Page 109 of Poison Evidence

“Exactly. If Rudy really has no family, Julian is likely to go into foster care until he can be adopted.” She gripped his hand. “I’m going to request he be placed with me. As you’re his only living family member, I’d like your permission to adopt him.”

He couldn’t meet her gaze, could barely breathe, so he studied the veins on the back of Ivy’s hand as emotion swamped him. Finally, he managed a breath and a choked “You’d do that?”

“Of course,” she repeated.

He met her gaze with his good eye. His face had been battered in the explosion, more than he’d realized at the time. His left cheek had fractured, and his eye was swollen due to lacerations above and below. He could still see, but vision in that eye was blurred. “There’s no guarantee I’m ever coming back. If the GRU knows I’m alive, I won’t risk you—or Julian—that way. I’ll disappear forever. You’d be stuck raising a child who isn’t yours.”

“He’s not mine—yet. But he will be. I can and will love him as my own. And I hope someday he’ll come to love me, but even if he doesn’t, I’ll still be there for him and give him all the love you would, if you could.” She gazed toward the closed bedroom door. “He’s hurting even more than you are right now. If I can’t be there for you as you wade through what your sister did, then at least I can be there to lavish love on him.”

His heart ached for Julian, but at the forefront of his emotions was the pain of betrayal. “I still don’t want to believe she could be so cruel.”

His baby sister. He’d given up a part of his soul to protect her, only to learn that she was the person who’d orchestrated the forfeiture.

“I don’t either. And I know it will be hard for you not to blame yourself.”

“Itismy fault. She said as much—”

“No, Dimitri. It’s not your fault. Blame the GRU. Blame everyone who abused her. Blame the drunk driver who killed your parents and left you unprotected. Blameher. But don’t blame yourself. You didn’t make her into what she became.”

He grimaced. “It’s not that easy.”

“I know.” She snuggled close to him and pressed her lips to his neck. “I know.”

He pulled back and studied her face. “It’s going to be a long haul, Ivy. I can’t ask you to wait for me when I might never be free.”

“Well, it’s not really so much about waiting. You see, my libido died a long time ago, and you revived it. I believe the resurrection is biometrically secured to you.”

He tilted back his head and laughed. Only Ivy could make him laugh like this, now. “You’re saying I’m the only man who can turn you on?”

She grinned. “Yes. That’s exactly what I’m saying.”

He placed a hand behind her neck and pulled her face to his. “I love you, Ivy. I’ll do everything I can to come back to you and Julian, but it’s not in my control.” He kissed her then, pouring his emotion into a kiss that would have to sustain them for months, years, or even, possibly, forever.

When the kiss ended, she stroked his jaw, tracing scrapes along his chin, gingerly skipping over the bruises on his cheek. “I love you too.” She tucked her head under his neck and snuggled against him. “Ulai’s prognosis is better. They might bring him out of the medically induced coma tomorrow.”

“I heard that from Kaha’i.” He stroked her back. “He also said it looks like Zack is the one who attacked Ulai.”

“I suspected as much. But why did he go after Ulai?”

“Kaha’i thinks Ulai caught him in the hangar, attaching a tracking device on the seaplane. They found similar tracking devices on the yacht and inflatable Luke rented—which is how Zack knew where to find you and where to find us. He didn’t know where we hid the AUUV, but he knew where we’d tucked the boat away on shore.”

With Ian acting as translator, Kaha’i had questioned Zack’s men who’d been taken alive in the jungle. Ian had shared some details with Dimitri. Zack hadn’t acted prior to the confrontation in the jungle because he didn’t know where Dimitri had stashed the AUUV, plus he was well aware of the hazards of attacking the Hammer directly, as proven when he lost the three men who’d boardedLiberty.

Ivy frowned. “We led Zack right to the handoff.”

Dimitri shrugged. “Given his history with Ian, he probably had been keeping tabs on him. He couldn’t have known it would lead to me. He probably targeted Ulai so he could find me.”

“What would have happened if Zack and I hadn’t shown up? Would you have let Sophia have the AUUV?”

He’d thought about that a lot in the last twenty-four hours. “I honestly don’t know. Sophia is probably responsible for the deaths of several special forces operators and for massive leaks that ravaged national security. I don’t think Ian or Luke could have let her walk out of that jungle, and I couldn’t blame them.”

“She was counting on you to protect her,” Ivy said, “once again.”

He nodded. “I wouldn’t have, though.”

“So we’ll hold on to her last act. She pushed you away and pulled Zack in. She sacrificed herself for you.”

“She sacrificed herself for Julian.”

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