King's Ransom (Man on a Mission 2)

Then she gasped as something suddenly became clear to her. That’s why Eleonora did what she did, she realized. Not just because she couldn’t bear life without her husband, but so he wouldn’t die alone.

She turned her hand and linked her fingers with Andre’s, then she tightened her grip. This time when she prayed, she prayed for the courage to face whatever was to come—for both of them.

The pilot did something—Juliana was never sure exactly what—and the crippled helicopter stopped stuttering and shaking. Then slowly, agonizingly, as seconds ticked into minutes, they regained altitude, though their speed had noticeably slackened. She breathed suddenly, only then realizing she’d been holding her breath in anticipation of crashing.

Andre spoke through his wireless headset to the pilot in Zakharan, too quickly for Juliana to catch the words and translate them. And she couldn’t hear the pilot’s response. But she knew from Andre’s tone that he was angry about something. Not angry with the pilot—that wasn’t it at all. But he was holding on to his temper with fierce restraint.

They managed to make it back to Drago and land safely without further incident, but Juliana hadn’t spoken the rest of the flight. Even when the crisis seemed to have passed, it would have been difficult to converse with Andre over the sound of the one remaining engine without raising her voice. She wanted to ask him what had just happened—what had failed and what the pilot had done to save them. But Andre’s face was set in stern lines, and she didn’t want to bring up a topic that was already a sore point with him.

There were other questions she wanted to ask—unrelated questions. But they were complex questions, needing more than just a yes or no answer. She wanted to know what would happen to the village of Taryna. Wanted to know the ultimate fate planned for the survivors of the landslide. The pilot had been in radio contact with his military superiors in Drago all day, so she knew no one else had died, and she’d sent up a little prayer of thankfulness every time he’d given her a status report in answer to her questions. But he couldn’t tell her what the assessment team had found—only Andre could do that, and she wanted to know. Not because she was curious, but because she wanted him to share that difficult part of his life with her, wanted to know what he was thinking, feeling. Just as she had last night, she wanted to be the one he confided in.

Trouble shared is trouble halved, her father used to say when she was a little girl. It was a simple statement, but profoundly true. Nothing ever seemed quite so bad if you could talk about it with someone else. It had been true when she was a little girl, and it was still true now. Hadn’t it helped Dirk for him to confide in her about Sabrina’s illness? Hadn’t it helped him when she’d been able to give him insight into what Sabrina was going through from a woman’s perspective? The dilemma she was facing and the decisions she’d made?

And what about you? she asked herself. Didn’t you feel a tremendous sense of relief when you finally confided in Bree about what happened with Andre years ago? Not that she’d told her friend everything. But that discussion had opened the door to a place in Juliana’s heart that had been locked for eleven years, had allowed her to look at things from another perspective. Andre’s perspective.

So the questions about Taryna weren’t the only ones she had. She also wanted to ask Andre about the money. The money he’d sent her eleven years ago, and the motive behind it. If she could bring herself to do that—and it wouldn’t be easy, she didn’t fool herself it would be easy even to ask the question, much less listen to his answer—that discussion would have a pivotal effect on her life. Because if she could forgive him for the money, she would stay in Zakhar. She would stay because she loved him and always would.

But if she couldn’t forgive him...she would leave when King’s Ransom was done, and she would never see him again. Her self-respect wouldn’t allow her any other option. As much as she loved him, there were some boundaries she couldn’t cross, and keeping her self-respect was one of them. Just as she couldn’t stay with a man who physically or verbally abused her no matter how much she loved him, she couldn’t stay with Andre without an explanation she could accept and forgive.

Chapter 14

But Andre wasn’t available to ask...anything. Once they arrived back at the palace’s heliport in Drago, Andre spoke with the pilot in Zakharan too quick for her to catch. The man nodded—in understanding? In acquiescence? Juliana couldn’t be sure.