She laughed without humor. “You could call it that. My father had insisted I learn judo from the age of five. He said every woman should be able to defend herself, so I kept it up. Even as a young teen, I wanted to honor his memory, and that was something concrete I could do.”
‘You must have loved him very much.”
“I adored him,” she said bluntly.
“And your stepfather?”
“He was an arse. I was a black belt by the time he assaulted me. He thought he could take me on, and he ended up in hospital. My mother took his side and asked me to leave. He beat her to death shortly afterward. So, no,” she said. “You don’t need to worry about me. No one can get at me through those I care about, because there’s no one left.”
“Why did you leave the forces?” Alexei frowned. “Why Hard News? Why investigative journalism?”
“My mother’s death shattered me. I was determined to see my stepfather brought to justice, and I did. He’ll be locked up for the rest of his life. I started to think about life after the forces. My job at Hard News was suggested by the forces resettlement officer—and not entirely by coincidence, I think now. My training as an investigative journalist was supposed to be all action, which appealed to me enormously, but it turned out to be no action—until I was given this assignment. Maybe this assignment isn’t a coincidence either.”
“Maybe you’ll never know.” Alexei’s face remained expressionless.
“I think you and I share some similarities,” she said.
“You do?”
“The same desire to right wrongs and expose evil? I want the chance to keep on doing it.”
“So write your stories,” Alexei advised. “You know what they say about the pen being mightier than the sword. It also gives you the excuse to visit places that are closed to a lot of people, where you will see things and experience things that can be helpful to a certain type of organization.”
“To your type of organization?”
“Amongst others,” he agreed.
“So I’m undergoing yet another critical assessment,” she guessed. “And if I’m successful, are you suggesting I continue to investigate and release information that helps you?”
“You’re still a long way from that,” he assured her.
“So long as we’re on the same side?” It was Amber’s turn to assess Alexei.
“You can assume that’s the case,” he confirmed.
“You do have one advantage over me.”
“Only one?” he pressed.
She ignored the faint mocking tone in his voice. “You have the ability to remain detached, and I’m not sure I do.”
He raised a brow at her confession, but then his expression hardened again. “I’m detached because I have to be, because anything else can cost lives. If you feel too much, you’ll be a liability to my organization. If you want to stay, that will have to change. One of the first rules of investigative journalism is to keep emotion out of it, surely?”
“I’ll try.”
“You’ll have to do better than that.” He glanced at the door. “This interview is over. You’re dismissed.”
So, had she gotten the job or not? Amber left and closed the door with a soft click. Alexei sent such conflicting messages. His main purpose in life seemed to be unsettling her. To date, he had a hundred percent success rate in that direction. She felt wrung out by his questions, and aroused from nothing more than being close to him.
She had to get over her response to him. She could fantasize all she liked about the steely-eyed Russian taking control of her pleasure along with everything else he controlled, but she was wasting her time if she thought she could ignite a spark of genuine interest in those cold, assessing eyes.
~o0o~
When Russian Thunder moored at the first of the Canary Islands, his crew would disembark to spend Christmas Day on shore. That would leave him and Amber alone on board. The day after Christmas, they would sail to Isla Celeste, where she would have to pass the scrutiny of Dante, Diego, and Cesar. He had no doubt that she would, but imagining them finding her as intriguing as he did seriously pissed him off.
Cutting Amber from his mind, he spent the rest of the day planning the next polo match on Isla Celeste. Hard, dangerous, and unforgiving, polo was exactly the type of relaxation he needed to take his mind off his work—all of it. The game was both a hobby and an excuse for him and the rest of the Blood and Thunder team to get together with other like-minded individuals. The league table, which the Blood and Thunder team currently headed, was the public face of a private army.
Cut Amber from his mind? Seriously? Thoughts of her had plagued him all day, and now he couldn’t sleep. Swinging naked out of bed, he tugged on a pair of jeans. Exiting onto the deck, he leaned over the rail, staring out to sea. And only then realized that he had company.