"Definitely wear the underwear and that really tight black tank with a red lace bra under it. The tank that is open over your tummy. You have a great tummy. All that swimming." Hannah picked up the brush. "Wear your hair down. You never do and he's probably used to you wearing it up. You have wonderful hair."
"I shouldn't be doing this," Abigail hedged.
"Maybe not, but it might make you feel better. And in any case, if he hurts you, he's going to be turned into either a toad or a slug. I'm leaning toward the slug at the moment." She laughed softly. "That place will be packed. You know Sylvia Fredrickson is going to be there and she'll be flirting like crazy. Gina Farley, you know her, she runs the local preschool now and Patty Granger will probably be there too. They love to dance. A lot of the women like to go there to dance. You'll need to feel beautiful." She paused, allowing Abigail's hair to settle into place. "Is he the type to look at other women when he's with you?"
Abigail laughed. "You know me better than that. I'd hit him over the head."
"You look beautiful, Abbey, and dressed up in your black jeans you'll look awesome. Wear the pair that hugs your hips. Do you have a chain to go around your waist? I've got a great one if you don't."
"I'd love to borrow it," Abigail said bravely. Hannah was always a fashion plate, while Abigail tended to throw on her most comfortable outfit. If Hannah said she needed a chain then she was going to wear one and she was going to knock Aleksandr Volstov's socks off.
"Do you mind if I say something?" Hannah asked. "It's a very personal observation."
"Go for it." Abigail felt reckless.
"Abbey, you've never been the type of woman to have a knockdown drag-out fight. Even when we were kids, you didn't really argue, not with Mom and Dad, not with us, and not with your friends. If you didn't like something you went away. Literally. You close doors on people."
"I know I do." Abbey stared down at her hands to avoid Hannah's gaze. "I survive that way."
"It isn't just survival. It's your way of fighting. You refuse to engage and then you can't lose. You're a very strong woman and you aren't afraid. You do things most people would never do. You're way stronger than I am, but you have to know when you close those doors, you don't leave anything for the other person. Everyone makes mistakes. Everyone. I love you very much and all I'm saying is, you wouldn't be letting Aleksandr Volstov into our home, into our lives if you didn't still have very strong feelings for him. You'd never admit to Aleksandr for a second that you love him, and you'd never consider dressing up for him."
Hannah stepped one foot out of the bedroom, her hands gracefully moving through the air. "I just think if you have such strong feelings for him, you should consider why. What he did was terrible. Or maybe to us it's terrible. I have no idea what it would be like to try to live and work in the turmoil of what's been taking place in his country over the last few years. You've always been good at looking at all sides of an issue, Abbey, but maybe you're too close to this one."
Her fingers snagged a glittering chain of fine gold as it floated through the hall to her. "This will be perfect on you."
"I honestly don't know how I feel about Aleksandr right now," Abigail admitted as Hannah dropped the chain onto her outstretched palm. "I did close that door. Very firmly. I made certain I moved around so there was no chance that he could catch up with me. I returned his letters unopened. There was nothing to say. I don't know him. I thought I did, but I don't. I can't be in love with, nor can I trust a man I don't know."
"You're very drawn to him," Hannah said. "And when he's close to you your auras mix together. They aren't distinct. The house let him in. You say you've closed him out, but you went with him kayaking and you certainly didn't have to do that. You're going with him tonight and again, there's no real reason. What I'm saying is, you aren't a woman to do things you don't want to do. You want to be with him. If you didn't, Abbey, he would never get close to you. You'd be in the sea or on the beach or flying off to Australia or Florida or any other place where you go to be with your dolphins. You wouldn't be here with him."
Abigail drew the tank top over her head. "I wish you weren't right, Hannah." She pulled her hair out off her neck and let it settle back into place. "I have no idea what to do with him. I'm so afraid I'll never survive him again."
"Why?" Hannah peered at the earring rack to find the most suitable earrings. "Do you even know why?"
Standing in the red lace panties and black tank top, Abigail looked vulnerable as she pressed the black jeans to her chest. "I don't think love is supposed to be like this, Hannah. I ache all the time. I think about him all the time. I've always been whole without a man, but somehow he changed that and now I look at him, this man who was my world, and wonder if I ever really knew him. He isn't what I thought."
"What did you think?"
Abigail sank onto the bed. "Words like gentle and tender come to mind. Now I look at him and think ruthless and merciless. How can that be?"
"We all have many sides. You do. You know you do. Why are you always so careful to hold yourself in check? You have a temper and you're quite capable of retaliating when someone has upset you. That's why you walk away, you're so afraid of what you might do."
Abigail shook her head. "It isn't the same. I thought it was the same, but it isn't."
Hannah sighed. "I'm not certain what you're talking about so I can't help. Would he hurt you? Hit you?"
"No! Heaven's no! He would never hurt me no matter how angry he got. No." Abigail shook her head adamantly. "Aleksandr would step in front of a bullet for me."
There was a small silence. Abigail looked shocked. "Did I just say that? It's true, but I hadn't thought about it."
Hannah patted her hand. "If you know that deep in your heart, Abbey, I suspect you know he's very much in love with you. Maybe you owe it to both of you to give him another chance, to find out exactly what happened, his reasons, and see if you can live with them."
Abigail pulled on her trousers. "I don't know. I still can't believe he's here. It seems like a dream. And he told me he thinks a man named Leonid Ignatev has put out a hit on him. Ignatev tried a power play using me as a pawn and Aleksandr managed to get me out of Russia and defeat him."
"That's not good," Hannah said and sank onto the bed. "Have you told Jonas?"
"We can't tell Jonas. He'd try to have Aleksandr deported just to get him away from us. You know he would. He wouldn't want Aleksandr anywhere near us." She rubbed her temples. "I shouldn't let him anywhere near any of you, but I know you all so well. It won't matter what I say. You'll butt in anyway."
Hannah laughed. "You're so right, although I am worried about Aunt Carol playing the detective with Frank Warner. None of us really know him that well. Could he be involved in this?"
"He's good friends with Inez and she's a great judge of character. I don't know. On the surface, it looks like there's some small pointers toward him, but I'm not about to jump to conclusions," Abigail said. She settled the gold chain around her waist. "What do you think?"
"I think you're going to make him crazy," Hannah said. "Don't be surprised when most of Sea Haven shows up tonight at the Caspar Inn."
"I'm expecting everyone. There's no way Aunt Carol and her friends are going to stay away. And it might be worth it to see her Reginald."
"I wish I could attract men the way she does," Hannah said wistfully.
"Hannah!" Abigail hugged her sister to her. "You attract tons of men. You just don't do anything about it."
Hannah shook her head. "No, I don't. No one ever asks me out."
"Do you want them to ask you out? Is there anyone in particular you're interested in?" Abigail asked.
Hannah shrugged. "No. Not really. I just would like to be able to go on a date if anyone interesting did come along."
Abigail studied her sister's face, with its perfect bone structure. Hannah was beautiful with her flawless skin and enormous, heavily lashed eyes. "It will happen."
Hannah fla
shed a brief smile. "I'll magically be able to talk without stuttering?"
"You can talk to all of us without stuttering. And sometimes Jonas. We're not always helping you when he's around."
"Jonas doesn't count. I have to be able to talk to him in order to defend myself. And I never talk about anything important with him."
"It will happen."
"Abigail!" Jonas's voice boomed up the stairs.
Hannah flinched visibly. "I think I'll go get dressed and see if Joley wants to go with me tonight."
"You're really going to show up in Caspar, aren't you?" Abigail asked.
"I wouldn't miss it," Hannah said.
"Wish me luck." Abigail winked at Hannah and raised her voice. "I'm coming, Jonas, there's no need to wake the dead." She hurried down the stairs to prevent him from coming up and running into Hannah.
"Sorry, Abbey." Jonas pushed a hand through his hair, leaving it disheveled. "I've got too many things on my mind and I think Aunt Carol is going to be the death of me. If the Russian mafia is in any way mixed up with Frank Warner, I certainly don't want her over there with her camera."
"Have you eaten today? You look tired," Abbey said. "Come in the kitchen while we talk and I'll fix you something to eat."
"Thanks, I can pick something up at the Salt Bar and Grill later."
"It's no trouble." She led the way to the kitchen and waved him toward a chair. "You can't watch over everyone, Jonas. We're all responsible for the choices we make."
"I know that, Abbey." Jonas toed a chair around and straddled it, watching her as she waved a casual hand toward the stove. "I have friends in all the small towns up and down this coastline. The mafia plays rough. If they're here, I want to know why. And I want them out of here before anyone else gets hurt."
"Have you talked to Marsha? How's Gene doing?"
"He's still in intensive care. Without you and your sisters, he would be dead. Marsha sends her love and says she'll be in touch when Gene's out of the woods."
"Has he been able to say anything?"
Jonas shook his head. "No, he's still in a coma. The doctors aren't sure he'll be able to remember much, if anything at all, even if he does wake up."
"Poor Marsha. The entire family must be so upset." Abigail sighed. "You'd think, since all the towns are so small, it would be easy to find a group of Russians. Someone must know where they are staying, Jonas. They have to be at one of the hotels or motels or bed-and-breakfast inns. Once you find them, everyone can keep an eye on them." Abigail beat several eggs and poured the mixture into an omelet pan.
"Unfortunately it isn't that easy. I've made inquiries, of course, but my guess is they rented a house through a third party so the house owner doesn't even know who they're renting to." He indicated the eggs. "More cheese. I like a lot of cheese."
"I'm saving room for vegetables. You need good nutrition." Her hands flew over the vegetables as she chopped a variety into small pieces. "Of course, if they're at all like Aleksandr and can speak English without an accent..." She trailed off.
"He has an accent."
"Only when he wants to have one. I minored in languages, Jonas, and I speak six fairly well, but nothing like Aleksandr. He speaks with a perfect, native accent whenever he wants to. And depending on the local dialect he can change the sound to blend as well. He's a genius when it comes to languages."
"Then why does he speak with a Russian accent?"
Abigail turned around at a sound in Jonas's voice. He was no longer sitting slumped, but was fully alert, his eyes diamond hard. "I don't know. That's a good question. He spoke with an accent when we were in Russia as well, but I've heard him speak flawless English and he can sound as if he's from the South or a native of California. I wouldn't be able to tell the difference. He said he was trained that way."
"I'll just bet he was." Jonas leapt up. "You have any coffee around here?"
"We don't drink coffee, Jonas, you know that. What's wrong?"
"He's an operative, that's what's wrong. He's probably aspy."
"There isn't a cold war going on--do we still have spies?"
"You know, Abbey, you're not funny. You need to be serious about this. Aleksandr Volstov is bad news any way you look at him."
Abigail dumped a handful of vegetables into the middle of the egg mixture. "I'm well aware of what Aleksandr is and what he isn't. He says he's here on Interpol business, Jonas. I was not-so-subtly giving you a heads-up."
There was a small silence. "Thank you," Jonas acknowledged.
"You're welcome."
"Turn on the tea water." He looked around. "Where's Hannah when you need her? In fact, where is everyone? They all disappeared."
"She was afraid you'd be mean to her." She leaned her hip against the counter and pointed the spatula. "Did you really call her a wire hanger?"
"Damn it, Abbey, let's not go there."
"You did, didn't you? That was cruel, Jonas. Why do you do that to her? Don't you think she has feelings?"
"She knows she's beautiful, Abbey. Hell, everyone knows it. She's on the cover of every magazine from here to hell and back. It would be cruel if it were true. You can't tell me I'm hurting her feelings when I tell her to gain a little weight."
"She doesn't need to gain weight to be beautiful, Jonas."
"No, she needs to gain weight to be healthy. Are you going to stand there and tell me you haven't noticed how pale and fragile she looks lately? A good wind could knock her over. They work her too hard."
Abigail carefully turned the omelet. "Let me get this straight. You observed that Hannah was pale and seemed fragile and underweight and you were upset because you think she's working too hard so your solution was to tell her she looked like a wire clothes hanger?"
"When you put it like that, it doesn't sound very good, but that's not the way I said it."
"Yes, it did sound that way. How else could it sound?" Abigail waved her hand toward the bread drawer and it opened. "You're a moron, Jonas. And all this time I thought you were charming with the ladies."
"I've just been keeping an eye on her lately and she doesn't seem well. I thought about asking Libby to take a look at her while she's here, but then all hell broke loose around here with this murder and I haven't had the chance to catch Libby alone."
"Hannah's fine." Even as she said it, Abigail wondered if it was true. Did she really know? She'd been so caught up in her own problems since she'd arrived home, she hadn't really paid much attention to any of her sisters. It made her ashamed. "We'd feel it if she wasn't."
"Would you? She hides things from people. I didn't know she had asthma until last Christmas. I've known her all of her life. How could I not know that?"
She scooped the omelet onto a plate and handed it to him. "There are a lot of things you don't know about Hannah."
"I'm beginning to realize that. And I don't think I'm alone. I watch her now when she's home. She's always doing for everyone else. Who does for her?" Jonas took a bite and grinned at her. "You can cook. I had no idea."
Abigail found herself laughing. "Amazing, isn't it? Self-preservation. Some of the places I went to do research didn't have fast food or food carts."
"Hey, you two." Hannah came partway into the kitchen, leaning one slim hip against the door.
Abigail studied her sister and for the first time could see signs of exhaustion. She was thinner than usual, although Abbey had to admit, it didn't seem to matter. Hannah was so striking and exotic she looked beautiful no matter what. "You hungry? I'm cooking."
"Just tea for me." Hannah waved toward the kettle and it whistled instantly.
Jonas grinned. "I love how you do that."
Hannah's eyebrow shot up. "I didn't think you loved anything I did."
"You're all dressed up. Where are you going?" Jonas asked.
"I'm wearing jeans and a very comfortable shirt," Hannah pointed out. "Abbey's the one dressed up."
Jonas turned to look at her. "Wow! You look great."
; "Thanks for noticing," Abbey said wryly.
"She's going on a date with Aleksandr," Hannah announced.
"He didn't ask me where I was going."
"I'm asking now." Jonas glared at Abigail.
"Someone's at the door," Hannah said with a small smirk.
"You just stay right there and I'll get it," Jonas said and marched through the house to yank open the front door.
10
"HARRINGTON," Aleksandr greeted, his features expressionless as he stepped through the door, forcing Jonas to give way. "Is Abbey ready?"
"Yes, I am," Abigail said hastily and attempted to push past Jonas, who stood squarely in her way. She exchanged a look with Hannah, rolling her eyes as she did so. Did men have to posture all the time?
Aleksandr reached around Jonas and caught her hand. "You look truly beautiful, baushki-bau." His palm swept her hair as he pulled her in close to him.
His accent was very much in evidence and Abigail immediately felt guilty for having told Jonas about Aleksandr's superb language skills. She felt his fingers curl around hers, his body heat enveloping her, the strength in his muscles as he fit her beneath his shoulder. It was all so familiar. He even smelled like she remembered, clean and masculine and far too sexy for her liking.
His body moved against hers almost protectively as they walked out into the night air. In the distance the ocean boomed and she could smell salt in the air. The sky was clear and the stars sparkled. A perfect night, just what she needed.
"You're pulling away from me, Abbey." His voice was low, his lips against her ear. "Tell me what's wrong."
She waved her hand to encompass her surroundings. "This. You. Me. I'm always so lost around you, Sasha."
He drew her hand to his mouth. "Not around me, not as long as I'm with you, you'll never be lost, Abbey."
Her skin tingled where his lips brushed her knuckles. In all the time she'd known Aleksandr, there had never been awkward silences between them. Now, she felt nervous and edgy. With supreme self-discipline, Abigail drew her hand away from him. "How's the investigation coming?"
There was another small silence and then he sighed with resignation. "It's coming along. I have some leads. The necklace on first examination appears to be authentic, but of course we've sent it to the real experts." He opened the passenger door of his car for her.
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