“You’re just saying that.”
“Give me your word.”
She sighed. “Fine, then. You have a few hours, but I can’t stay all day. I need a head start. Running right now is my only option. This was the plan, leading him here and hoping your people would take care of him.”
“He isn’t the hit team. Apostol Delov is his name, and he is a messenger. He tracks and then fingers the prey, and the real killers come in and do the actual killing. It’s always under the guise of justice. In this case, your parents had done something to bring down the wrath of someone powerful on them. That death sentence extends to you.”
She shook her head. “How do you know so much about it?”
“I’m part of that world. I was born into it. I will die in it. I never had the chance to get out.”
She held his gaze steadily. “But you wanted out.”
“Of course, I wanted out.”
“Then let’s run together, Timur. I’ll drop my vengeance plan and you drop whatever it is you’re planning and let’s go. Together. I’ll go with you right now. We’ll run so far they’ll never find us and we can live free, away from this kind of thing.”
The temptation was strong, but he could hear Evangeline moving around in the next room, trying to give them privacy. His brother’s innocent woman. Even if he could abandon Fyodor to his fate, he couldn’t leave Evangeline.
“What of her?” He nodded toward the shop room. “You brought this down on her, but you would expect me to leave her to whatever fate happens?”
“No, they’ll follow us. That’s why I’m leaving. He’ll follow me. It’s me he wants, not Evangeline or Fyodor.”
“You led our worst enemy straight to our front door, Ashe. Believe me, if he’s sent word to his master, they will forget all about you and concentrate on killing Fyodor, his woman, me, Gorya and our other cousins. We committed unforgivable crimes against our family and they want us to pay for those sins.”
Her face went very pale. “What are you talking about? I led him here because I thought, when he made his move, Evangeline’s husband would kill him. Why would he suddenly switch his interests? You’re wrong, Timur. You have to be wrong.”
She was pleading for him to be wrong, but he knew he wasn’t. “Apostol Delov isn’t a real name of a real person. He is ‘the messenger.’ My uncle Lazar Amurov has a very bad sense of humor. He wants his victims to know they are living on borrowed time, so he sends a man who calls himself Apostol Delov to his prey. That man marks the door of the house they live in. This morning, he was on his way to mark your door, the door of Evangeline’s house.”
“See?” She grabbed hold of that eagerly. “He was after me, not Evangeline.”
“He knows who we are. He will have sent word. We left Russia under very bad circumstances, and the rewards for our whereabouts are hefty. Lazar has been looking for us for a long time.”
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t feel too guilty, we made certain we were prepared before we came out of hiding and Fyodor took back the family name.”
“What can I do?”
She didn’t question whether or not he told the truth; she heard it in his voice. He was grateful she didn’t ask him questions he didn’t want to answer. He stepped back, away from the warmth of her body.
“You can stay right here so I don’t have to worry on more than one front. Give me your word.”
“I’ll stay.”
There was the strange little twist to those two words that made him think she wasn’t telling him the exact truth. She wasn’t exactly lying, but she wasn’t telling him everything. He didn’t have time to puzzle it out.
“I mean it, Ashe. I won’t be happy if you run and I have to go after you.”
She shrugged. “I don’t live my entire life with the idea that everything I do should make you happy.”
It was difficult to keep every expression off his face, but he managed. “Well, work on it, baby. It will make life easier all the way around for both of us.”
She laughed again. It wasn’t her real, full-blown laugh, but it was there all the same. She shook her head and stepped away from the wall. “You’re ridiculous. I’d better get to work or I’ll get fired and then I won’t have a choice.”
He stared down at her for a long time, trying to read the truth in those two little words she’d given him. The twisted ones. I’ll stay. How could they be both truth and lie? He stalked to the doorway of the kitchen. “No matter what Ashe does, don’t fire her until I get back, Evangeline.”