Read Online An Obsession with Vengeance (Wanted Men Book 3) by Nancy Haviland - Free Book Online Page A

you’d rather not make the drive—or have something against the sand and sea—I’d be happy to come to you.”
    Seems you already have. “I have nothing against the beach,” he assured her, taking the slight snark in her tone as a good thing. She was still in enough of a good place to give him attitude. “Can you tell me what this is about?”
    She sighed quietly. “I’d rather explain when I see you.”
    “Okay. Are you in danger? Do you need me to send a couple of my boys over? Because it wouldn’t be a problem.”
    The silence in his ear stretched. Even the sound of her pacing ceased.
    “Sydney?”
    “Yes?”
    He frowned. “Do you need them?”
    “No. Thank you, though. Sorry.” She laughed tightly. “That offer was . . . surprising, and very generous. But I think we’ll be okay tonight.”
    “Fine,” he said, opening the door to the club and waving in a couple of the boys. “Are you finishing up now?”
    “Yes. So you’ll meet me?”
    “Hang on.” He pressed the phone to his thigh and instructed the boys to go hang out at Pant. “Keep your eyes and ears open for anything unusual.” He brought the phone back up as they left. “Sorry. I’ll meet you. At your odd choice of place for November. Are you a water baby?” he teased lightly, hoping to hear the strain leave her voice.
    “Hmm.” The sound told him nothing, but then she added, “I suppose that’s only natural having grown up on the coast. You’ll be up later than I will tonight, so what time would work for you tomorrow?”
    He stored another tidbit—she’d been raised in a coastal town—and impatiently wished the sun was rising as they spoke. But it was barely midnight. “I could get used to this accommodating side of you. I don’t think I’ve seen it before.”
    “And you won’t often, so I hope you enjoy it.”
    He laughed and leaned his back into the wall. “Ah, there you are. I knew you had to be in there somewhere.” He nodded at two of his girls as they teetered by on their stillies. “I’m not much of a sleeper, so how about we say midafternoon? On the boardwalk at the end of the concessions?”
    “You know the place well,” she said, sounding surprised.
    “My best friend is an MD in the emergency department of the hospital over there. I stop in to feel the sand between my toes when I can.”
    “Really. Somehow I can’t picture it.”
    “It’s true. And better yet, why don’t I swing by your place to pick you up, and we can drive out together?”
    “That won’t work. I think it would be best if I meet you there.”
    “You knew I’d try.”
    Her wry laugh had him smiling. “Yes, I did.”
    After a slight hesitation, her voice filtered so softly into his ear he barely heard her. Yet the words—no, the hope in her words—touched him deeper than anything had in a long time.
    “Thank you, Maksim. I know I haven’t been very nice to you, so I appreciate even more that you’re willing to see me.”
    Normally he’d have found himself shoving past the warm and fuzzies and bringing things back to where he was most comfortable. He might have mentioned a favorite sex position she could allow for their first time to show her gratitude. But, again, for some reason, he couldn’t go there. She’d stepped off that high horse of hers and reached out to him. That alone was cause for concern. The fact that she sounded so off and he now knew it had something to do with Morales, well, let’s just say he was chomping at the bit to get the story.
    “Go upstairs and get some sleep, lover.” He pictured the enormous loft Sydney lived in above her club—one he knew by blueprint alone because, of course, he’d yet to be invited up. “You’ll see come morning that nothing is ever as bad as it seems when the dark of night is closing around you.”
    “Right,” she all but whispered. “See you tomorrow, Russia.”
    Maks ended the call and let his arm fall to his side. What the fuck? He was pretty sure he’d never