“By all means,” Tanner said dryly. “You’re pushing it, Mallory.”
“I feel like pushing it.” He glanced back to where Lara was sitting. “When you were eavesdropping, did you hear her talking about Maxim, her piano teacher?”
“I wasn’t eavesdropping,” Tanner said. Then he met Mallory’s eyes. “Yes, I heard it.”
“Good. Since I trust your acumen and ability to read both situations and odds better than anyone else on the planet, I have a question to ask you: What do you think happened to Maxim?”
“I don’t have all the facts.”
“What happened to Maxim?”
Tanner shrugged. “Either her father or Volkov killed him after he left her that day. Her mother covered it to shelter Lara as much as she could.”
“Anything else?”
“Lara probably knows it happened, but she doesn’t want to admit it to herself. Sometimes you can take only so much pain.”
“Damn,” Mallory said. “That’s not what I wanted you to say. I was trying to be an optimist.”
“Then you shouldn’t have asked me. And you shouldn’t have given me that file to read.” He shrugged. “Serves you right.”
“It was worth it. I didn’t want to be alone in this.” He made a face. “I didn’t want her to be alone. Now I’ve thrown it into your court and I feel much better about it.” He opened the cockpit door. “Though I do feel bad about Maxim.”
“Then make up your own story about him. Maybe I’m wrong.”
Mallory sighed. “That hardly ever happens.”
He closed the cockpit door.
Tanner didn’t move for a few moments. Then he got to his feet and moved down the aisle. He should never have read that file. He needed to keep his distance from everything to do with this job of Kaskov’s. And he shouldn’t be going down this aisle and making contact with Lara at this moment. It was too soon after he’d been immersed in those years when she’d been fighting the world just to stay alive. Yet he was irresistibly drawn to see her as she was now, to make the connection between her and the child she had been. Stupid. Grossly sentimental. A mistake.
Lara was leaning back in her seat, her eyes closed. Dozing?
No. Her eyes were opening and she was suddenly alert and looking at him. She scrambled to an upright position. “What are you doing? Is something wrong?”
He shook his head. “I just wanted to tell you that we’ll be in Stockholm in another couple of hours. We’re landing at a private airport, and Nash should be delivering your mother shortly before we get in. She’ll be waiting for you.”
“She’s still okay?”
“Nash would have told me if there was a problem. Is there anything else you want to know?”
“No. Yes.” She hesitated. “Did Mallory ask you about my piano?”
“I understood there was a discussion. We’ll have to work around it.”
“So it’s no. You should have just said it. I’ll find a way to get it myself.”
“I didn’t say no. Don’t put words in my mouth. And you’ll not think about getting it yourself until I say it’s not going to screw up my plans.” He drew a deep breath. “You’ll get your damn piano, but it will be on my terms.”
She was just looking at him.
He muttered a curse. “Never mind. I’ll send Mallory to talk to you. He seems to be on your wavelength.”
She was frowning. “You’re…different. Why?”
“I’m not different. How would you know? Different from what? You don’t know anything about me.”
“That’s true. We don’t know anything about each other.”
But he did know her. He felt as if he could read her better than he did Mallory. Every word, every defensive posture, the stubbornness, the independence, the wariness, that passionate protectiveness for her mother because she was the only one on earth who gave a damn for her. And he could trace it all back to those blasted files.
She tilted her head, studying him. “I think you were trying to be kind to me. You were going to give me the piano, but I couldn’t be sure why, and I said things that made you angry. I didn’t mean to do it. I just had to make certain that you knew I didn’t expect it. No one has to give me anything. I’ll get it for myself.”
“I’ll be sure that I remember that.” He thought for a minute before he added, “But from now on, it might be wise if you remember that I’m being paid for everything I do for you. No favors. So just ask. If you want or need anything, you come to me and tell me.”
“But wouldn’t that be a favor from Kaskov?”
He wasn’t getting through to her, he thought in exasperation. “That shouldn’t count. I’m willing to bet that Kaskov needs to chalk up quite a few favors on the good side to balance against his murky past.”
“I see.” She nodded solemnly. “Then you think I should write a thank-you card to Kaskov for my piano?”
“Not until I manage to—” He stopped. “You’re joking. You set me up.” He added softly, “Where did that come from?”
She smiled faintly. “You were treating me as if I were a half-wit child. How could I resist?”
“Evidently you couldn’t. I didn’t expect a sense of humor.”
“But even when you were trying to be kind, you were still trying to control who I am and how I should behave.” She was gazing thoughtfully at him. “Maybe I shouldn’t blame you. Mallory didn’t try to control me, but he said something about Kaskov not letting either of you go into this blind. Which probably meant that Kaskov knew all about the Trials and told you about them.” She added wearily, “I didn’t think that he did, but I shouldn’t be surprised. Even though he didn’t visit my father’s or Volkov’s compounds very often, I could tell they were intimidated by him. Maybe they even let him into the gambling.” Her smile was suddenly reckless. “And perhaps the reason you showed up in that forest was that he had some twisted idea how he could cheat both of them and win the bet. You did kill Razov.”
“Yes, I did. But he wouldn’t have done that,” Tanner said firmly. “Kaskov’s not one of my favorite people, but I’d bet that wasn’t why he hired me to get you out of Russia.”
“You’d bet?” she repeated bitterly. “But that’s always what it’s about, isn’t it? With my father, with Volkov, with all those gorillas who’d lay their bets on whether or not I’d fail. I did fail sometimes, you know.”
“I know you did,” he said quietly. “But I would have liked to have been there to see those failures.”
She frowned. “What?”
“Because I believe that there would have been more to learn from them than from anyone else’s successes.”
She blinked. “I wasn’t expecting you to know that,” she said slowly. “When I first started with the Trials, most of the time I had to teach myself how to do them. It was so hard. They deliberately chose things I knew nothing about. But then I realized that it was like playing a new piece on the piano. I had to just keep on and learn from every mistake until I had it perfect.” She moistened her lips. “How did you know?”