Total pages in book: 138
Estimated words: 127461 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 637(@200wpm)___ 510(@250wpm)___ 425(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 127461 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 637(@200wpm)___ 510(@250wpm)___ 425(@300wpm)
“Would you mind if I used that little room for an office? The one you showed me that is just sitting there with nothing in it?”
He barely heard her. She was wearing nothing but the shirt he’d given her earlier. He knew she didn’t really have much in the way of clothing. They’d discussed it once already. She’d told him she was going to order clothes, but knowing she wore nothing under that shirt was instantly distracting.
“The room?” he echoed, trying to remember the location of the room. There were a lot of rooms in the house. Which room was she talking about?
“I need an office for my work. It’s best if no one knows about it. If all your men here think others are doing your computer research for you, it’s best if everyone continues to believe that.”
She pulled her laptop from the backpack and set it on the end table beside the bed. He noticed the way her fingers moved over the lid in a small stroke of what could have been affection. The laptop had a waterproof case, and the backpack was waterproof.
“In case you’re wondering, I did ask Gedeon to bring us dinner.”
“I’m hungry,” she admitted. “I was considering heading to the kitchen and looking for whatever you had in there to make a salad.”
“Fortunately, Gedeon is grilling tonight. He’s got everything covered for us.”
“Handy man to have around.”
“I think so.” Gorya indicated her laptop. “How did you learn your computer skills? Computers aren’t my strong suit. I can use one if I have to, but I prefer to have someone else who really knows what they’re doing do all the heavy work.”
Her lashes fluttered—those long lashes that made her look so incredibly young. He was beginning to know the subtle telling signs she gave when she was uncomfortable answering his questions. He found it interesting that she didn’t want to tell him how she’d learned to use a computer.
Maya traced the logo on the lid of the laptop. “I happened to stumble upon three men attacking a woman. Well, teenager. She was seventeen. Initially, I think they were stealing her car. She had a very cool Porsche 911 Carrera. I didn’t know anything about cars at the time, but even I could see it was awesome and worth stealing. I didn’t, by the way, steal cars, because I didn’t know how to drive back then. I would have let them take the car had they stopped there, but once they saw the driver, they decided they wanted more.”
Gorya’s gut knotted. He kept his expressionless mask. There was a good reason she didn’t want to tell him about her introduction to the computer. He noticed immediately she didn’t give the woman’s name. She was still in touch with her. The woman knew her. She knew Maya’s name. That was unacceptable. He had no doubt in his mind that Maya was hunted.
He was already suspicious that she was like his mother, like Gedeon and Meiling. If Maya had rare gifts—and he already knew she did—and the remaining members of the Amurov family left alive in Russia found out she lived, they would hunt her. So would any of those who had banded together to wipe out families with superior gifts. Patva seemed to have realized her mother had rare gifts and wanted a child from her. Somehow her mother had managed to prevent conception. He had turned his eyes toward the child. Others might do the same. This woman would always be a threat to Maya as long as she was alive. He didn’t dare let on to Maya what he was thinking.
“Keep going,” he encouraged, careful his voice sounded like he was interested but not in the least threatening. “You must have stopped them.”
She leapt up to pace across the room to the fireplace, her feet not making even a whisper of sound. “She fought them, and the more she fought, the angrier they got. I despise that, as if women don’t have a right to say no. Or to protect our bodies. In any case, after what was done to Polina, that’s a trigger for me—multiple men raping women and angry that they dare fight back. By that time, Wraith and I had practiced, with her fully or partially emerging at will. We could fight together smoothly, and we did. We killed all three of them. Two of them had guns and one had a knife. I believe they would have killed her. As it was, they did stab her, and one shot me before I could finish them off.”
Again, Gorya noticed she didn’t put a name to the woman. He filed away that the girl was seventeen at the time. She had to come from a very wealthy family in Houston in order to be driving a Porsche. The car she named was a top-of-the-line sports car. Maya might not know much about cars, but he did. Only a very wealthy family would give their daughter an expensive and, in his opinion, dangerous car.