It didn’t surprise him there was a bounty. He’d always figured he was on a black list of wanted criminals. It had made the trips into Russia heady, but there’d been things to do for Ian and BDI, and he’d been the one who could do them. He knew how to hide in plain sight and he’d done it well.
“I’m sorry, Natasha. I didn’t know you were in that place. I would have torn it apart to get you out if I had known.”
She snorted. “Such pretty things you say for Dr. Cole’s benefit. Please don’t bother. She won’t live to remember any of it.”
Ice water filled his veins. “You said you’d trade her for me. And now you have me. So let them go, Natasha. Let them go and I won’t fight you.”
She laughed. “Do you think you’re in a position to fight? Really, Nikolai—even you, my big bad Spetznatz brother, cannot fight your way free of this. You’re in a cage, and I’m out here. I see no incentive to do as you ask.”
Overhead, the rumble of a helicopter approached. Jace cocked an ear, but he didn’t take his gaze off his sister. She was unpredictable, angry, and he didn’t know what she might do. The helicopter reached them, but it didn’t keep going. He didn’t know if it was his Bandit brothers up there, or if Natasha was planning to take them away by helicopter.
She looked up, as if realizing the aircraft wasn’t moving away, and frowned. Two seconds later, the windows shattered as commandos infiltrated the building. Natasha jumped at the sounds of shattering glass, but she recovered quickly, pulling her pistol and hurrying around the side of the cage until she had a clear shot—at Maddy.
“Too bad, brother. Now you can feel some measure of what I’ve felt. Dosvedanya, Dr. Cole.”
Jace twisted his body—and threw himself at the woman he loved just as his sister pulled the trigger.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Maddy lay on the floor beneath a heavy body while someone screamed. She thought she might have blacked out for a moment, but she shook her head and stared up at the bars of the cage overhead. The screaming turned to sobs.
“Angie? Is that you?”
The sobs turned to hiccups and then Angie was there, bending over her. “You’re alive! Oh God, I thought—and now Jace—” Angie shook her head. No more words came out.
The body lying on top of Maddy didn’t move. She remembered Calypso with her pistol, and then Jace had leapt in front of her…
Maddy’s blood froze solid. “Jace? Jace!”
She struggled to push him, but her hands were bound and trapped between their bodies. Angie was no help because she was bound too. “Jace, oh please. Jace,” she pleaded.
There was movement on the perimeter, black-clad bodies approaching with weapons drawn. The cage door rattled as they worked to open it. She couldn’t even care any longer. Jace was still and unresponsive. And something warm and wet seeped into her clothing.
Suddenly, the weight of his body was gone. A grease-painted face peered down at her. She recognized the eyes and she clutched the man’s shirt. “Ian! She’s his sister, Ian. Calypso is Natasha. Oh God, please tell me he’s okay.”
She started to cry. Ian helped her sit up and sliced away the band around her wrists. She hadn’t realized how much it hurt until the band was no longer there. Feeling began to come back with sharp pricks and tingles, shooting pain into her scalp and down her spine.
Her gaze strayed to where two men bent over Jace. There was blood. Too much blood. She felt light-headed, but she swallowed it down and refused to swoon.
“We’re going to do everything we can,” Ian was saying. She had to jerk her gaze back to his. Had to try and focus on the words.
“I’m going with him,” she growled as the men put Jace on a stretcher.
Ian helped her up. “Of course you are. We all are.”
“Did you get that bitch?” she asked as Ian helped her to the exit. Angie was just ahead of her, being helped by one of Ian’s men as she hobbled along. She’d been cut free too, but her limbs were probably stiff and aching from all the time she’d been bound.
They emerged into night air that smelled of petroleum and fish. There was a van sitting nearby, cargo doors thrown wide open. Inside, a blond-haired woman was chained to a ring on the floor. She turned her head and met Maddy’s gaze.
“There’s your answer, Dr. Cole,” Ian said.
Maddy drew in a deep breath. Then she marched over to the van and stopped, glaring at Natasha. “There’s no way in hell your brother knew you were alive. He’s a decent man with more honor in his pinky finger than you have in your entire body. If he’d known, he’d have done whatever it took to get you out of there.”
For the briefest of moments, a flash of anguish crossed Natasha’s features. But then her expression hardened again. “You do not know this, Maddy Cole. You only wish it. I, however, have to live with the reality of what was done to me—and the fact my own brother abandoned me to it.”
“He didn’t. You will never convince me.”
Natasha snorted. “You have known him for how long? Please. You will never convince me.”
Ian slid the door closed, effectively ending the conversation. “Come on, Dr. Cole. You need to concentrate on Jace right now. Forget his sister.”
He took her arm and moved her toward another van. “She called him Nikolai.”
“Yes.”
“You knew?”
“Of course. Who do you think rescued him from that life?”
Maddy blinked as she stared up at this mysterious man with so many secrets.
“The authorities were coming for him too. It wasn’t just his parents and Natasha. It was all of them. He got out. They didn’t. And believe me, I have regretted that for years.”
“But he said his parents were monsters.”
Ian sighed. “Relationships with parents are complicated.”
She thought of her mother. “Yes, they certainly are. What aren’t you telling me?”
“Get in there with Jace. You should be with him at the hospital.”
Maddy knew she’d get nothing else from him right then. She climbed inside the van that had been turned into a private ambulance. The men with Jace were still working on him, but his eyes were open. Maddy cried out as she got as close to his face as she could. He reached out and she took his fingers in hers. His grip was good, though not as strong as she might have hoped.
“Maddy.”
“I’m here, Jace. I’m fine. She didn’t get me.” Tears dripped down her cheeks and she dashed them away with her free hand. “She got you, you stupid man. I was supposed to save you this time. I’d planned on it and everything, and you had to go and get in the way.”
One corner of his mouth lifted. “Always… protect you… Maddy. Told you that.”
“I know you did.” Her heart thundered in her ears. “And I love you for it,” she said in a rush, because she had to say it to him even though she had no idea if he felt the same. Heck, he probably didn’t. It was too soon, and most people didn’t fall in love in a matter of days. He was going to think she was a crazy stalker and then it would all be over.
He squeezed her hand again. “I love… you… too.”
Ian stalked down the hallway of his secure building and into the waiting cell where he’d had them stash the prisoner. She sat on a chair, secured to the table by chains. Her eyes flashed with anger and hatred. He should be sending her to Guantanamo, but something stopped him from turning her over. For now.
“Natasha Orlova. We thought you were dead,” he said by way of greeting.
She frowned. “I was dead. Who are you?”
He sat across from her, studying her features. She was a master of disguise, that much was clear. All the photos of a potential Calypso looked different from the woman in front of him. She wasn’t heavy-set. She was lean and willowy, about five foot five, and fine-boned. She’d worn wigs, padding, platform shoes—whatever it took. Prosthetics too, he’d imagine.
But the mermaid tattoo on her forearm was prominent. She co
uld have covered it, and probably did. But Maddy seeing that had been a bigger break than he could have imagined.
“Ian Black,” he said in answer to her question.
Her eyes narrowed. “I’ve heard of you.” She jerked her head toward the door. “Nikolai works for you?”
“Yes. I got him out seven years ago. They were planning to arrest him too.”
She snorted. “I don’t believe you. You’d say anything right now. Anything to get me to share information. I won’t.”
He sat back against the seat. Shrugged. She was lovely. Fiery. And evil. He couldn’t forget that.
But was she really? He could imagine what she’d been through. They’d broken her, and then they’d built her up in the mold they’d wanted her to be. She was an instrument. A weapon. She’d been indoctrinated. Did he have what it took to undo the damage? Or was he fooling himself out of misplaced guilt?
“Fine. You don’t have to tell me anything you don’t want to. But yes, Nikolai—Jace now—works for me. I got him out and I gave him a new identity. I could do that for you, too.”
For a split second, her expression crumbled. And then it hardened again. “You have nothing to offer me.”
“So tell me what it would take. Tell me, and I’ll get it done.”
She looked away. Struggled with herself. He could see it happening. She speared him with a glare once more, her steely facade intact. “If what you say is true, why didn’t you help us all? Why only him?”
Regret flooded him. He’d fucked it up badly. He’d recruited the Orlovs when they were disillusioned with their lives in Russia and then he’d failed them. They weren’t saints, but that didn’t matter. “I didn’t know there was an arrest order. I didn’t know until you and your parents were taken.”
“But you got Nikolai out.”
“I did.”
Her nostrils flared. “So they were right. My parents betrayed us to the Americans.”
Ian leaned forward, elbows on the table as he made eye contact. She didn’t look away. Such pretty eyes. Blue. “You are an American, Natasha.”
She jerked the chain binding her. “I’m not. That was taken away from me when I was four years old. I am Russian. Russia is a culture. America is simply a place.”
Ian leaned back. It was time for a different approach. “You were in the gulag for two years. They weren’t kind to you there.”
Her eyes flashed. “Do you wish a medal, Ian Black? Your powers of deduction amaze me.”
“Would you like to kill those people who hurt you?”
She reared back on her chair. He’d wondered if maybe she was just crazy. Soulless. That she’d killed all the people she’d killed because she liked it. But he had doubts. She wasn’t unaffected by emotion. He’d thought she was a psychopath, but now he wasn’t so sure.
“Don’t promise me that, Ian Black. You can’t promise me that.” Her nostrils flared, her cheeks reddening.
“And if I can?”
She jerked the chains. “Fuck you. And fuck Nikolai too. Did I kill him? I hope I killed him.” She gritted her teeth as she said the words. As if she were hiding great emotion.
“He’s alive. You shot wide, Natasha. The bullet went through his arm. Oddly enough, you did the same thing to my other operative. Oh, but you hit an artery there. We almost didn’t get to him in time, except that he managed to tourniquet his arm and slow the bleeding. He’ll recover, but it’ll take longer. You weren’t using defensive rounds either, which would have certainly caused more damage. Did you do it on purpose?”
Her cheeks were red. “I was unnerved.”
“I doubt anything unnerves you.”
She turned her head, her jaw working. He had the strangest urge to put his fingers under her chin and force her to look at him. He didn’t do it, though.
“If I accept your offer,” she began, “what makes you think I would honor it and not return to… my employers?”
“You mean the Gemini Syndicate? You could. Probably should, in fact. But what if you returned to them—and really worked for me?”
“So you would not give me a new identity. That was a ruse. I see.”
“I can. Or you can return to the Syndicate and take down those who hurt you from within. It’s up to you.”
She didn’t say anything for a long moment. “I want to make them pay. But they have something of mine. If I don’t return…”
“What do they have, Natasha?”
She looked at him with wide blue eyes that shimmered with tears. Then she shook her head and closed her eyes as she bowed her head. “No. No, I will not risk it. I can’t trust you. I can’t trust anyone.”
Ian reached for her hand. Her fingers were cold, but the arc of sensation that rocked through him at the simple touch was shocking. He didn’t know if she felt it too, but she jerked her head up, their eyes clashing. “No, you can’t trust anyone,” he told her. “You never can. None of us can. But I swear to you that I will help you as I helped Nikolai. Whatever it takes. You just have to give me a little trust. And if I betray your trust, you can shoot me yourself.”
She dropped her gaze to their linked hands. She didn’t try to jerk away. She simply stared. “I will think about your offer, Ian Black. It’s all I can do.”
“Why did you use Dr. Cole? She’s innocent.”
She lifted her head. Withdrew her hand. He thought that was it. The end of her cooperation, however tenuous. But then she spoke. “I have seen her before. At another collector’s home. And while she speaks good Russian, she is American. If the assassination could be blamed on her…” She shrugged.
He understood the subtext. An American scapegoat would play well with the media. And then there was the prospect of worsening relations between the US and Russia, which was certainly the goal of the Gemini Syndicate.
“Was Sokolov really the target that night?”
“If I tell you what you want to know, do I get to leave?”
“Depends on what you tell me.”
“I will say anything to get you to let me go. Don’t you know that?”
“Yes. But Natasha, I’m the only one who will help you escape. Think of that. The Syndicate doesn’t care. I do.”
“Fuck you.”
He stood. There was nothing more he could do. He’d go away and let her think. If he was right, she’d be an asset. If he was wrong, well, Guantanamo was still a possibility.
“Colonel Isaev,” she said as he walked to the door. “Look him up.”
He gazed at her for a long moment. She was an enigma. Hard, cold, beautiful. And strangely vulnerable too. Lost. Like him in some ways.
“I will. You have twenty-four hours. I’ll need a decision then.”
She snorted. “A decision. As if there is a choice. Yes, and you might help me. No, and you will keep me imprisoned. What do you think I will say?”
He grinned. “You’ll say yes regardless. But what I want is for you to mean it.” He turned to the door, then turned back. “Did you break into Dr. Cole’s house?”
“Of course.”
“Why? It was rather obvious. I don’t think that’s your style.”
“I wanted to flush Nikolai out. See if he’d respond. He did. They all did. You should really talk to your people.”
“The camera?”
“Easy enough to drain the battery with the right equipment.”
“And then you found them at the new location.”
“Child’s play. I tagged her car. Once I had confirmation on the town, I looked to see where they stopped the longest before driving back.”
“Care to tell me who you were planning to sell your brother to?”
“Not really.”
He didn’t think she’d share that one, but he’d had to try. “All right. See you soon, Natasha.”
“I’ll be counting the minutes.”
He almost laughed at her sarcasm. Instead, he stepped through the door. The guard locked it behind him.
Ian didn’t stop thi
nking about Natasha Orlova the entire way back to his office.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Jace’s arm hurt like fucking hell. It woke him from a drugged sleep and he rolled his head on the pillow, trying to focus his attention. Memories crashed in on him. Maddy. The cage. Natasha.
His stomach flipped and his heart squeezed tight. Natasha was alive. His baby sister. He’d thought she was long dead, but she’d emerged from the darkness filled with hatred. And she’d shot him.
Well, she’d shot at Maddy, but he’d intervened.
Natasha was Calypso. He could hardly wrap his mind around it. He’d never gotten even a hint of it from the few grainy photos they’d had. She was clever with her disguises.
He was angry at her for what she’d done to Maddy and Angie, but he couldn’t quite hate her. Not yet. Not until he knew she was irredeemable. Because he could still see her little blond head, her sleepy eyes when she’d been four and clinging to him while there were men in their house arresting their parents. She’d cried, and he’d rubbed her back and held her close. What had happened to that baby girl to make her do the things she did now?
Jace didn’t know what time it was, but he shifted in the bed and tried to sit up. The room was dark and his arm throbbed.
“Jace?”
He turned toward the voice. “Maddy?”
“Yes. Oh God, you’re okay.” She flung herself at him, hugging him hard, and he fell back on the bed. The pain he felt was negligible compared to the joy. She was here. Alive.
“Why are you still here?”
She sat up again and sniffed. “Like anyone could make me leave. I’ve been here since they brought you in.”
“When was that?”
“About six hours ago? They gave you painkillers and knocked you out. But you aren’t hurt badly. In case you were wondering.”
“How long have you been here?”
“Since they brought you in. Where else would I go?”
He dragged her onto the bed with him, even though his arm screamed in pain and she squeaked a protest. “Jace, your arm!”
Black List: HOT Heroes for Hire: Mercenaries: A Black’s Bandits Novel Page 22
