by Jennie Lucas
Especially here.
I did the right thing letting her go, he told himself. But the sick feeling only got worse. His knees felt weak, as if he’d just run twenty miles without stopping, or gone twenty rounds with a heavyweight champ; he sank into the sleek red-upholstered chair by the edge of the window. He put his head in his hands.
It was the silence that was killing him.
The absolute silence of his beautifully decorated apartment. No baby laughter. No lullabies from Anna. No voices at all. Just dead silence.
He could call one of his trusted employees, like Cooper. He could call acquaintances from the club. He could call any of a dozen women he’d dated. They would be here in less than ten minutes to fill his home with noise.
But he didn’t want them.
He wanted his family.
He wanted her. His secretary. His lover. His friend.
“I had to give her up,” he repeated to himself, raking his hand through his hair. I didn’t love her.
“Are you sure about that, sir?” a Scottish voice said from behind him.
Nikos jumped when he realized he’d spoken his last words aloud. Mrs. Burbridge was standing in the doorway, her hands folded in front of her. A sharp reply rose to his lips, but her plump face looked so gentle and understanding he bit back the words. Instead, he muttered, “Of course I’m sure.”
“You told me to pick up the baby early this morning, as you’d be going to a wedding, but I’ve arrived to find an open door, no wee babe, and no bride. Am I to understand the wedding’s off?”
“They’re both gone,” he said wearily. He went to his desk, sat down and opened his checkbook. “Your job here is done, Mrs. Burbridge. I’m sorry to bring you so far for just a few weeks. I’ll compensate you—”
She reached over and shut the checkbook with a bang. “Where are they, sir? Anna and your child?”
“I let them go,” he said, resting his head in his hands. “My son deserved a mother.”
“But the bairn was happy enough. So was his mother, I thought. Why send them away?”
“Because Anna deserves better,” he exploded. “She deserves a man who can love her. She’s been through enough. From her family. From me. I just want her to be happy.”
“And you? You don’t look terribly happy.”
He gave a bitter laugh. “I’ll get by. But Anna…” He rubbed the back of his head wearily. “I couldn’t let her down. She loved me. Marrying me would have ruined her life.”
“Her happiness means more to you than your own?”
“She’s the mother of my son. The best damn partner I ever had at work. My friend. My lover. Of course I want her to be happy. It’s all I want.”
The Scotswoman raised her head and looked at him. Her eyes were kind, but sad. “Sir, what do you think love is?”
For a second he just stared at her. Then his heart started to pound in his chest.
“Oh, my God,” he whispered.
Was it possible that she was right? That he loved Anna?
He didn’t just want her in his bed, that was true. He didn’t just enjoy her company, appreciate her skills as a mother or respect her perfect secretarial work.
He wanted her face to be the first he woke up to and the last he saw before he slept.
He wanted to see her face light up when she had a business idea, or when she was splashing around in the pool with their son.
He wanted her to be happy. To work as his secretary if that was what it took to make her glow from the inside out. Her happiness was everything.
That was love?
Oh, my God. He loved her. He didn’t deserve her, but what if he could spend the rest of his life striving to make her happy?
Because without Anna he now realized that his life was empty. His fortune, his business empire—meant nothing. Without her this penthouse was no better than his childhood tenement, and his life was just as lonely and hungry.
Money didn’t matter.
Love mattered.
Family mattered.
Oh, my God. Anna.
“Bless you,” he said to Mrs. Burbridge. He raced down the hall to the door. He had to find Anna—now, at once.
He stopped short when he saw Cooper standing outside his door. The burly bodyguard’s face was white and drawn.
“Boss—”
But at that moment Nikos saw the bundle in Cooper’s arms. His baby son, wrapped in a blanket. Michael’s little face was red and miserable as he cried.
“We found him at the front entrance to the casino,” Cooper said. “Alone.”
Nikos’s heart stopped in his throat as he took his son in his arms. “Alone?”
The burly man nodded grimly. “A valet said a van stopped beneath the marquee, left the baby on the ground, and drove away.”
Nikos held his son close, crooning to him softly, rocking him back and forth against his chest, just like Anna had taught him. The baby’s tears subsided. Michael was comforted, but Nikos was not. “Anna wouldn’t let herself be separated from Misha.”
Looking miserable, Cooper handed him a letter. Nikos scanned it quickly.
Nikos
I’ve realized that sharing custody will never work. I’m in love with Victor Sinistyn and leaving with him for South America. You once said I was no kind of mother, and I guess you were right. Trying to keep our baby safe and warm would be too much effort where we’re going. Please don’t bother trying to find me. Raise our son well.
Anna
“Boss?” Cooper repeated unhappily. His voice echoed in the private outside hallway against the steel of the elevator doors. “What do you want me to do?”
Nikos’s heart was pounding. She’d left him. The moment he’d realized he loved her with all his heart, she’d left him. His worst fear had come true.
But something nagged at him, overriding the pain, and he read the letter again. A mere hour after she’d left Nikos she’d decided to leave both him and Misha behind for a life with Victor Sinistyn?
Maybe it was her handwriting, but he didn’t believe a word of it.
“She’s in trouble,” Nikos said slowly. “Someone forced her to write this letter.”
“You think she’s been kidnapped?”
“Sinistyn,” he breathed. The man had made it clear he wanted Anna, and when Nikos had shoved her out of L’Hermitage without bodyguards he’d handed her to him on a silver plate. He cursed himself under his breath. “Get the plane ready.”
“It’s ready now—for your trip to Asia.”
“Screw Singapore. Let Haverstock take the bid,” he said, throwing away the billion-dollar deal to his chief rival without a thought.
“Where are we going to look for her? South America?”
Nikos shook his head. “Sinistyn put that in to throw us off the track. No. He’s going someplace else. Somewhere private. Somewhere my power does not easily reach.” He glanced down at the letter, forcing himself to read it again slowly.
You once said I was no kind of mother…
Trying to keep our baby safe and warm would be too much effort where we’re going…
He sucked in his breath. She was trying to tell him where they were going. Folding the letter, he shoved it at Cooper. “They’re going to Russia.”
“Let me guess, boss,” Cooper said sourly. “You want to handle this alone.”
Nikos gently handed the baby to Mrs. Burbridge. Kissing his son goodbye, he turned to face Cooper with rage surging through his veins. “Hell, no. I want every man we’ve got on the plane within the hour. And get Yuri Andropov on the phone. It’s time to call in a favor.”
CHAPTER NINE
ANNA SHIFTED SLIGHTLY in her chair, trying to shift the cords that bound her wrists without attracting the attention of Victor or his goons. Her hands felt hot and sweaty with the effort, but the rest of her felt like ice as she worked the broken tines of her great-grandmother’s ring against the rope.
On the car ride from St. Petersburg she’d briefly fe
lt the spring sun on her face, but the backroom of the Rostov Palace felt cold as ever. Especially as she’d listened to Victor’s men ransack the princess’s china in the kitchen. Biting her lip, she watched as Victor and one of his men set up an old black-and-white television near the fire.
“It’s not working. We’ll miss the game,” the bodyguard complained in Russian, trying to position the antenna.
“It’ll be fine,” Victor snapped in the same language. He took the antenna then, realizing that there was no electricity, dropped it in disgust. “Go help with dinner.”
“Why can’t she make us dinner?” the man grumbled, nodding at Anna. “Make the woman useful for once.”
Victor glanced back at her, and she froze.
“Oh, she will be useful. But only to me. Get out, I said. I want some time with my future bride.”
As Victor approached she pressed her wrists against her T-shirt, hoping he wouldn’t notice that one of the cords binding her to the chair was finally starting to fray.
She’d been praying that customs officials would discover her when they arrived in St. Petersburg, but Victor’s connections, along with a well-placed bribe, had allowed his private plane to arrive unmolested.
At least her baby was safe, thousands of miles away with Nikos. She’d bought her child’s safety with that horrible letter Victor had forced her to write. Would Nikos see her clues?
Maybe he won’t even care, she thought hollowly. He’d made it clear that he wanted her permanently out of his life, and this was about as permanent as it could get.
Victor pulled off her gag. “Here,” he said, sounding amused. “Scream all you want. No one will hear you.”
But she didn’t scream. She just pulled away from his touch, glaring at him.
He laughed, folding his arms as he looked around them. “I can see I need to renovate my so-called palace. No heat. No electricity. And all they’ve found in the kitchen so far are potatoes and tea bags.”
“I hope you starve,” she replied pleasantly.
“That’s not a very kind thing to say to your future husband, is it? You and I both need to keep up our strength. I’ll send one of the boys to the grocery store. And as for heat…we can supply that on our own, later.” He gave her a sly smile. “Any requests? You’ve been refusing food and drink for hours.” He ran his hand down her arm, making her shudder with revulsion. “You must eat something.”
“So you can drug me? No, thanks.”
“Ah, loobemaya,” Victor said softly, brushing back a tendril of her hair. “I wouldn’t go to so much trouble if I didn’t love you so much.”
“You call this love?”
“Until Stavrakis’s spell wears off, and you understand it’s really me you want, I need to keep you close. You will realize how much you want me.” His voice sounded threatening as, massaging her shoulder hard enough to leave a bruise, he added softly, “Very soon.”
Ignoring the loud sounds of crashing china and slamming cabinet doors in the kitchen, Anna pulled her shoulder away from his hand. “I love Nikos, and I always will.”
He yanked back her hair, causing her head to jerk back. Anna dimly heard men shouting from the kitchen, but all she could see was Victor’s sadistic face, inches away from her own. “Forget him. Forget his baby. I will give you others. I will fill you with my child tonight. You belong to me now. You will learn to obey my will. You will learn to crave my touch—”
He forced his lips on hers in a painful ravishment that was meant to teach fear. And it worked. For the first time Anna began to feel truly scared of what he would do to her.
When he pulled away, Victor smiled at the expression on her face. He ran a hand up the inner thigh of her jeans.
“You have no right,” she whispered, shaking.
“This is my country. I have half the police in my pocket. Here, you are my slave.” He reached to fondle a breast, and without thinking she brought up her bound wrists to block him. His smile stretched to a grin. “Yes,” he breathed. “Fight me. That’s what I want. Stavrakis isn’t here to save you. You’ll never see him or your precious son again. You’re mine. You’re totally in my power—”
“Let her go.”
Victor looked up with a gasp. Anna saw Nikos standing in the kitchen doorway and almost sobbed aloud.
Nikos’s face had an expression she’d never seen before—as cold and deadly as the gun he was pointing at Sinistyn.
Victor looked up with an intake of breath which he quickly masked with a sneer. “You’re as good as dead, Stavrakis. My men will—”
“Your men will do nothing. They barely tried. When they saw they were outnumbered, most of them gave up without a fight.” He cocked the gun, assessing his aim at Victor’s head. “Some loyalty you inspire, Sinistyn.”
With a single smooth movement Victor twisted behind Anna, using her body to block his own. “Come closer and I’ll kill her.”
He put his beefy hands around her neck. Anna flinched, then struggled, unable to breathe. As he slowly tightened his grip, the room around her seemed to shimmer and fade.
Nikos uncocked the gun, pointing it at the ceiling. “You really are a coward.”
“It’s easy to throw insults when you have a gun.”
“Let her go, damn you!” Nikos threw the gun on the floor, then straightened with a scornful expression. “Even now I’m unarmed, I know you won’t fight me. I’m stronger, faster, smarter than you—”
“Shut up!” Victor screamed, releasing Anna’s throat. She took a long, shuddering gasp of air and felt the world right itself around her.
Victor stormed toward Nikos, lunging for the gun.
Nikos kicked it into the roaring fireplace and threw himself at the other man’s midsection. The two men fought while Anna watched in terror, desperately struggling with the cords that bound her to the chair. Victor lashed out wildly, hitting Nikos’s jaw with his knee. Nikos’s head snapped back, but he fought grimly, as if he were in the battle he’d trained for all his life. With a crunching uppercut to the chin, Nikos knocked Victor to the floor.
Gasping for air, Victor slid back, scuttling like a crab. Reaching into the fireplace, he picked up the gun with his sleeve and pushed himself up against the wall, panting.
“Now you’re going to die.” Victor shot a crazed look from Nikos to Anna. “And you’re going to watch. After this, only his ghost will haunt us.” He cocked the gun, pointing it at Nikos with triumph.
“No!” Anna screamed, desperately struggling with the cord. By some miracle it snapped open against her wrist. She threw herself from the chair, flinging her body in front of Nikos as Victor squeezed the trigger.
She closed her eyes, waiting to feel the bullet tear through her body.
Instead, she just heard a soft click.
The gun was empty!
Victor shook the gun with impotent fury.
Nikos turned to one side, tucking her protectively behind him as he faced Victor. “Guess I forgot the bullets. Sorry.”
With a scream of frustration Victor threw the gun at him, but Nikos dodged it easily. It clattered to the floor.
Nikos glanced at it with a derisive snort. He raised an eyebrow, giving Victor the darkly arrogant look that Anna had once despised. But she appreciated it now. She knew he used all his arrogance, all his strength and power, to protect the people he loved.
“Fight me, Sinistyn,” Nikos demanded coldly. “Just you and me.”
Victor swore in Russian, shaking his head. He looked straight at Anna, muttering all the sadistic things he’d do to her if Nikos wasn’t there to protect her.
Anna felt her cheeks grow hot with horror. Nikos didn’t speak Russian, but when he saw the effect the man’s words were having on her he strode forward grimly.
With a yelp, Victor turned and ran in the other direction. But Nikos caught up with him, grabbing his shoulder and whirling him around.
“Like scaring women, do you?” He punched Victor in the face—once, twice. “To
o much of a coward to fight someone your own size? Fight me, damn you! Or are you going to just let me kill you?” Nikos’s eyes narrowed and he looked dangerous indeed. “Don’t think I won’t.”
Victor started fighting dirty. He tried to knee Nikos in the groin, to trip him. When Nikos blocked him, he stumbled back to the fireplace and grabbed a sharp iron poker.
“I’ll stab you like a pig, you Greek bastard,” he panted, swinging the poker at Nikos’s face.
He blocked it with his right arm, but Anna heard the crunch of bone and saw the way Nikos’s right hand hung at a strange angle.
Victor had broken his wrist. She trembled with fury. She started to run at Victor, to fight him two to one, but Nikos stopped her with a hard glance.
With his left hand he wrenched the poker away and threw Victor to the floor. He held him to the ground with one hand against his neck. Anna watched in horror as he tightened his grip.
“How does it feel to be vulnerable?” Nikos demanded.
“Nikos, let him go,” Anna sobbed.
“Why? Do you think he would have let you go?” he demanded, not looking at her. “Did he ever show mercy to anyone weaker? Why should I let him live after what he’s done to you?”
Slowly she put her hands against his shoulders, feeling the hard tension of his muscles. “Do it for us. Please, my love, let him go so we can go back to our son.”
Abruptly, he released his choke hold on the other man and rose to his feet. She had one brief vision of his face, and she thought she saw tears in his eyes as, without a word, he took her in his arms and held her tightly.
Nikos looked down at her as he held her tenderly to his chest. His dark eyes were shining.
“Thank you, agape mou,” he whispered, brushing her cheek softly with his hand. “Thank you for trying to take that bullet. There weren’t any bullets, but you didn’t know that. You…you saved me. In so many ways.”
“And you started early,” a man said from the doorway in heavily accented English. Anna looked up to see a man in a Russian police uniform, with half a dozen policemen behind him. “We missed it.”
