Page 28 of The Primary Pest (Iphicles Security #1)
“It’s… complicated.” An emotional shadow passed over Dmytro’s face. “I don’t know if I can be that for anyone again, after Yulia. I don’t know how.”
“I understand.” Ajax swallowed the burn in his throat before he turned away.
Dmytro caught his shoulder. “No, you don’t. My life isn’t simple like the life of a boy who has everything. Who has no responsibility. Whose parents adore him. Whose life will play out on the world’s stage—supporting charities, traveling, living in the public eye, cutting ribbons and—”
Ajax sat back. “Is that what you think? That I’m the crown prince of some American megafamily and all I’ll do once I go home is conform?”
Dmytro pulled his hand back. “I know you won’t go back to being Ajax Freedom.”
“Of course not. But whatever I do, I’ll be my own man.
I’ll make my own way, and if that includes charity or travel, so be it.
I want my own family, too. I want friends and fun and meaningful work.
I want to be part of something real. You could be a force for good in my life, Dmytro. Our worlds aren’t that far apart.”
Dmytro stared at him for a long time. “You can always hire me through Iphicles if you need security.”
“You deliberately misunderstand me.” Ajax clasped his hands together to keep from reaching out.
Somehow, at some point, Dmytro had become his rock.
Now, he needed that rock. He wanted to be able to lean on it—to hold on to it through thick or thin—and it was as if he was drifting farther away from it with every word.
“I don’t want security—not the way you think, anyway. ”
“You are twenty-two years old, Ajax. You can’t know what you want. Especially when you’re under my protection and your emotions are confused by gratitude.”
Ajax huffed a laugh. “The Iphicles safe house was compromised, the car broke down. I got shot at. I am on a boat even though I have both claustrophobia and violent motion sickness. I despise boats. You think I’m confused by gratitude?
I don’t think that word means what you think it means…
” Ajax swallowed. “Is there someone else?”
“I’m thirty-six. I have children.” Dmytro scrubbed his face with both hands. “I—I must live for them now. Not for myself. There is no one else but my girls. What I want can’t matter . Can’t you understand that?”
A light came on for Ajax. “You don’t trust me not to hurt you. You think I’ll worm my way into your life and then leave you alone in it, like—”
“Don’t say it.” Dmytro’s tone chilled him.
“I’m right. Say it. You think this is situational or that I’ll change my mind in six months. That I’ll meet your girls and break all your hearts—”
“Even if I thought that, how can this be anything else?” Dmytro asked sadly. “Iphicles HQ is in Seattle. You’ll resume your normal LA life, and I will go back to mine.”
“And you think there’s no way to bridge that gap between us?”
“What I think is”—Dmytro gave his phone a glance—“not important. My girls are calling. I’m going to take it upstairs.”
“All right.” Ajax didn’t even try to argue. He’d seen the bright spark of joy that burst in Dmytro’s eyes when he saw his daughters’ contact images. It warmed Ajax too. “Say hello for me.”
Dmytro didn’t hear him, or he didn’t acknowledge he’d heard. He left the cabin without looking back.
Ajax lay against the pillows and sighed heavily. There was nothing to argue about. Dmytro would either come to see the possibilities they had, or he wouldn’t.
But possibilities were also Ajax’s superpower.
Ajax saw a hundred moves ahead. While he knew his heart, knew what he wanted, and would go for it with all the force of his being, he’d learned early on that he couldn’t do that with people.
He had to let them figure out what was best for them, and if it wasn’t what he wanted?
He had to be okay with that and let them go.
If Dmytro didn’t like what was growing between them—if he didn’t want it or couldn’t find a way to make it work—then Ajax would walk away.
He was finished with trying to force things that didn’t fit, with being outrageous, with schemes and plans.
If Dmytro reached for him, he would be there—for Dmytro and for his girls. If Dmytro didn’t want him…
Ajax had to learn to like himself when he was by himself , so maybe it was for the best.
Seconds after he left, Dmytro returned to the cabin with both hands in the air.
Ajax had only a confused moment to realize Peter held a gun to Dmytro’s head.
Topside, there was a single crack of gunfire, a shout, and a splash.
“Chet?” Peter called toward the stairs. “Mission accomplished?”
“Yessir.” Chet thudded down the stairs and stood in the cabin’s doorway behind Peter.
What the hell was that?
Bartosz?
Dmytro met Ajax’s gaze. His agonized expression broke Ajax’s heart.
“Get us underway, Chet,” Peter ordered. “We have a rendezvous in fifteen minutes.”
“Aye, aye, Skipper.”
Peter motioned for Dmytro to cross the cabin and sit beside Ajax. Noisy engines fired up with a roar, and the boat gave a sick-making lurch.
“Was that… Did they just kill Bartosz?” Ajax asked Dmytro.
Dmytro didn’t answer, but from his face, the news was probably bad.
Peter grinned again. Wolflike . Ajax had always associated the name Peter with Prokofiev’s, Peter and the Wolf. Now he knew Peter had been the wolf all along.
“Now that we have your full attention, Dmytro Kolisnychenko, and yours, Mr. Fairchild, I trust you two won’t do anything further to fuck up my plans?”