by Lexi Blake
A car suddenly pulled up behind the men on the public side of the gate and the door was opened by the man on the left. He hauled Alfi up and shoved his big body into the car. The other man lowered his rifle and seemed to be talking to Taggart.
“Wow, I didn’t expect that,” Charlotte said as the car drove off. She stood up and started toward the door. “I think the war is off. It looks like we’re about to have peace talks. Avery, could you go and tell Serena that we’re about to have guests. I’m going to request a guard outside the nursery door and another guarding the stairs that run up to the third floor.”
Where the royals were staying. Avery strode out the door while Charlotte got on her phone.
“Remy, we have an evolving situation,” Charlotte said, stepping away to talk.
“Are you afraid?” Tucker turned in his chair. “Because I don’t think you should be. Brody’s good at his job. And he told me if I let you get murdered he would do some things to me that shouldn’t be done to a human body. I’m planning on not letting you get killed because I don’t think my large intestine should see the outside of my body.”
She had to talk to Brody about how he dealt with his coworkers. “He won’t hurt you and I plan on not being killed.”
Planned, but she knew how plans could go.
She’d planned to spend the whole evening in Brody’s arms. She’d planned to let him handle everything.
Her plans were completely blown.
Twenty-four hours and then Anya would lose her life. Twenty-four hours and there would be more blood on her hands. She knew logically that this wasn’t her fault, but deep down in her soul she had to ask herself why it kept happening to her. Was there something wrong with her that she kept hurting people?
Would she hurt Brody and Nate simply by letting them close?
“I think he would kill me if I did something that hurt you,” Tucker was saying.
She shook her head. “No. I’ll talk to him about it. He shouldn’t threaten you. I don’t want that.”
“You don’t want someone to stand up for you?”
She couldn’t handle the thought. “No. If Brody thinks that’s how I want to live, then he’s wrong about me.”
And that was a good reason for her to not pursue a relationship with him.
Tucker’s eyes tightened, his mouth turning down. “I thought that would be a nice thing. The group where I live, they stand up for each other. I thought it was a form of love. You treat it like it’s something terrible. Could you explain this to me? I hate feeling confused.”
She wished he’d picked someone else to explain humanity to him. “I don’t want anyone hurt because of something I did or something that was done to me. Do you understand?”
“So you don’t want connections with people? Because if you’re connected in a way that’s loving and affectionate, you can’t expect that person to sit by while you’re being harmed. Or threatened.”
How did she make him understand? She glanced up at the screen and sighed in relief. The guns were pointed down now and the two men who’d held Alfi had taken off the masks that covered their faces. It looked like they were talking in a somewhat reasonable fashion. “I expect them to honor my wishes. Look, I’ve hurt people in the past.”
“You’re talking about the two people who died in the car accident?”
Well, at least he’d done his homework. “Yes.”
“So you think because those two people died, that no one should stand up for you. You think you don’t deserve love from anyone.”
She wished he would stop playing the shrink. “Of course not. It’s simply that I think I should be left to handle things. I know best what I want and that’s not more people to be hurt. I’m a big girl. I should be able to choose how to live my life.”
“And will you teach your son the same? I often wonder what my mother taught me. Of course, when I think about it too hard, I get a terrible headache.”
“It’s different. He’s a child,” she argued.
“But children learn from their parents. I’ve heard this said many times. If someone was hurting your child, how would you handle that? Would you simply ask the person to stop? If that doesn’t work, how would you handle that?”
“I wouldn’t let anyone hurt my child.” The line of questioning was making her anxious. “Are you trying to say I’m a bad mother?”
“No, I’m trying to understand. Brody is my friend and he’s in a bad position. He loves you, but I think you don’t want him to love you. I think you don’t want anyone to love you and that makes me feel sad. Ariel says we should talk about the things that make us sad even if there is no solution.” Tucker looked back at the screen. “I want to be there for Brody if he needs me. I think he’s going to because I think you’re going to break his heart. He’s not a man who can allow those he loves to be hurt. Even if they crave the pain of being hurt.”
“I do not.”
He shrugged. “Sometimes pain is good. I think I miss my pain. I can feel it simmering beneath the surface, but I can’t remember why it’s there. If I knew what I ached about, maybe I could ease it. Maybe I could find a way to turn it into something else. Is that why you went to Africa?”
She stood up. “I’m not having this conversation with you. It’s too personal.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to pry. I guess I did, but I didn’t mean to hurt you. I was trying to understand more.” He flashed her a sad smile. “I’ve been told I’m annoying.”
She was about to agree with whoever had said that when the door came open and Taggart entered.
“Charlie?”
Charlotte nodded. “I’ve placed guards on the nursery and to watch over our guests.”
He lowered his head and kissed his wife. “Thank you. Now for the fun stuff. Introductions. Don’t kill the newbies.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Not the mercenaries?”
Brody walked into the room, his eyes finding hers.
What would she do if someone was hurting him? Would she stand back and let him handle it because he was an adult and he should have the choice? Or would she stop whoever was doing it at any cost because she loved him?
Love. She loved him and that scared the shit out of her.
“No mercenaries. We have an interested third party.” Liam stood beside a tall, lanky man with blond hair.
He looked incredibly familiar. A name came to mind because she was almost certain she’d seen that face before in a photo. “Fedor? Are you Anya’s brother?”
He nodded slowly. “I am and you are her employer? The doctor?”
Brody tried to step in front of her. “She’s none of your business.”
“Yes, Anya works at my clinic.” She couldn’t seem to get around him.
“You are the one who left her behind to die?” Fedor asked. His friend stepped in next to him.
“Hey,” Brody began.
Guilt flooded her system. “I thought she would run. She offered to stay behind for a few minutes and then she would run.”
Fedor’s cold blue eyes found hers. “My sister is brave. I can see agreeing to risk her own life to save others. You are coward for allowing her to do this. You and the piece of shit I have taken into custody. You both ran and left my sister to take your punishment.”
“Ukrainians.” Charlotte made the word sound like an admonishment.
“Russian,” Fedor shot back. He said something in a language Steph didn’t understand.
Charlotte did the same.
Taggart put a hand up. “I didn’t even know some of those words and my Russian is pretty good. It’s best that I didn’t since if I thought for a second that you called my wife nasty names, I would say our peace treaty is over and you should get ready to fight.”
Fedor took a deep breath. “I am sorry, Mr. Taggart. And Mrs. Taggart. I am not friendly with your wife’s people, as I pointed out before. This is why I will keep the man and allow you to keep the woman for as long as I believe you intend to work wi
th me to free my sister.”
“Allow?” Taggart asked.
Brody took her hand and pulled her to a corner of the room while Fedor began to talk to Taggart. “Are you all right?”
Not at all, but there was nothing she could do about it now. “He’s right. I should have waited for her.”
Brody’s jaw tightened. “Damn it, you had to protect our son.” He sighed, a long-suffering sound. “That bastard has no idea what it was like and no right at all to blame you. But you won’t listen to me about that, will you?”
She felt his disappointment and couldn’t understand it. Not at all. “I could have done a thousand things differently. Can’t you see that I should have helped her?”
“Can’t you see that you cannot save the whole world? You owe Nate. You have to save him first, last, and always, and part of saving Nate is saving yourself. He needs his mum. I need you.”
But she would screw it up. She would screw it all up and then where would they be? She wanted to lean into him, to hold on and beg him to make things right for her. For them. She wanted to hold on to him, but she was afraid.
“I need you.” Brody stared down at her, his hands on her shoulders, eyes pleading.
The best thing she could do was walk away. Turn and walk out and leave everything and everyone behind. Go back to Africa where she was needed, but not needed. They needed a doctor, not her in particular. She didn’t have to be Stephanie Gibson in Africa. All she had to be was a competent doctor, and that might have been how she spent the rest of her life.
But Nate had come along and now she had to be something more.
“I need you, too.” The words came out on a whisper, new words that seemed vulnerable. Fragile words. “I need you, Brody.”
A shudder went through his body and he dragged her close. “You have no idea how long I’ve wanted to hear those words. I’m going to take care of this.”
Because he loved her. Because people in love took care of each other. Somehow Tucker’s words were sinking in and making her ask questions. She’d seen plenty of therapists who had traced the source of her guilt and self-loathing back to the night that changed her life. They’d all tried to ease her through so she could live a happy life. But Tucker had asked her childish questions. Questions her own child would one day ask, and she’d had no real idea how to answer him.
How would she explain to her boy that she wasn’t worth saving? That her life had ended that night she’d made the worst mistake a human could make and she was nothing but a shell already serving time in a self-made Purgatory?
His life should be about joy, and if she didn’t find a way to change, she had none to give him.
How did she explain that his birth hadn’t changed her life? Hadn’t made her more than she’d been before? Had shoved her even deeper into a hole?
She didn’t know what to do, couldn’t trust her own instincts. The surface instincts told her to push everyone away.
What did her deeper instincts tell her? What would the Stephanie who never got in that car and went to that party have done?
She leaned close and wrapped her arms around him. She breathed in his scent. Earthy and masculine and safe.
She felt him kiss her head.
“Don’t worry about anything else. Let me handle this.” He kissed her again. “Let me take care of you for once.”
She found herself nodding against him. “Okay.”
She felt him sigh as though relieved.
“It’s all going to be all right in the end. We’re going to sit down and talk this out with Anya’s family,” he explained. “We’ll exchange all the intel we’ve gathered. This is a good thing.”
Brody was an optimist. “And what about Alfi?”
“Alfi claims he lost the thumb drive. He admitted he took it and thought to sell it back to the mercenaries or the company they were representing or the newspaper the journalist worked for. He wanted to start a bidding war, but somewhere along the way, he lost the damn thing. I swear I’ll kill him myself.”
She shook her head, but she wasn’t going to argue with him over semantics. He wouldn’t really kill Alfi. Even if Alfi might deserve it. “Why? Why would he do that to us? He had to know this would go badly.”
“Alfi doesn’t think. He never has. He sees money in front of him and all his morals go out the window. I’m sure he convinced himself that he deserved the money. Bastard.”
“On this we can agree,” Fedor said. “Alfi Dauterre is a bastard.”
“That doesn’t mean you get to hurt him.” She faced Fedor.
“I’ll leave that to de Vries,” he said with a shrug.
Taggart took over, stepping into the middle of the group. “It’s late. Why don’t you take Steph back home and I’ll deal with our new friends. I’m going to have to bring them up to date on everything, but I’m going to do it at the office. This isn’t the place for a meeting.”
Fedor didn’t know his sister had already lost a piece of herself.
Brody’s hand found hers, squeezing lightly. It was easy to see they didn’t want her around when Fedor lost his shit.
“How are we going to get her back? If we don’t have the thumb drive, what are we going to do?” She needed a plan. They were down to twenty-four hours.
“That’s what we’re going to talk about,” Taggart assured her. “Go and get your son and in the morning, we’ll have another talk. We’ll find de Vries. Don’t think I won’t.”
“It’s going to be fine, Steph,” Charlotte said. “I’ll come by in the morning and fill you in on everything. And I’ll keep an eye on the boys and make sure they don’t do anything too dangerous. By this time tomorrow, we’ll have your friend back and all of this is going to feel like a bad dream.”
She wished she had half of Charlotte’s optimism.
Brody led her out into the hall. The group around them discussed going back to the McKay-Taggart building. Adam joined them, explaining how he was going to narrow down the possible places where de Vries could be hiding.
Steph felt removed from it all.
Brody leaned over and brushed a kiss on her forehead. “I’ll get our boy. You wait for me here, all right?”
She nodded and moved to the front windows, staring out into the night.
“This is not how I wanted to visit the States for the first time,” a deep voice said.
She glanced up and the second man was standing beside her. “I’m sorry you had to come under such terrible circumstances. You know Anya well?”
“She’s my cousin. We have—how would say? Very close family. You must understand this.”
She didn’t. Her family had broken a long time before. “I know Anya talks about her family all the time.”
“She’s a sweet girl, but Fedor was wrong to allow her to go to dangerous place.” His eyes were on the parking lot. “I’m going to tell you what the others will not. This man who has my cousin will not be bought off with the thumb drive. He wants you and the Australian. He believes you have seen what is on the drive, and he will kill anyone who can speak of it.”
“I haven’t seen anything.” She tightened her fingers around her purse, needing something to hold on to.
“That is between you and de Vries. I suggest you make him believe or he will kill you. I intend to give you to de Vries along with Dauterre in exchange for my cousin. I will go along with this farce for now, but I want you to meet me in four hours. I know the address where you are staying.”
“I can’t do that. Even if I was stupid enough to try to meet you, I don’t think my bodyguards would allow it.”
“I’ve slipped you a letter detailing what I want you to do along with the tools to make it happen. If you don’t meet me in four hours, I will use my network to ensure that everyone you care about dies in the next year. I know many of the world’s finest assassins. I won’t hesitate to spend everything I own making sure you lose everyone. Starting with your son and that big bastard you’re obviously sleeping with. Do I ma
ke myself clear?”
She turned to him, noting that Tucker was watching from across the lobby. “You’ve made yourself very clear.”
He smiled down at her. “Act like nothing is wrong or we’ll start here and now. If you tell your friends, they’ll be the first to go.”
She forced a smile on her face and Tucker seemed to take that as his cue. He sat back down. “I think you’re outnumbered here. My friends aren’t exactly lightweights.”
“I have no wish to get involved in a fight here and now, and perhaps they would win,” he allowed. “But you should understand that even if Fedor and I die, we have others to take care of things. My people have long memories and we’ll be smart about it. We’ll allow a few months to go by, but sooner or later, you will lose them all. We will save you for the last. By the time we’re done, you’ll beg for death. Do you understand?”
“Yes, you’ve made yourself very clear.”
“Excellent.” He stepped back as Brody strode out of the hallway, carrying Nathan’s car seat. “I wish you a good night, then. Mr. Carter, we’ll see you in the morning and we’ll try to find our way out of this, yes?”
Brody nodded. “We will. This is a smart bunch. We’ll get Anya back in no time.” He put his free hand on her shoulder. “Come along, luv. Let’s get some sleep. Tomorrow’s going to be a long day, but after things will get better.”
“I hope so.” She would have to wait until she got home to read the note and the instructions the Ukrainians had left for her.
How would she get by the guards?
“Are you all right?” Brody smoothed her hair back.
She moved into his arms. “Just tired.”
He held her and she wondered if it was for the last time.
Chapter Thirteen
Brody put Nate down, laying him in the crib. “We’ve got to get him into a routine. The last few nights we’ve put him down late.”
