“Missing girl?”
“The one you led into the clinic the other night? The one who we can’t find? That girl.”
“What’s one girl, Nik?”
“What is one girl, Jac?”
“What are you saying?”
“I’m not saying anything, merely asking… You led her in, did you see where she ran off to?”
The phone went deathly still as if Jac was holding her breath. “I don’t like being attacked by my own family, my own grandson.”
“Is that what this feels like? I’m asking a question. That’s all.”
Jac cursed. “You’re accusing me. There’s a difference, think I can’t tell the tone you’re using? The girl ran off, just like I told you. If you paid more attention to your own damn records, you’d know that. Now. Can I please get back to work? The real work we’re supposed to be doing? As a family?” I didn’t miss how she said that last part with venom, how she spat the word, disgusted with having to even discuss it with me in the first place.
“Yes.” I nodded even though she couldn’t see me. “Yes, get back to work.”
The phone line went dead.
Maya made a small noise in her sleep. I’d exhausted her, so relieved that I could be with her that I hadn’t given her a break at all, just taken my pleasure, offered her hers, and gone on with life.
The clock chimed three in the afternoon.
Our time would be up soon.
Our number called.
And as if her father could read my mind, a text sounded on my phone.
Petrov : Tsk, Tsk, Tsk good doctor. Have your hand in the cookie jar, do you? Meet me tonight at Pier 49, 10:00. Being late, means her life… I’ll find her, I always find them. I always succeed.
With a curse I tossed my phone onto the bed and ran my hands through my hair.
Maya awoke and squinted up at me. “Is everything okay?”
“Of course,” I lied smoothly. “Just… anxious to lie next to you, to hold you in my arms. Can I do that?”
“Yes...” She yawned, stretched, then opened her arms. “Are you sure it’s okay to take today off?”
“Yes,” I snapped unintentionally. “Bosses orders, he’s an ass after all.”
She reached around and pinched my ass. “Yes, yes he is… better pull the wool over his eyes while we can.”
I kissed her hot mouth. “Yes.” I growled. “While we can.”
I wished moments like that could last forever.
But my wish was in vain.
I couldn’t be reborn, and ask to be part of a different family, ask to be something other than what I was.
I cringed, just thinking about what Jac was doing.
About what she’d been doing.
Maya moaned. “Make love to me again.”
“Okay,” I whispered against her lips. “Okay.” I prayed she’d never find out the other half, why I agreed to Petrov in the first place, why I still allowed myself to be controlled.
It isn’t money that makes the world go round.
It’s knowledge.
And when it came to me?
He had all he needed to know.
Not just half of it.
All of it.
So near and yet so far. –Russian Proverb
I ACHED IN ALL THE RIGHT places. Did he have the same delicious afterglow I was experiencing? I reached across for his warm body, but my hands met the cool sheets. With a yawn I sat up, blinking against the light floating in from the hall.
He was gone.
I should have left with him, but I’d been so tired when he’d mentioned something about working at the clinic that he’d kissed me on the head and told me to go back to sleep, this time promising to allow me to do it the right way, the natural way, no finger snapping or trigger words. Was that hours ago? Minutes?
My feet touched the cold slate floor just as a throat cleared.
“I sure hope you have clothes on.”
With a scream I jerked back against the headboard, pulling the sheets up around my naked body.
One of the Italians, the scary one, the one with the bird name, peered at me over a ceramic mug, his face a mask of cool indifference.
My eyes darted to the door, already planning my escape, if I needed to escape that is.
He sighed. “If I was going to kill you, you’d already be dead.” He took a long sip out of his mug.
“How reassuring,” I grumbled.
“That’s me,” he said in a low voice. “Reassuring.”
My ass. “Why are you here? Standing in my room?”
“Guard duty.” He looked away. “Nikolai called me in hours ago. I hopped on a private jet, and here I am.”
My eyebrows shot up in surprise. “To protect me while I sleep?”
His lips pressed together in what looked like a hint of a smile. “Sort of.” He ran a hand over his semi buzzed hair. “I’m Phoenix De Lange, you probably don’t remember much about meeting me since it was such a… traumatic—” He seemed to choke over the word. “—week, but I’m the boss to the Nicolasi family and…” His eyes shifted from me to the floor like he was uncomfortable. “You know what, why don’t you get dressed first, I’ll make you coffee, and we can chat…”
“Chat?” I repeated. “Why do we need to chat? Aren’t you just here to guard or whatever?”
He smirked. “Sure, I can do that, and while I’m at it, I’ll be sure to fill you in on who your father is, I mean, unless you don’t want to know?”
“What?” I clenched the sheet harder. “What are you talking about?”
“I’m good,” Phoenix whispered a veiled threat. “At killing. At making it look like an accident. I’m the best at hiding when I need to… but my specialty, at least the specialty that’s been passed on to me is that of secrets… it’s how I make deals, how I trade. It isn’t money that makes this world go around, Maya, it’s information. If you own someone’s past, you own their future.”
I swallowed the nausea building up in my chest. “Are you telling me you know more about my past?”
“I’m telling you, I know everything… and so does Nikolai. Look, my wife wouldn’t appreciate me talking to you while you have nothing but a damn sheet covering you, and I actually like staying alive. Wouldn’t put it past Nikolai to get crazy and shoot me or inject me with whatever the hell new medical invention he has and make me talk like a chicken for the rest of my life, either. Get dressed, then we talk, sis.”
“Sis?” I blurted out.
He nodded slowly. “Coffee’s getting cold.” And walked out.
Falling in love is like a mouse falling into a box, there is no way out. –Russian Proverb
TWO BLACK ESCALADES WAITED BY THE Pier, how irritatingly cliché. I kept the engine running and slowly stepped out of the car, my pace unhurried as I slammed the door behind me and leisurely made my way toward the two SUVs. Gravel crunched beneath my shoes with each step.
When I was around four feet away, the door opened, and Petrov stepped out. His stomach protruded beneath a long leather coat, the inside was lined with fur. Amazing that he still needed warmth, one would assume the fat choking his organs would be more than enough to do the trick.
His Sovietnik approached from the other SUV, along with a handful of his muscle or Byki.
I smiled and nodded my head toward the five men, each of them had their hands placed in front of their bodies as if to show me they had no weapons when we all knew they had enough ammo to take out the entire street. “Were they really necessary, Petrov?”
“You tell me.” His cold eyes never left mine.
I didn’t answer and refused to allow my brain to register that I was actually afraid, not for me, but for her, for what he would do to her if he knew the truth.
If I was dead I couldn’t save her.
Then again, if I was dead, Phoenix would know what to do. That had been part of the conversation we’d had right before his plane landed. I wouldn’t be able to welcome him to Seattle, but gave him strict instructions of who would pick him up from the airport and that he was supposed to guard Maya at all costs.