Total pages in book: 149
Estimated words: 138217 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 691(@200wpm)___ 553(@250wpm)___ 461(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 138217 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 691(@200wpm)___ 553(@250wpm)___ 461(@300wpm)
“You want to talk about it?”
Only when Theo’s back threatened a spasm did she realize how stiffly she’d been holding her muscles. The old injury rarely caused her trouble if she maintained her stretching routine and didn’t tense up for long periods.
Flexing back her shoulders to ward off the attack, she said, “I’m not afraid like the first time.” It was a revelation. “Now I’m just angry—not only for myself but for every other ‘patient’ at this facility.”
She took a deep breath and admitted the rest. “All my life, I’ve known my family was evil. But this much? To the extent of sacrificing a child?” Her stomach threatened to rebel. “I hate that I’m one of them.”
“Blood doesn’t make a person, Theo,” Yakov said, his voice a growl. “It’s but one component. Would you condemn your brother for being a Marshall?”
Theo’s response was immediate. “Grandfather tried so hard to break him, mold Pax in his own image, but Pax is Pax.” Her pride in her brother’s will was enormous. “And he’s a thousand times better than my grandfather.”
Stopping the car, Yakov reached over to squeeze the back of her nape with his hand. “Then so are you, pchelka.”
“You don’t know that. I don’t know that. I could’ve been my grandfather’s willing accomplice.”
Removing his hand to put it back on the steering wheel but not restarting the car, Yakov emitted a very bearish growl. “Then so could your twin. You can’t condemn yourself without condemning him, too.”
“It’s not the same!” Theo emitted a frustrated sound that came out sounding like a growl.
Shocked at her own behavior, she clamped a hand over her mouth.
Those deadly dimples appeared a second before Yakov’s laughter filled the car, a boom of sound that might as well have been a hug, it was so warm and all-encompassing. “That’s it, milaya moya, let out your inner bear.” A glance at her, laughter yet creasing his cheeks, but his voice solemn as he said, “You deserve to have the same faith in yourself, Theo, that you do in your brother.”
Theo’s rib cage felt like it was crushing her heart. “I can’t.” A confession tight and painful. “Not until I have proof. I know too much of what I did for my grandfather.”
Eyes of bearish amber touched with yellow held hers for long moments before Yakov gave a hard nod. “We’ll get you your answers.” Another squeeze of her nape. “Then I’ll say I told you so—because I have faith in you, Theo, my Theo.”
Theo couldn’t speak, her lower lip threatening to quiver.
“If this was the drive to the den,” Yakov said as he got the car moving again, “we would’ve been attacked by a few tiny gangsters by now.”
She realized at once that he was dragging her into the light and out of the dark, with memories of joy, of a family that would never abandon or hurt its children.
“The cubs know we look out for them,” he added, “so they like to hide up in the trees and then suddenly drop down while hanging from their feet. The aim is to make one of us scream or yell in surprise.”
The whispers of cruelty and evil that haunted her were no proof against such wild visuals. “Do they ever succeed?”
“Oh yeah. Because they know not to do it all the time. Lull us into a false sense of security . . . then boo!” His shoulders shook. “Kids also know never to dart into the road, or to otherwise get in the way of the vehicles—which just leads to them coming up with increasingly inventive ways to achieve their nefarious aims.
“Last month, Stasya—she’s our second-in-command—made the mistake of actually parking along the drive to take a call. Next thing you know, she’s got a cub going splat on her windshield. She refuses to admit it, but she screamed.”
He chuckled, the sound a kiss of warmth. “Tiny gangsters are still bragging about that—and every so often they jump out at Stasya from around random corners in the den. Last time around, she threatened to make bear fur rugs out of the lot of them and was immediately swarmed by a tiny attack force.”
Laughter in the eyes that met her own. “I’d worry they’d grow up to create a criminal empire, but both Pasha and I were previously tiny gangsters and we turned out okay. Mostly.”
Theo tried to imagine the adorable bear cubs she’d seen pulling such pranks. It seemed an impossibility. They were so small and so sweet. Surely, Yakov had to be exaggerating for effect?
She never got a chance to ask, because they’d arrived.
The facility loomed empty and sinister against the searing blue of the clear autumn sky.
Chapter 32
Intercepted: Encrypted message from Claire Marshall to parties listed at end of report.
Sent: September 4, 2083
Transcript: Pax is the only one with the ability to right the ship. My father was brilliant and he trained Pax. The problem is Theodora. I don’t know how she wormed her way back into his life, but Father made it clear that she is the threat. I don’t believe that status to have altered. We need to separate them without causing harm to Pax—though surely, the twin bond must have frayed to nothing by now?