Fatal Strike (McClouds & Friends #10)(59)

“Sorry I made you think you were crazy,” she said.

He shrugged. “I was used to it by then. Talking to you was great. Kinky, but fun. I was lonely, too. The last few months have been a weird time for me.”

“Tell me about it,” she whispered.

The smile vanished. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to—”

“Don’t apologize,” she said, swiftly. “I would still be in the rat hole if not for you. You can say anything you want to me. Don’t guard your words. I can take anything you say. I won’t break. Got it?”

“Okay, okay, calm down.” He kissed her knuckles again, methodically pressing his caressing lips to each one.

“There’s one thing I still don’t get, though,” she added.

He rolled his eyes. “Just one? You’re doing better than me.”

“Stop,” she scolded. “I mean, the Citadel. How do I get into it when Greaves can’t? It makes no sense. He’s so strong. You felt him. And I’m just me. I’m not even a telepath.”

Miles tugged the comforter up to cover her bare shoulders. “Nina had a theory about that.”

“Nina who?” she asked.

“Nina Christie,” he said. “Remember her?”

She shot bolt upright in the bed. “Nina Christie? You know Nina Christie? How do you know her? Oh, I love Nina!”

Miles rolled onto his back and folded his arms behind his head, displaying the muscles in his arms, shoulders, and chest to amazing advantage. “Of course I know Nina. She started this whole thing. When your mom got away from Rudd . . .” He paused, delicately. “You knew about her death in the fire being faked, right?”

She willed her jaw not to shake. “Yes. And dying anyway, a few months ago. Anabel and Hu told me. Greaves confirmed it. I was hoping it wasn’t true.” She tried not to hope he would tell her it wasn’t true. She tried so hard, she didn’t even dare to look at him.

He squeezed her hand. “I’m sorry,” he said. “But it is true.”

She nodded, exhaling slowly. So. Moving on. “And Nina?”

“Your mom had escaped. She’d been trying to blackmail Rudd. Rudd was one of Greaves’ stooges. Your mom had created a new formula of psi-max. A binary dose. If you don’t get the B, the A dose kills you after a few days. She hid the B dose, and tried to get Rudd to take the A, so she’d have leverage to make him let you go. But he didn’t take it. They injected her instead, and she’d already sent the B dose away.”

“I see,” she said, although she didn’t, not yet. “And Nina?”

“Your mom chased Nina down in New York,” Miles went on. “By then she was dying. She only had hours left. She’d lost her English, from the brain damage. She injected one of the last A doses into Nina, and left a recording on Nina’s phone, with instructions on where to find the B doses. Begging her to save you. She died that same day.”

Lara drew her knees up to her chest, and hid her face against them. Miles sat up crosslegged beside her, stroking her back with long, soothing, gentle strokes. They did not speak for a long time.

“I missed her so much,” she said, voice choked. “She was alive the whole time. And now she’s not, again. It’s like a cruel joke.”

“She put everything into saving you,” Miles said. “She loved you. It was all she cared about. Getting you out.”

She lifted her face, wiping it defiantly. “Injecting Nina with a dangerous drug? That doesn’t sound like the mother I remember.”

Miles looked uncomfortable. “That move was iffy, but I’m not inclined to judge. She was desperate. She knew she was dying. She had to pass the torch, and Nina was her last hope.”

Lara shook her head, trying to shake the image away from herself. “So did Nina get the B-dose in time?”

“She did. I was there. In Colorado, at this big fundraising bash held by Greaves. Lots of blood and drama. It was . . . well, special.”

She smiled at him. “A talent for understatement is another of your defining character traits. You have to tell me the whole story some time. The story behind the laconic understatement, I mean.”

He snorted. “This shit is so way out there, it desperately needs understatement or no one will believe it at all. But anyhow. We’ve been looking for you ever since. Me, Nina. And Aaro, Nina’s fiancé.”

She sniffed the tears back. “Well. You found me. Lucky you.”

“Yeah, lucky me,” he repeated softly. He stroked her cheek, the point of her jaw. His finger was rough and thickened, but his touch was so delicate, like being stroked by a feather. “Here you are. In flesh and blood. Amazing.” His arms slid around her, tightening. Pulling her against his bare, hot chest. It felt so good.

“Thanks for looking for me,” she said.

His body tensed. “Lara. Please. Stop thanking me.”

“I thought there was no one left who cared about looking for me.” She squirmed in his arms until she was facing him. “I thought I’d just die in there. I was hoping it wouldn’t take too much longer.”

“Matilda Bennet kept looking. She never gave up on you.”

She was so pleased to hear the name, she didn’t register his tone. “Oh, Matilda? She was so good to my father. I have to thank her for . . .”