Fredrik laughs lightly. "Something tells me that even if you did know that you still would've gone there."

I look away from Victor's eyes and stare down at my lap again, my blood-stained fingers moving nervously against one another. Fredrik's right. I hate to admit it, but he's right. I still would've gone to the restaurant. I still would've tried to kill Hamburg. But if I had known all of this, I think I would've had a better plan.

Suddenly, it feels like something just reached inside me and stole my breath. "Victor...my phone...," I shoot up from the couch, my long, auburn hair falling about my shoulders, prickling my bare arms where the blood has dried within it, forming a coarse crust-like texture. "Dina's number is in my phone. Fuck. Fuck! Victor, Stephens will go after her! I have to go back to Arizona!"

I start to head toward the back door, but Victor is behind me before I make it across the smooth, intricate rock walkway.

"Just wait," he encourages.

I look down to see his fingers clasped around my wrist. His bewitching green-blue eyes stare back at me with intent and devotion. Devotion. I've never seen that in Victor's eyes before.

Fredrik speaks up from behind, breaking me free from the trance Victor has put on me. "I'll take care of that," he says. I look away from Victor to see Fredrik, who is more important right now considering it's Dina's life on the line.

"How?" I ask.

Victor leads me back over to the couch.

Fredrik takes the cell phone from the table in front of him, searches for a number and touches the screen to call it. He puts the phone to his ear.

Victor urges me to sit back down next to him. I'm too engrossed with Fredrik right now to notice right away that Victor has made sure to sit so close that his thigh is pressed against mine. I want to bask in our moment of closeness, but I can't. I'm worried about Dina.

Fredrik leans against the chair again, shaking his bare foot gently against his knee. The tone in his face shifts alert when someone on the other end answers.

"How fast can you get to Lake Havasu City?" Fredrik asks into the phone. He listens for a second and then nods. "I'm going to text you an address when we end this call. Get there as soon as possible. A woman lives there. Dina Gregory." He glances up at me as if to make sure he got the name right and when I don't correct him, he goes back to the person on the phone. "Get her out of the house and take her to Amelia in Phoenix. Yes. Yes. No, she is not to be questioned. Just make sure that no one harms her. Yes. Call me back on this number as soon as you have her." He nods a couple more times. My heart is about to beat right out of my chest. I hope whoever he's talking to can get to her in time.

Fredrik finally hangs up and then appears to be opening a text screen. He looks up at me, but Victor is the one who gives him Mrs. Gregory's address. Fredrik types it in and then places the phone back on the table.

"My contact is only thirty minutes away," Fredrik says looking at me first, but then he turns to Victor. "What do you want me to do?" He raises his back from the chair and props his elbows on his knees, letting his hands drape between them, a rather casual position, yet he still manages to appear neat and important and dangerous.

"I still need you to check on what we discussed yesterday," Victor says and it's even clearer to me now that Fredrik takes orders from Victor, even though Fredrik doesn't seem the type to take orders from anyone. But clearly, they have a strong relationship. "And if you don't mind, I need to borrow your house for the evening."

Fredrik's dark eyes shift to see me and a hint of a grin appears on his face. He stands up and takes his cell phone from the table, hiding it within his rather large fist.

"Say no more," he agrees. "I'll be out of here in twenty minutes. I have someone I'm meeting tonight anyway, so it works out."

Victor's demeanor changes just slightly, but I notice it right away. He's looking across the small patio table at Fredrik with a faint, wary look. "You're not going to do what I think you are?" Victor asks.

I listen closely and I don't try to hide the fact. I want them to know that I'm prying because I find it frustrating that neither of them are offering me any explanations for their clandestine comments.

One side of Fredrik's mouth lifts into a grin. He shakes his head subtly. "No, not tonight, I'm afraid. But it's been a while. I'll need you to help me with that soon." His eyes pass over me briefly and it sends a chill through my back. I just can't figure out whether it's a good chill or a frightening one.

"You'll have your opportunity soon," Victor says.

Fredrik walks around the table. "Sorry to cut our visit short."

"It's all right," I say. "Thank you for helping with Dina. Will you let us know when you get that call?"

Fredrik nods. "Absolutely. I will do that."

"Thank you," I repeat.

Victor walks with Fredrik to the glass doors and they step through to the other side. I stay seated, but I watch them from across the stone patio and I listen in as much as I can, but they make sure to keep their voices low. This, too, frustrates me. And I intend to let Victor know it.

CHAPTER EIGHT.

Victor Fredrik reaches out for the sliding glass door and pulls it shut the rest of the way.

"She has no idea about Niklas?" he asks, as I knew he would.

"No, but I'm going to have to tell her. She'll need to be aware of her surroundings at all times. Now more than ever."

"She can't stay here long," Fredrik says, glancing through the glass to see her sitting on the couch outside, watching us. "Neither can you."

"I know," I say. "When Niklas finds out about her involvement in the murder at Hamburg's restaurant, my brother will know right away that I'm involved now, too. My brother is no fool. If Sarai is alive, Niklas will know that I'm helping her."

"And since Niklas suspects that I'm working with you now," Fredrik adds, "she's in as much danger anywhere around me as she is with you."

"Yes, she is."

Fredrik shakes his head at me, a faint smile hidden behind his eyes. "I don't understand attachment," he says. "I respect you as always, Victor, but I'll never understand a man's need to love a woman."

"I am not in love with her," I clarify. "She is just important to me."

"Maybe not," he says and starts to head toward the kitchen, "but it appears that love and attachment both carry the same consequences, my friend." I follow him into the brightly-lit kitchen and he opens a cabinet. "But I'm here for you. Whatever you need me to do to help, I will do it." He points at me briefly from around the cabinet door now with a loaf of bread in his hand.

Fredrik's housekeeper comes into the kitchen, plump and older than both of us, precisely the kind of woman that Fredrik can never be tempted by, which is why he hired her. She asks him in Spanish if she can go home to her family early tonight. Fredrik responds in Spanish, granting her request. She nods respectfully and walks past me into the living room. I watch her from the corner of my eye as she takes a bulky brown leather purse up from the floor beside the leather recliner and shoulders it. Then she makes her way to the front door, shutting it softly behind her.

Sarai is standing in the shadows of the living room when my gaze falls away from the front door. I didn't even hear the sliding glass door open when she entered, and apparently neither did Fredrik.

She steps into the kitchen and into the light, her arms crossed loosely under her breasts, her delicate fingers arched over her girlish, yet toned biceps. She is so beautiful to me, even in the ravaged condition she's in.

"How long did you plan on leaving me outside?" she asks both of us with a trace of irritation in her voice.

"No one ever said you had to stay out there, doll," Fredrik replies.

He likes her, it's obvious to me and he probably knows as much. But he also knows that I'll kill him, too. Though, I trust him more than I worry if he'll ever revert to his dark side and harm her of all people. Fredrik Gustavsson is a beast of the most carnal kind with a love for women and a love for blood, but he has boundaries and standards and he takes loyalty and respect and friendship very seriously. His loyalty to me is, after all, the reason he betrays the Order every day by helping me.

Sarai walks over to me and looks up into my eyes, cocking her head softly to one side. The smell of her flesh and the gentle warmth emanating from her skin nearly sends me over the edge. I've done fairly well to hold myself back since I kissed her in the elevator. I intend to maintain that control.

When she doesn't say anything, but continues to look into my eyes as if she's waiting on something, I become confused. She cocks her head to the other side and her eyes soften, though with what exactly, I'm not quite certain. It feels expectant and a little mischievous.

I hear Fredrik chuckle under his breath and the refrigerator door closing, but I never look away from Sarai.

"Things are so much easier the way I do it," I hear him say with a smile in his voice.

"Contact me as soon as you get the information on Niklas," I say still looking into Sarai's eyes and disregarding his comment altogether. "And when you hear from your contact that Dina Gregory is safe in Phoenix."

"I will do that," Fredrik says and then walks toward the hall entrance that leads toward his room. But he stops and looks back at us. "If you don't mind-"

I finally look away from Sarai and give Fredrik my full attention. "Don't worry," I interrupt, "I know where the guest quarters are."

He shoves the corner of a sandwich that I barely noticed him prepare into his mouth and bites down, tearing the bread away from his lips. I catch him wink at Sarai just before he disappears down the hall. It was perfectly harmless, directed at what he assumes might happen between us once he's gone, rather than a flirting attempt.

"What information on Niklas?" Sarai asks, her soft features now shadowed by concern.

I reach out and drag my fingers behind a small portion of her hair. "I have a lot to tell you," I announce and I let my hand fall away before I lose control of myself and touch her more than I intended. "I know you must be exhausted. Why don't you shower and get settled in first. Then we'll talk."

A soft grin sneaks up on her lips, but then fails under her blushing cheeks.

"Are you saying I'm disgusting?" she asks coyly. "Is that your way of telling me I need to wash my disgusting ass?"

"Actually, yes," I admit.

For a flinching moment, she appears offended, but then she just shakes her head and laughs it off. I admire that about her. I admire a lot about her.

"All right." Her playful expression shifts into something more serious again. "But you have to tell me everything, Victor. And I know you may have a lot to tell me, but I want you to know that there's a lot I need to say to you as well."

I expected as much. And before she pushes herself up on her toes, leaning her body against mine and kisses me on the lips, I know that by the time she gets out of that shower I'm going to have to figure out what we're going to do. I'm going to have to make some important decisions that will affect both of us.

Because I am sure of only one thing: Sarai can never go home.

Sarai When I return, Victor is sitting in the living room, perched on the edge of the couch, leaning over the glass coffee table now littered with pieces of paper and photographs. He continues to sift through them without raising his head to look at me as I walk farther into the room. But he's not fooling me, I know he's as aware of my presence as much as I want him to be.

I raided Fredrik's closet for a white T-shirt, which I've slipped down over my bare breasts. Unfortunately, I'm still in the same panties I put on this morning, but Fredrik's boxer-briefs aren't exactly the kind of undergarments I would want to wear to seduce Victor. Just a T-shirt and panties. Of course, I made it a point to wear as little as possible, because I want Victor and I'm not shy in the least bit about letting him know it. Though I'm still having a hard time believing I'm even in the same room as him again after months of thinking he was gone forever.

I think the kiss in the elevator is where my mind is suspended, as though time stopped in that moment and every part of my being is still yearning for the moment to continue, but the rest of the world has still been going on all around me.

I sit down next to him, pulling one bare foot onto the couch and tucking it underneath my thigh.

"What's all this stuff?" I gaze down at the paper and photographs on the table.

He fingers a few pieces of paper, stacking them into a precise spot. "It's a job," he says and then places a photograph of a man wearing a wife-beater tank on the top of the small pile. "I work for myself now."

That takes me aback. "What do you mean?" I think I know exactly what he means, but I'm having a hard time believing it.

He picks up the stack and hits the edges against the table to make all of the pieces fall neatly into place. Then he slides the stack down into a manila envelope.

"I left the Order, Sarai." He glances over at me.

He presses the little flaps of the silver clasp down to seal the envelope.

My thoughts are stuck in the back of my head, my words, hanging precariously on the tip of my tongue. I struggle desperately to believe what he just told me.

"Victor...but...no-."

"Yes," he says and turns his head to face me, looking directly into my eyes. "It is true. I've rebelled against the Order, against Vonnegut, and now I'm a wanted man." He goes back to the other papers on the table. "But I still have to work and so now I work alone."

I shake my head over and over, not wanting to swallow the truth. The thought of him being hunted by the people who made him what he is, by anyone, sends a hot flash of panic through my veins.

I let out a long breath. "But...but what about Fredrik? What about Niklas? Victor, I...what's going on?"

He sighs heavily and lets the sheet of paper fall lightly back against the table and then he leans his back into the couch.

"Fredrik still works for the Order. On the inside. He keeps tabs on Niklas and...," his eyes catch mine briefly, "...he's been helping me keep you safe."

Before I have the chance to ask anymore broken questions, Victor stands up from the couch and continues as I sit watching him with my mouth partially agape and both legs drawn up on the cushion.

"As you know, when anyone is suspected of betraying the Order, they are immediately eliminated. But I believe that Niklas has left Fredrik alive and not reported his concerns to Vonnegut for the simple fact that Niklas is using Fredrik to find me. Just as he has left you alive all this time, hoping that one day you'll lead him right to me."

It isn't what Victor said that shocks me the most, it's more about what he didn't say that leaves me reeling. I let both of my legs drop from the couch and press my feet into hardwood floor, my hands pushing against the cushions on either side of me.

"Victor, what are you telling me? Are you saying that...Niklas is still with Vonnegut?"

I hope that's not what he's trying to tell me. I hope with everything in me that my decision to let Niklas live that day back in the hotel when he shot me wasn't the biggest mistake of my life.

His eyes stray toward the sliding glass door and I sense a sort of infinite grief consuming him, but he doesn't let it show on his face.

"I told my brother-you were there-that if he decided he wanted to stay with the Order if I chose to leave it, that I wouldn't hold it against him. I gave him my word, Sarai." He walks toward the glass door, folds his hands down in front of him and gazes out at the luminescent blue pool glowing under the night sky. "It is Niklas' time to shine now and I won't take that from him."

"Bullshit!" I shoot up from the couch, my fists clenched down at my sides. "He's after you, isn't he?" I grit my teeth and step around the coffee table. "That's fucking it, isn't it, Victor? To prove his worth to Vonnegut, he's been commissioned to kill you. Your piece of shit brother betrayed you. He thinks he's taking your place in the Order. I can't fucking believe-"

"It is what it is, Sarai," Victor stops me, turning around to face me fully. "But right now, Niklas is the least of my worries."

Crossing my arms, I start to pace, gazing down at the dark and light swirling patterns in the wood beneath my bare feet. My toenails are still painted blood red from two weeks ago.

"Why did you leave the Order?"

"I had to. I had no other choice."

"I don't believe you."

Victor sighs.

"Vonnegut found out about us," he says and has my undivided attention. "It was Samantha...the night she died. Before I left the Order, I met with Vonnegut in Berlin, the first face-to-face meeting I'd had with him in months. I was in an interrogation room. Four walls. One door. A table. Two chairs. Just me and Vonnegut sitting across from each other with a light blazing in the ceiling above us." He looks back out the glass door behind him and then goes on: "At first I thought for sure he brought me there to kill me. I was prepared-"

"To die?" If he says yes, I'll slap him for it.

"No," he answers and I feel like I can breathe a little more. "I went prepared. I kidnapped Vonnegut's wife before I met with him. Fredrik held her in a room, prepared to do...his thing, if it came down to that."

Immediately I want to ask what Fredrik's 'thing' is, but I skip that for now and say instead, "If Vonnegut intended to kill you, you had his wife as leverage."