There was no room for emotion. Emotion meant mistakes and mistakes meant death. His life was in the hands of Rikki Sitmore and she didn’t even realize it. Because if this didn’t work out and he made a mistake, they would send everyone after him and they’d never stop until he was dead. But who the hell were “they”?
    He glided onto the kitchen porch in silence before turning back to take a slow sweep of the surrounding trees. Closing his eyes, he reached out, sending his call to the birds foraging or making their homes in the trees. Hear me. Watch. Call to me when we are disturbed . He waited another moment until he felt the positive response. The network of spies and sentries would grow. Once he could show them what to look for, a single vehicle he wanted watched or, better yet, the actual man, he would have an unbeatable alarm system.
    154

    He stood in the doorway, his shoulders filling the entrance to Rikki’s house— home . He inhaled, drawing the scent of it into his lungs. She was sitting in a chair with a clear view of the screened door, and he noted vaguely, somewhere in the back of his mind, how clever the design of the house had been, but he was utterly still inside, waiting for her to look up.
    Waiting to see his fate in her eyes.
    He wasn’t a praying man—men like him hoped there was no God to judge them, but he couldn’t help the silent appeal stealing into his mind. Let her choose me. He’d chosen her with her quirky ways and her adorable frown. And God help him, he wanted to see that right now because it would mean she was serious. He wanted her to be serious about him.
    She looked up, her eyes locking with his and his heart stopped.
    Everything in him went still. Settled. Anchored there in her dark gaze. She was worried. She was relieved. She was happy to see him. There was no smile, no outward sign, but all he needed was in the depths of her eyes. He stepped inside and closed only the screen door. Too many people together in the house made her crazy, and maybe that would never change. He didn’t care if it ever did, as long as she could close the doors with him inside and she had that look in her eyes.
    Lev smiled as he walked the short distance to her, through the kitchen and straight down the hall into the living room. He ignored her sisters, taking both her hands in his and pulling her close until he could wrap his arms around her and hold her tight against his chest. He needed the closeness more than she did right then. He wasn’t used to his emotions being so close to the surface.
    He registered Judith and Airiana exchanging a surprised and rather pleased expression, just as he noted the position of everyone in the room, the escape routes and the potential weapons. Observation was his way of life and that would never change, even though he was determined that Sid Kozlov and Lev Prakenskii were dead and buried for all time. He was never going to be anyone but what those nameless faces in his past had made him.
    “I was worried,” she murmured and reached up to trace his honed features.
    “You shouldn’t have been,” he answered. You can always reach out and I’ll answer.
    Color swept into her face and she glanced back at the circle of interested faces. “Well, I was