In For the Kill (McClouds & Friends #11)(53)

Liv tugged at her hand, taking off a ring, a thick, complex snarl of yellow and white gold. “Wear this.” She held it out.

Sean whistled. “Wow, babe. Really? That’s the first time I’ve seen you take that thing off since Osterman bit the dust.”

“I want Sveti to wear it,” Liv said quietly. “It’s lucky.”

“Oh, no! I can’t take it!” Sveti held up her hands. “You should keep it, Liv. It’s your talisman. It saved your life!”

“And besides, I could give Sveti the prototype,” Tam offered.

“No,” Liv said stubbornly. “This one’s better. It’s been through the fire. It’s all charged up and ready to rock.” Her eyes flicked to him. “Kind of like Sam.” When Sveti still hesitated, she grabbed the younger woman’s hand and slid the ring on. “I’ll feel safer if you’re wearing it. God, your fingers are tiny. Wear it on your index finger. Yes, that fits.”

Sveti held out her hand. The ring gleamed, lavish and voluptuous, and subtly dangerous, as if it could come to life and start writhing.

Sam eyed it suspiciously. “Is that one of Tam’s designs?”

“Of course,” Tam purred. “I hope it makes you nervous, Sam. That is its prime function, after all.”

“Nonsense,” Liv said, squeezing Sveti’s hand. “It’s just for luck. ”

“Thank you,” Sveti whispered, staring down at the ring.

“We just want you to be safe,” Liv said earnestly. “And happy.”

“Happy?” Sveti’s mouth shook, as if she were going to burst into tears. Then Sam realized that the silent shaking was laughter.

“Yes, happy!” Liv sounded defensive. “I don’t think that’s too much to hope, for a person as wonderful and as deserving as you!”

“I am happy,” Sveti said. “I have all my organs. I’m not chained to a sewing machine in a basement in the Philippines, or handcuffed to a bed in a Cambodian brothel. No one’s chopped off my hands or put out my eyes and sent me to beg on a street corner in Bombay.”

“Sveti, baby. Calm down, please,” Liv pleaded.

“I’m perfectly calm!” Sveti jumped to her feet. “What do I have to be upset about? I’m f*cking ecstatic, but I won’t let myself be jerked around, not even by people I love, and owe.” She marched out and pulled the doors shut, slam. Glass shivered in the mahogany frame.

Shit. She’d bailed on him again, like she had at the wedding. Left him high and dry with these people.

Sean whistled. “Whoa. That girl needs to lighten up.”

“A tricky proposition,” Lara observed. “Considering.”

“You. Petrie.” Tam’s voice rang out like the crack of a whip. “So? Hop to it. What are you waiting for? Get to work.”

“Work?” Sam looked around wildly. “How? What work? Here?”

Tam rolled her eyes. “On her.” She spoke with exaggerated slowness. “Lighten her up. Show her a good time. Earn your oxygen, if you breathe it in this house. Go . . . go stir her with your magic stick.”

Nick flinched. “Tam. Spare me.”

“I spare no one, as Sam will soon have reason to know. Petrie!”

Her voice snapped him around as if drawn up by a tether. “Yeah?”

“Protect her, in Italy and London.” Her voice was menacing. “Make her happy. Or else I will f*ck. You. Up. Understood?”

He took off like a shot, to earn his oxygen.





CHAPTER 11

Sveti pressed her hot forehead against the window glass, shaking.

The door opened, making her jump. Sam, of course. He shut the door, locked it. As if he had every right to. And God knows, he did.

“You can’t come to Italy,” she blurted. “That wasn’t the plan.”

“Plans change.” His voice was so calm. It maddened her.

“Not like this. Not . . .” She waved her hands. “You don’t understand. This whole thing. You and me. Coming to your house the other night. It was all predicated on the fact that I was leaving. I would never have done it otherwise. I would never have led you on like that.”

He shook his head. “You really know how to stroke a guy’s ego. Why be so uptight? Don’t worry. Take it one day at a time. Don’t stress.”

“It doesn’t make any sense,” she protested. “Following me to Europe, gratis? When your life is here, your work, your family—”

“What life?” he said. “What work? And my family bites my ass. I’m willing to put distance between me and my family. You catch me at a unique time in my life, Sveti. I have no compelling reason right now not to follow you across the world.”

She squeezed her eyes shut. How bad could it get, if her pattern held? The nightmares, the flashbacks. And how did she explain that nasty, toxic shit to a gorgeous, brave, sexy, wonderful guy who just wanted to be her boyfriend? “But I can’t offer you anything that would make it worth your while,” she insisted. “I just can’t.”

“Let me decide what’s worth my while,” he said. “There’s nothing on earth I’d rather do with my time than prevent scumbags from killing you.” His dimples flashed. “And spending all my downtime draped over your naked body, of course. But hey. No pressure.”