Spying Under the Mistletoe (Love Undercover Book 2)

by Stina Lindenblatt

  Santa has a short line, so the four of us stand in it, waiting for Emily’s turn.

  “I’m going to be a big sister,” she tells Landon and me. She holds her hands out as if describing the size of a fish she just caught.

  I crouch to her level. “You’re so lucky. I’ve always wanted to be a big sister. I bet you’ll be a super cool one.”

  Emily rapidly nods. “Are you Uncle Landon’s girlfriend?”

  “Yes, I am.”

  “Momma says Uncle Adam needs a girlfriend. She told me to ask Santa to bring him one for Christmas.”

  I look at the man in question in time to catch him rolling his eyes. “Your mother knows Santa doesn’t have room in his sleigh to bring me a girlfriend. So you don’t have to worry about asking him for that.”

  “Could you get Uncle Adam a girlfriend?” she asks me.

  “Your Uncle Adam can get his own girlfriend,” he responds.

  She peers up at him. “That’s what Daddy told Momma. She told him that he was wrong. And that she’d never get to be an aunt unless someone does something about it soon.” Emily gives a hard nod, her face a mask of determination, and returns her gaze to me. “Will you get Uncle Adam a girlfriend for Christmas?”

  “Unfortunately, I don’t know anyone looking for a boyfriend. Everyone I know is married or is engaged or has a boyfriend.”

  The only exception is Kiera, and she’s made it quite clear she’s not ready for the dating scene yet.

  Emily releases a disappointed breath. “I’m sorry, Uncle Adam. I tried.”

  “Maybe you should go with your original plan of asking Santa to bring him one for Christmas,” Landon says on a chuckle.

  I stand and elbow him in the ribs. “Oh, I’m sorry. Did I accidentally hit you?” I flash him a teasing grin.

  He pulls me against his body and presses his lips against mine.

  They eagerly return the sentiment.

  I’m vaguely aware of a murmur of voices and then…

  “Ewww. Don’t kiss.”

  We separate, and I look at the little girl. “Did your uncle tell you to say that?”

  She nods, her head moving in a jerky exaggeration.

  The kid who’s on Santa’s lap scrambles off. Adam escorts Emily over to the man and lowers her onto his lap.

  She stares at Santa, eyes wide.

  Santa says something to her…and she keeps on staring.

  Adam prompts her to say something. She nods, eyes still round with awe.

  “I guess she won’t be asking Santa to bring Adam a girlfriend after all,” I say, laughing.

  Landon wraps his arms around me from behind. “Looks like you might be right.”

  If whoever has a contract out on me sees us now, there’d be no doubt in their mind that he’s my boyfriend. It might not be true as far as Landon’s concerned, but no one would know that. He really is a good actor.

  Landon’s phone pings that he’s got a text. He pulls it out of his pocket and checks the screen. A frown wrinkles between his eyes.

  “Is everything all right?”

  He doesn’t respond, too busy typing his reply.

  The phone pings again a moment later.

  He returns it to his pocket. “Everything’s fine.”

  He might say that, but his voice tells me otherwise.

  If he really were my boyfriend, I’d try to get him to talk about whatever’s bothering him. Maybe not here, in public, but definitely back at his place.

  But he’s not, so I’m not sure what to do.

  Emily and Adam return. Her shell shock has vanished, and she skips toward us. Adam is right behind her, checking his phone.

  His gaze lands on Landon. Landon nods at some unspoken question between them.

  Without saying anything to me, Landon walks to a pile of trees leaning against a wall, their branches tied together with nylon string.

  He grabs one. “This looks good.” He walks toward a table where a woman is collecting the money for the trees.

  “Is something wrong?” I ask Adam.

  Emily is busy poking the tree next to where Landon grabbed ours. “This one.” She points to it.

  “Good choice,” Adam says, no longer paying attention to her. He’s busy typing on his phone.

  With his eyes on the screen, he reaches in the general direction she pointed and grabs at the air instead.

  I hand him the correct tree. He nods and slips his phone into his jacket pocket. “Thanks.”

  Landon has finished paying for our tree by the time we arrive at the table. “See you,” he tells his colleague, giving him a meaningful look that’s lost on me.

  Next, we go to a store that specializes in Christmas decorations and leave with enough ornaments to cover the tree. Ornaments he gave me free rein to choose.

  Back at the town house, Landon sets up the tree in the living room, much to Whiskey’s delight. The puppy keeps inspecting it, no doubt wondering why a spruce is now growing in the room.

  Landon arranges the lights on the branches. He might be smiling, but there’s something still off about him. The smile seems forced and is missing from his eyes.

  “Are you okay?” I ask, repeating my earlier question. It’s possible that memories of his dead girlfriend, and memories associated with the holiday season before she died, are being dredged up, thanks to our tree.

  “I’m fine.” He doesn’t look at me when he says it. He studies the ornament in his hand as if memorizing every tiny detail.

  The doorbell rings as I’m hanging up a wooden mouse decoration in the tree. Landon goes to answer it and returns a minute later with Ava, Liam, and Adam. The man and woman with them, both wearing suits, are the same ones who showed up at the school with the police shortly after my attempted kidnapping.

  All look as though someone kicked a litter of puppies several blocks.

  I smile at Ava. “Landon didn’t tell me you were coming over.”

  She opens her mouth to say something. Landon cuts her off.

  “This is Agent Foden and Agent Ramsey with the FBI.” He nods at the two other individuals. They flash their IDs at me.

  I scan everyone’s faces, searching for a hint of what’s going on. I draw a blank. Other than Ava’s pained expression, no one else is giving anything away.

  “What’s going on?” I ask.

  Ava steps forward. “Maybe you should sit down.”

  “No, I’m good standing.” I look at Landon, silently imploring him to explain why FBI agents are in his living room. Is he in trouble because of who he works for? That would make sense. I’m sure my cousin is on some FBI’s most wanted list. “Would someone tell me what’s going on?”

  “As you’re no doubt aware,” the woman, Agent Foden, says, “Vadik Orlov, your grandfather, has been indicted for a long list of charges,”

  I nod. “What does that have to do with me? He’s my biological grandfather, but I cut ties with the family years ago. I have nothing to do with him or any of his criminal activities.”

  “We know. As part of the case, law officials have been combing through his various holdings, looking for evidence for the upcoming trial. As well as searching for evidence of additional wrongdoings.”

  I nod in understanding, although I’m not really sure why they’re telling me this.

  “Three bodies were discovered buried in a wooded area linked to one of your grandfather’s properties,” Agent Ramsey says.

  “Bodies?”

  “They were human remains.”

  “Remains?” Nice. I’ve become a parrot.

  “Skeletons, to be exact. Three males. Recent autopsies identified that they all died of blunt-force trauma to the head.”

  I frown, not understanding what this has to do with me. “Okay. So you found three male skeletons on one of my grandfather’s properties. I’m not sure why you’re telling me this. As I’ve already explained, I have nothing to do with that family.”

  Panic gnaws inside me like a beaver attempting to fell
a tree. They seriously can’t believe I have something to do with this.

  Can they?

  The agents look at Landon.

  He turns to me. “Chloe, the FBI was able to identify the bodies. They belonged to William Reinhart, Curtis Cartwright, and Mark Greenwood.”

  My biological father, my stepfather, and my ex-boyfriend.

  At their names, it’s like a tap has been turned on, the blood rapidly draining from my head. I sway, the ramification ping-ponging in my thoughts. It can’t be them. The FBI must be wrong. Not as convinced by my words as my brain, my legs call it a day, and I slump to the floor.

  Landon catches me before my body has a chance to hit the hardwood. I’m vaguely aware of him scooping me up and placing me on the couch.

  Despite the warmth of the room, a chill sneaks into my body, and I shiver uncontrollably.

  Landon wraps his arm around me and says something to Ava. I have no idea what. It’s like he’s talking to her through glycerine, his words garbled.

  Ava grabs the red-and-white plaid blanket from the armchair and hands it to Landon. It’s the Christmas blanket I’d bought from my apartment. For once, it doesn’t bring me comfort. It doesn’t warm me up.

  I could stand on the beach in Hawaii during a heat wave, and I still wouldn’t warm up.

  Landon says something else. Again, I have no idea what he’s saying.

  I try to piece all the bits together to make sense of everything. I come up blank. The only thing I can comprehend is the question that keeps repeating in my brain again and again and again.

  Why were they murdered? Was it because they’d left me with a broken heart?

  Or had they simply become twisted up in my family’s criminal activities?

  But that doesn’t make sense. While my father and stepfather might have gotten caught up in it, since there’s no way they could have not known about my family’s dark side, Mark had nothing to do with that world.

  I started dating him after I left my family.

  They would’ve left him alone.

  Or I assumed they would’ve left him alone. Was I wrong to believe that? Had I condemned all future boyfriends to a life of crime due to my family making them an “offer” they couldn’t refuse?

  A voice in my head whispers another possibility. Or had it never been their intention to leave me? Did someone make the choice for them?

  Adam passes me a glass of amber liquid. My arms refuse to obey the simple command to take it from him.

  Landon accepts it from him and lifts the glass to my lips. I don’t understand what he’s saying, but I do understand what he wants me to do.

  I sip the liquid and relish the slow burn as it slides down my throat. For the first time since Landon broke the news, the numbness recedes a little, enough for me to accept the glass from him, the liquid sloshing inside it.

  I take another sip, aware of several people talking, but I have no idea if they’re talking to each other or if the questions are directed at me.

  Had they really intended to leave me? Or did someone make that choice for them?

  Ava sits on the other side of me and hugs me. “I’m so sorry, Chloe,” she hoarsely whispers.

  Had they really intended to leave me? Or did someone make that choice for them?

  If they had been involved with my family’s criminal activities, why were they murdered? Did they know too much? Did they all try to walk away, only to discover that there’s no escaping once you agree to help my grandfather with that first request?

  The thought of them stolen from me all those years ago finally forms a crack in the numbness. Tears dampen my face and the blanket wrapped around me.

  Landon pulls me to him, and I sob into his shoulder.

  For all those years…

  All those years I believed I was better off not giving my heart to another man because every man who was important to me had left me, never bothering to contact me again.

  And now I know why.

  They’d never been given a chance.

  I pull away from Landon. “Why?” I croak to no one in particular. “Why were they murdered?”

  “We have no motive at this point,” Agent Foden says, “but based on the autopsy, it’s highly probable the same individual was responsible for each of their deaths, even though they took place over two decades.”

  Whiskey sees my wet face and whimpers. He then tries to scramble onto the couch. I don’t have the energy to pick him up. Ava does that for me.

  The little bundle of fuzz licks my hand and climbs onto my lap. I absently stroke his fur, letting the action semi-ground me.

  “Chloe,” Landon says, his arm still holding me. “Agents Foden and Ramsey need to ask you some questions. They’re hoping it might answer why the men were killed and who was responsible.”

  I nod. The same questions are burning in my head…along with a new one.

  Is Nikolai involved with the FBI? Is that why the two agents are with Liam, Adam, and Landon, as though that’s a regular occurrence?

  Okay, that’s two questions.

  Instead of waiting for theirs, I voice one of my own.

  “Where’s Nikolai?”

  Landon stiffens next to me, but it happens so quickly, I’m not sure if I imagined it.

  “We don’t know,” Agent Foden says. “That’s one of the things we’re hoping you can help us with.”

  “I haven’t seen or heard from him in years, after I left my family because of their…” They already know, Chloe. They already know your grandfather was the head of the mafia crime family. “Because of their criminal activities. I wanted none of that.”

  “And he hasn’t tried to contact you since?”

  “He used to send me birthday and Christmas cards, but that was about it. I didn’t even know if he was still with the family or if he had stepped away from it. He wanted to be a cop when he was a kid. I thought maybe there was a chance he’d done exactly that but decided not to contact me because things were too complicated.”

  It was my favorite story I told myself whenever I’d missed Nikolai.

  “I can guarantee he’s not with any police forces,” Agent Ramsey says. “Your grandfather was shaping him to be the new mafia boss. And that’s exactly what we believe he’s doing. He took over your grandfather’s role after Vadik Orlov was arrested. But he went underground.”

  “We’re hoping you know something that will help us locate him,” Agent Foden says. “Or if he tries to contact you, we can attempt to flush him out.”

  We’re hoping you know something that will help us locate him…

  His words echo in my head like the bells of Notre Dame. They repeat themselves again and again and again until they fade away.

  I look at Liam and Adam and Landon in turn and feel a frown forming on my brow. “But you’ve spoken with him recently.”

  I catch the slight wince on Landon’s face.

  The FBI has no idea Landon and his colleagues are helping Nikolai, that they’re the ones in contact with my cousin, not me.

  They never wanted the FBI involved, but that’s precisely what happened.

  Does this mean they could go to jail?

  It’s Landon who answers my unspoken questions. “We haven’t spoken to him. We were hired to track him down through you.”

  “Hired? Who hired you?”

  “The FBI. We work with them from time to time, helping with some of their cases.”

  When I was eight years old, I accidentally crashed my bike into my favorite climbing tree. My bike was totaled, and my arm landed in a cast. At the time, I’d felt like the tree had betrayed me.

  The pain and sting of betrayal I’d felt is nothing compared to what I’m experiencing now.

  I pull away from Landon. “You lied to me.” The words scrape my throat like sandpaper on fire. “You lied to me about who you are. You were using me all this time.”

  I stand, sending Whiskey tumbling to the floor, and back away from Landon, almost tripping over Av
a’s feet.

  “Let me guess, you staged the attempted kidnapping so I would agree to be your girlfriend. Then you could use me to get to my cousin?”

  This entire time I’d been kept on a short leash, all for nothing.

  I’d poured out my heart, all for nothing.

  I’d been falling in love, all for nothing.

  “I bet all that stuff you told me about your old girlfriend was a lie, too.”

  Landon shoots to his feet. “That’s not true.” His tone is hard. I don’t understand why he’s mad at me. He was the one who manipulated me, not the other way around. “Everything else was true. The only thing that wasn’t was who hired us. But I never said Nikolai hired us. That was all on you.”

  “But you never corrected me when I assumed he was the reason for your sudden appearance in my life. You’ve had plenty of time to tell me the truth, but you didn’t. You kept stringing me along, making me think my cousin still loved me enough to hire men to protect me.” My voice cracks again, the fissure in my heart widening with each bitter word.

  The only thing saving it from completely splitting in two is the knowledge that my father, stepfather, and Mark might not have stopped loving me like I’d initially believed. They were murdered.

  But Nikolai…he was another matter.

  I’d loved him like he was my brother, like he was my best friend, but in the end, he was the one who had walked away from me.

  By choice.

  25

  Landon

  I’m not one for feeling helpless. I’m a doer. A person who has to be in control of the situation.

  But right now, a foreign sense of helplessness is winding its way around my heart.

  It wasn’t supposed to go down like this. None of it was—including Chloe believing her cousin hired us to protect her.

  The lie is all on me.

  I thought it would be easier to get answers.

  I fucked everything up.

  The look of betrayal on her face guts me. All I can do for several seconds is stare idiotically at her, trying to figure out how to make things better.

  For her.

  For me.

  For us.

  She turns to the agents. “I’m sorry, but I can’t help you. I have no idea where he is.”