Dangerous Promise (The Protector) Read online

  “She blamed you for your parents dying?”

  She nodded. “Yes. And for other things.”

  She closed her eyes for a second or so, remembering. “I wasn’t . . . kind . . . when I came home. I had a huge chip on my shoulder. I had money from the settlement, and I threw it around like that made me important. Like somehow I’d become better than them. I didn’t remember much about them. I’d lost so much and . . . I wasn’t as good about it as I am now. I guess because I couldn’t really feel, I didn’t understand what they were feeling.”

  “Still. They’re your family. I’m sure you needed them when you came home. They should have been there for you.”

  Nina smiled at him. “Sure, when I was a complete sphincter? Throwing my money around like it meant something?”

  “Ouch,” Ewan said after a moment.

  “I didn’t meant that you . . . umm. Yeah.” Nina bit the inside of her cheek for a second or so. “Well. I’ve reached out to my sister since then, but she doesn’t seem to be able to forgive me.”

  “I’m sorry,” Ewan said. “That can’t be easy.”

  “No. It’s not.” Nina unlinked her hands and stretched out. “It’s getting cold. You’re going to catch a chill. We should get back.”

  “You know, protecting me doesn’t mean you have to worry about me like that,” Ewan said but followed her out through the chilly splash of the waterfall again. “If I’m going to get sick, I’ll get sick. There’s nothing you can do about it.”

  She looked over her shoulder at him, surprised. “I know it’s not my job to tuck you in at night and make sure you have a nightlight on. But I also know how easy it can be for the temperatures to drop, how you could be affected by that in ways I’m not.”

  Ewan paused at the edge of the pool. The cascading water sprayed them both in a fine mist. He looked toward the shore, where they’d left their clothes.

  “Right. You’re different than I am. Enhanced.”

  “Hey,” Nina said to his back when he moved past her to get to the clothing. “That doesn’t mean better.”

  Ewan bent to gather up his jeans and shirt. The expression he turned her way was neutral. “Sure it does. That’s exactly what it means.”

  She wanted to protest and deny it, but something in the way he dismissed her in that moment kept her from speaking. Instead, she made her way to the shore and gathered her own clothes, slipping into them gratefully. When they were both dressed, she followed him back down the path they’d taken to get there.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  They got back from the hike, both sweating but only Ewan seeming winded and sore. Nina had done a check of the house before she let him go in, but he didn’t protest even though he was certain nobody had trespassed while they were out. By the time she came back outside to let him in, night had started to fall.

  “I’m going to rummage up some dinner,” he said. “I’m sure you’re hungry.”

  Nina patted her lean belly. “Always. I’m going to do a little workout, if you don’t mind.”

  “The hike wasn’t enough of one?” He paused, looking her over.

  She gave a rueful laugh. “It just reminded me how long it’s been since I really did my normal routine. It will only take me about half an hour. Then I can come help you with dinner, if you want.”

  “You don’t have to. I’ll grab a few of the premade meal packs from the storage cellar.” He lingered in the doorway to watch her for another minute before he ducked inside and grabbed a few of the foil packages from the shelves in the basement.

  He could watch her through the window over the kitchen sink as he unzipped the popovers, made of spiced vegetables and protein cubes in a flaky pastry, and emptied them into a couple glass containers he then put into the microwave. When he returned to the window, Nina had dropped into a smooth, still pose that reminded him of the way a wild animal would crouch before pouncing.

  Elegantly, she moved through a series of patterns with her hands and feet. Spinning slowly, every motion looked as though she were doing them at a quarter speed. Deadly beautiful, Ewan thought. He couldn’t stop staring.

  She wasn’t finished by the time the popovers had heated, so Ewan brought out two plates and sat on the back porch to watch her. Night had fully fallen and the first hints of the moon were glinting beyond the tree line. A cool breeze had kicked up, blowing the fine tendrils of curly black hair off Nina’s face. In a few weeks it would be too cold at night to sit out here, but tonight it was perfect.

  Nina ended with a stretch and gave him a smile. She couldn’t have been surprised to see him, but she looked amused. “Hey.”

  “Here.” He held up a popover. “I have more inside, if you want.”

  She sat next to him and bit into the pastry. They ate quietly for a moment or so before she pointed at the sky. Stars had started peeking out of the darkness.

  “I haven’t seen a sky this clear in a long time.” Nina tucked the last bite of popover into her mouth and chewed with a happy sigh. Around the mouthful, she added, “Those are real stars!”

  Ewan tipped his face upward, enjoying his own bite of the surprisingly good meal. “About eight years ago, I had several miles of filtration installed, enough to deal with any residual pollution that blew in. It keeps the sky clear, at least here.”

  “It’s so pretty.” She looked at him. “If you loved this place so much, how come you picked it for one of your safe houses? I mean, you could have bought a new place and kept this one to use for pleasure.”

  “I figured with all the records wiped out from Gray Tuesday, there’d be no way to trace this place to me, especially after I set it up under the shell corporation. I’d only ever need to use it if I was in some kind of danger, and if I was in that dire of a sitch, it seemed likely this might be the last place I saw on Earth. I liked the idea that if I might be killed it would be here.” Ewan finished his popover and wiped his fingers on his pants. “And here we are.”

  Nina stretched out her legs and leaned back, supporting her weight on her arms. She studied the sky. “Are you worried now? About dying in this place?”

  Ewan mimicked her posture. Another tickle of breeze chilled him, but he didn’t want to go inside yet. “No. Not with you here.”

  “Ah.” Nina didn’t say anything after that but sat with him in companionable silence.

  “My sister loved this place more than I do. It belonged to her, actually. My parents had willed it to her.”

  “Because she was the favorite.”

  He laughed under his breath. “Yes. After she died, it came to me.”

  Nina glanced at him, but said nothing. Her clear respect for his right to tell her the story, or not, reminded Ewan one more time how much he liked her, and that in turn reminded him uncomfortably of how much Nina believed he did not like her at all. He twisted a little to glance at her. The fine tendrils that had escaped her braid clung to her forehead and cheeks with sweat from her workout, although the breeze was drying them. In the glow from the kitchen windows, her dark skin gleamed.

  “My sister and I didn’t get along as kids, but when we got older I really admired her conservation work. She didn’t think much about my place in the tech world. Funnily, she seemed to respect me more when I was pushing candy. Probably because she had the sweetest tooth of anyone I’ve ever met.” Ewan shrugged, remembering how deeply addicted his sister had been to the powders and tablets. “Katie was so involved with nature and animals and trying to find ways to preserve them that she didn’t think we needed more tech.”

  “She wouldn’t have liked me, I guess.”

  Ewan shifted on the cooling boards of the porch. “I think she’d have liked you a lot, Nina. She wouldn’t have liked what was done to you, which is totally different.”

  What had been done to her, what he’d made possible. What he’d created to save his sister had turned out to be the worst possible solution. Katie would have hated it, if she’d known, but by the time the enhancement tech had been imp