“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.”