“That’s right.” Lawrence nodded, his dark eyes overly bright. “You’re the fecking twat that got my brother killed!”
Christian wanted to howl his frustration, hisfury, at the sky. Instead, he held out a placating hand. “Lawrence, I’m sorry about your brother. I knew Teddy well. He was a good man. A ruddybrilliantsoldier.But what you’ve been told about the Kirkuk Police Station Incident isn’t the whole truth. Teddy didn’t—”
“Don’t youfuckingsay his name!” Lawrence snarled, more spittle flying, more hot breath crystallizing. “You don’t deserve to have it pass your lying, murderous lips!”
Christian took a deep breath and tried again. “Okay,” he soothed, patting the cold air in deference. “Okay. You’reright. But before you do something you might regret, you need to hear what really happened in Iraq.”
“Iknowwhat happened,” Lawrence snarled. “You opened fire at a roadblock filled with Iraqi policemen. And when you got caught, mybrotherhad to go in and save you!”
“I was under orders to resist capture,” Christian said evenly. If Lawrence’s face was the picture of rage, then Christianhoped his was the picture of calm. He got the impression he was walking a knife’s edge. One wrong move, one wrong word, and Lawrence would snap and gun them all down. “I had been tasked with bringing down corrupt policemen and—”
“You’re aliar!”
“Lawrence, please,” Christian pleaded, seeing that the man was working himself into a frenzy. Two minutes ago, when he’d thought the Michelsonswere no better than Spider’s henchmen, he’d wanted to send them to meet their Maker tout de suite. Now, he simply wanted them to understand. “The media never had the whole story. The SAS made a scapegoat of me when things went south and—”
“Shutup! Shut your lyingmouth!” Lawrence screeched. Then he turned and yelled over his shoulder, “Ben! Go to the door and tell that last bastard to gethis sodding ass out here! Tell him I’ll give him thirty seconds before I start putting holes in his mates!”
A dark shadow peeled away from the gloom of the trees near the front of the manor. The massive shoulders on the shadow left no doubt it was Ben. As the younger Michelson brother skirted the lot of them and headed toward the house, Christian had a terrible realization.
“How did youfind us here? Did you follow us from the airport?”
Lawrence nodded, confirming Christian’s suspicions that the vehicle that had caught Angel’s eye in the rearview mirror must have been the Michelsons’. So then why had the brothers waited until the middle of the night to confront Christian? And why were they insisting that everyone come out on the front lawn if all they wanted to do was talk?
The answer was obvious. Still, Christian held out a tiny sliver of hope. “So what say we have that chat now then, yeah?”
“It’s too late.” Lawrence’s big chest heaved with emotion, his breath creating cloud after cloud in front of him.
“He’s not dead,” Christian insisted firmly, hoping the Michelsons’ upcoming plans hinged on that salient fact and not pure old-fashioned revenge. “Thepilot your brother shot… He’s not dead.”
Lawrence had been looking over Christian’s shoulder, watching his brother make his way across the flagstones and up the stairs toward the open front door. Butthathad his dark eyes pinging to Christian’s. “He’s not?”
“No. He’s alive. The bullet went through and through.”
For a moment, Christian thought Lawrence might call the whole thing off,lower his weapon, and slink off into the forest. But then the elder Michelson’s expression hardened and what hope Christian had that this all could get sorted without bloodshed vanished.
“Doesn’t matter.” Lawrence shook his head. “Because you’re still the reason my brother’s dead. You’re still the reason my mother and father are dead. And you’re gonnapay!”
Christian bore the responsibilityfor Teddy Michelson’s death. He might not have been the one to fire the round that had torn through Teddy’s jugular—that had been the work of a corrupt Iraqi police officer—but he also had not been able to get out of the firefight at the roadblock without being caught. And that had necessitated his rescue and put Teddy and all the other soldiers of the 22nd SAS Regiment in mortal danger.
Not a day went by that Christian didn’t rehash the events leading up to that roadblock, wondering if there had been some clue he had missed, something to let him know the Iraqi officers had been on to him. No matter how many times he went over it, however, he always came back to the same conclusion: Nothing. There was no way he could have known.
It was bloody infuriating. Completely demoralizing.And given the way the SAS had kicked him to the curb afterward, he sometimes wondered if it might not have been better if the Regiment had simply refused to send in a rescue team. Teddy would still be alive. But then, of course, Christian would undoubtedly be dead.
Still, did that matter in the grand scheme of things? Was his life worth more than Teddy’s? Had all the good he’d done workingfor BKI, the countless times he’d done his part to make the world a safer place, made up for Teddy’s death? Is that how the scales of the universe worked?
Christian suffered no illusion that if he asked Lawrence those questions, the man’s answers would beno. To the Michelsons, nothing Christian had done could make up for losing their beloved brother.
“Mum and Dad were devastated by Teddy’sdeath,” Lawrence said. “Two weeks after we put Teddy in the ground, Mum stepped in front of a bus.”
“Oh God,” Christian whispered. Even though his heart was lying on the ground somewhere near his feet, he still felt the organ shatter.
“Dad couldn’t stand the grief. Had a massive heart attack after we laid her to rest beside Teddy.”
Christian screwed his eyes shut, hurting for all thedamage, all the pain done to so many after the police station incident.
“I understand.” He opened his eyes, determination snapping his spine straight. Glancing at Emily, he ran his eyes over her beloved face, wanting to memorize every curve, every line, every subtle texture. He would hold that memory in his mind’s eye when he did what must be done. “I do. So why don’t you and your brothertake me into the woods and do with me what you will.”
“Christian,no.” Emily stared at him in horror.
