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.He’d driven the highway again and again, investigating the side roads that led away from the sea until he knew he could run them in the dark at high speeds.He’d set up several escape routes and already secured a storage facility where he kept money and passports in various names.Petr Ivanov would come, if he hadn’t already.Stefan knew he’d been set up.One didn’t use his talents to babysit an old girlfriend on the unlikely chance that a prisoner the secret branch of the government was breaking out of a prison would elude the very agents helping him escape.That made no sense.His being in Sea Haven wasn’t about Judith Henderson or Jean-Claude La Roux—it was about finding Lev Prakenskii and eliminating him.And his handler would know Ivanov would have to kill him too.They couldn’t leave Stefan alive.He rubbed his temples.Why had they decided to retire a couple of their best operatives? Was there a purge going on for a reason? Had some reporter uncovered the truth about the “orphanages” that had really been schools to train agents and assassins.In the new government, with the alliances that had been formed, it might not be in the best interests of the country to have those schools discovered.“Headache?” Judith asked sympathetically.“I’ve got aspirin in the medicine cabinet.”She’d been watching him just as closely as he’d been observing her.“I think I’ll call it a night if you don’t mind.Too much traveling and not enough sleep.” It would give him another excuse to see her again after the tractor ride.“Of course I don’t mind.” Judith was as agreeable as he knew she’d be.He was a master manipulator, trained in the best schools, every lesson a life or death one.He had survived and someone like Judith had no chance against him.He tasted bitterness in his mouth and kept his eyes averted as she locked up the safe.4THE moment Stefan stepped outside the gallery into the coolness of the night, he knew he was in the biggest trouble of his life.Maybe in for the biggest fight for his life.It wasn’t the sniper who had him in the crosshairs, or the itch on the back of his neck that told him the assassin was definitely in the small village of Sea Haven.He was an operative, trained practically from birth to use people, surroundings, anything and everything as tools—yet instinctively, without thought, he put himself between Judith Henderson and a sniper’s bullet, instead of using her body to shield his.Everything in him froze.What the hell had he just done? What was wrong with him? His actions didn’t make sense.He stood, completely exposed, his body blanketing hers, the scent of her enveloping him.The wind tugged at her hair and strands blew back at him to slide temptingly over his skin.He was astounded at his actions, shocked, horrified even, but his feet wouldn’t move.One shift and he would be on the far side, placing her body between his and the water tower where he was certain Petr Ivanov lay up there with a rifle and scope.Petr was there—Stefan felt him.Felt the slick wash of menace that always alerted him, one of many psychic gifts.Still, he didn’t move.Where the hell was his ingrained sense of self-preservation? Years of survival training? All his expertise?Warning bells went off like miniature explosions in his mind.His left palm itched so badly he rubbed it along his thigh.He remained where he was, as if his feet had grown roots.His heart pounded and he tasted passion in his mouth, a fruit he’d never known but recognized instantly.Judith.She filled up all the emptiness in him.Somehow in the small space of time he’d spent with her, she’d poured herself into him and brought him something he never imagined: hope.She represented life.Living.He was aware of people moving up the walkway to their right, from the direction of the tower.He might be able to use the small crowd as a shield, work his way around to get behind Ivanov.If he could, he would track Ivanov back to his lair and kill him.The disposal of his body would be easy enough and that would give him time to find his brother without fear of exposing him to an exterminator.Right now, the most imperative thing in his world was to protect Judith.He kept his body between the sniper and Judith.His mind demanded to know what the hell he was doing, but his body remained firmly in place.He doubted if Ivanov would take the shot even if he had it.It was too soon.The assassin wanted Lev.His brother had disappeared here, presumed dead, and Petr Ivanov wasn’t buying it.His plan was to kill both Prakenskii brothers, not just Stefan.So he wouldn’t shoot, but just in case, Stefan’s sense of self-preservation should have forced him to move.It was impossible to though, and the terrible itch on the back of his neck grew.Damn the woman.What in the hell was taking so long? “Do you need help?” he offered politely, staying in the role of Thomas Vincent.“The lock seems to be stuck.”Judith glanced over her shoulder at him, and his heart nearly stopped.There was something incredibly alluring about her face with that fall of silky hair across it.Her gaze drifted over him and for a moment time seemed to stand still.He wasn’t the only one tasting passion in his mouth, it was there, in her eyes.He had caught glimpses of fire in her earlier paintings and he hadn’t been wrong.No matter how cool and controlled she acted, the fire was there seething beneath the surface, ready for the right man to bring out.He pulled back from his thoughts very sharply.What right man? He was nobody’s right man.He lived in another world, far from this one, and he had no right thinking a woman like Judith Henderson could be his.Not even in his imagination—yet he didn’t move, not an inch.“Let me try.” He didn’t wait for her to step aside, but reached around her with both arms, trapping her between the door and his body, careful to keep her hidden from Ivanov’s scope while he took the key from her hand.His fingers brushed hers.A jolt blazed through his body, the force of it shaking him.She was more frightening than any enemy he’d ever stalked and killed.She moved him when nothing ever had.A captive in the circle of his arms, she went very still, but he felt every breath she took.Heat rushed through his veins and settled like a fireball in his groin
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