The blood drained from Sylvia's face. "You're lying. David wouldn't betray me. He loves me. He's the only one who really loves me. He's my son. He's my blood."
"He saved himself, Sylvia."
"I don't believe you."
"Yes, you do. You know he's weak. You know he can be turned."
"David," Sylvia murmured, suddenly lost in a world of pain.
Maya bolted behind the nearest tree. A bullet pierced the bark next to her. She took off running as another shot rang out. She dove behind the trees for cover.
Another blast echoed through her head, and she felt a stinging pain in her shoulder. She'd been hit! But she couldn't stop running. Sylvia would kill her if she did.
She darted around a huge statue of Jesus, crying out as the plaster splintered next to her head. She ran through more trees, around the back of a gardener's shed. And then she froze as Sylvia faced her once more, hatred in her burning eyes.
"Natasha didn't fight, you know,” Sylvia said. "She drank what I gave her and went fast asleep. She trusted me. She thought I would help her with Rex. She underestimated me, just like everyone else." Sylvia lifted her gun.
Maya threw up her hands in some sort of weak self-defense when another shot rang out. But it wasn't aimed at her.
Sylvia fell to the ground, her expression one of shocked horror.
Maya dropped her hands as she saw the man with the gun. "Jax," she cried, running into his embrace.
He held onto her so tight she almost couldn't breathe. But she didn't care. She needed his crushing powerful body against hers.
"Are you okay? Are you hurt?" He pulled back to look into her eyes and then his gaze moved to her shoulder. "You're bleeding."
"I don't think it's bad. But it was going to be. She was going to kill me. I tried to run, Jax."
"I know you did. I heard the shots. They led me to you." He pulled her sleeve down. "Thank God, it's just a graze. You'll be okay."
Her gaze moved to Sylvia. The woman's eyes were wide open and completely devoid of life. She turned back to Jax. "Sylvia killed Natasha. It wasn't her father, Jax. It was her. She killed Julia, too."
"I figured that out too late. Well, not the part about Natasha, but about Julia."
"She confessed to both. She hated Natasha. She hated her father as well. I think he abused her, but she was still trying to get his love, trying to protect him. It was so twisted. She said everyone underestimated her. She told her father that Natasha was using him, but he didn't do anything about it. So, she took care of it herself. She was insane."
"I should have seen that."
"She hid it very well. She also said that Constantine ordered the hit on your parents and on Novikoff. I'm afraid they are dead, Jax. I wish they weren't."
He gave a grim nod. "I knew they were."
"But now Sylvia's dead, and she can't tell anyone what Constantine did." She gave him a worried look. "What if we can't prove he killed your parents?"
"We will," he said confidently. "Everyone is talking. Everyone is trying to sell each other out, to get the best deal. There's no honor among spies."
"I thought that saying was about thieves."
"It still holds true."
She drew in a breath and let it out, her heart finally starting to slow down. "How did you find me?"
"Your grandfather told me where you'd gone. I was just afraid I wouldn't get here in time." He shook his head, a fierceness to his gaze. "You scared the hell out of me, Maya. I didn't want to lose you. I'm in love with you."
His words made her heart ache. "I'm in love with you, too."
"Even after I lied to you?"
"Yes. I couldn't help falling for you."
"I couldn't help falling for you, either." He put his hand around the back of her neck and pulled her in for a hot kiss, only breaking away when police cars and FBI agents started arriving at the scene.
They didn't get to speak again for another thirty minutes as she related everything that Sylvia had told her. Finally, Jax led her to his car, assuring her that one of the other agents would return her mother's car to her mom. But he was taking her home with him, and she wasn't about to argue.
Late Tuesday afternoon, Jax sat on his living room couch, tending gently to Maya's wound. He bandaged