Sea Haven 02 - Spirit Bound

isn’t going to take any more of my life from me.
    He nearly groaned in despair. He wanted that kind of trust, but now he knew he had to confess. How understanding would he be if the roles were reversed? He had a suspicious nature, never trusting anyone. How many times had it crossed his mind that she was involved in the theft of the microchip and that it had driven La Roux’s obsession with her? He’d even considered briefly that her guilt and shame for her brother’s death stemmed from the fact that she’d taken the microchip and La Roux had sent his men after her to get it back.
    Stefan waited until Judith was safely buckled into the passenger seat and he was behind the wheel of her car. She’d given him a little frown when he’d handed her inside, putting the tote bag with his weapons within easy reach, but she hadn’t protested when he’d taken the driver’s side.
    She pressed her lips together as they drove out of Sea Haven. The fog was still heavy and darkness was creeping in as well. “Thomas, if you want out, I’ll understand. My shady life seems to be catching up with me.”
    He reached for her hand, tucked it close to his heart and shook his head. “Don’t be silly, Judith. I have no intentions of going anywhere.”
    “He’s got to be out of prison. Or he sent someone to do his dirty work, but this feels like him. That ‘ Who is he, Judith? ’ is so like him. He always looked at me as if I was the beginning and end of the world for him.” She looked down at her hands and sighed. “Which is probably why I fell so hard for him. There’s such a lure in that you know . . .” She trailed off, her breath catching in her throat, her gaze jumping to his face.
    He was so connected to her in his mind, he could follow her sudden reasoning and he nearly groaned aloud. He needed her like that, so close he could feel her breathe, his world, the entire world was this woman beside him. Without her, there was no reality. Stefan Prakenskii would remain forever a shadow, slide in and out of danger, taking lives like death itself and eventually he would cross a line he could never go back from.
    “Like me. Like me, Judith. Just say it.” A touch of anger edged his voice because her sudden insight wasn’t going to make his confession any easier. If she could reason that out, she would know a man like him studied a mark and figured out how best to insert himself into his or her life to get what he wanted.
    Judith nodded slowly. “You do make me feel that way, Thomas.”
    “Because I feel as if you are my world. There will never be anyone else for me, Judith. I love you. I don’t know how it happened. Hell, I didn’t even know it could happen.” He turned down the road leading to the farm. “There’s more to this Jean-Claude mess than you know. I came here as Thomas Vincent for a reason.” He glanced at her, judging her reaction.
    She frowned at him, her long lashes fanning her cheek. “I’m well aware of that.”
    He waited while the gates opened automatically and drove on through, pausing just long enough to assure himself the gates had closed properly behind him. In his life, there had been so many times when he felt on the brink of a precipice, but nothing like this. His heart was actually pounding, and he knew he could feel sweat beading on his forehead.
    He parked the car and helped her out, carrying the tote bag for her up the stairs into her house. “You know, Judith, about my coming here to warn my brother, but I was working for my government at the time. I had another assignment.”
    Judith turned slowly to face him, there in the middle of her living room, surrounded by the serene beauty he’d come to associate with Judith. Very carefully she set the canvases down on the low-slung, black-lacquered table. “I don’t understand. You said you came to Sea Haven to warn Levi that Petr Ivanov was still hunting him.”
    He ran a hand through his hair, rubbed the bridge of his nose and nodded. “And that was the truth, but not the entire truth.” He set the alarm on the house, more to give himself breathing space than anything else.
    “Just say it, Thomas.”
    “A little over five years ago, a very important man working on a new defense system for our government was attacked. His wife had been compromised and she helped by providing extremely sensitive information to the man who was behind the theft. One of my brothers, Gavriil, was one of his bodyguards. Gavriil is about eighteen