The Fire You Hold (Heritage Series Book 2)

by Ciana Stone

  "Hi, Dad. Nice wedding."

  "Glad you could make it, honey. I know it meant a lot to your sister." He looked at the man with Delaney. Damn, she was like her sister. Falling for older men. Was it some kind of new fad?

  "Russell Walker, Delaney's father." He extended his hand.

  "Aleksei Petrov," the man's accent was pronounced, and his manner was arrogant. "I am happy to finally come face-to-face with you. I must say, you and your brother truly are mirror images."

  "Yes, well, if you'll excuse me." Russell had no intention of making small-talk with Petrov, in fact, he was pissed as hell that Delaney had brought the man, but there was no way he was going to ruin Cici's wedding, so he'd just bite his tongue and stay away from Petrov.

  "Oh, but we've not yet finished our conversation," Petrov stepped in his way. "I spoke with your new son-in-law just minutes ago. I doubled my initial offer, but he insists he will not sell. At any price."

  "Then let it go," Russell said.

  "I do not think so," Petrov smiled. "I suspect he will change his mind soon enough."

  "What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Russell didn't like the fact that Petrov's words had carried the distinct tone of a threat.

  "Perhaps I've been in error," Petrov said. "I should be making the offer to you, and will. I will quadruple the offer for the same acreage of Heritage property adjoining Mr. Lawson."

  "It's not for sale."

  "No? I'd beg you to reconsider."

  "I said no."

  "I see. You know, I was surprised when your beautiful daughter Delaney told me Naomie Taylor now lives here on your ranch."

  "What of it?"

  Petrov's smile looked feral and definitely raised Russell's hackles. "I'd hoped to have the opportunity to say hello. It's been a long time. Clearly, she's found a new master, although as former to present master, I must warn you. She's the kind of bitch who will lick her trainer's feet then slit his throat."

  "Get the hell off my land." Russell didn't care anymore about ruining things.

  "Dad!" Delaney grabbed her arm. "Stop acting like a jerk. He's just telling you what he knows. If you weren't so blinded by her seducing you, then you'd see he's telling–"

  "Shut up," Russell got in her face. "Not one more word, do you hear me?"

  By that time there was silence all around them, but Russell didn't care. He shook off Delaney's grip and looked at Petrov. "Get the hell off my land before I beat you to a bloody pulp and toss you off."

  "You can't treat him like that!" Delaney yelled at him.

  "Oh, hell yes I can. He's not welcome here, and if you leave with him, then you're a traitor to this family so think long and hard, girl."

  "I don't need to think about it. Fuck you, Dad. You and all the Walkers. Come on Aleksei, let's get out of here."

  "Of course, darling." Petrov smiled at Russell, took Delaney's arm and sauntered away.

  Russell felt like the top of his head was about to blow off. Cici and Kal ran over to him. "I'm sorry," Russell said. "I didn't want–"

  "Everyone heard and we were about to go to the barn for rope," Kal said. "Thanks for getting rid of him."

  Russell looked at Cici. "Forgive me?"

  "It's not needed. But you should find Naomie."

  "I'm headed to her place now. We'll be back."

  Cici and Kal watched him hurry away and then looked at one another. "You've got to talk Edward out of this fascination he has for Petrov," Cici said. "I'll buy Edward out. I can do it if we sell the penthouse and I liquidate some stocks."

  "No, I don’t want to take your money."

  "Our money, Kal. We're a team, and we're not going to let this Petrov jerk beat us. So make Edward the offer and then you, me and the Walkers will kick this Petrov fucker all the way back to Russia."

  "Have I mentioned how much I love it when you get all warrior and talk dirty?"

  Cici laughed and threw her arms around him. "I love you. Come on, let's go dance."

  *****

  Russell was shocked when he burst into the cottage. Naomie and Amber sat on the couch, and both looked like they wanted to murder someone. "I need to talk with Naomie," he said.

  "Uh…" Amber looked at Naomie, and when she nodded, Amber smiled. "Okay sure. I think I'll head back down and join the party. Sounds like the music's cranking up."

  "We'll see you in a bit," Russell said.

  "Sure."

  He waited until she was gone before speaking. "Delaney brought Aleksei Petrov to the wedding, but you knew that already, didn’t you?"

  He saw her face pale. "You have to get Delaney away from him, Russ. He's evil, and he'll break Delaney."

  "He said he wanted to see you, to say hello and that from former to present master he needed to warn me that you'd lick the feet of your trainer and then slit their throat."

  "I guess he'd see it that way. But that’s not important. What is important is Delaney. You have to trust me on this. She's not strong enough. He'll break her."

  "Break?" he asked and then went to take a seat beside her. "Naomie is he the one?"

  "Yes."

  "What did he do to you?"

  "Are you sure you want to know that? You may never be able to see me the same again."

  "You have that little faith in me?"

  "You're right. Fine. I was doing some work for someone that involved a bit of hacking. I didn't cover my tracks as well as I should and one night everything went black, and I woke up in a cage."

  "A cage? What kind of cage?"

  "The kind you keep a dog in. A crate, some people call them."

  "Why?"

  "That's what I didn't understand. You see, when I first arrived in Russia, I met Petrov, and he was quite charming and entertaining, smart and well-read and – well I fell for him. I really thought I loved him, then one night at dinner, he made some comment about stupid Americans, and it pissed me off. I said so, and he slapped me. I saw his face when he did it. It changed, and he looked like someone I didn't know. He tried to hit me again, but I ran out of the restaurant and wouldn't take his calls for a week. I was so hurt and confused, and I wanted to think he'd just made a mistake so I finally took his call and agreed to go to his house to talk.

  "We had drinks, we made out, he was tender and kind and I don’t remember anything after that. I woke up in that cage. He said he knew what I was doing, the hacking and either I would agree to his terms, or he'd make sure my targets found out what I was doing, and they would do far worse than put me in a cage.

  "I pleaded with him, said I loved him, asked him to please let's start over, and he said that's exactly what we were doing if I chose him over my targets. We'd be starting over all right and this time I was going to be exactly what he wanted me to be, a bitch that stuck her ass in the air when he ordered it and thanked him when it was done.

  "It was like being asked to choose between two hells, and I chose him because I thought I could play him, play on his feelings for me. I was wrong. His real feelings were nothing like I thought.

  "And because I was fooled and I was careless, I spent nearly six months being treated like an animal. I was brought out, washed and groomed, beaten and raped and put away again. Over and over. He loved to hear me scream and it made him come if I cried. He was sick and sadistic and every day, every breath I vowed I'd escape.

  "One morning he came into the kennel, as he called the place he kept us caged–"

  "You mean there were more?"

  "Yes, five others. He gagged us when we were in our crates so we couldn't communicate with one another. One morning, he showed up with this giant of a man, Sergei. Petrov said he'd decided to trade me to Sergei for one of Sergei's blondes. He was getting tired of me anyway. But Sergei wanted to sample the goods before sealing the deal, so he was going to loan me out for the day.

  "Sergei wasn't as bright as Petrov. He didn't think I'd try to escape and probably thought he scared me being so big and ugly. He wasn't wrong, but I knew this might be my only c
hance, so when we got to his place, I did what he ordered for a while then asked if I could use the bathroom. He pointed the way and lay on the bed to wait.

  "That was his downfall. There was a razor in the bathroom, one of those old fashioned things you put the blades in? I took the blade out, snapped it in half and worked it into this ring. See right there, the long scar? That’s from the razor that saved my life.

  "When I returned, he shoved me onto the bed, spread my legs and started raping me. I pulled him down on me, got that razor free and sliced him right across the carotid artery and kept going. I opened him from ear-to-ear, and then I flew into the bathroom, toweled as much blood as I could from my skin, dressed, climbed out of the window and ran like hell. It took me three days of hiding all day and traveling at night, to finally reach someone I knew and trusted, and they helped me to get back home.

  "There was an official complaint made against me to the government, but my hacking was a black box operation, so I was saved. But my days doing that kind of work were over, and I needed to escape.

  "I started working with Reese, doing research and trying to forget. I didn't forget, but I told myself that I didn't need revenge. I'd survived even though I'd had to kill to do it and I just had to be satisfied with that.

  "I learned to see the beauty again. I wasn't completely broken, and I didn't want to end my life so I set aside notions of love and happily-ever-after, became celibate and learned to appreciate life all over again, help my family and friends and try to make up for being a monster who could slit a man's throat.

  "I'm sorry I never told you."

  Russell was so filled with rage, he shook. He'd never once in his life had such an overwhelming urge to kill someone, but had Petrov walked in at that moment he would have choked the life out of the man, or better yet, beaten him to death.

  "I'm going to bury that bastard."

  "That's it? You're not mad that I didn't tell you or that maybe he's doing all this stuff to you as a way of getting back at me or–"

  "Naomie, don't you ever think that. I know you. I know your heart. You're the one who runs to help, not harm. You did what you had to do to survive, and quite honestly I'm in awe of your strength and determination. Most people would have ended up a babbling, blubbering mess, completely destroyed. But you rose up, fought back and prevailed.

  "Do you hear me? I don't care what the motivation is, he's messed with what's mine, and I can't have that. I love you, Naomie. You might have dark chapters in your life and god knows you've had your share of pain, but I'm proud to love you, and you're it for me. Remember what you told Donna Wiepoole in Mexico?"

  "Mine." She said and smiled a bit.

  "Mine. And I will end him for what he did to you."

  "I know," she nodded. "And I'll help you. But not today and not with a gun. Today we'll celebrate Cici's marriage and Mace's engagement. We'll celebrate life because that's my biggest revenge of all. Happiness."

  "Are you? Happy I mean?"

  "I'm sure getting there."

  "What can I do to help?"

  "We'll talk about that later.

  "Then you want to dance with the father of the bride?"

  "I sure do." She put her hand in his and as they walked said a silent thank you. She'd never imagined someone could be so forgiving to her after what she'd done. She wondered if she would ever be able to forgive herself.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Naomie was sitting on the front porch swing when Russell walked up the front steps. "Is everyone finally pooped?" she asked.

  "Well everyone's either gone or in bed. Riggs called and that made Cici happy. He said he might be home in time for the rodeo."

  "That would thrill Rusty. And I know you were glad to hear from him. It has to be hard when he's away."

  "I admit I worry about him."

  "Of course you do, he's your son."

  "I told him about us."

  "You did?"

  Russell smiled. "He said when he got here he might have to give me a run for my money."

  She laughed. "That'll be the day. So, is that what you came over for?

  "Actually, I was hoping to sleep here tonight."

  "Well come sit a spell, Marshall and talk to me."

  Russell took a seat and draped one arm around her shoulders. "Richard and I had a talk and you're not going to like it."

  "Tell me anyway."

  "He said whatever beef I have with Petrov to let it go."

  "Why?"

  "Petrov just purchased a controlling interest in a company here who has been given the green light to use technology supposedly in use in India to build three thorium reactor plants in the States, one in Texas if he can acquire property.

  "Naomie I'm so mad I feel like I'm going to blow up. I know in my gut Petrov's behind all this trouble to Heritage and to Kal. And after knowing what he did to you… I want to annihilate that bastard."

  "And I do too, but like I said, killing him is easy. What would be far worse would be to expose him for the monster he is, let the whole world know. And, " she added. "Do a bit of creative hacking maybe and let some of those billions he's stolen go back to the people. I'm sure the citizens of his country could find use for several billion."

  "I bet but how could you ever get it to them? Their government wouldn't allow it."

  "They can't stop what they can't find, love of my life."

  "Why do I get the feeling you've already been cooking up something in that brilliant but oh so unpredictable mind?"

  She turned and their gazes met. Russell felt the tension in her body when he pulled her into his arms. Her lips were tense and unyielding for a brief moment, then she made a small sound in her throat and her lips relaxed against his as her body melded against him.

  He wasn't the most intuitive man and could be a downright dense bastard at times, but he knew all the way down to his bones that Naomie had surrendered. He could feel it, could taste it and that surrender obliterated his misgivings. She was placing her fate, her life in his hands by trusting him with her secrets and her plans.

  It was like holding a mirror up to his soul, making him face what was real and the reality of it was he was completely in love with her, no matter what she'd done or had been done to her. He wasn't lying when he said he knew her. He did and what he knew he loved more than life. Russell had cared for other women, and had married a few, but never until Naomie had he known what it felt like to be so insanely in love you gave your whole heart.

  "There's a fire inside you Naomie, brighter than any I've ever felt and every time you smile at me I'm warmed by it. I want to go to sleep with you in my arms every night and wake with you in my arms every morning. I want more than anything to please you and pleasure you and make you feel how loved you are. I want that fire you hold to heat me right down to my soul and let me become part of it. I'm telling you now. You are it for me. There will never be another."

  An hour ago if someone had asked what she truly wanted from her relationship with Russell, she'd have said she wanted him to ask her to marry him. Now she realized that wasn't it. What she wanted was what he'd just said. She wanted to touch his soul and for him to touch hers. To know with every breath that she loved with her whole heart and was loved just as completely in return.

  She wanted to hold that fire and nurture it, and he was offering her that chance.

  "Take me to bed and hold me, Russ. Feed the fire that binds us and drive all the boogie men away. Make me believe again in happily-ever-after where the good guys win."

  "Are we the good guys?"

  "You are."

  The way she spoke those words and the look in her eyes choked him up a little. No one had ever said anything that touched him deeper. He carried her inside, and before long they were naked, flesh pressed against flesh, with a blanket of moonlight from the opened window covering them with light as the overhead fan cooled them.

  "I love you, Naomie."

  "And I love you."

  It wasn't l
ong before he was asleep. Naomie lay awake, looking out at the night sky for a long time. After a while, she got up left the room and closed the door quietly behind her. With her phone in hand, she walked out on the front porch and sat in the swing.

  She placed a call, and it only rang twice before it was answered. "Hey," she spoke softly. "Your dad called Russ off, so he won't be going after Petrov.

  "Are you serious? My dad's just going to let that bastard off the hook?"

  "I don't think he wants to, but the administration has tied his hands."

  "I hear a but in there."

  "Indeed you do," Naomie agreed. "Your dad's hands are tied. You understand?

  "Yeah, I hear you. We'll talk soon?"

  "Oh yes. And Amber?"

  "Yeah?"

  "Do try and stay out of trouble for a while. We need to be invisible if we're going to obliterate Petrov."

  "I hear ya. And I'll be good."

  "Why do I visualize you with crossed fingers as you say that?"

  "Good night, Naomie. I love you."

  "And I love you. See you soon."

  Naomie ended the call and went back inside. She smiled as she looked at Russell then walked over to the window and looked out over the moonlit landscape. How could her thoughts be on anything other than the blessings in her life? She was in love with an amazing man who loved her despite all her baggage. His family had become family to her, and she had friends she could trust and depend on no matter what.

  For the first time since she escaped the monster, she was happy and excited about life.

  "Life is good," she whispered and turned to look at her lover, sleeping peacefully.

  And this was just the beginning.

  A Note for Readers:

  I've been a reader my entire life, finding solace, excitement, happiness, fear and love in the pages of books. If anything has been a constant in my life, it's reading.

  I also remember all the times in my life when being able to buy a book was a luxury, a treat that I didn't get every week. I've never forgotten those times or how much those books meant to me.