Safe Harbor (16 page)

"I'm sorry," she said as gently as she could, when she really wanted to cry a river of tears. "She was too far gone to reach out to us. Ilya Prakenskii has her. She'd be dead without him, even now, and they've taken her to the operating room."

Jonas sat up straight. For the first time he dropped his hands from his face. "How do you know?"

"He talks to Joley and she relays the information to us. Joley…" She choked off a sob, pressing her face against Damon's shoulder. He instantly murmured in her ear.

"Sarah?" Jonas prompted.

"Joley begged him not to let Hannah die. She's terrified of Prakenskii, so you can understand how extreme the situation is for her to put herself in his debt." She was rambling because she was so frightened, but she couldn't seem to stop herself. She needed as much reassurance as Jonas. "Still, he did save Hannah's life. You saw him."

"I also saw him kill the man who stabbed her." He had done it so easily, so fast the move was barely captured on film, so quick and practiced and smooth, Jonas knew he had done it far too many times.

Ilya Prakenskii. There was a real puzzle. Jonas had tried to dig up information on him. Abbey Drake's fiancé, Aleksandr Volstov, had known Ilya from childhood. Prakenskii had been raised by the state and trained as a lethal weapon, but from there, the trail went muddy and no amount of prying had revealed what the man was really involved in. Aleksandr suspected Prakenskii's current job as a bodyguard for a mobster was only a front for something else, but if that was so, his cover was impeccable. Jonas, for all his contacts, hadn't managed to find out anything. Ilya Prakenskii was a wild card and he held Hannah's life in his hands.

Prakenskii might have been working for his government, or he may truly be Nikitin's man, but whatever he was, he was trained as a straight-up killer—and he held Hannah's life in his hands.

"He couldn't do anything else," Sarah said. "It happened so fast. He had to stop the man."

Jonas wasn't so certain a man like Prakenskii
had
to kill. He had a choice and he chose death for the attacker. Why? Retribution—or something far more sinister? Hell. Jonas didn't believe in anyone anymore—especially not the man who had saved Hannah's life. He had to force his mind to think. It was the only way to stay sane until he was with her. Once he was with her, the rest of the world could go to hell, for all he cared.

"Did you bring the files on the wack jobs?" he asked Jackson, who sat across the aisle from him.

The deputy snapped open the briefcase. "They're all here. Do you think the killer acted alone?" Jackson glanced sharply at Jonas. "Do you feel the threat is gone?"

Beside him, Sarah gave a small sound of distress. "Oh, God, Jonas." She choked off a sob. "Do you think more than one man could be involved? Hannah could still be in danger?"

He wanted to reassure her, to make it all better. Jonas Harrington, the white knight, savior of the world. Hell, he hadn't saved the one person most important to him.

Hannah.

Just that quick he could see her again, on TV, smiling as the cameras flashed, and the quick look over her shoulder as she moved swiftly through the crowd, the turn, the look of shock, of horror as the knife rose and fell.

The air in Jonas's lungs caught and just held there, burning until he thought he might pass out. He'd faced bullets and blood and death on a battlefield more times than he'd wanted to count. He'd watched his mother, a wonderful, sweet woman, slowly eaten alive from the inside out, suffering every moment of her existence and he hadn't thought—hadn't believed—that there could be more pain. More anger. Feeling—being—more damn helpless.

"Jonas." Jackson's voice was sharp and compelling. "Focus. Are you feeling the same threat to her? Was this a loner?"

He cleared his throat and tried to pull himself together. "It's impossible to tell. The danger to her is so strong, I can't tell whether it's because she's near death or because someone is still waiting to get to her."

Sarah reached into the briefcase and took a few of the photographs, shaking her head as she looked them over. "Why in the world would you even be looking at these people?" She held up two of the pictures. "I doubt an animal rights group would conspire to kill her and keep sending assassins. And even the Reverend with his moral group would have little to gain."

"They'd stay in the news. Who knows how twisted people think, Sarah," Damon responded, drawing her closer. He'd been a victim and had the scars and leg that rarely worked anymore to prove it. "There could be a dozen reasons, all perfectly logical in their mind. Anyone who does this kind of thing is seriously screwed up."

Jonas turned his head to stare sightlessly out the window again. Nothing made sense anymore. Anyone but Hannah. He had wasted so much time waiting for her to make the first move. Why had he done that? He took command of every situation, but not with her.
Because she was afraid of him
. He suppressed a groan. That was the true reason. She was a pleaser, wanting him happy, wanting her family happy, always giving of herself, but never taking. She wanted him happy, too, but not at the cost of herself. He walked on her. And she knew herself well enough to know she couldn't afford to be swallowed whole.

"She has a temper," he murmured aloud.

Sarah glanced at him. "Who?"

"Hannah. She has a temper. And when she's angry, she can wreak havoc."

"Which is why she rarely does anything other than small, annoying forms of retribution, like blowing your hats down the street," Sarah said.

"I overwhelm her, don't I?" Jonas asked. He knew the answer. He was always ordering her to do something. He rarely asked. Hell, he'd been so damned mean in the hospital to her, it was a wonder she hadn't taken a gun and shot him.

Sarah shook her head. "I honestly don't know. I'm beginning to realize I don't know Hannah very well, Jonas. I thought I did, but all the things I thought I knew about her, well, I think she simply gave me what she thought I wanted."

"She's so damned beautiful and smart. She can outthink me any day of the week." Jonas shoved both hands through his hair. "You'd think she had enough confidence for ten people. She looks like she does. She's all don't-touch-me, don't-ruffle-my hair, I'm-so-fucking-far-above-you-you'll-never-be-in-my-league attitude."

"She's so painfully shy she stutters, Jonas; that's not something that gives a woman confidence." She rubbed her cheek against Damon's shoulder. "We had to help her make public appearances."

Jonas closed his hands into two tight fists. That should have told them something, right there. If Hannah couldn't go out in public without her sisters helping her, didn't it occur to them that the strain on her would be too much? He didn't state the obvious. What would be the use? Sarah was coming to the realization on her own and it would hurt. She loved Hannah. She would blame herself for not realizing that Hannah had been unhappy. All of the Drakes would.

Hannah. Baby. I love you so much. So damned much. Did I
even tell you
? He couldn't remember. He'd given her everything he was, worshiped her with his body, but had he said the words?
Coward
. He'd been a fucking coward even when she'd given herself to him.

"Jonas." Jackson's low voice cut through the recriminations. "You're going to drive yourself insane. Look at these files. Do what you do best. If Prakenskii removed the threat to her, fine, but if it's more, if there's a group behind this, let's make certain she's safe when she wakes up."

Jackson hadn't said "if" she wakes up. Jonas clung to that as he took one of the files and opened it to stare at Rudy Venturi's baby face. "Not him. He's so fixated on her that he'd never share her. He's got a fantasy going in his mind with her." He passed the file to Sarah. "You read it, Sarah, see if you feel the same way." Sarah had a good mind and a talent for "feeling" things he couldn't get. He'd bet money the attack hadn't been a conspiracy involving Rudy, but he wasn't willing to take a chance with Hannah's life. No matter what Sarah said, Rudy would be interrogated, but he might be low on the list.

Jackson handed Jonas the next file opened, tapping it as Jonas took it. "This reads like trouble to me," Jackson said. "I don't like the letters he's written or the things he has to say. He has several of his 'flock' backing him up and their letters are even more fanatical than his. The Reverend believes Hannah, and models like her, are enticing young girls into perverted acts by showing off their bodies and promoting sexuality and promiscuity."

Jonas swore. "What a self-righteous son of a bitch. He's the one forcing young girls to perverted acts. He has a little harem he's collecting, girls off the street, runaways. And the men in his flock are no sheep—more like wolves. So far we haven't been able to catch him at anything, but we suspect he has one of the biggest drug-running operations around."

"Does Nikitin run drugs?" Sarah asked, handing back Rudy's file to Jackson.

"Nikitin has his hand in nearly everything, but Tarasov, his biggest competitor, runs most of the drags in Russia," Jonas said. He didn't want to discuss Boris Tarasov, not after he'd seen the explosive material that had been on the film he and Jackson had turned over to their commander. Karl Tarasov and the Gadiyan brothers had managed to make it out of the country, but Petr had been quietly picked up trying to flee, and was being held at an undisclosed location. Jonas sure didn't want to know the location, but he did want to know who the traitor inside the defense department had been.

"Do any of these files have anything at all to do with either of the Russians?" Sarah persisted. "Maybe Nikitin was there for a reason."

"Nikitin has a reason for everything he does," Jonas agreed, "but neither man has ever threatened Hannah, or even communicated with her. And she doesn't know a thing about drugs so we can rule out the Russians. Nikitin often attends high-profile parties, particularly in the fashion and music industries. I think it's safe to say he went there to be seen rather than to see Hannah." But he wasn't ruling anything out altogether. Everyone was under suspicion, even Ilya—especially Ilya.

"I want a closer look at the Reverend, too," Jonas said. "Sarah, study this file and tell me if you get any vibes off of him." He put the folder in her lap.

"I can tell you he's creepy," Sarah said, her hand sliding over the papers. "And he's not opposed to violence—or money. He's fixated on Hannah and Joley, too."

"Great." Jonas rubbed his pounding temples.

Sarah drew in her breath. "He's got a wall of pictures and articles on our family. I can see it."

"You freak me out when you do that," Damon said. "I'm never going to get used to it. Are you sure, Sarah?"

She nodded. "To someone like the Reverend, my family would be the closest thing to Satan he could find on this earth. If he's discovered any of us can do the things we do, it might be reason enough for him to stir up his followers to violence."

"There was a brief moment a reporter interviewed him and he quoted something from the Bible about reaping what we sow," Damon offered. "He looked very pious."

"Self-righteous prick," Jonas snarled. "Put him at the top of the list."

"This one is on the Let Animals Live Free, the LALF group. They've made quite a few threats to Hannah since she turned them down when they asked her to be a spokesperson for them. They have big bucks and a reputation in shambles thanks to her and one of her investigative reporter friends. They have a reputation for violence, all in the name of animal rights, of course, and we know members of the group have threatened her many times." Jackson handed Jonas the file. "I think we need to look very closely at them. One of the men who turned evidence against them, Benjamin Larsen, disappeared last summer."

"He's the one who got rid of the animal bodies, and he was taking tiger parts and selling them on the black market." Jonas forced his mind to remember, to think of something other than Hannah, lying so close to death. He could hardly concentrate with the roaring in his ears and the protest pounding the hell out of his gut.

"Exactly. A very lucrative business nowadays. The skin, the body parts, they can be worth a fortune if someone knows what they're doing. LALF would protest an animal sanctuary, get an injunction, take the animals away and euthanize them as soon as the reporters left. LALF claims they never received a penny of the money from the death of the animals, but Larsen claimed the domestic animals were given to research centers and the big cats were parted out on the black market."

"That's just sick," Sarah said.

"How in the world did Hannah get involved?" Damon asked.

Jonas sighed. "When she was shaking hands with them, she picked up all kinds of images and she took it from there, asking a friend who was an investigative reporter to dig into it. The entire mess was discovered and it was a huge scandal. LALF weathered it, they have a lot of political clout. Politicians and celebrities like the image of saving wildlife and LALF is very good at getting publicity. They blamed it on a few overzealous members and hired a high-powered publicity firm to turn their image around. But Hannah's been getting letters ever since."

Hannah
. She'd cried over the knowledge, the impressions she'd gotten when she'd shaken the director's hand. Jonas had found her on the beach with tears running down her face. It was one of the few times he'd dared to hold her. She fit into his body so perfectly, made for him, belonging there. He'd wanted to slay every dragon for her to keep her from crying any more tears.

She'd been soft and warm and all woman, her hair flowing around them like so much silk. The sea had erupted into stormy columns of white foam, crashing against the rocks in harmony with her wild storm of tears. The wind whirled around them, closing off the rest of the world, making him feel as if they were alone together, the sun setting in every shade of red and orange, a giant glowing ball pouring molten gold into the churning water. Everything had been beautiful and perfect and so right he ached every time he thought of it. Everything about Hannah was magical—even her tears.