He had faced death every day of his life and never once had he flinched. He'd seen things that no man should ever have to see. He'd made decisions no man should ever have to make. Some might call him courageous, yet compared to Rikki, he saw himself as a coward. She took hold of life and lived it, in spite of her limitations. She forced herself out of her comfort zone for those she loved, while he stayed in his, behind his wall of armor, behind his survival instincts and his vast training.
He wanted life--with her. With Rikki. He wanted to lie awake at night and feel her next to him. He wanted to hear her breathing while she slept. He wanted to know that she couldn't tolerate anyone else in her bed--only him. He wanted to see her frown and the flash of her eyes, hear her breathing change right before he kissed her. They had a connection he didn't understand, but it didn't matter even though everything else in his life had to make sense. She didn't. She just was. And that was enough and that was everything.
He glanced up at the sky, watching until he spotted a hawk in the outer branches of a fir tree. He closed his eyes and summoned the predator, pushing it to take flight. Its talons dug into the branch for just a moment of resistance before the hawk spread its wings and glided into the air. The hawk began the search with a tight pattern, widening each circle as it took in a larger and larger radius.
Images poured into Lev's brain, but none of them were of what he was searching for. He released the hawk with a small nod of thanks, knowing even before he came up on the spot where he knew the intruder had been that the man was already gone. He still moved carefully, wanting to preserve evidence. The watcher had been much lighter than Lev. The storm had left the soil damp and there were impressions everywhere. Crushed grass and sunken boot prints, but not too deep, indicating a lighter build. The man was tall, though, because the needles had been knocked off several branches of the tree he'd been standing under at about an inch or so below Lev's height.
He liked fire. As Lev examined the ground, he had no doubts in his mind that this was the man who had stalked Rikki since she was thirteen, starting the fires that had destroyed her loved ones. Tiny bits of grass were burned in small clumps, as if, while idle, the man had started tiny fires to amuse himself. How long had he been up there? There were four cigarette butts and seven places where the grass was burned. Fortunately the entire area was soaked so there was little chance that the fire would have gotten out of hand, but Lev could see the potential for disaster. Fire generally burned uphill, but that didn't mean the stalker wasn't contemplating a massive strike.
Lev studied the house from this position. Rikki was in the habit of sitting on her kitchen porch each morning and having her coffee. There was a clear line of sight to the porch. The stalker could have been here observing her often, but Lev doubted it. There was no evidence that visits to this particular spot had occurred at any other time.
He tracked the boot prints through the trees back to the road. The man had scouted along the ridge, but he hadn't gone off the narrow deer trail. Lev didn't have the feeling the stalker was experienced in the woods. He'd avoided deeper woods and didn't try to go through heavier brush. He was no professional hit man. This wasn't about a contract. But how could it be personal when the trouble had started when Rikki was only thirteen?
Lev cast around for more signs, but as far as he could tell, whoever was watching her had only come this one time and had stood in the grove of trees above her house, watching long enough to smoke four cigarettes. Lev hadn't caught the smell of smoke, but the wind had been blowing toward Blythe's home.
"Next time," he whispered aloud. He knew with absolute certainty there would be a next time, but he'd be more prepared.
Rikki had set up security around her immediate home. She'd installed an amazing widespread sprinkler and water system throughout her yard and the farm. But she had no surveillance on the property anywhere. He would have to change that. He found where the stalker had parked the truck--not a car--and took note that the back tire was worn. He should have sent the hawk toward the road first.
"Next time," he repeated, and searched for more signs, trying to get a good picture of the man responsible for several murders.
He liked fire. There was no doubt in Lev's mind the stalker had been playing with it while he waited--almost absently playing with it. Fire intrigued him. Maybe the man even needed the crackling bright flames like some addiction--or maybe in the same way Rikki needed water. Elements attracted one another. Could she have run across another element as a child and this was a bizarre war she didn't even know she was in?
He turned the idea over in his mind. He had to find a way to get her to talk to him about the events leading up to the fire, the days and weeks before the fire. The event was so traumatizing he doubted if she remembered much before that. And right now, he wanted to lie down for a good ten hours and try to keep his head from falling off. Unfortunately, he had a lot of work to do before he could rest.
With a small sigh, he made his way back to her home--the home he wanted for himself. He found his gut tightening, hard knots developing, which was a little shocking. He wasn't exactly a tense man, but then he'd never had anything this big at stake. He wanted to see her eyes when he walked through the door. Rikki could hide a lot of things behind her still face, but she couldn't hide anything she felt behind those dark, liquid eyes.
Tension didn't suit him. He was a man who cared little about the pleasures in life. He had been programmed nearly from birth to do a job--exterminate the enemy. There had been no other way of life for him. His emotions should have been gone--had been. He killed coldly and efficiently, just as his handlers had taught him. There was no room for emotion. Emotion meant mistakes and mistakes meant death. His life was in the hands of Rikki Sitmore and she didn't even realize it. Because if this didn't work out and he made a mistake, they would send everyone after him and they'd never stop until he was dead. But who the hell were "they"?
He glided onto the kitchen porch in silence before turning back to take a slow sweep of the surrounding trees. Closing his eyes, he reached out, sending his call to the birds foraging or making their homes in the trees. Hear me. Watch. Call to me when we are disturbed. He waited another moment until he felt the positive response. The network of spies and sentries would grow. Once he could show them what to look for, a single vehicle he wanted watched or, better yet, the actual man, he would have an unbeatable alarm system.
He stood in the doorway, his shoulders filling the entrance to Rikki's house--home. He inhaled, drawing the scent of it into his lungs. She was sitting in a chair with a clear view of the screened door, and he noted vaguely, somewhere in the back of his mind, how clever the design of the house had been, but he was utterly still inside, waiting for her to look up. Waiting to see his fate in her eyes.
He wasn't a praying man--men like him hoped there was no God to judge them, but he couldn't help the silent appeal stealing into his mind. Let her choose me. He'd chosen her with her quirky ways and her adorable frown. And God help him, he wanted to see that right now because it would mean she was serious. He wanted her to be serious about him.
She looked up, her eyes locking with his and his heart stopped. Everything in him went still. Settled. Anchored there in her dark gaze. She was worried. She was relieved. She was happy to see him. There was no smile, no outward sign, but all he needed was in the depths of her eyes. He stepped inside and closed only the screen door. Too many people together in the house made her crazy, and maybe that would never change. He didn't care if it ever did, as long as she could close the doors with him inside and she had that look in her eyes.
Lev smiled as he walked the short distance to her, through the kitchen and straight down the hall into the living room. He ignored her sisters, taking both her hands in his and pulling her close until he could wrap his arms around her and hold her tight against his chest. He needed the closeness more than she did right then. He wasn't used to his emotions being so close to the surface.
He regi
stered Judith and Airiana exchanging a surprised and rather pleased expression, just as he noted the position of everyone in the room, the escape routes and the potential weapons. Observation was his way of life and that would never change, even though he was determined that Sid Kozlov and Lev Prakenskii were dead and buried for all time. He was never going to be anyone but what those nameless faces in his past had made him.
"I was worried," she murmured and reached up to trace his honed features.
"You shouldn't have been," he answered. You can always reach out and I'll answer.
Color swept into her face and she glanced back at the circle of interested faces. "Well, I was worried," she told her sisters a little belligerently.
Blythe nodded. "We can see that."
"I take it no one was out there," Lissa said. She didn't sound as if she believed that.
"Someone had been," Lev said. He needed to sit down before he fell down.
As if reading his mind, and maybe she was, Rikki took his arm and led him to the recliner, gently pushing him into it.
"I won't give you a lecture about wearing shoes in the house," she said. "This time."
"Sorry, lyubimaya." He leaned his head back because he couldn't help it. It felt good to be off his feet. He hadn't realized just how dizzy he was. "I'll remember."
"Tell me," Lissa insisted.
"He's a fire lover," Lev confirmed. "And he was watching Rikki. He smokes Camels. There were several cigarette butts there. I didn't touch them. While he was watching, he started seven small fires, just playing, but the potential could be disastrous. Fortunately, everything is soaked from the storm."
Rikki sucked in her breath, the color draining from her face. "Do you think he plans to start a forest fire?"
Lev studied her sisters' faces even as he took her hand, his thumb sliding over the center of her palm, tracing small circles there. "I don't know what he plans to do. If he wants to destroy everyone Rikki cares about, then none of your homes is safe."
Lissa lifted her chin. "He'll have to fight all of us."
Rikki shook her head. "No. No way. If he's found me, then I'm getting out of here. I'm not taking chances with any of your lives. Who is he? Why is he doing this to me?"
"And if he didn't know where you were, which he couldn't have or he would have been starting fires before this, then how did he find you?" Lev asked.
"You aren't leaving," Blythe said. "We're in this together."
The other women nodded and Lev liked them all the more for their united stand.
Judith snapped her fingers. "The news. Rikki, you were on the news the other night. I meant to tell you about it."
Lev scowled, his fingers tightening around Rikki's hand. He tugged until she was up against the chair. "What the hell were you doing on television?"
She shook her head, looking confused. "I have no idea what she's talking about. How could I get on the news, Judith?"
"When you came to the village and I went into Inez's store to get the soup for you," Judith reminded her. "Remember the place was crawling with news reporters. You were standing outside by your truck and then there was another shot of you sitting on the bluff with the sea behind you, right out on the headlands."
"I didn't notice anyone filming me."
"They were across the street filming everything. The man who owned the yacht was big news all over the world. And it was such a unique event, a methane gas bubble sinking a ship," Lexi added. "Very strange and sort of spooky. That's why so many scientists are here."
"They've thinned out a lot," Lissa pointed out.
"That's how he found Rikki," Lev said.
"I'm calling Jonas, Rikki," Blythe announced. "I know you're uncomfortable with anyone official, but he needs to know that someone's stalking you."
Rikki shook her head. "He'll think it's me, just like they all do, Blythe. None of them believed me. He'll read all the reports and he'll start watching me."
"Let him," Lissa said. "At least he'll be keeping an eye on things."
Rikki remained silent, but Lev could feel the thoughts racing through her head. She was close to tears, yet it didn't show on her face. She was going to leave them all, try to draw the danger away from them. All of them--even him.
"You're not leaving," Lev said quietly. "I know what you're thinking, Rikki, and no arsonist is going to take your life away again. I know you're saving my life. Maybe I'm supposed to be here to save yours." He said it aloud deliberately so she'd know he was serious. He stated it quietly yet firmly in front of her family, uncaring what they thought. "Do you trust me enough to stay and see this through?"
"And risk them?" Rikki gestured at her sisters. "They mean everything to me."
"Even if you're gone, there's no guarantee that he won't strike at you through them," Lev pointed out gently. "You've been inside my head, you know me. You know what I am. You know I can do this."
She shook her head. "No. I don't want you to go after him. You wanted this chance to be something--someone--different, and I'm not taking that away from you."
"A man has the right to protect his home, Rikki," Lev said. "And his woman." He wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her to the arm of his chair. "That's what men do."
Airiana inhaled sharply and looked at Judith.
Blythe stood up. "Let's everyone just slow down. What is it, Judith?"
"His aura changes when he's close to Rikki," Airiana whispered. "Judith, did you see that? He's totally different when he's near her."
"I don't know what that means."
Rikki trembled, but she didn't move away from him. He knew in her mind that she was standing with him to protect him, not to commit to him, but her sisters saw it differently and he was damn well going to take her position in the same way they did.
"I tried to tell you earlier," Judith said. "Airiana and I see auras, colors surrounding people. Every color you have around you, Rikki, is about water and compassion. You're incapable of starting a fire that would kill someone. Lissa has the colors of fire, bright and passionate, but she tempers those things with her protective instincts."
Lev held up his hand to stop her. "She's trying to say that my colors say something else, Rikki." The knots were back, but he kept all emotion from his face.
"You surround yourself with darkness, with violence and death," Judith said without flinching. "Yet when you're with Rikki, other colors pierce that shroud of darkness, almost as if when you're close to her, your true self emerges."
He forced a nonchalant shrug. "If one believes in that sort of thing." He didn't see auras, but he knew they existed. He'd known from the moment Judith and Airiana had approached the house that they were strong psychics. He didn't doubt for a moment that they saw death and violence surrounding him, but it was disturbing to know they caught glimpses inside, to the man he hid from the world--hid from himself.
He slowly let go of Rikki and forced himself out of the chair. His head nearly exploded. He needed a quiet place to try to keep healing the concussion, even if only for a few minutes. "If you ladies will excuse me for a time, I need to lie down."
It was true, but he was still retreating. Her sisters didn't trust him--but they wanted to for Rikki's sake. He'd made his claim in front of them, and while Rikki wasn't paying attention, they were, and they were a protective bunch.
Blythe followed him right into the bedroom and he turned a cool stare on her. She didn't flinch. In fact, there was steel in her dark chocolate eyes. "You'd better not hurt her."
He sank down onto the bed, mostly to keep from falling. He was more nauseated and dizzy than worried about appearances. "Is she autistic?"
Blythe shrugged. "I believe so. She certainly has acute sensory dysfunction, and if she is autistic, which we all believe, she's very high functioning. As far as we know, she's never been diagnosed, but she doesn't talk much about her past."
She put her hands on her hips and pinned him with what he could only interpret as a stern "mother" stare. It was ver
y effective. The woman, as elegant and sweet as she appeared, could look intimidating.
"I don't want her taken advantage of."
He laid his aching head back on the pillow. "Do you really think that's possible? Rikki is very intelligent, and more than that, she's tough."
"She's also very fragile. I'm just saying, mean what you say or leave us alone."
"She's not starting those fires, Blythe. She's got someone out to destroy her for whatever twisted reasons he thinks he has. And he's found her. Go up to that ridge and examine it. He was there. I'm not leaving her to face him alone. You don't have to like me--none of you do--but I'm staying."
"Are you a man of your word?"
He thought that over. Was he? He didn't know if Lev Prakenskii was or if Sid Kozlov had been, but Levi Hammond would be. "Yes."
"And you'd never hurt her?"
"Not intentionally." He closed his eyes and allowed himself to sink further into his own consciousness. "Nor will I let anyone else."
"That's good enough for me."
He knew it wasn't. The moment she left, she would be going to someone she knew to have him investigated, and that didn't leave him much time to become Levi Hammond. Fortunately, he'd already done a lot of work on his new identity using Rikki's laptop, and if there was one thing he was exceptional at, it was creating identities. He was a ghost in a computer. There was no database he couldn't find a way to hack. And his online identity--the Phantom--was well known to hackers around the world. They owed him favors and would repay instantaneously when asked.
Levi Hammond already had a complete history, including a few parking tickets, a sea urchin diver's license in Alaska and up and down the coast of California. He had a tender's license, a social security number, a driver's license, a college education and extensive travel on his passport. He also had a gun permit. He'd learned diving in Japan.
His one problem was with the sea urchin divers here on the coast. It was a small group and most of them knew one another--or at least of one another. If he was lucky, no one would ask them about Levi Hammond until he had a chance to meet them and impress memories of him upon them, another talent that served him well. Whoever Blythe asked to check up on him would no doubt be a cop, and they'd look up his criminal history.