by Lauren Smith
“Use his energy, Elena,” Dimitri urged.
She spun into Maxim and launched her hand at his face. He dodged the blow, but it forced him to step back, and she latched onto his leg and pulled down and away from him, forcing him to stumble. She twisted free enough that he had only a grip on her wrist, and without any prompting, she spun back in his direction and kicked. Maxim barely avoided a foot to his groin. He immediately released her, and she stumbled back, her chest rising and falling with shallow breaths. She kept her distance, panting as she eyed them like a frightened animal.
Dimitri held up a hand before Maxim could advance on her again. Neither of them moved now as they waited for her to calm down.
“Deep breaths, kiska. You are safe. It’s me and Maxim,” Dimitri said. Her green eyes were still wild with terror. “Elena.” Her eyes flashed away from the threat, Maxim, to Dimitri.
“Breathe with me.” He reached out to take one of her hands and placed it on his chest. Then he drew in several slow, deep breaths. Her breath hitched a few times before she settled into a slower rhythm.
“There,” he said gently. “You’re fine. You did well.”
After a moment, she turned back toward Maxim, that determined expression back on her face. “I need to do that again.”
“Maxim,” Dimitri said, but when Elena seemed to prepare herself for Maxim, expecting him to attack her, Dimitri grabbed her from behind.
She reacted with fear as expected, but she forced it away quicker this time. This time when she got free, her eyes were full of jade fire.
“What’s next? What if he has a hold around my neck or something?”
Dimitri and Maxim shared a glance.
“May I?” Maxim asked Dimitri.
Dimitri waved for him to step forward to instruct Elena on the next move.
Over the next half hour, the intense look of dread on Elena’s face began to relax, and she occasionally grinned as she successfully countered their moves.
Nicholas entered the room behind Elena without her seeing him. Dimitri knew this would be a good test. She was tired, confident, and relaxed.
Dimitri gave Nick the barest hint of a nod, and the man launched himself at Elena from behind. Nicholas was a charmer, but he fought dirty. He grabbed her by the throat in a choke hold. His other hand strayed up her waist to rest just below her breasts, and Dimitri’s heart sank as he saw the old terror fill Elena’s eyes.
Then, just like that, her panic cleared and a stone-cold resolve replaced it. She curled into Nicholas, and within half a second, she had used Nicholas’s own energy against him, sending him flying onto his back. A groan escaped Nicholas’s lips, and he didn’t bother getting up from the mat. He muttered a few choice words in Russian.
“Well done, kiska,” Dimitri said.
The stoniness within her eyes slowly faded.
“Sorry, Nicholas.” She reached down and held out a hand to him. Was she even aware that she’d offered her hand so freely? For the last few days, she had been careful to keep her physical distance from his friends. Now she was acting more normal than ever and not shying away from them. He couldn’t help but wonder if the training had done more than teach her self-defense. Maybe the repeated exposure of close contact in this particular setting had helped her feel more like her old self again. Whatever it was, he was damned glad about it.
“What’s next?” Elena asked.
“Next you shower, and then we eat dinner. You will be exhausted tonight, and you will need proper rest to resume training tomorrow.” Dimitri didn’t miss the mix of disappointment and relief in her eyes.
He followed her to the master bedroom and watched her collect her things for the shower. She was abnormally quiet, seemingly lost in her thoughts. He placed a hand on her shoulder. She went still an instant before she relaxed, and he started to pull away.
“No, wait, don’t—” She reached for his hand, surrounding it with her own. “I’m sorry. I’m still wired from all the training, but I think . . . I think I need to be touched.”
Without a word, Dimitri pulled her into his arms. He let her feel the security and warmth of his body around hers.
“Better?” he asked. She nodded against his chest. “Then come find me when you are done, kiska.” He tilted her chin up and kissed her. He let her feel his hunger, and she moaned softly in response and pressed tighter to him. He wasn’t sure how long the kiss actually lasted, but the light was beginning to fade outside when their mouths broke apart. He took far too much satisfaction at the dazed and happy expression on her face as he let her go.
He left her alone to shower and rejoined the others in the great room. Maxim and Nicholas had found a chessboard and were playing. Leo was on the couch nearby, his laptop resting on his thighs as he drank a glass of scotch and studied the major news headlines.
“You cheat,” Maxim accused Nicholas with a scowl.
“I do not,” Nicholas retorted. When Dimitri joined them, Nicholas shot him a conspiratorial wink that Maxim couldn’t see.
“Your bishop was not there. You moved it,” Maxim argued.
“I moved it there on my last turn. You weren’t paying attention.” Nicholas leaned back in his leather armchair, far too smug.
Dimitri chuckled. Some things never changed. Nicholas disregarded the rules and boundaries as much as he could, while Maxim clung to them until they crumbled around him. Dimitri collapsed onto the couch beside Leo and let his head fall back to rest on the sofa.
“Elena did well today. Max couldn’t stop praising her when he came in,” Leo said.
“Oh?” Dimitri felt a flare of pride. Earning Maxim’s respect was hard to do. Not that he was surprised. She was a true fighter, and Maxim would respect that.
“It’s good she did so well,” Leo added, his tone now serious. “Because I believe we’re out of time.”
They all turned to Leo. “What? What did you see?” Dimitri asked. His stomach knotted as he wondered what level of threat they now faced.
“Vladimir Andropov is bound for the United States. He lands in Los Angeles in a few hours.”
“Shit,” Nicholas muttered. “I am not a fan of his.”
“Is anyone?” Maxim growled. Viktor had been bad enough, but he was a solo assassin. Vladimir was more dangerous because he wouldn’t come alone. He would bring an army.
Dimitri leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “How many came with him?”
“He’s alone . . . he didn’t bring anyone else with him.”
Maxim cursed. That meant he was going to activate sleeper agents already present in the United States, people that Leo would have no alerts set for. They were flying blind now.
“You know what we have to do,” Maxim replied. His solemn tone made goosebumps break out on Dimitri’s arms.
“No,” Dimitri said. “No. I won’t even consider it.”
“We made a vow,” Maxim reminded him.
Dimitri jerked to his feet and stalked toward the tall windows that faced the mountains. The sun had set beyond the peaks, and a purple glow had settled over the mountains sloping toward the cabin.
“This is the best place for it. Draw the men here and end it,” Maxim said, his thoughts miles ahead, already planning the battle.
“And Elena?” Dimitri asked.
“We will take the little czarina far away,” Nicholas said. “Or, I should say, you will. And we’ll find a Jane Doe at the morgue to put in her place. When the reports come in, the Kremlin will assume she was caught in the crossfire and killed. She can live the rest of her life quietly out of sight, under a different name—”
“And what? Live some quiet little life in some town, wearing different contacts, always dying her hair? That’s not living. And I won’t leave you to fight on your own. We agreed we would take her public, give her a chance to have a life and never fear anyone coming after her.”
“That was before we knew Vladimir would come after her, he’s too high up in the ranks to make the mistake of
leaving her alive. He’ll do anything he can to kill her. This is the only way. If we survive the fight, then she’ll be safe enough for long enough to get her to New York before the United Nations.”
Dimitri had the urge to break everything in sight. How could his friends just agree to put themselves in mortal danger and force him to flee with Elena?
“Then you find another man willing to die for her, and he can take her and you can make a noble last stand with us if it comes to it,” Nicholas said. He had risen from his chair and paced halfway toward Dimitri.
This time it was Leo who spoke. “We can’t outrun them forever. Vladimir won’t be as easy to kill as Viktor. You caught Viktor off guard. He didn’t know what he was dealing with. But Vladimir will have put the pieces together by now and he’ll bring an army with him.”
The men he’d considered his brothers had turned against him. They wanted to throw their lives away so he could flee like a coward.
“My father would never have turned his back on his men,” Dimitri shot back.
“Didn’t he?” Maxim and Leo got to their feet as well. “Your father abandoned his men to avenge your mother. Don’t preach to us about his duty to the cause.”
That cut too deep. His father had focused on revenge, and never once did he think about his men or his son. But because it was the truth did not make it easy to accept. Far from it. He grabbed the car keys on the counter and headed for the front door. He had to think, had to do something. He had to . . . he honestly didn’t know what.
Elena was almost ready to step into the shower when she heard the slam of a distant door. She slipped on a bathrobe and tiptoed into the hallway, pausing in the doorway that led to the great room. Dimitri’s friends were speaking softly and urgently in Russian, and she picked out only a few fragments she recognized.
“Must be done . . . plan for it . . . he will come around,” Leo said.
“The little czarina . . . she will be fine. A quiet life . . . settle him down,” Nicholas said.
“It’s up to us,” Maxim said. “We make the plans tonight without him. Once he gets back, we’ll tell him what he has to do and he’ll fall in line.”
A chill snaked up her spine. Dimitri was the one who had left? Why? Was he coming back? Panic overwhelmed her, and she sank back against the wall, clutching her chest.
He was coming back. He wouldn’t leave her. But even if he did, she had to go on alone. She was strong enough. She had to be. Too many people depended on her now for fear to rule her life another second.
She pushed away from the wall, got control of her breathing, and stepped into the great room, trying not to think about the fact that she had only a bathrobe on.
“Where is Dimitri?”
Guilt showed on all their faces before they masked it with polite innocence.
“He needed some air,” Leo hedged.
“A lot of air,” Nicholas added.
“What must be done? What are you planning?” Elena kept her tone calm but commanding. “And if you say nothing, I will no longer trust any of you, and I’ll second-guess every single thing you ask of me from now on.” She was bluffing—she had no real power over these men, and they had to know it—but it was worth trying.
Maxim gave Leo the barest hint of a nod.
“Men are coming for you,” Leo said.
She clutched the bathrobe tighter around her neck. “How many?”
“We don’t know,” Leo admitted. “Likely too many.”
“When will they be here?”
“It depends on when they find you. I don’t believe they know where you went after leaving Malibu. But they won’t stop looking until we give them a reason to stop,” Leo explained. He dragged a hand through his dark-blond hair and frowned.
“You want to use me as bait?” she guessed.
“Yes. But when they come, we would be sure you would be long gone with Dimitri,” Maxim said.
In a burst of sudden clarity, she understood why Dimitri had been angry enough to leave the house. They wanted him to turn tail and run.
“Dimitri doesn’t want to do this, does he?”
“No,” Maxim said. “He won’t put you in danger, nor will he abandon us to fight where we will be heavily outmanned. But we all agreed long ago to give our lives to this fight.”
Elena was silent a long moment. “Dimitri said you were all raised in this life together as children. You couldn’t possibly agree to something like that so young.”
“When we first saw you at the lodge in Utah, we renewed those vows. We will die for you.” Maxim spoke with such fierce pride that it made her chest tight.
“And what if I want you to live for me instead?”
It was clear none of them had expected that.
“What if we called in some help and set the bait, like you planned?” She was no master tactician, but she had a few ideas.
Nicholas sent her a sympathetic look. “Elena, we can’t risk anyone else. You’re too important.”
“If I’m so important, then listen to me. I have people I can trust who can help. Let me call them. The more people you have helping you, then the less likely it is we’ll die right?”
“You won’t be here long enough for that, no matter what Dimitri is getting you out of here after we draw them in.” Nicholas tried to cut in gently but his words didn’t reassure her at all.
“You want me to hide?”
“Until it’s safe to go public, yes,” Maxim said.
“Your genes are an academic matter,” Leo added. “They are nothing without the story. It is the story the government fears and a story must go public. But you can’t go out there in front of a hundred cameras until we know we’ve gotten rid of the main threat and sent a message back to the Kremlin. Then it will be your turn.”
“My turn?”
Nicholas nodded. “You must become the true descendent of Anastasia—not just as a quirk of your DNA, but to see it as your blood right. The entire world must know you for who you are and accept it as fact.” The thought made her dizzy, and she clutched the robe between her fingers, wishing it were a suit of armor.
“The whole world,” she said, half to herself.
“It’s the only way we can make you untouchable.” Leo lifted his computer screen and showed it to her. There was a website that listed a United Nations event.
“We would start here. Announce your heritage to the world at this event. You would step in front of the cameras and become the most protected person on the planet.”
She couldn’t stop the shiver that came with that knowledge. It created an image in her mind of being everywhere, of being a true force in the world. The right person, with the world’s spotlight on them, could sometimes accomplish more than even politicians. She thought of the causes she could champion, the lives she could change . . . if she was brave enough to take that step.
“We just have to keep you alive long enough to get you to that dinner.” Maxim’s dry tone echoed with grim humor. “Should be easy.”
“So, tell me your plan,” Elena said.
They only had a brief amount of time to discuss things before Dimitri returned, and there was a lot to do if they were to pull this off and avoid as many casualties as possible. She didn’t want to think about losing even one of her new friends.
Royce stared at his phone; the screen faded to black after the call ended. He sat at the antique desk in one corner of his bedroom, feeling the weight of recent events in a way he’d never expected.
Kenzie watched him with open concern. “What is it?” She lounged on his bed, hair pulled up in a messy bun. She was tapping on her keyboard as she worked on a presentation for one of their classes. She was so damned adorable. But at that moment, his mind was on other things. Life-and-death things.
“That was Elena,” he said, still processing her words.
Kenzie abandoned her laptop and sat up, swinging her legs off the side of the bed to look at him. “My Elena?”
He got up from th
e desk and began to pace. “Yes . . .”
“Okay, you’re freaking me out. What’s with the pacing?”
“Elena said a bunch of Russian agents are in the US looking for her. They don’t know her location yet. We need to help draw them in, take them out if we have to, so that Elena has time to get to the United Nations.”
“The UN? Why?”
“She’s going to announce to the world who she truly is. They think she’ll be safe then with the media spotlight on her.”
Kenzie’s eyes widened. “That’s what the dress is for, isn’t it?”
Royce nodded. He hadn’t wanted to tell Kenzie the full plan. The less she knew the better, at least to keep her safe. But now they were all in this mess knee-deep.
“How bad is this, Royce?”
He let out a sigh and rubbed his temples. “Think every James Bond villain, but on steroids. What we faced with Vadym’s men is child’s play compared to what’s coming after Elena.”
Kenzie swallowed hard. He came over to her, cupping her face in his hands. She reached up and curled her fingers around his wrists, clinging to him.
“What do we need to do?” she asked.
“Me, not we. You aren’t getting anywhere near this.”
A protest formed on her lips, but he leaned down and silenced it with a kiss. He would never let her get near danger like that again. When he finally broke the kiss, she was hazy-eyed with desire. She blinked and her eyes narrowed.
“I hate it when you do that.”
He grinned. “Do what?”
“Make me forget about whatever you just said. I’m serious, Royce. I want to help.”
“I know, babe. But if you really want to help, then I need you to fly to New York. Get the dress finished and accept an important package mailed to Emery’s offices in Manhattan. Then contact every major news outlet and tease them with the story of the century that will be happening at the UN gala. The eyes of the world have to be on her or it won’t work.”
Kenzie was silent for a brief moment. “Fine. But if you get hurt, I will kill you.”
He held up his phone. “I’ll be all right. I’m calling in reinforcements.”
