An Outlaw in Wonderland by Lori Austin Page B

safe.”
    “If he’s with Fedya—” Their eyes met. “If he’s with
Alexi,
I’m sure he’s fine.”
    “But I have to know; I have to see.”
    Silence fell like a stone between them. He had come to tell her how he felt, and now
     that he was here, he couldn’t say a single one of the things he’d meant to.
    “We’re getting married,” he blurted instead.
    She folded her arms. “I don’t recall saying yes.”
    He dropped to one knee. “Annabeth Phelan, will you marry me?” He pulled his mother’s
     ring from his pocket.
    Her eyes widened, then filled. “You—you—”
    “Is that a yes?”
    “You had that all along. . . . You were going to ask me even before . . .” She touched
     their child once more.
    “You stood at my side, though I betrayed the cause you believed in. You gave yourself
     to me, your enemy.”
    “Ethan,” she began, and choked.
    “I lied. About everything. Who I was, what I believed, hell, how I spoke—and you forgave
     me. If I hadn’t already loved you, I would have loved you for that alone. I’ll always
     love you, Annabeth. Always.”
    She blinked, and tears flew off her eyelashes, rained onto his cheeks. “I . . . ”
     She looked away, frowned, seemed to struggle with something; then her shoulders drooped.
     “I love you, too.”
    “Is that a yes?”
    She met his gaze, smiling through her tears. “That’s a yes.”

C HAPTER 9
    E than contacted the Intelligence Service and discovered that Fedya had been sent to
     instruct soldiers at Camp Astor, New York.
    “You’ll get there and back more quickly if you’re alone,” Annabeth said.
    “I don’t want to leave you, but—”
    She watched everything that he thought, that he felt, flicker across his face. He
     was torn between wanting her at his side and agreeing that it would be easier if she
     wasn’t. How had this man ever been a spy?
    “Traveling isn’t good for the baby,” he murmured. “And you’re going to be traveling
     enough just to reach Freedom.”
    Along with the information about Fedya, Ethan had received an offer to become the
     doctor in Freedom, Kansas. It would be a new start for them both.
    Annabeth covered her stomach with one hand. For them all.
    “Just go,” she urged, so he did.
    Two weeks later, he returned. One look into his eyes and she knew the visit had not
     gone well.
    “What happened?”
    “My brother tried to break my neck.”
    “Mikey wouldn’t do that.”
    “
Mikey
wouldn’t. Mikhail, on the other hand . . .” He shrugged. “To be fair, he thought
     I was hurting
his
brother.”
    “Why would he think that?”
    Ethan glanced away. “I was.”
    “Oh, Ethan.”
    “I couldn’t help it. Fedya’s so damn smug. He made a comment—half of it was in Russian—and
     I . . .” He spread his fingers. “I put these around his throat. Making him stop talking
     felt so damn good.”
    Annabeth sighed. “Now what?”
    “Now we go West.” He smiled with his mouth but not his eyes. “Together.”
    They boarded the train in Virginia, got off in Kansas City, then walked to the nearest
     church. One glimpse of Annabeth’s just-beginning-to-round stomach and the priest waived
     the banns.
    Annabeth agonized all the way to Freedom. Should she tell Ethan the truth, or shouldn’t
     she? It didn’t seem fair or right that she knew all his secrets yet he knew none of
     hers. Then again, hers had led first to he and Mikey being imprisoned, then to his
     brother being shot in the head.
    Ethan’s continued anger at Fedya frightened her. He’d come to the conclusion, with
     a little help from the guards at Castle Thunder, that Fedya had been released as a
     reward for shooting Mikey. Fedya had not disabused him of the notion when they’d met
     in New York. Not that Ethan had given him the chance. Although even if the sniper
     had, she doubted Ethan would have believed him.
    “What possible reason could anyone have for hurting your brother?” she asked.
    “Not