Page 54 (2/2)

Mindlessly picking at the tangles, she found a fork and sat down at the long table It had years ofher of her prison cell in the opera house Though being on the ship was i stuck in that basement, the confine She knew that her grand her time in the military No wonder she’d retired to a farm, with all the sky and horizon a person could want

She hoped that É care of the animals

When she couldn’t find any more knots, she smoothed down her hair with both hands, then twisted open the jar of artichokes Glancing up, she saw that Wolf was still standing with the olives and toht?"

His eyes flashed Panic, she thought Maybe fear

"Why did you bringdown, she speared an artichoke and watched the oil drizzle back into the jar "I don’t know I didn’t exactly stop to weigh the pros and cons" She let the artichoke heart plop back down into the ht to leave you there"

He turned his back on her, setting the cans on the counter, and picked up the can opener On the third try, he ed to clip it to the olive can’s lid and twist it around the edge

"Why didn’t you tell ot to Paris?"

"It wouldn’t have mattered" He set the opened cans on the table "You still would have insisted on going after your grandht I could plead your case with Jael and convince hio But I could only do that if I was still loyal to theain and slipped it into her o over the what-ifs She didn’t want to linger on all the choices that could have ended with her and her grandmother safely back on the farm She didn’t even know if such choices had existed

Dropping his gaze, Wolf eased hi in pain at each movement Settled, he picked a tomato from the can and stuffed it into hisdoorainst a chuckle "Makes you appreciateyou gave me" He picked up the can of olives and sniffed at theh I didn’t deserve any of it"

Scarlet bit her lip She didn’t think he was referring to the produce

Dipping her head, she dunked her fork into the can of olives Wolf was holding,to spear two on its tines

They ate in silence, Wolf discovering he liked the olives and suffering through two more soppy tomatoes before Scarlet offered him an artichoke The combination of the two, they discovered, bordered on acceptable

"So the open shelves behind Wolf that showed s painted with the Ania

"I’ across her ar at the can of to it in his fists

"I took you away frorande what happened and … you did give me that chip You did save me from Ran"

He hunched his shoulders Half his hair was messy and wild and normal, the other half stillto torture you He thought it would randmother talk And I just couldn’t…"

Scarlet shuddered, closing her eyes

"I knew they would kill led for words, releasing a sharp breath "I think I realized that I would rather die because I betrayed them, than live because I betrayed you"

Scarlet wiped her oily fingers on her jeans

"I was going back for you and your grand chased by Ran My head was so juht--I honestly don’t know if I meant to help you both, or kill you Then when Ran threw you at that statue, so just…" His knuckles whitened He shook his head, spikes of hair flailing "It doesn’t matter I was too late"

"You savedif it wasn’t forme to them or find out what information I had, they would have left me alone? No If it had been anyone but you, I would be dead now"

Wolf frowned at the table

"And I don’t believe for a second you were co back to kill us No e had over you, it was still you in there You weren’t going to hurt aze, sad and bewildered "I honestly hope we never have to test that theory again Because you don’t kno close I was"

"You still fought it"

His face contorted, but she was glad when he didn’t argue with her "It shouldn’t have been possible to resist hied the e think about things Anger and violence cos … it shouldn’t even be possible" His hand started to move toward hers, but halted halfway He quickly withdrew, fiddling with the battered tomato label instead