by Wendy Rosnau
Lev glanced at IsaDora, then back to Ruza. “It might look that way, but I would never carelessly put Casmir at risk. Not unless I knew I could win.”
“Win at my daughter’s expense.”
“Casmir did a helluva job for us months ago. She got inside Yurii Petrov’s head, and his heart. He fell for her. Fell hard.”
“And this is how you reward a good job?”
“She’s the only reason this mission had a chance in hell for success. So, yes, I took the risk. Yurii wants her back, and a man who wants something that badly is vulnerable. Vulnerable men make mistakes.”
“He wants her back so he can kill her, you fool.”
“I don’t think so.”
“You don’t…think?”
“He could have killed her in Bratislava. He didn’t.”
“That proves nothing. Did you ever think that he might want her to suffer? That at this moment he’s breaking her a piece at a time? How could you put her in this kind of danger? I will never forgive you, Lev. Never.”
“Casmir is tougher than you know, Ruza. You’re not looking at this as a seasoned agent.”
“Don’t insult me.”
“She’s one of our best. She can do this. She can charm her way in and out of any situation she’s been faced with so far.”
“I’ve heard that said before. Many of those agents are dead today. Petrov will not be fooled twice.”
“Even if he remains suspicious, I think this will work.”
“There’s that word again. You…think.”
“All we need is some time. We know the location of Nescosto Priyatna now. Casmir’s job is done. We have someone on their way to rescue her as we speak.”
“Pierce Fourtier.”
“He’s one of Onyxx’s best agents and I’m told he’s only hours away. There’s more at stake here than destroying Petrov and his organization. The data at his command station is priceless.”
“Interesting words.” IsaDora finally spoke. “And the first I’ve heard of a plan that involves another agency. Sit down, Lev. It’s time for some information sharing, and when it’s over I’m going to know from start to finish why the hell I wasn’t advised on this earlier.”
IsaDora nailed Lev with a look—the one he’d stolen from her for when he was dealing with his own agents. “I said, sit! I’m not only your mother, I’m also your superior.” She glanced at Ruza. “Plant your butt, daughter, and keep your mouth shut until I ask you to speak. And you, Mr. Lazie, back in the hall.”
While Yurii draped a gold satin robe around Casmir’s shoulders and led her up the stairs and out of the tower, all she could think about was Pierce.
He couldn’t be dead.
She felt sick, so sick that her knees felt weak and her insides were trembling.
He couldn’t be dead, but then why would Yurii say he was, and with such confidence? Had Pierce been trapped in his cabin when it had been set on fire, or shot trying to escape it?
The reality of what his death would mean for the mission should have been her primary focus, but all she cared about was that a vibrant man was gone, and that she would never see him again.
He was too virile a man to die, she thought. Too strong and smart to… She stopped the thought, reminding herself that that description could fit hundreds of agents who had died in action.
Oh, God. Not Pierce.
She managed to put one foot in front of the other as they climbed a series of stone steps, down a long corridor with her knees still threatening to give out. Up several more steps to a dimly lit cove.
Yurii opened the door inside the cove saying, “For you, my love.”
Casmir stepped into the room, and scanned it quickly. The bedroom had a rounded ceiling at least twelve feet high. The walls were draped in sheer voile, with gold threads woven through it, and in the center of the room stood a naked sculpture in the middle of a bathing pool. To Casmir’s surprise the stone figure was a likeness of herself. The sculpture’s arms stretched out away from her body. Water spilled from her fingers, sending it over her stone breasts and down her chiseled curves.
“I call it Morning Bath.”
Casmir said nothing, her eyes already fixed on perhaps the most chilling object in the room—the bed. It took up an entire corner of the room on a platform. The octagonal bed was covered in gold satin and surrounded by a gold cage.
It was the largest birdcage she had ever seen.
“I regret that I will be busy for the afternoon. Important business that can’t wait. You look tired. Perhaps a nap, my love.”
She turned and looked at him. She’d never been locked up in her life, and the feeling of being caged like an animal, even if it was a beautiful cage, was unsettling.
But not as unsettling and heart-wrenching as the news of Pierce.
Alone, yes, she wanted to be alone. Alone to mourn the loss. Alone to cry.
Chin high, she stepped forward, and when she did Yurii pulled the robe from her shoulders. She climbed the steps and settled in the middle of the bed on her knees and watched Yurii walk to a long stone table against a wall. The mirror above it was large and took up most of the wall, the frame carved in marble. It allowed him to view her in the cage, and as he picked up a remote device that lay on a long table, his eyes found her in the mirror.
“I have learned much about you and your work at Quest. You have made many enemies. A very resourceful little bird. I kept that in mind when I designed this room.” He turned around. “Regretfully, I was forced to make sure you did not escape me a second time. So, sweet Kisa, consider your wings clipped. You are now mine to do with as I wish. And I wish for you many things, not all of them good, I’m afraid.”
With that he pushed a button on the remote and the open cage door swung shut, making a resounding click.
“You are a vision, my love. Rest now, I will see you soon.”
He pushed another button on the panel and the drapes outlining a set of French doors floated across them, blocking out the afternoon sun and the balcony where she had first seen him from Filip’s yacht. Another button dimmed the lights. One more and soft music began to play.
“I’ll wake you in a few hours.”
Casmir’s fate suddenly closed in around her. Yurii wasn’t going to kill her. Not yet, anyway.
She closed her eyes, felt tears surfacing. She watched Yurii leave, and when the door closed behind him, she whispered, “Damn you, Pierce, you made me a promise. How dare you die on me? I’m here. Rise up from the ashes and save me. Save us.”
Chapter 18
The island of Capri came into sight late in the afternoon, and within the hour Pierce and Ash were in the Gulf of Salerno. He had been itching to call Merrick, and as soon as Ash dropped anchor, he pulled his phone from his pocket.
He would have all the details of the plan now. He would insist on it.
The conversation went well. Merrick did offer him the entire plan this time. He and Lev had done their homework. They had planned for the worst, for any surprises that might arise, and had executed a few surprises of their own.
A mile off the coast, Ash handed Pierce a waterproof knapsack. “It’s all there. Everything you’ll need. You sure you don’t want me to go with you?”
“Yes. I’ll keep in contact.”
“My information from Merrick warned me that Petrov could have some pretty sophisticated radar. He could pick you up from your cell phone signal.”
Pierce tossed him the phone. “Then wait until daylight and if I’m not back, move out.”
“Leave?”
“There won’t be any reason to hang around after that. It’ll mean I’m not coming back. Hopefully I can get to the data and transmit it out before I’m found. That way at least the mission won’t be a complete failure.”
Pierce strapped the pack to the belt around the waist of his scuba gear, then flipped over the side of the yacht.
He had enough air in his tank to easily reach the coast. He swam hard, stayed deep.
He would surface far to the west of Nescosto Priyatna. He had good equipment, and he trusted his ability. What he wasn’t sure of was how well-guarded Yurii’s villa would be. The man was no fool, and his attention to detail was the best in the business.
The moon was just on the horizon when he came ashore. He had been hoping that the evening would be overcast. But no such luck.
He stripped off his scuba gear and checked his pack. Ash was right. He had packed him everything on his list, and a few surprises.
Using a sophisticated electronic radar detector, he started out on foot over the rugged terrain. He ran into an invisible radar screen a quarter mile from the villa. It was the first obstacle, but there would be more.
He soon found a way through the radar, fitting himself between a narrow fissure in a rocky cliff barely wide enough to slip though sideways. Twenty pounds heavier and he wouldn’t have made it.
He checked his watch. It had been seven hours since Cass had been reunited with Yurii. He told himself that she was all right. She had painted Yurii as violent, but something told him that he also had a human side. It was that humanity that he hoped she could play to as she waited for him to rescue her.
He had to believe that she was alive. Needed to believe that if Yurii had ever loved her, he wouldn’t be able to kill her the moment he laid eyes on her, if at all.
He maneuvered through the fissure, and twenty minutes later crept around a jagged outcropping of rocks. There, obstacle number two awaited him—he pulled up his night-vision binoculars and in the distance, stationed strategically around the villa to the west and south, he counted eight armed watchmen packing heat. There would be eight more, he decided, to the north and east.
It would be a long night, he thought. This was where things were going to get a bit more difficult. Where he would lose time, and maybe his life.
To get inside, he would need to kill sixteen men, or slip past them unnoticed.
Weighing that decision, Pierce flattened out and began to belly crawl toward the villa. He snapped the neck of the first guard thirty minutes later.
Casmir couldn’t sleep. She lay awake, thinking about Pierce. She replayed their time together in Louisiana, mostly that morning in New Orleans when she had woken up beside him, and what had happened afterward.
She had loved sharing that time with him. It had been years since she’d actually been able to be herself. And even though he had asked her a hard question, her answers had brought them closer.
Did you love him?
It was an unnatural love. She would admit that, her feelings for Yurii. In the weeks after he’d been imprisoned, she’d had to deal with that. She’d been too embarrassed to admit it to Polax, or put any of her feelings in her report. She’d skirted that truth, but it had never left her. No other mission had ever been so hard, or so life-changing. She’d even considered resigning from the agency. A good agent wouldn’t have allowed herself to fall into an emotional trap on an assignment. A good agent didn’t allow herself to feel for the enemy….
Casmir fell asleep crying, her thoughts turning into dreams of Pierce. He was holding her close and loving her as no man ever had, not just as a woman, but as his equal. How long she slept she didn’t know, but when she woke up it was with a start and she sat up quickly.
Clutching the gold satin coverlet and satin sheets to her naked body, she glanced around the room. It was dark but for the spotlights built into the bathing pool—the image of her in stone glowing in the darkness.
Yurii was seated there on a chair pulled close to the pool. His shoes sat beside his chair and his feet were in the water. He was sipping a glass of wine, his head turned to the bed.
“I was going to wake you, but you know how I used to love to watch you sleep.”
“You’ve been on your foot too much today,” she said.
“Da. It has been a long day.”
She saw the remote balanced on his leg. He pressed a button and the cage door clicked open.
“Come to me, Kisa.”
Casmir pushed the door and slid off the bed. Taking the gold silk coverlet with her, wrapping it around her, she came down the steps. She said softly, “I would like some clothes. Could I, please?”
“The closet is full.” He motioned to the set of doors along one wall. “But not yet. Hungry?”
“Yes.”
“We will eat soon. I’ll have something sent up. The view from the balcony is beautiful at night. We will dine outside.”
“Please, Yurii. Can I dress?”
He sighed. “When you say please, you know I can’t deny you.” He waved her toward the closet. “We’ll compromise. Put on the white sheer caftan, then come and kneel beside me.”
She remembered the routine. Knew what would be expected of her when she returned.
Casmir walked to the closet doors and opened them. They were wired with a heat-sensitive electronic system, and the moment she stepped inside the dressing room it became drenched in light.
She saw the white caftan in a long line of elegant lingerie. The low-cut sheer caftan had dramatic slits that went all the way to her thighs. It wouldn’t cover much, but at least it was something.
She dropped the coverlet and found a basket filled with colorful panties—all of them sheer and designed to cover as little as possible. She stepped into a pair of sheer white panties.
There was a floor-length mirror at one end of the closet, and in the adjoining bathroom, a vanity. She went to the vanity and picked up the hairbrush and sent it quickly through her hair. An expensive bottle of jasmine perfume sat on a silver tray. It was her favorite, and that didn’t surprise her—Yurii would have thought of everything. A mist of perfume, lip gloss, a hint of blush brushed on her cheeks, and she was heading back out the door.
She knelt beside him as he had instructed. Took the towel folded next to the chair and laid it out on the floor. When he lifted his feet from the water and settled them on the towel, she took the ends of the thick white towel and drew them around his feet, patting them dry.
She used extra care with his left foot. Yurii’s deformity was the result of a shark bite that had taken a portion of his foot and three toes.
“You’ve had your shoe on too many hours again.” She scowled as if they were still a couple, and their time together hadn’t been interrupted by his prison stint. “Your shoe has made a sore,” she observed.
She felt his hand on her head. He stroked gently. “I’ve missed your nagging. Rub it?”
She lifted his disfigured foot into her lap, and began to massage it carefully. He closed his eyes, the tension in him slipping away as it always did when she touched him.
“Remember how we used to laugh?”
“Yes.”
“It felt good to laugh. It had been so long. I think since I was a boy in Armenia. Do you remember your childhood, Kisa?”
“It was quiet. School, and dance lessons. Nothing too exciting.”
“I have no doubt you were a beautiful child.”
She looked up and saw that he was smiling.
Suddenly the smile was gone, and the pain in his eyes caustic. “I would have died for you, my love.”
“Yes, I know.”
“I have always taken what I wanted in this world. And once I had it, I always found a way to keep it. I have never feared anyone or anything. But I confess I fear one thing now.”
“And what is that?”
“I fear a life without you.”
“You were my job,” she whispered. “I never expected it to be so complicated.”
His eyes closed briefly. When they were again locked with hers, he asked, “Then you did love me?”
Casmir refused to answer, but her silence told him it was true. A part of her had loved him. Maybe still loved him.
“I knew it that night in Bratislava when I saw my ring on your finger.”
Casmir lowered her head.
“You feel ashamed. A spy falling in love with her target. Did you keep your sha
me to yourself, or is that what Quest plans to use against us?”
Us…. Casmir looked up. “I kept it in here.” She touched her heart.
He leaned forward and kissed her forehead. “Help me put on my shoes. We will dine on the balcony, and tonight we will laugh, and love like we are the only two people alive in this world.”
It had taken Pierce two hours to reach the manicured grounds of Yurii’s headquarters. Sixteen men lay dead, their silent screams a testimony to his patience and deadly aim.
He now considered the villa. Nescosto Priyatna was a four-story Roman-style monstrosity. As grand as a palace and twice as secure.
The structure had been built into the face of a precipice that dropped straight into the sea. Made of stone, the villa had a number of balconies jutting out on all levels. Pierce scanned the layout. Entry would be a delicate matter.
He saw her as he was scoping out the balconies—Casmir was on the fourth floor, leaning against a stone railing. The sight of her stunned him. He wasn’t expecting to see her so soon, and looking so…happy.
She was a vision in the moonlight. Dressed in white, her hair moving with the soft evening breeze. Yurii’s arm was around her waist and he was also laughing.
Laughing?
Pierce drew back into the shadows and watched for a moment—Casmir’s words falling around him like he’d just set off a landslide of shifting rocks.
I’m dead if Yurii gets his hands on me. When you come for me, bring a bag along to pick up the pieces.
Oui. She looked dead, all right. There were pieces of her scattered everywhere.
Yurii handed her a glass of wine and Cass took it. They made a toast. He was too far away to hear what was said, but there was more laughing. Then Yurii leaned forward and kissed her.
Pierce witnessed the display of affection, the length of the kiss, and Casmir’s response—not that of a woman expecting to be tossed over the balcony at any moment.
The intimacy between them in New Orleans sparked the memory of her in his own arms. He flinched, wanted to reject what he was seeing, but he knew the truth for what it was.
