Karolena’s voice got sharper then, her fear raising her pitch. “All I want is to be left alone.”
Legend turned to her then and said softly, “Men like that don’t stop just because you’re gone. He’ll try to find you. You’ll live in constant fear. Even if he eventually gives up, he’ll find a new toy and try to break her too. He’s going to keep victimizing people. We can’t look the other way and you wouldn’t be safe staying here if we were the sort of people who could.”
She took a few ragged breaths. “I’m not a selfish bitch. I would try to shut him down if it was possible. It’s not. You don’t understand the kind of power he has. I don’t care how much training you have, you aren’t going to be able to take him on. Plenty of people have tried. Governments even.”
“Yeah, well, we don’t have to play by their rules.” Jordan smiled. “We’re the people bureaucrats hire when they need something done that would cause far too much paperwork for official channels.”
“Please don’t ruin this one chance I have, however slim, to get away.” Karolena gripped the arms of her chair so hard, Tavish half expected them to crack. She quivered as she fought dread and terror, refusing to let them overtake her.
Not only was she beautiful, but she was also brave and had stood strong—alone—for so long. He wished he could have told her she didn’t have to be so tough anymore or at least not on her own. Assuming she wanted assistance from people not so different from the man she hated.
“What’s your take?” Jordan looked to Tavish and Legend.
Maybe it was his own insecurities and the tenderness he already had for Karolena that made him lash out. Or maybe it was the bone-deep sympathy her story triggered in him. He couldn’t afford to let his reflexive desire to protect or how deeply he was attracted to Karolena blind him to the truth. Not again.
“All I can say for certain is how she feels when she comes around me. That, I’m pretty damn sure, wasn’t fake. The rest…hard to say.”
Karolena bit her lip but didn’t contradict him or bother to act like they hadn’t gotten it on, but he’d bet anything she was holding on to that chair for two purposes now. One being to keep herself from smacking him across the face.
Kennedy grumbled, “Idiot.”
Legend angled his chair toward them both and argued, “You can find out a lot about a person in a short amount of time if you spend it right. I believe her. And Tavish is acting like such an asshole because he does too, even if he doesn’t like it.”
Legend peeled Karolena’s fingers from the arm of the chair closest to him and intertwined them with his own. She squeezed and held tight, as if he’d thrown her a lifeline. How long had she been drowning in panic and the impossibility of what she’d attempted by fleeing?
Karolena looked at Tavish, the full blast of her frozen blue eyes leveled on him.
He shrugged. “I can’t decide what’s worse. Either you’re the world’s greatest liar and none of that messed-up shit happened to you, or you’re telling the truth and we’re going to have to do something about it. Legend’s right. Even if it makes me the biggest idiot in the world, I’m glad you’re nowhere near that bastard anymore.”
“That makes two of us.” Karolena seemed satisfied with his tentative support, as if it was more than she’d dared to hope for.
“So howdidyou escape anyway?” Legend asked.
“Before we get to that…” Jordan cleared his throat. “James has pointed out that it’s pretty hypocritical to rip Karolena for lying to us when we haven’t been entirely forthcoming about what it is we do here. If she’s going to stay, she deserves to know what she’s getting into.”
“It can’t be worse than what I left behind.”
“Don’t be so sure.” Tavish figured he might as well do this fast and ruin whatever fragile shoot of affection that had sprouted between them in addition to the full blossom of attraction. “We’re assassins.”
“I don’t know that word in English.” She blinked at him. Could she not understand or did she not want to hear what he was telling her.
He spelled it out. “Killers for hire.”
“Murderers?” Karolena’s eyes went wide and she stood up so fast her chair rolled backward until it crashed into the wall.
“They prefer we not use the M word.” James shrugged one shoulder. “But…”
“Ubiytsy?” Karolena reverted to Russian.
If Tavish had thought she was pale before, it was nothing compared to the bluish white cast her face took on as every drop of blood drained from it.
When none of them denied it, she bolted.
Too bad they weren’t about to let her leave. Not now that they knew she was a victim. Ruby hit the panic button at her workstation. Metal shutters slid over the windows and exterior doors, which also meant they couldn’t be opened from the inside.
Whether Karolena liked it or not, they would shelter her until they could deal with her ex-husband.
One way or another.