Chapter 22

Chapter Twenty-Two

" I asked that ?" Kira's voice was high-pitched with alarm she couldn't hide. She did not want to tell him why she'd asked about strawberries. If she did, she'd confirm how much she'd wanted him, even then. It had been hard to fight the attraction that had burned bright when he'd been a virtual stranger.

It would be even harder now that he'd saved her life twice and was here to protect her once again. Giving in to it could be a mistake, especially when he might be fueled by a misguided sense of duty.

"Yes, you did. What does it mean?" His voice was soft and sexy, and she wanted to melt in the summer heat.

She pulled her hand from his and wondered if there was any chance he'd believe her reddening face was due to the incessant heat. "The question is pretty straightforward. Are you allergic?"

"No. No food allergies. You?"

"None that I know of."

"Okay. So what was so urgent about strawberries that day?"

She touched his chiseled jawline. He'd shaved this morning and was back to being the clean-cut Navy man she'd wanted to coat with strawberry ice cream and lick all over, but she was such a dork, worries that he might have an anaphylactic reaction had throttled the fantasy.

She ran her thumb along his chin and looked him straight in the eye as she said, "I have no idea."

His eyes narrowed as a smile played about his lips. "Right." He touched her nose. "Your nose is growing."

This was like it had been that first day. Electricity— chemistry —tingling the air between them. That, at least, was real.

She stepped back. "Can I trust you, Rand? I mean really trust you. Are you working for Freya? Spying on me?"

He stiffened, and she figured she'd offended him, but she had to ask the question. Her next decision hinged on his answer.

"My only employer is the US Navy. I took an oath to my country and the constitution. The Navy agreed I should follow you to Malta because it was in their interests. If they'd said no, I would have honored my oath and stayed in Virginia. But I came to Malta for you . Because I care about you. Not for Freya. Not for FMV. Not even the Navy. I'm here for you."

His words hit her in a vulnerable spot. She hadn't known how much she needed to hear the conviction in his voice. So much for keeping distance between them. She swallowed and took a step toward him, then cupped his cheeks in her hands.

His pull was magnetic, so she rose on her toes. He leaned down, decreasing the distance between them, but stopping shy of meeting her lips. He stared at her with such intensity, she had to close her eyes and breathe.

How many times had she imagined this moment? Every day since they'd met. Multiple times a day. Endless fantasies that were sometimes chaste, but more often carnal.

A breeze tugged at the skirt of her sundress as they stood at the top of the fort in the blazing afternoon sun. At long last, she made her wistful dreams come true and moved the last millimeters that separated them. Rand hesitated a moment, but then his arms circled her waist and brought their bodies flush together as their lips met.

He explored her mouth, soft and easy, but then Kira slid her hands from his cheeks to cradle the back of his neck as she opened to let him inside. He accepted her invitation and deepened the kiss. The slide of his tongue against hers lit a fire that competed with the scorching heat of the Maltese summer day.

Kissing Rand was better than any of those hundreds of fantasies. It was a good thing they were in a public place or she would get lost in him. Instead, she slowly extracted herself, first pulling from his arms, still with her mouth to his. She returned her hands to his cheeks and finally dropped to her heels, releasing his lips while still cupping his face.

She opened her eyes and met his intense gaze, breathing in the perfection of the moment. Then she closed her eyes again and gave him her trust. "I didn't come here for the boat ride or to see the fort. There's something I haven't told you—or anyone—about the letters my father received from his so-called ‘friend.' They weren't mailed to the Maryland house. They were all—thirty years' worth of letters—sent to an address in Malta. Birgu, to be exact. It's only a few blocks away. Today, I want to go there. With you."

T he cell phone in Rand's pocket chose that moment to vibrate. He pressed a quick kiss to Kira's lips, then stepped back and pulled out his phone to check the screen. He frowned at seeing their hotel listed as the caller.

He hit the Speaker button and said, "Fallon."

"Mr. Fallon, this is Renaldo at the front desk. We've had complaints from your neighbors downstairs about the noise in your room, but were unable to call your room phone because it's in use. Can you please cease the hammering or whatever it is you are doing?"

Rand could see the hotel across the water and counted down the floors to spot his blue-painted enclosed balcony. "I'm not in my room. It's been more than an hour since I was there. Send security to find out what's going on."

Did the hotel even have security? He'd only ever seen one person at the front desk, a breakfast attendant, and a few people from housekeeping.

"You aren't there? Are you sharing the room?"

"No."

All at once, an earsplitting siren went off over the phone line.

"I'm sorry sir. That's the fire alarm. I must go."

The phone went dead.

Rand met Kira's gaze. "Sounds like my room has been broken into and our hotel might be on fire."

"We should go back."

He thought about it. If there was an actual fire, there was nothing they could do, least of all enter the burning hotel. If there was no fire and someone was just using it as cover to escape after thrashing his room, getting there thirty minutes after the person escaped would be equally useless.

It could wait.

"No. Let's go to your address."

"You're sure?"

He nodded.

They set out, walking down the ramps and stairs that would take them out of the fort. Several tourists shared the path, so silence was their only option.

Finally, when they were back on the cobblestone streets that abutted the fort, they found themselves in a neighborhood where the locals were sheltering from the afternoon sun indoors.

Kira must have memorized the route from studying a map because she navigated effortlessly. He followed her lead.

With the relative privacy of empty streets, he resumed their conversation. "It's good we're doing this now. If someone is keeping tabs on you—which is entirely possible—then they know we're in Birgu together. Hell, with excellent binoculars, they could have watched us kiss from my hotel room. Maybe someone made noise to get the hotel to call me and pulled the alarm to stop you from dropping in on your father's address."

She glanced at him askance. "That's impossible."

He pulled out his cell phone and showed her the screen open to the tracking app he'd used to keep tabs on her this morning. It showed her location in Birgu moving down the narrow street.

She stopped in the middle of the road, her face leeched of color—not easy to do in this heat. "How? I turned off my locational data and tracking."

"This isn't available in the app store. It's something Freya got from Raptor. I sent you that photo I took of us on the rooftop last night. When you opened it, the tracker embedded in your phone."

Her eyes narrowed. "You said you aren't working for Freya."

"I'm not. It doesn't mean I won't take an assist from her. I couldn't bring a gun or body armor to protect you with, but I can use electronics. I have more tricks. Unless they were stolen from my rental car."

"You have a car?"

He nodded. "I didn't want to store anything I wasn't ready to lose in my room, so I rented a car. Paid to park it at a different hotel. The paperwork on the hotel's computer has it attached to the reservation for a couple from Spain."

She shook her head and stepped away from him. "I can't believe you've been tracking me."

"I planned to tell you."

"When?"

"Today. Once we were back in the hotel." He took a step toward her, and again, she stepped back. Dammit, minutes ago, they'd been kissing, and now she didn't want him near her.

"Kira, I'm not making decisions for you. Not telling you what to do. I just need to know where you are. If I don't know that, I can't protect you. The trick with the photo was so you'd understand that anyone you've exchanged files with could be tracking you if they have the right technology. It was meant to be a warning as much as allow me to keep tabs when I'm not with you."

"And you think I'm too dumb to get it if you'd just told me."

"Not at all! I think you're brilliant. And amazing. I just… I'm just scared as hell that you won't let me protect you, so I did a stupid thing and set up a demonstration you wouldn't be able to ignore." He took a step closer to her, and this time, she didn't move back. "I don't know how to make it any more clear that I'm crazy about you, and I never, ever want to see you wounded or scared again."

He took her hand instead of pulling her into his arms like he really wanted to do. "I will delete the tracker if you promise to keep me by your side. Let me help you with your quest to find answers about your father. You can trust me with his secrets and yours."

She took a deep breath. Her hazel eyes gave him a glimpse of the fear she'd bottled up for months. Possibly years.

"I don't know what my secrets are, but I have a feeling they're big." She closed her eyes. "Awful even. Like, for starters, ever since I arrived in Malta, I've had this sense of déjà vu."

"You've looked at a lot of photos and street views in your research."

"Yes. But this is different. I remember the smell . Of the water. Of the city. Of the roads and dirt. And I remember this neighborhood. Some parts have a new coat of paint, but others don't. I know when we turn the corner, it's going to look right . And after I see them, I remember these small little details of scars in the bricks low on the ground, and I hear my mother's voice telling me to remember this marking or that one. That those are the trail I should follow if I get lost."

T he words were out of Kira's mouth before she had even formed them in her mind. She didn't even realize she'd been hearing her mother's whispers until they'd stopped to argue, and the unease that had settled in as they walked through the city streets suddenly made sense.

Still, her brain resisted her mother's whispers and the eerie familiarity she had with this place. "It's not possible, Rand. I've never been here before. I didn't even have a passport or copy of my birth certificate until a month ago." Her eyes burned and she found herself taking gasping breaths as if she'd run a mile in the heat.

He placed a hand on her cheek. "We'll figure this out. Together."

All at once, she was dizzy. With heat. With fear. She swayed on her feet. Strong hands caught her and kept her upright.

"Breathe, Kira. Slowly. In and out." His voice was low and even. And it made her angry that he spoke to her like a child but then she realized his tone was warranted when she heard the sound of her own wheezing.

He touched her chin, raising her gaze to his. "Look into my eyes. Focus on me and slowly breathe in through your nose."

She followed his instructions. His eyes were blue and clear and steady. No fear. No concern. No pity.

"Now out through the mouth." He let out a long breath, setting an example.

Again, she did what he said. The next breath came easier. And the next. And then she was back on the cobbled street in Birgu with a handsome SEAL who didn't look at her with shame or horror or anything other than respect.

For her part, she was mortified, but her face was already red from the heat, disguising her embarrassment as heat exhaustion.

She wanted to cry at this strong warrior seeing her weakness, but his arms wrapped around her, and he pulled her to his chest. His lips touched her forehead, and he said, "We've got this, Kira. Together. I'm with you."

She melted into him and wrapped her arms around his waist. It was way too hot outside to be pressed together like this, but she didn't care. She wasn't alone. With Rand at her side, she could face the terrifying truth behind her parents' lies.

She slowly extracted herself from his arms and took a step back. "Let's go."

Two minutes later, Kira's senses were on high alert as she faced the blue door. Still blue, after more than three decades. And she hated that she was so certain she was right about the color.

Rand met her gaze. "Ready?"

She pulled her sun hat down low and nodded. Her heart pounded so hard, she figured Rand could hear it.

He raised his fist and tapped on the portal.

After a long interval, her heart quieted enough she could hear footsteps on the other side of the door. It opened slowly on a creak of hinges, and she found herself holding her breath.

Cold air emitted from the dark gap, and it was a caress on her hot skin. The door widened, and there stood an older woman. Perhaps her mother's age.

Kira searched her mind for recognition. A memory. A scent, but all she got was a void. She didn't remember this woman. Maybe she'd been wrong, and it had all been just the world's most intense déjà vu.

But then the woman met her gaze, and her clear brown eyes sharpened with alarm, then anger. Her gaze flicked to Rand, then back to Kira, and she glowered. "Well, fuck, child. You were never supposed to come here."