by Lauren Smith
He waited for her to nod. Then he pulled his cell out of his pocket. He had missed a call from Leo, and there was a voice mail. His heart stuttered to a stop as the first words he heard were Code 78.
“What’s a Code 78?” Elena asked. She was sitting close enough that she had heard the message.
“It is need-to-know.”
“Does it have to do with me?” Her voice was pitched sharply.
“Yes.”
“Then I need to know!”
He really couldn’t argue with that, but now was not the time. He needed a minute to process what that meant. It was a code that he had been told would never be used. His father had only mentioned it a handful of times when Dimitri was younger. The only reason he even remembered it was because of the flights of fancy his mind would take, imagining a world where such a thing was possible.
He restarted the car engine and chose his route out of town carefully, going north on the PCH. “It’s not safe to talk about it.”
“We’re in a car, completely alone. No one will hear.” Even though the Pacific Coast Highway tended to be crowded, it wasn’t like they had the windows down.
“Kiska,” he warned, unable to stop a bit of a growl escaping his tone.
“Please,” she begged, and her hand fell on his right forearm. The touch grounded him, and he remembered that she was more than just involved in his life now—she was at the heart of it, in more ways than one. She was more precious to him than he could even rationalize, and he’d nearly lost her. Elena deserved the truth.
“Code 78 means someone like me must protect someone like you.”
“But you already were . . .”
“This is different. This is the reason I am what I am. It means you are special.”
She tightened her hold on his arm. “Special how?”
“It’s your blood. Something in your blood makes you special. I can’t say how until I speak to Leo. He tested the sample I sent, and—”
“What?” Elena gasped. “My blood? How . . . ?”
“When you cut your head that first day at the house. I sent him the cloth I used to clean your wound.”
“You just mailed someone halfway around the world a sample of my blood to run tests on? That’s not okay, Dimitri.” She let go of his arm. “That’s pretty damn far from okay.”
“I know you deserve your privacy, but this . . . this is bigger than your privacy.”
“What could possibly be bigger than my privacy?”
He glanced her way with a grim look. “The very fate of Russia.”
She was silent a moment, biting her bottom lip. She had no idea what he meant when he said that, but she would soon enough.
“So it’s really not about Vadym?” She looked like a small, frightened child. He wanted more than ever to pull over on the side of the road and tug her onto his lap and soothe her.
“No, I thought it was, until Code 78.”
She was silent a long while. The miles flew past as he got them onto the open road.
“Where are we going?” she finally asked.
“Colorado.”
“Why there?”
“It’s ski season. We need crowds. Other agents will expect us to go into hiding somewhere small. We won’t.”
“Won’t we be at risk of being seen? We could be in the background of hundreds of vacation photos. I mean, don’t they have image-recognition software?”
“You are right.”
“So why there?”
“Leo’s software acts faster than Russia’s. It will find any photos online of our faces and delete them before they are found by the enemy.”
“The enemy,” she said, her tone heavy with disbelief.
Dimitri hated that she was going through this now, and it was only going to get worse. Once Viktor failed to report to his handler, the Russians would know Elena had protection. The Kremlin would soon know him for what he was, a guard in the White Army. He would be looking over his shoulder for the rest of his life, and so would Elena.
She yawned and cradled her head in her arm as she rested against the passenger-side window. “Are we stopping soon?”
“In half an hour. I will need coffee so I can drive another few hours.”
She lifted her head to stare at him. “Dimitri, you can’t keep driving that long. You didn’t get any sleep. We should stop at a motel or something.”
“It’s about three and a half hours to Vegas. We will stay there and then keep going.”
“Vegas . . . ,” Elena sighed, half listening, putting her head back in the crook of her arm.
“Vegas indeed,” he echoed with a heavy sigh. It was going to be a long four hours.
Elena got out of the car to stretch her legs three hours later. Dimitri parked their car in the back of a very clean little motel with a small flashing sign that said “Aces Wild.”
“What? We aren’t going to stay at the Bellagio?” she teased. The stress and exhaustion were starting to make her feel rather slaphappy.
“No. We can’t be around cameras yet. Leo will have dropped everything to leave Russia for a Code 78. He won’t be able to help us until he’s here on US soil.”
“Leo’s coming here?”
“And he will most likely bring Maxim and Nicholas.”
“So I get to meet your family, I guess?” She was strangely excited, but also intimidated at the thought of meeting three more men like Dimitri.
He chuckled, but his face was still weary. “Yes, my family.” He motioned for her to follow him into the office of the motel.
The attendant, perhaps close to her age, was watching a TV show on his laptop as they entered the office and stopped at the front desk.
“We would like a room, please,” Dimitri said in a flawless American accent. He removed a wad of cash from his wallet.
“Sure thing, no problem,” the young man said. “All we have left are king-size beds. Is that okay?”
“King-size is fine,” Dimitri replied. “If number six on the back side is available, we’d like it.”
“Sure. You guys newlyweds?”
“We are.” Dimitri wrapped an arm around her waist, pulled her into his side, and pressed a kiss to her temple. Elena wanted to melt into him. In the last several hours, she had felt lost all over again, tired and defeated by the world, but his touch, his kiss, even so innocent a one, was like a strong rainfall after months of drought. She soaked him up, clinging to him in return.
“Congratulations! You guys look like you’re really in love.” The young man handed Dimitri a room key. “What name should I put down?”
“John St. Michael.”
“No problem. Have a great night.” The clerk waved at them as they left. She and Dimitri walked to the room near the car and let themselves in.
“You should rest for a bit. I will bring in our suitcases.” His accent was back. She’d actually missed it.
Elena wanted to help him, but the exhaustion was catching up to her again. She lay down on the bed and closed her eyes, but when she heard the door click shut and Dimitri moving about the room, she forced herself to sit up.
“Here, change into these.” Dimitri placed her pajamas in her arms, and on top was her toothbrush and toothpaste. He always thought of everything.
“Thanks.” She shut herself inside the small bathroom, changed, and brushed her teeth, then headed straight to bed. He had already pulled the covers back for her. The inviting nature of so small a thing made her throat tighten. He truly did care about her.
“Go to sleep, kiska. I’ll wake you in the morning,” he said.
“You’ll sleep with me tonight?” she asked as she buried her face in the pillow.
“Of course.” He bent over and pressed a light kiss to her cheek. “As long as I am with you, and you wish it, you will never sleep alone.”
Dimitri washed his face in the bathroom and stripped out of his clothes before he checked on the small cut on his head. The liquid stitches were holding well. He tried to
distract himself from thinking about Leo’s message and to focus on what to do when they reached Colorado. But every one of his thoughts came back to Code 78.
He hadn’t been able to tell Elena everything. He could barely believe it himself. He had been telling the truth when he had said that her blood, her very DNA, was special. The code was reserved only for close relatives of the Romanov family. Leo must have found some matching genetic code to one of the relatives of the imperial family. She wouldn’t be the only one. There were dozens of minor relatives who had escaped Russia. The question was, which one was Elena connected to? And why was the government coming after her and not the others?
He retrieved his phone from the small desk in the bedroom and left Leo a voice mail. “Twenty-three, nine, eight, four, sixty-seven.” The code would allow Leo to know that Dimitri was on the move with Elena after having put down a threat, and they were headed northeast from Vegas through Utah and then to Colorado. He would leave another message soon, but there was no point until he decided where in Utah they would stop for the night. Leo wouldn’t bother with commercial airlines—he would use the private jet so they wouldn’t be stuck waiting on flight times. But that still left somewhere between 6 and twelve hours before he would be set up in the United States. Dimitri would have to give him a heads-up on where to rendezvous.
Dimitri peeked through the curtain to check the parking lot, and then re-locked the front door before he retrieved his gun and sat down on the edge of the bed by Elena. She was already fast asleep. He marveled at the amount of trust that had to involve. He scraped a hand over his jaw as he realized he had one more call to make. He dialed Royce on a secure line.
A sleepy voice answered after half a dozen rings. “Dimitri?”
“We had to leave Malibu.”
“What? Why?” Royce sounded more alert now.
“It’s a long story, but there’s a dead Russian agent in your basement.”
“A dead Russian . . . in my basement? You know there are better gifts to give a friend. Like an expensive bottle of scotch.” Royce was teasing, but Dimitri didn’t miss the worry in his friend’s words.
“I promise it will be handled soon. There was some damage to your place. Bullet holes, a couple of lamps . . .”
“Those are replaceable,” Royce assured him. “Are you both all right?”
“Yes, thanks to you. I borrowed the Kevlar vest and the handgun. I figured you wouldn’t mind.”
“And to think Wes gave me hell for putting a bulletproof vest in the closet of my beach house. Who’s laughing now?” Dimitri managed a smile. Wes Thorne, their mutual friend, always believed Royce overreacted, but Royce had been right this time.
“I took two shots to the chest, so you can tell Thorne I’m on your side on that issue.”
“Fuck. What about Elena?”
“He got to her. The bullets slowed me down.” He winced as his cracked ribs protested. “She’s alive, but . . .” Dimitri struggled to finish. The sight of her bruised neck replayed in his mind again and again. “She’s shaken.”
“How is she handling it? That kid has been through so much, and she’s only twenty.”
“I know.” He kept forgetting how young Elena was. She seemed so mature, so brave, an old soul, as his grandmother would have said. But she really was young. He tried to remember what he had felt like at her age. That would have been nine years ago. It felt more like a century.
“She’s been braver than I could have been had I gone through what she’s been through,” he admitted.
“You know, she should talk to Cody Larson, Emery Lockwood’s tech man.”
“Yes? I remember him. He was the one who helped give you a way to escape Vadym’s car in Mongolia.”
“Well, you recall when I told you about Emery’s kidnapping? Finding his twin brother after twenty-five years?”
“Yes . . .”
“Well, when that all went down, Cody was abducted and tortured by the man behind Emery’s childhood kidnapping. The bastard shattered one of his hands with an iron mallet. He isn’t the same, physically or emotionally, but he survived, you know? It might be good for her to talk to him.”
“I agree. Would you send him my number? Tell him why I’m asking for it?”
“Will do.” Royce hesitated. “So if you left Malibu, you’re somewhere . . .”
“Sinful,” Dimitri replied with a grin, knowing Royce would get the reference.
“Sinful indeed.” Royce chuckled. “Well, whatever you do, no drive-through weddings. Kenzie would be pissed if she missed it.”
Dimitri rolled his eyes.
“Where will you end up?”
“New Orleans, I’m thinking,” Dimitri replied, again using a code to see if Royce would get his meaning.
“I guess you packed your snow gear, then?” Royce said. “I hear it’s cold in New Orleans this time of year.” He pronounced New Orleans as Nawlins.
“We did.” Dimitri relaxed. The code had worked.
“Travel safe.”
“We will.” Dimitri ended the call.
“I thought we were going to Colorado?” Elena spoke up from behind him. He turned on the edge of the bed to face her.
“We are.”
“But you said New Orleans.”
“That was code.”
“Code for what?” Elena sat up a little in the bed.
“Royce told me about a place in Colorado he loves called Steamboat Springs, and he talked about how Colorado isn’t a place suited to having steamboats, so we both wondered how the town got the name. I said New Orleans because it’s famous for steamboats.”
“So you really are Royce’s good friend.”
“Yes, kiska.” He smiled and leaned toward her. “Now go back to sleep.”
“Will you . . .” She swallowed hard enough that he heard the sound. “Will you hold me? I seem to sleep better when you do.”
“As you wish.” He put his gun by the nightstand, stripped down to his briefs, and turned off the light. She cuddled up against his side, and he pulled the blankets around them. His heart tightened as he held her in his arms. She was soft, small, and so perfectly feminine in all the right ways. She let out a sigh, her warm breath covering his chest, and he had to quell the rising desire in his body. Anything that happened between them must be at her request, not his.
He brushed her hair back from her face and admired her features. She was truly the loveliest woman he had ever seen. She was free of worry lines, and her petal-soft lips curved slightly, as though whatever dreams now captivated her were good ones. For that he was glad. This woman deserved no tears caused by pain. He would kill to protect her and give her the future she deserved. He only wished he knew what his role in that future would be.
10
Elena was dreaming. She had to be, because in her dream, she was bound and gagged, helpless, trapped in the dark, barely able to breathe.
Wake up! she tried to shout, but the gag prevented anything but a muffled sound from escaping. A door suddenly opened, and bright light illuminated a tall, intimidating form. She cowered, the chains rattling as she tried to curl in on herself and make herself a smaller target. The man came toward her, stepping into the darkness and crouching beside her.
“Kiska, you need never be in the dark again,” a voice soothed her. Soon, his hands were at her wrists, unbinding the shackles and removing the gag.
“Dimitri?” She threw her arms around his neck, clinging to him. He was the only thing keeping her afloat in a black sea of despair.
She burrowed her face in the crook of his neck as he lifted her up in the cradle of his arms. “Please, never leave me.”
As they stepped into the light, the Dimitri in her dreams gazed down at her. “Why are you special?”
“I’m not.”
She bit her lip, and tears filled her eyes as everything, even the warm light, began to fade around her.
“I’m not special. I’m not!”
Elena jerked awake with a
gasp and then a groan as her head pounded with a headache. She was back in the dark . . . No, she wasn’t. It took her a moment to process her surroundings. She was lying in a hotel bed, the curtains pulled tight on the windows. Everything was calm and quiet. The shower running in the bathroom explained Dimitri’s absence from the bed. She sat up and took in a deep breath, but she winced as pain clamped down around her throat. She touched the tender spot where the man had tried to strangle her. She had to be bruised there.
Had that all really happened last night? A Russian agent broke into her room and tried to kill her? Demanded to know why she was important? She remembered Dimitri firing his gun, bringing the man down. She should be more traumatized, but she wasn’t, at least not as much as she thought she should be. Being Vadym’s plaything, she had seen much worse. He had killed dozens of people in the two months she had been his captive, most of them so close in front of her that blood had splattered her face and she had been unable to wash it away for hours at a time. It had amused Vadym to see her suffer like that.
But Vadym was gone. She had to stop thinking about him. Her life was moving forward, not backward, even if people were trying to kill her. That was something she hadn’t yet processed, the insane idea that she was somehow special enough that the Russian government wanted her dead. It was too much to take in.
She just wanted it all to stop, for life to go back to the way it had been. College classes, worrying about midterms and finals, spending hours in the library looking for resources for her class papers.
The sound of running water in the bathroom reminded her of what she would lose if she returned to her old life.
The only thing she didn’t want to change was Dimitri and the way he made her feel. Her skin flushed and her toes curled as she remembered what it felt like to have his hands on her, his mouth on hers. She’d felt not only normal, but alive.
Flashes of him carrying her out of the darkness and into the light made her shiver. The water shut off in the bathroom, and Elena quickly lay back down and pretended to be asleep. She hadn’t forgotten what they had done last night before they had been attacked. He had brought her to a blinding climax while she had been at his mercy. Even the memory of it made her blush. She held her breath as the bathroom door opened. Soft footfalls around the room teased her enough that she parted her lashes to steal a glance at him.
