She was saving him. That was what she was doing. She didn’t have business she needed to go over, and she wouldn’t discuss the murders in the dining room where they could be overheard. This was about saving him from the three sisters she’d allowed to steal him out from under her. He’d never been more grateful in his life. He picked up his plate and silverware, standing as he did so.
“Thank you, ladies, for the good conversation. I hope you know you’re safe,” he added as he started away from the table.
Amaryllis tucked her hand into the crook of his elbow, slowing him down. “Thanks for looking after my man for me while I worked.”
“Thanks for lending him to us,” Linda said.
Lorrie and Lexie looked pouty, and neither said a word as they walked away.
Malichai looked down at the top of Amaryllis’s head. Her hair was that silvery platinum blond that shone like a waterfall. His breath caught in his throat. What if someone was targeting blondes?
“Malichai?” Amaryllis looked up at him, her blue eyes like twin jewels. “What is it?”
He placed his plate very precisely onto the table and looked around the room, noting each person, pushing them into his brain so he would remember them. “Just something crazy the loony sisters came up with, excluding Linda. She’s not nearly as loony as the other two.”
“What did they come up with?”
“They were speculating that the killer is a serial killer after blondes. Anna’s hair was nearly the same color as yours.”
She slipped into the little chair facing the room. He always moved his chair to the side where the wall was. No one could come up behind him and he could see anything coming at him.
“You know that’s crazy. Anna is the only woman reported dead. And they killed Bryon as well. He had dark hair. Honey, really, those women are just determined to scare themselves.”
He nodded. He did know it was crazy. Ezekiel had interrogated a hit man who had confirmed that he had targeted several people connected to the San Diego Convention Center. This wasn’t about a serial killer. This was about something altogether different. He just wanted his woman tucked safely away somewhere—like in another state.
“Your friends haven’t been in. I thought they might come for the food.”
That was blatant fishing. She wanted to know what had happened after she went back to the bed-and-breakfast. He couldn’t blame her, but he couldn’t tell her yet either. “Tonight, on the roof,” he said.
She nodded. “What do you think of the ribs?” She pushed over the plate she’d heaped ribs on for him.
“I’m so in love with you, baby, we need to get married immediately. You don’t just cook in the kitchen and bake, you actually grill.”
She burst out laughing. “You’re going to marry me because I can grill?”
“Sex first. I’m marrying you for the sex, baby. After that, for your awesome culinary abilities.”
“You don’t know if I’m good in bed or not, Malichai. I’m beginning to think the loony tunes have rubbed off on you.”
Deliberately, his gaze drifted over her body and then moved back up to her face. “Babe.”
She raised her eyebrow and picked up her corn on the cob. “That supposed to mean something to me?”
“I’ll show you what it means tonight.”
She blinked her feathery lashes at him and then started laughing. “You’re so insane, I don’t know when you’re serious and when you’re not.”
“There’s two things I never joke about, Amaryllis.” He leaned toward her, looking her in the eyes so she knew he meant what he said. “I don’t joke about sex, not when it comes to you. I’m absolutely serious about it. And there’s never joking about marriage. That’s a sacred, serious topic.”
She went very still, her long lashes sweeping down to cover her expression. He just laid it out on the table for her. He expected sex and marriage.
“I’m not a patient man when it comes to those things. I just discovered that about myself. I thought I could be, but I’m not. I want you wearing my ring. I want you in my bed. And I want it now, not some time in the future.”
She regarded him as she chewed her corn, her gaze steady on his face. “Malichai.” She swallowed the corn, those blue eyes finding the way inside him. “The fiancée thing wasn’t true. We used it to get us out of trouble.”
“You agreed, that’s what I heard.”
“I certainly did not. You didn’t ask properly.”
“If I’d asked properly you would have said no.”
“Exactly,” she confirmed. “I barely know you.”
“So why would I ever be dumb enough to ask you when you’ve already agreed to be my fiancée? That would be stupid on my part and I assure you, you’re getting an intelligent man.”
“It’s hardly intelligent to want to marry someone you’ve known for a week.”
“We’re past the week.”
She burst out laughing. He loved that laugh. It was crazy how much he loved to hear her laugh. He watched her face, the way it lit up, the way her eyes gleamed like sapphires.
“You’re really serious, aren’t you?”
“Yep. No going back now. It’s off to the swamp we go. I’ll build you a house you’ll love, one all our own where we can raise our children and protect them from anything that might come along.”
She sent him a small smile. “How could I possibly leave Marie?”
“You know already that I’ve arranged for Marie’s debts to be paid and for money to go into a fund for Jacy’s doctor bills. She’ll be able to hire within the Navy community. We’ll reach out to the wives and girlfriends and see if any of them want jobs first. We can even find a general manager, so it frees Marie up to travel with Jacy if she wants to. The bed-and-breakfast makes money. It’s never been a problem. It’s the amount of debt she’s accumulated from hospital bills.”
“How do you do all those things so fast?”
“I haven’t gotten the workers for her yet. I haven’t even had a moment to talk to her about it. And, Amaryllis, this doesn’t hinge on whether or not you go with me. As soon as I got to know Marie, I knew I was going to take the load off her shoulders. There are GhostWalkers attached to the Navy. They instantly wanted to help. They’ll go up the chain of command and figure out how best to get her the workers she needs. The right ones.”
She was silent for a long time and then she looked down at her hands. “I wish I could find them. The two others that escaped when I did. Silver and Coral. They were nice girls. Strong. Smart. They would have loved it here and they would have loved Marie and Jacy. I think, given the chance, they would be perfect to run this place.”
Malichai studied her face. No matter how much he reassured her, she was always going to feel responsible for the other women. They were grown, and they’d taken their chances just as she had. Most likely they were grateful to her, whether they’d succeeded or not in their escape.
“I can have the other GhostWalker teams try to find them, if you want. They’ll have to do so very carefully so as not to alert Whitney that anyone is looking,” Malichai offered.
She raised her incredibly blue eyes to his face and there was a look of wonder, of near adoration, which he didn’t deserve but any man would want. “You would really do that for me, wouldn’t you?”
“Anything in the world that I’m capable of giving you, Amaryllis,” he assured.
She shook her head. “It’s better if we leave them alone. Otherwise Whitney might lock on to them. He’s so good at finding us.”
“If you change your mind . . .”
“I know you don’t like me to say so, Malichai, but you’re so incredibly sweet. It’s very hard to resist a man like you.”
“Are you trying to resist me?”
She nodded slowly. “And you make it very, very difficult. I want
to be with you, but it’s so dangerous, Malichai. Whitney is so determined to get all of us back and if he finds out I’m with you, he’ll send an army to try to get me. You have those little girls to protect. The wives of your friends. It isn’t fair to them.”
He stroked his fingers over the back of her hand. She had her palm curled around the edge of the table, gripping so hard, her knuckles turned white.
“Baby, we have a real stronghold out in the swamp because Whitney wants every single one of the women back. And the children. No matter what, we would have to protect them. It will be easier for us to protect you and the children if we live there, but if you insist on staying in San Diego, I’ll find a way to protect us here.”
She stared at him for a long time, her gaze moving over his face, studying his expression. The look in his eyes. She swallowed and shook her head as if she couldn’t quite believe him. “You’re serious. You would stay here with me knowing we were completely exposed.”
“If the woman I love is here, then I’m here as well. I can guarantee that the moment Whitney knows you’re here, he’ll find a way to send me off somewhere on a mission to leave you alone. If that happens, I would want you to go to the compound in Louisiana. You would be protected there while I go wherever I’m sent.”
She took a deep breath and shook her head again. “You’re so . . . unexpected. I had no idea a man could be like you. The ones I’ve met have been terrible human beings.”
“I don’t think they were always terrible, Amaryllis. I think Whitney experimented on them in the same way he did me. The men he’s got for his own private army are soldiers who failed the psych evals. They had some psychic abilities, but their psychological evaluations, for whatever reasons, red-flagged them and kicked them out of the GhostWalker program. Whitney talked them into his ‘supersoldier’ program. Unfortunately, he experiments on them, in much the same way he experimented on the female orphans he took from various institutions. They are flawed and of no use to him as soldiers, so he considers them useful only as experiments and fodder for testing against us.”
“Those men are extremely aggressive and belligerent. They fight each other at the drop of a hat. When they fight, the others gather around and egg them on. I’ve seen the fight go so far that one of them dies. No one ever seems to feel bad about it either.” A little shiver went through her and she wrapped her arms around her middle. “I don’t ever want to have a child with a man like that.”
“You aren’t going to,” Malichai affirmed.
“I tried to talk to Whitney once about it. I pointed out how deficient these men were, and did he really want to pass those traits on to his future soldiers. Whitney wanted to debate the point that his soldiers were lacking good traits. I knew immediately that there was no talking to him. He’s continually researching, due to his mistakes trying to better his soldiers. He doesn’t care if the women have flaws and he detests that the earlier teams have them. He’s made up his mind that the newer teams won’t, and that justifies anything he has to do to ensure those soldiers get the best of everything. That’s when I made up my mind I’d get out of there. I hadn’t yet been selected for his breeding program, but I knew it was only a matter of time. I planned my escape meticulously, because I knew if I didn’t make it out the first time, I’d never have another chance.”
He sat back in his chair. “I like that about you, Amaryllis. The fact that you don’t just jump into things. You think them over.”
She pounced on that. “Which is why I’m taking my time, not rushing into anything. You might think about doing the same. That way neither of us makes a mistake.”
His gut tightened. She still didn’t understand. He leaned toward her, his gaze wholly focused on her. “Baby, you aren’t hearing me when I talk to you. I’ve been all over the world. In just about every country. I’ve looked for you. I’ve actively looked for you. I didn’t think you actually existed. There is no way, after finding you, that I’m going to wait to tell you how I feel. I know the real thing because I saw so many others who weren’t. You’re right for me. You’re always going to be right for me. Now, or ten years from now. It won’t matter. We fit. I told you this already.”
“You’re making it very hard to resist. And you told me when you had a very high fever.”
The door to the dining room was flung open so hard it slammed into the wall with a loud bang. Most of the diners had cleared out. The three Montclair sisters were still seated at their table, and they turned toward the door with loud shrieks. Burnell and Jay nearly flipped their table over. Craig Williams sat with a woman Malichai recognized as a guest who had come in the day before. She was part of the peace group meeting there at the bed-and-breakfast. Her name was Stefani Charles and she was from Finland.
Malichai turned his gaze toward the door and the man filling the frame. He was big. Pumped up. Malichai was a big man with roped, defined muscles on his upper body and thighs. He was naturally muscular, and his lifestyle had added to his frame. Enhancement of his DNA had also contributed. The man standing in the doorway, looking around the dining room with a furious expression on his face, was clearly a bodybuilder, but his enhancement wasn’t the work he did with weights, it was with steroids.
“You know him?” Malichai asked, his voice low.
Amaryllis shook her head. “I’ve never seen him before. But he’s the type Whitney would send after me.”
“Lorrie! Get your ass over here!” The man roared the order. “I’m going to beat your dumb ass until you’re black and blue and can’t stand up.”
Lorrie gave a little squawk and jumped up, nearly knocking over her chair. She looked genuinely frightened. Linda stood up slowly and put a hand on her sister’s arm, pushing her gently behind her.
“You and Lorrie haven’t been together for months, Tag. You know that. She has a restraining order against you. You can’t come in here.”
“Shut up, bitch. This isn’t your concern. Lorrie, if you don’t want anyone else to get hurt, get over here.”
“I’ve called the cops, Tag,” Lexie said. She stood too, stepping close to Linda to protect her sister from the huge man who had taken a couple of steps into the room, clenching his fists threateningly. She held up her cell phone. “They’ll be here any moment.”
Marie came in behind him. “Sir, I’m going to have to ask you to leave right now.”
Tag swung around and took a threatening step toward Marie. “Shut the fuck up, bitch, or you’re going to get hurt.”
Malichai was immediately on his feet, Amaryllis moving to the right some distance from him. “That’s enough,” Malichai said, his voice low. “You can stop threatening the women. Marie is the owner and she’s asked you to leave the premises. Lorrie has a restraining order against you, and the police have been called.”
“Lorrie!” He spat the name. “You call her Lorrie? Are you fucking him, Lorrie? Is that why you left? Him?” He gestured at Malichai contemptuously.
“I left you because you beat me up every few days.”
“All you had to do was stop being such a lazy bitch,” Tag said.
He ignored Marie now that he had a real target. He didn’t walk around the tables, he simply walked a straight line toward Lorrie, shoving or kicking tables and chairs out of his way. Diners got up hastily, moving out of his way, rushing toward the walls to stand there, phones out, recording his menacing progress.
Malichai stepped smoothly in front of Linda and Lexie. To his shock, Craig, Burnell and Jay also joined him. Malichai silently applauded them, but they were going to be in his way when the fight started, and there was no doubt in his mind that one or more of them was going to get hurt.
“Step back behind me,” he said softly to them. “Keep Lorrie behind you and Linda. I need fighting room.”
The three men moved quickly out of harm’s way, but they did what he said, standing directly in front of the Montclair sist
ers, forming another line of defense. The few diners left in the room continued to press against the wall silently, trying to be as small as possible and not call attention to themselves.
“That’s so you, Lorrie, probably blowing all of them so they’ll come to your rescue when your real man comes to take your worthless ass home.”
“If you feel that way about her, Tag, why don’t you leave her alone?” Linda demanded.
Amaryllis had made her way around the room, signaling to Marie to keep back, and then she kept moving, her eyes on her target. Those eyes of hers, two bright blue jewels, had gone feral, predatory. Her eyes nearly glowed, turning silvery as she approached, coming in on Tag’s left side.
Tag was almost to Malichai, his eyes burning with anger. He was used to being the biggest, baddest guy in the room. He didn’t like that Malichai showed no fear or respect for him. He caught sight of Amaryllis closing in on his left.
“Another bitch, needing a lesson in manners,” he snapped, and took one step toward her, swinging his fist.
Amaryllis ducked and kicked him in the belly, putting her entire body weight behind the kick. Tag grunted hard and doubled over for a moment, folding in on himself. When he straightened, there was fury in his gaze.
Fire exploded through Malichai. He moved almost before he thought. He caught Tag’s shoulder, swung him around and smashed a fist into his face, using his enhanced strength without thinking about it. Bone crushed beneath his fist, the jaw and cheekbone shattering, even turning to powder in two places. Tag dropped like a stone just as the police burst into the room, weapons drawn.
Malichai stepped back, hands in the air. Amaryllis raised her hands and everyone behind them did the same. Tag was known to the local cops and they ignored those with their hands in the air, intent on securing him before he could fight them.
“He needs medical attention,” one said, looking up at Malichai.
“She kicked him,” Craig offered helpfully, pointing to Amaryllis. “Right in the gut. You should have seen it. He folded over like he was bent in half. Amaryllis, my hat is off to you. That was a thing of beauty.”