Safe Harbor (26 page)

"I'm not going to put my sisters in jeopardy, Jonas, not for one minute. You should have told me immediately what you thought."

"I agree with Hannah," Prakenskii said, joining the fray without a qualm. "The others shouldn't be placed in harm's way. It only makes for more targets and therefore more suspects."

Joley threw her tea mug at him, her aim deadly accurate. Prakenskii waved his hand and the missile and liquid stopped in midair. He flashed her one, deadly look, his blue eyes darkening to a turbulent sea. He snapped something at her in Russian.

Hannah made a small strangled sound and Joley's breath was a hiss of warning.

What did he say to her? Did he just threaten her
? "If you have something to say to Joley, Prakenskii, say it to everyone. If you're threatening her…"

He told her to stop being childish
, Hannah reassured Jonas.

"Joley is perfectly capable of looking after herself with me, aren't you?" Prakenskii said.

"Absolutely," Joley acknowledged and waved her hand toward her tea mug. Liquid filled the cup and it floated back. "Don't worry, Jonas, I'll be fine." She snapped something back at Prakenskii in his language and then switched to English. "And for your information, Hannah is our sister. We're not about to cower in the corner while she's in danger, so go beat your chest somewhere else."

What did she say
? Jonas asked.

She called him a few vile names.

"One of these days; Joley, I'm going to retaliate and then what are you going to do?" Prakenskii asked quietly, his gaze holding hers.

"Don't," Hannah intervened. "I need you to tell me what you think is going on,
Prakenskii. Joley, please."
See, Jonas, he keeps directing the focus back toward Joley. What does he want from her? I'm afraid for her. Could this be about Joley
?

Jonas turned the idea over in his mind. It felt wrong to him. Everything so far felt wrong. He was missing the crucial piece of the puzzle that would snap everything into focus for him.

"Please accept my apologies, Hannah," Prakenskii said. "It was not my intention to upset you. I wanted to assure myself that you were doing better and to warn Mr. Harrington that I still feel a threat is imminent. Unfortunately I can't tell where it's coming from or who it's directed toward."

"Why would you warn us?" Jonas asked bluntly.

Prakenskii sighed and put down the mug of tea. "Perhaps it is as simple as Hannah's sister is marrying one of the few men in the world I call friend." His gaze strayed to where Joley stood rigid against the wall. "Or perhaps I wanted to see, one more time, whether the reason I can no longer sleep at night is worth it."

Joley pressed tighter against the wall as if making herself small, yet there was defiance in every line of her body. "I don't owe you any explanation whatsoever."

"Then I call in one of the favors your family owes to me. It is not your personal debt, but a debt of honor your family owes to me."

Joley's face went pale. "For that? We owe you two lives, yet you'll give up one for a simple explanation of my behavior? You aren't the brightest bulb on the planet, are you?" Her melodic voice held the whip of insult and she tossed her head defiantly. "I thought you knew everything. You're not nearly as powerful as you want us all to believe you are."

"Too powerful to be goaded by a rude, ungrateful coward who is still a child playing at being an adult."

But her insults were getting to him. The balance in the room had shifted from the Drakes to Prakenskii and both Hannah and Jonas felt it. Hannah intervened again. "I'm the one who owes you, Mr. Prakenskii. If you would be so kind as to tell me what your favor entails, I'll do my best to help you."

"I would like an explanation—"

"Don't. Don't ask," Joley said. "Please don't ask."

"I gave you every opportunity to explain."

"You haunted me day and night,
tormented
me. Made me angry. It isn't your business. It's stupid using up a favor from our family for such a trivial thing."

"
Trivial
." He stood up, and his rage poured into the room, white-hot, just as Hannah had said, a volcano erupting, so that the walls bulged out, unable to contain the red and black energy bursting into the room. The ground shifted and shadows moved over the mosaic tiles. Feminine voices cried out in eerie warning, rising from the floor and the walls.

The Drake sisters leapt to their feet, and Jonas put his body between the women and the furious Russian. He looked at no one but Joley. The two of them stood, their gazes locked in a battle no one else was part of or could understand.

"Stop!" Hannah glared at them. "Please sit down, Mr. Prakenskii." When he didn't move, she stepped closer. "Ilya. Please."

Prakenskii slowly pulled his gaze from Joley's and took his seat. Joley shook her head as everyone else visibly relaxed and then she turned on her heel and left the room. The tension instantly lessened.

"Please accept my apologies once again, Hannah," the Russian said. "I should have been more careful. I rarely lose my temper. I have no excuse." He lifted the mug of tea to his mouth, blew to calm the boiling liquid and took a drink.

"I don't understand. Why are you so angry with Joley? Is she in some kind of danger?"

Hannah forced her mind open, reaching—stretching—to catch a glimpse of the truth in him. She felt a barrage of emotions, the intensity nearly overwhelming, but just as quickly, he shored up his defenses and became as cold as ice.

"Joley deliberately puts herself in danger."

Hannah sank back into the chair and glanced briefly up at Jonas. Prakenskii believed he was telling the truth. She caught that as well as the accompanying temper pushed down deep. "What do you mean?" For a moment she could barely breathe. Was someone after her sister, the way someone had wanted her dead?

Sarah opened her mouth but Hannah held up an imperious hand, effectively stopping anything she might say. Hannah never took charge and it shocked her sisters.

Joley stepped back into the room, her dark eyes blazing. "You want to know about the pictures in the tabloid? Me with my latest lover?" She glared at Prakenskii, both hands on her hips, tossing her head so that her hair went flying in all directions. "It's publicity. The man is history already, so you don't need his name, but a photographer followed us to the house Tyson bought for Libby and caught us. Big deal."

Prakenskii never took his eyes off her face when Joley made her declaration. A long slow hiss escaped and he stood in one fluid movement, with all the grace and predatory menace and deadly threat of a fully grown tiger. "When one calls in a favor, you tell the truth. I demand the truth and the name of this man who had his hands and mouth all over you."

"What difference does it make who he is?" Joley's chin was up, her eyes throwing off sparks.

"I would not want to kill the wrong man."

"Whoa. Stop right there." Jonas jumped up. "You can't make threats like that."

"It is a matter of honor." There was no emotion in his voice whatsoever. Prakenskii shrugged as if a life didn't matter at all to him.

The Drakes looked at one another, puzzled, and then at Joley. She sucked in her breath. "Ilya," she began and then stopped, looking helplessly at Libby.

Ilya Prakenskii followed her gaze and frowned. "You owe me the truth and I've asked for it. One of you needs to provide it."

Hannah looked around at her sisters. "I do owe you a tremendous debt, we all do, but this is not my secret to tell. If it was, I would give you the information that you ask for, but I'm sorry, I can't."

Prakenskii looked around the room at their faces. "I have asked that a debt of honor be repaid. You are refusing me?"

Libby shook her head. "No, we're not." Color swept into her face, but she kept her gaze locked with his. "I was with Tyson at his house and someone wanted to harm him—us. The man took pictures of the two of us. I'm a doctor and I'm not used to tabloids and the terrible things they do to a person's life. Joley dyed her hair and took the heat, pretending the pictures were of her, so my reputation wouldn't be damaged," Libby said. "It was a generous and loving thing for her to do."

Prakenskii stood absolutely still in the middle of the room. His gaze rested on Joley's averted face. "It was dangerous. And she knows it was. Look at me." When she didn't, his voice hardened. "Look at me."

Joley lifted her gaze to his.

"You should have told me when I asked."

"It wasn't your business."

Hannah held up her hand. "Why does he keep saying you're doing something dangerous, Joley?"

Joley shrugged. "I don't know. He thinks I'm drawing all the crazies to me."

Hannah went pale and reached back for Jonas, unaware that she did so. "I know you have precog, Ilya. If Joley's in danger, come out and say so. Tell us where the danger is coming from."

"I have said so. And if I knew where it was coming from, I'd eliminate it," Prakenskii said. "I know you don't trust me, Hannah, none of you do, and it doesn't really matter, but whoever arranged the attack on you was making a point. It was brutal and vicious and direct. They tried to destroy your face and your body and then take your life. They'll come after you again. And Joley is drawing the same kind of attention, but why? You'll have to ask her." He spread his hands out.

He turned and headed toward the door. "I'm going to be in town awhile. I know you won't ask for my help, but you're going to get it anyway."

"Is Nikitin in town?" Jonas asked.

"Oh yes. Joley's here. The press is here. Nikitin is going to be right in the thick of things. He can do business from anywhere in the world, thanks to cell phones and computers."

"Why do you work for him?" Jonas asked.

Prakenskii shrugged. "Where else is a man like me going to find work?"

Joley's breath hissed out between her teeth. "Yeah, go crawling back and protect that worthless jerk. It isn't like you can change who you are."

Prakenskii paused at the door, his eyes glittering as they drifted over her furious face. "No, I can't. Any more than you can."

Jonas followed him outside. "Is Nikitin involved in the attack on Hannah?"

Prakenskii's eyes had gone as cold as ice. "If he was, he'd be dead. Despite what you think of me, the Drakes are under my protection. But I'm hearing rumors—whispers—and so far I haven't been able to find out who put out the hit, but there is one." He gestured toward the crowd of people around the fence. "You have a problem here. Whoever it is will strike again and they'll do it differently this time. They got their media attention and they made their statement. Now they want her dead."

Jonas sent a long assessing look at the crush of people around the fence. Flowers, teddy bears and candles were everywhere. But he recognized a couple of the Reverend's close guardians and he spotted Rudy Venturi, a man who followed Hannah everywhere she went, right up front, clutching flowers in his hands.

"If I didn't tell you before, Prakenskii, thanks for saving her life. She told me she never would have made it without you."

Prakenskii stepped off the stairs and turned back, shaking his head, musing aloud. "It was a brutal attack, Harrington. Something's not right about it to me. That kind of hatred should be easy enough to spot." He paused and looked slowly around. "Whoever wants her dead—they're here. They're right here in her hometown and they're waiting for the chance to strike. I can feel them."

"Thanks. I'll find them."

"I don't doubt that you will—but will you be in time?"

Jonas's face hardened. "Oh, yeah. I'll be in time." He watched Prakenskii stride off, wondering just what game the man was playing—and what Joley was up to. He needed to talk to her and fast. The last thing he wanted was to add another complication to this mess.

He took a deep breath and let it out, Prakenskii's warning sinking in as he took another slow, careful look around the crowd. Jonas felt it, too. Prakenskii wasn't blowing smoke to make himself important, something evil lurked in the air.

Down near the gate, Matt Granite, Kate's fiancé, gestured for him. Matt was standing in front of Rudy Venturi. Rudy was small and slight, with bright, dyed hair pulled up into spikes, with a nondescript face. Without the hair it would be easy to miss him in a crowd. Jonas imagined most people did overlook him.

He took his time, sauntering down toward the man, not wanting to spook him. The last time they'd talked hadn't been pleasant. Jonas had interrogated him for hours after Hannah had received a threatening letter from him, calling her a stuck-up bitch—and the man had money. Lots and lots of money—money enough to hire a brutal and soul-destroying attack on Hannah. Had he been that angry over a perceived slight? Had he been so enraged that he paid for someone to slash her face and body to ribbons before the man used her as a punching bag with a knife clutched in his fist?

The images came back, vivid and sickening, so real he could count the splashes of blood spraying the room. His stomach twisted and heaved and he stumbled, his body breaking out in a sweat. He ruthlessly willed the images away and forced a smile when he stopped in front of Rudy, keeping his voice friendly.

"Are you Rudy Venturi? Hannah told me you come to all of her events." To his knowledge Hannah had never directly spoken to Venturi. Jonas had made it very
clear—ordered her
—to stay away from him. The man had a sizable trust fund, due to a car accident that left him without family and slightly brain damaged. He traveled extensively, mostly following Hannah from shoot to shoot.

Rudy nodded, clutching his flowers.

"The doctors have said she can't see anyone right now. She needs to rest," Jonas said, holding his hands out for the flowers. "Were you there when she was attacked?"

Rudy nodded as he reluctantly handed the huge bouquet to Jonas. "Sh-she should have h-had a bodyguard."

"I agree. That's why I'm here now. I'm not going to let anything happen to her," he added. "Did you see the man who stabbed her?"

Rudy pressed a hand to his mouth and nodded vigorously. "Th-there was so much b-blood. I thought she was d-dead and I wanted to d-die."