She had mentioned it casually in that conversation with Ronnie, but she’d had no idea he’d pick up on it and run.
Not run, fly, she corrected herself dryly.
“Melis has been really nice to me,” Ronnie said. “She took me to have dinner on her boat last night.”
“Melis, I’m sorry that you—”
“Stop right there,” Melis said. “Ronnie has been no bother. I enjoyed having him. I was a little lonely last night.”
“Lonely? Don’t mention that word,” Hannah said. “It seems to trigger something in Ronnie. You might have a permanent houseguest.”
“That wouldn’t be so bad.” Melis and Ronnie exchanged glances. “He’s really eager to meet Pete and Susie. I think they’d get along just fine.” She looked back at Hannah. “I was there when Ronnie called his mother. I talked to her myself and told her that I’d take care of him until you arrived. She wants you to call her.”
“Thank heaven. I’d hate to have Cathy worrying about him. I’ll call her right after I have a talk with Ronnie.”
“Why don’t you go for a walk on the balcony?” Melis suggested. “The weather is wonderful this morning.” She grinned. “Sunlight can be very soothing.”
“Good idea. I can use a little soothing.” She nodded at Ronnie. “Let’s go. We have some tall discussing to do.”
“Hannah.”
She looked back at Melis. “You’re looking all worried and protective. I should have expected it. Conner could charm the birds from the trees, and Ronnie is just like him. It will be all right. I’m not going to be too rough on him.”
“I think he can take care of himself,” Melis said quietly. “I just want you to know that everything I said to him I meant.” She made a shooing motion. “Now, out into the sun with you.”
What could she say to him, Hannah wondered, as they walked along the long terrace balcony. It had to be right. Sensitive and yet firm.
“You’re trying to decide how to tell me to go home,” Ronnie said. “Dad used to say that he could almost hear your mind clicking when you had a problem.” He smiled. “He said that it was like the gears in one of the machines that you invented.”
“Well, the gears are stuck right now.” She gazed out at the sea. “I’m going to have to wing it. You know I love you. You know I’d like nothing better than to have you with me. It’s just not the right time. I’m having a few problems.”
“Then that’s why I should be with you.”
She’d said the wrong thing. Naturally, as protective as Ronnie was, that would be a red flag. She tried another direction. “You’re missing school and soccer season. It’s not the right time for you either.”
“I can do makeup in my classes. I don’t care about soccer. It doesn’t seem important right now.”
After facing the murder of his father, she could see how anything else would dwindle in importance. “Your mother and Donna. You said you had to take care of them.”
“They can do without me for a while. They have each other and Grandma. You’re alone.”
Lord, he was stubborn. Stubborn and solemn and endearing.
“Ronnie, I’m not alone. I have my crew.”
He shook his head. “They’re not close to you. Not like Dad used to be. They might not be there when you needed them.”
She was searching wildly for an answer. “I’m working with a man named Kirov. He used to be a submarine captain, and he’s very responsible.” That was certainly the truth. “He’d never let anything happen to me.”
“A submarine captain.” He was frowning. “They’re pretty cool, but I don’t know . . .”
“Ronnie, he’s brilliant and tough and—”
He was shaking his head. “I can’t go home. I don’t know him. I have to be sure.”
She gazed at him in exasperation. “Why are you being this way?”
He was silent a moment. “I told you about my dream about Dad. I couldn’t stop thinking about it. It seemed okay if I came to you on my own. I think he’d want me to be here.” He looked up at her. “So I have to stay, Aunt Hannah. Until I’m sure everything is safe for you.”
What was she supposed to say now? “I can’t keep you with me. I’ve got business that’s going to keep me on the move.”
“That’s what Melis said. Is this Captain Kirov going to be with you?”
“Yes, I’ll be very safe. So you see, there will be no place for you to stay. You should go home.”
He shook his head. “Boston is too far away. I have to be close.” He smiled. “And I have a place to stay. Melis said I could stay with her on her boat. That way if you need me, I won’t have to cross the ocean to get to you. I won’t be that far away.”
“Melis is very kind, but I don’t think—”
“I won’t be in her way. She said I could help with the dolphins and maybe even have her crew teach me about boats and sailing. Dad showed me a little on the lake at home, but he didn’t have much time.”
Because Conner was always with Hannah traveling to the far ends of the oceans. She had cheated Ronnie of those experiences with his father.
“It’s all right, Aunt Hannah.” Ronnie’s gaze was on her face. “When he was home, it was great. It was the way he wanted it. I didn’t understand when I was younger, but he explained.”
She reached out and hugged him fiercely. “You sound like a little old man. I want you to be young again. I want you to jump and run and play.”
His face suddenly lit with a smile. “Then let me stay on Melis’s boat and play with the dolphins.”
“Clever.” She made a face. Then she cradled his face in her two hands and stared down into his eyes. “If I sent you home, you’d come back, wouldn’t you? You’d find a way to hop on another airplane.”
“Dad wants me here.”
She sighed resignedly. “If I let you stay, it would only be for a little while. And I can’t promise until I talk to your mother. You’d have to promise to stay with Melis on her boat and not chase after me.”
“Okay.” He had a second thought. “As long as this Kirov guy is what you say he is. I’ll have to see him and make sure that Dad would have trusted him. Where is he?”
And now he wanted to vet Kirov to see if he measured up? It would have been amusing if it hadn’t been ridiculous. How would Kirov react to a twelve-year-old critically assessing his character and abilities?
Oh, what the hell difference did it make? It was amusing. Let Kirov deal with it.
“Kirov is still in the lab.” She strode toward the balcony door a few yards away. “Come on. I’m sure he’ll be delighted to meet you.”
Kirov looked up from the Lampman papers spread on the lab counter. “I was wondering where Melis whisked you off to.” His gaze went to Ronnie. “And you are?”
“Ronnie Bryson,” Hannah said. “He’s my brother Conner’s son. He decided to hop on a plane and come to see me.”
“Interesting.” He smiled. “I’m a friend of your Aunt Hannah’s. I’m very happy to meet you, Ronnie.”
“She says that you were a submarine captain.”
“That’s true, among many other professions. I’ve moved around a lot.”
“Where?”
“Name a place. I’ve probably been there.”
“But you’re not going to go anywhere now. You’re going to stay with Aunt Hannah?”
Kirov’s brows lifted at the boy’s intensity. “As far as I know, that’s the plan.”
“No, you’ve got to promise.”
Kirov’s gazed shifted to Hannah. “I don’t believe he’s speaking for you. Am I missing something?”
“He just wants the assurance that I’ll be safe. He’s worried about me.” She met Kirov’s gaze. “And like you, he believes I need protection. I can’t convince him otherwise.”
“Really?” He nodded and smiled. “I’m very good at reassurance.” He turned back to Ronnie. “And I’m extremely good at taking care of people around me. Would you like to hear m
y qualifications?”
“Yes.”
He chuckled. “Then by all means we need to talk. Would you like to accompany me to the balcony?” He started for the door. “Stay here, Hannah. We really don’t need you for this.”
“And I’ve no desire to listen in on your conversation. It would probably annoy me.”
“Oh, I’m sure it would.” He opened the door and let Ronnie precede him onto the balcony. “Though we both have the utmost respect for you, Hannah.”
She stood watching them through the glass French doors. They were both leaning with their arms on the railing. The two looked strange yet oddly companionable together. The tall, powerful man and the thin, gangly boy with the tousled brown hair. Ronnie’s expression was intent, serious, as he listened to Kirov. Kirov’s expression was equally grave, but lit with an occasional small smile.
“Is everything all right?” Melis had come back into the lab and was strolling toward her. “Is he staying?”
“Yes, I didn’t have much choice. He’s like Conner, easygoing, but rock stubborn if it was something that meant something to him.”
“He’s a great kid. I like him a lot,” Melis said. “I’m going to enjoy having him on the Fair Winds.”
“Thank you for having him. At least with you he’ll be safe. I was afraid he’d insist on being with me. I couldn’t let that happen.”
Melis’s smile faded. “Because you’re afraid he’d be in danger.”
“I don’t know what’s going to happen. I don’t have the right to put him in a position that might be . . . volatile.” She shook her head ruefully. “I was able to convince him that I didn’t need him to protect me, but I had to throw Kirov in to add weight. He didn’t trust my judgment, so I had to let him do his own appraisal.”
Melis’s gaze followed Hannah’s to the man and boy standing on the balcony. “And how is Kirov taking it?”
“It’s a challenge. He’s enjoying it.”
Melis’s eyes narrowed. “But you hoped that he might feel a little uncomfortable dealing with a boy.”
“Maybe. It was too much to expect. Kirov never loses his cool, and I’ve never found anyone he couldn’t handle.”
“Including you? I thought I detected a little tension. You haven’t resolved your differences?”
“It doesn’t matter. We can work together.” She looked back at Kirov and Ronnie. Ronnie’s stance and attitude had changed; relaxed, even eager. “I think he’s won him over. You’ll definitely have Ronnie as your guest.”
“He’ll work his way. He’ll enjoy it more.” Her gaze was on Kirov. “I can see how Ronnie would be swayed. Kirov’s very impressive. Not in the usual style, but there’s enough power and magnetism to stop you in your tracks.” She paused. “And I admit, when I met him, I felt a sense of . . . I don’t know. He made me feel as if there wasn’t any mountain he couldn’t climb.”
And he’d clearly won Melis over. “Yes, he is impressive.” She changed the subject. “What did Ronnie’s mother say when you talked to her yesterday?”
“Cathy is a very smart woman. She knows her son. She knows you. She said Ronnie is having a very bad time, and she knew that you’d do what was best for him.”
“I’m trying. I still have to talk to Cathy. I hope this is best for him.”
“I think it will be.” She paused. “I’ve never told you, but I had a terrible childhood. I was scarred. And then I found the dolphins. They healed me. I don’t know how. It could be that just the fascination and working with them completely absorbed me. It could be that I loved them, and that was enough. Love itself is a great healer. Pete and Susie will be good for Ronnie.”
Melis was a very private person, and it hadn’t been easy for her to reveal that intensely personal part of her life. It moved Hannah that she would do it to put Hannah at ease with her decision. “Yes, I think they might,” Hannah said quietly. “And you’ll be good for him, too. I don’t know anyone with whom I’d rather leave him.”
Kirov was clapping Ronnie on the shoulder, and they were both turning to come back into the lab.
“It’s okay, Aunt Hannah,” Ronnie said. “As long as you stay with Captain Kirov. He’ll make sure everything’s all right.”
“Call me Kirov, Ronnie. Captain is too formal, and that’s all in the past. I hope we’re friends now.”
“Yes, sir.” Ronnie smiled eagerly. He turned to Hannah. “He’s going to tell me all about how they lived on a nuclear sub.”
It was clear Ronnie had been completely won over. “How nice. And I’m glad you approve of him,” she said dryly. “If you think he’s so competent, perhaps you’d consider going home?”
His smile faded. “No, I have to be here. Cap—Kirov promised he’d tell me if there was any trouble. I might have to help. He’s only one man.”
“Really?” she murmured. “And I thought you believed he was an army.”
“Navy,” Kirov corrected. “I’m much better on the sea than ground tactics.” He turned to Ronnie and held out his hand. “But you have my word that nothing will happen to Hannah when you’re not with us.”
Ronnie shook his hand. “She’s very smart. I know she’ll pay attention to you.”
Kirov’s eyes were twinkling with mischief, but his tone was solemn. “I’ll make every effort to assure that she does.”
Hannah drew a deep breath, struggling to keep her frustration under control. “I could hardly help it. You manage to—”
“So Ronnie will stay with me on the Fair Winds,” Melis interrupted quickly. “That’s wonderful. Will you be able to spend the night with us, Hannah?”
“I’m not sure.” She turned to Aziz, who was working at a table across the lab. “What kind of progress are you making?”
“Good.” His eyes were shimmering with excitement. “Those notes of Lampman’s are leading me in an entirely new direction. He was very far along. If I can combine my research with his, I may have a breakthrough.”
“How soon?”
He shrugged. “It will come when it comes. But I’m close. I’ll let Melis know as soon as I do.”
“I’ll stay here with him,” Kirov said. “You go with Melis and your nephew. Show him a little of the city. Athens is an experience no one should miss. I’ll call you if there’s anything to report.”
“Okay. You’re right. While he’s here, he should see a few sights.” She looked around the lab. “Where are Eugenia and Charlie? Still in the museum?”
“No, Eugenia said they were going for a trip in the countryside to do a little target shooting. It seems she’s taken Charlie under her wing.”
A very lethal wing, Hannah thought as she turned away with Ronnie. “Heaven help him.”
“Not necessary,” Kirov said as he went back to the notes he’d been studying previously. “Eugenia will take good care of him.”
“Do you think you can do it?” Eugenia asked. “It’s a hundred yards.”
Charlie squinted against the glare of the strong sun and zeroed in on the small tin can on the lower branch of the olive tree. “I can do it.” He carefully aimed, lining up the shot.
The tin can was blown off the tree limb.
“You’re a good shot,” Eugenia said.
“Damn straight.”
“But not good enough. When you can do that running at full speed and dodging in and out of those bushes and boulders, you might be able to stay alive under any kind of conditions Gadaire could throw at you.”
“It’s a waste of time. There’s no reason why I can’t just go after him in Dublin or—”
“You’d better hope that you don’t have to face him on his turf in Dublin. There’s a hell of a lot more cover in terrain like this. Now try again. My way.”
He shook his head. “No one could make that shot running at full speed.”
“The hell they can’t.” She checked her automatic. “Put three tin cans on that branch and get out of my way.”
He shrugged and did as she asked.
Eugenia gazed at the target for a moment.
“Not easy, is it?” Charlie asked sarcastically.
She could feel the adrenaline start to surge. “Piece of cake.” She took off running. She hit one can before she reached the boulders. She hit the next as she reached the trees. She fell to her knees and took the third shot at close range. It blew off the branch.
She got to her feet and turned to face him. “Point taken?”
He was staring at her dumbfounded. “Damn you’re good.”
“Yes, not the best. I don’t get enough practice anymore. When I was eighteen and working with the KGB, I was awesome.” She reloaded her gun. “But I’m good enough for most situations I might run into.” She looked at him. “You are not. Are you ready to try again?”
“I’m going to make an ass of myself. There’s no way I can—”
She chuckled. “I believe I intimidated you. Perhaps you need a little motivation.” She walked over to the ground where they’d tossed their belongings and pulled out her computer. “And there’s a lot to learn besides just how to shoot the bad guys. You can lose the game before you even get to that point. If you can be one step ahead of the enemy, then your bullet will be there waiting for him when he takes that step.”
“Put yourself in his shoes?”
She nodded. “In most cases you can do it with no problem. Defense. Self-defense. It’s common tactics. It’s only when you run into someone who’s out of the ordinary that you have problems.” She had been keying in the computer. “You might study Gadaire and Anna Devareau’s dossier and see if there’s anything about them with which you can identify.” She turned the computer around for him to see the photos and dossiers. “Gadaire will be easier.”
“You’re saying women are tougher to decipher?”
“Not always. But never underestimate an antagonist because she’s a woman.”
He glanced at the last tin can she’d shot from the branch. “I’m not likely to do that.”
“But you might decide that she has skill but not intent. I’ve dealt with women who were as tough as nails and had no compunction about pulling the trigger.”
Shadow Zone Page 23