by Lexi Blake
She would end up like his sister.
“I’ll tell her I’m leaving.” He broke away from Des.
“I’ll start the car,” she promised. “We have a plane to catch. We’ll be in Moscow by this time tomorrow. I won’t let you down. We’ll do this together.”
He walked back up to his room, his heart a heavy thing in his chest.
Chapter One
London, England
Five years later
Hayley stared up at the big building in front of her and wondered what the hell she was doing here. She should be anywhere but here. Anywhere on the planet.
Except home. Which had blown up.
It had been a ridiculously rough two days.
So this was The Garden. It didn’t look like what she thought it would. Shouldn’t it be way more gardeny? The stone structure looked pretty much like the rest of the buildings in London. Elegant, graceful, so very British.
A bit like Desiree.
Did he still mourn her?
Five years had passed and she was still a nervous idiot girl, with her heart thumping in her chest at the thought of seeing Nick Markovic.
She thought about the note in her pocket. It had come with the shipment of Desiree’s things from her apartment in Tokyo. Not that Hayley had known Des had an apartment in Tokyo. It had taken over two years to go through all of her cousin’s somewhat shady dealings and get through the odd requests of her last will and testament. It had all come down to the money going to Desiree’s mother and father, the property to her sister, and the contents of her Tokyo apartment getting shipped to Seattle along with two letters. One made out to Hayley and one to Nick.
And then the world had blown up.
“Damn it, Des. What have you gotten me into now?” She muttered the words to herself because it wasn’t like she had anyone to talk to. Five years had passed and she couldn’t walk into Nick’s office with a hottie on her arm because there were no hotties to be had. Five years and all she had to show for it romantically was a string of bad first dates and one boyfriend who slept with his undergrads.
Way to go, Hayley. Time to stop looking for dick. You’ve had the best dick you’ll ever have. Start turning to women.
She scored super low on the Kinsey scale. The sweet sanity of lesbianism wasn’t happening for her, but the sweet release of death would if she didn’t get her butt off the street.
Someone had followed her. Someone had been waiting for her as she’d gotten off the plane at Heathrow. She’d barely given them the slip by slinking into the bathroom and stealing another woman’s coat and scarf and blending in with the crowd. Had whoever was stalking her been smart enough to be a chick or a man more confident in his own masculinity, she would be a dead girl.
She glanced around, but the Chelsea street was quiet save for a few joggers and day-to-day folks milling about.
But that didn’t mean no one was watching.
She settled her backpack on her shoulder. That damn backpack contained everything she owned in the world. Every single thing.
If she’d skipped her office hours, she wouldn’t be here at all.
She walked up to the building and pressed on the doorbell.
“McKay-Taggart and Knight Security Services. Do you have an appointment?” A female voice came over the speaker.
Naturally she couldn’t open a door and walk into the lobby. “Uhm, I don’t, but I’m here to see Nikolai Markovic.”
“I’m sorry. You look super interesting and all, but we only work by appointment,” the sunny voice replied. And she sure didn’t sound British. That accent was pure Cali girl. What was a California girl doing as a London receptionist?
“I’m not here to see him professionally.” She was, but she certainly wasn’t going to pay him. Nope. All her cash was gone, too. Not that the seven grand plus change that she’d saved up would have bought much of Mr. Super Security’s time. Apparently when Nick and Des had gone private, they’d gone extremely posh, as her cousins would say.
“Oh.” A long sigh came over the line. “Look, I’m so sorry. Nick’s pretty good with the quick hookup, but he never goes back for seconds, if you know what I mean.”
“Believe me, no one knows that better than I do.” She had to get off the streets and fast. She was getting nervous. Who knew when Nick would get off work and if she could catch him as he went home? She had no idea where his home was and apparently he was completely unlisted. All she had to go on were Des’s instructions. “But the matter is of some urgency.”
Like I could be dead in the next couple of minutes if no one will let me in.
“Dude, are you pregnant?”
It took all she had not to roll her eyes, but she knew an opening when she saw one. She couldn’t risk Nick sending her away without actually laying eyes on him. Maybe he wouldn’t, but it was a chance she couldn’t take. “I am. We’re only a few months along, but I need his medical records. I need to talk to him.”
“I was joking,” the voice shot back. “Seriously, you’re preggo? And it’s Nick’s. Shit. I’m not the normal receptionist but even I know we’re not supposed to let people in without an appointment and vetting but god, this is awesome gossip. Like better than reality TV. It’s a real dilemma. Follow protocol and don’t get my ass handed to me or let the pregnant chick in and pop some corn. Are you an assassin?”
“No.” What the hell kind of place did Nick work in? Were they all high? “But that’s what I would say if I was an assassin.”
“Yeah, you would,” the voice replied.
“Okay, would an assassin know that he has a mole on his right butt cheek that looks a lot like a heart? I know because I saw it when we made our baby. It’s a girl, by the way.” Her father had taught her to use all her resources. Make the lie sound plausible.
Her father had been an excellent liar. And thief.
“Okay, I have to know, but seriously, I am a trained assassin so if you’re coming here to mow down Nick with some sweet, sweet moves, I got some of my own.” There was a buzzing sound and the door opened.
Hayley walked through despite the weirdness of that particular exchange. She would rather walk into a trap than get shot on the street.
She found herself in a lobby, but it certainly didn’t look like the lobby of an office building. Maybe a plush doctor’s office or like a place where wealthy women met for tea.
“Sorry, we’re short-staffed right now.” A second door opened and she was greeted by a young woman with shiny black hair and a ready smile. She was petite but there was something about her that gave Hayley pause. Her father had spent a good portion of her childhood training her to look for what he would call “easy marks.” It was so nice to be raised by a con man. Still, the training sometimes surfaced and she knew in an instant that the woman in front of her wouldn’t go into the easy mark column. “The boss and his wife are getting back in this evening and they’re bringing most of the group back. Today you’ve got me, the lost boys, Teresa, and Nicky.”
She wasn’t going to ask why the cast of Peter Pan was apparently here, but the relevant fact had been stated. He was here. In this building. Nick. The man of her dreams. The focus of the most humiliating moment of her life.
“I only need to see Nick. If you could please tell me where his office is.”
“You’re not pregnant, are you?” The woman’s face fell and suddenly there was a gun in her hand. A nice semiautomatic, from the looks of it. She didn’t hoist it up, but it was there at her side. “I was hoping for a juicy scene. Things have been boring around here. Okay, I’m going to need you to leave now.”
“Does she have to, Kayla?” A man with a heavy Scottish brogue stepped in the lobby. “She’s quite pretty. Hello there, love. You don’t want old Nicky. He’s a bit dull. Well, he has been for the past few months. Don’t remember a damn thing past then, but some women like that. I’m truly trainable.”
The woman he’d called Kayla rolled her dark eyes. “You see what I have to deal wi
th? There’s so many of them. So pretty and such a big bag of cats when it comes to memory. And no, she can’t stay. She no longer amuses me so she’s gotta go.”
Hayley stood her ground. “So you can tell by looking at me that I’m not pregnant.”
“Your shoulders are up around your ears and your eyes slid off me when I walked in the room,” Kayla explained. “You’re uncomfortable, not victorious that you get to face down the dude who knocked you up. You don’t want to see Nick, but for some reason you are happy to be inside this building.”
So the chick was excellent at reading body language and Hayley had totally forgotten how to sell a con. It wasn’t her fault. She’d spent the last few years studying world history, not working a long game.
“I still need to talk to Nick, and if you think for a second that gun in your hand is going to get me moving, you’re wrong. Look at my body language right now and tell me if I’m lying.” Hayley held her hands up, showing she wasn’t hiding a weapon. “I’m not here to hurt him, but I’m not leaving without talking to him. Shoot me, but you’re not getting me out of this building any way other than an ambulance. And I think you’re bluffing because you don’t even have the safety off that gun.”
Kayla held her place, but there was something extremely dangerous about her stillness. Like a sleek panther waiting for the right time to pounce. “Why are you here?”
The hot Scottish guy held a hand out as though he knew exactly how dangerous the situation could get. “Why don’t you let me talk to the girl, Kayla? There’s no need to get nasty.”
“I’m not letting her stay so you can flirt, Owen. I know it’s been quiet around here, but you do know the rules.” Kayla turned back toward her. “Talk. What do you need Nick for?”
Perhaps it was time for a bit of truth. “Because Des sent me. Desiree was my cousin and I inherited the contents of one of her many hidden safe houses. Part of those contents delivered to me included two letters written shortly before her death. One to me and one to Nick. The one to me advised that if I ever found myself in danger, I should get to Nick and give him his letter as quickly as I could. So here I am. Always the obedient cousin.”
Kayla holstered the gun. “Damn. Now I can’t let you go, but I can give Nick the option. Give me the letter. You can stay here in the lobby with Owen, and Nick will let me know if he wants to see you.”
Not on her life, since that was what it might come down to. “If he wants the letter, he sees me.”
Kayla frowned. “I know how the family felt about Nick. He’s my friend and I’m not putting…” She stopped, staring for a moment. “You’re Hayley. Oh, my. That’s way better than some knocked-up chick showing up.”
“Hayley? That’s a pretty name for a pretty girl,” Owen said with a smile. “Does that mean we get to keep her?”
“It means Nick’s going to want to see her,” Kayla shot back. “Desiree told me about her sweet cousin Hayley. Apparently Des had to save her from Nick’s raging lust when she was an innocent twenty-year-old. Hayley, that is. Not Des. I don’t think Des was ever innocent. Not even from birth.”
Hayley felt her skin flush with embarrassment. Naturally Des had talked. Des always talked. She’d had a love-hate relationship with her cousin, but then most people did. Des had been larger than life and sometimes meaner than Satan. She could also be kind to people she cared about.
He wasn’t for you. His life is too rough. Better to leave him with me. I know why you did it and I don’t blame you, but I care too much about the both of you to allow it to happen. Ta-ta, love. If you ever need me, you know my number.
That was Des. She would pluck the love of Hayley’s life right out of the bed they’d made love in, then promise to always be there.
“If you’re done making fun of me, I’d like to see Nick.”
Kayla sighed. “I’m not making fun of you. I just have the world’s most boring sex life and I live for other people’s drama because I can’t seem to find any of my own. You know the sex you have while spying tends to be bad. Do you honestly think that pompous parliament guy I had to screw to prove he was defrauding the country and selling weapons to foreign dictators was good in bed? Because he wasn’t. He was as selfish a lover as he was a political figure. Come on. I’ll keep my mouth shut and this can all happen behind closed doors and I’ll go back to playing Monopoly with the lost boys. Half the time they forget what they’re playing at all and wander off. Like I said, my life is super sad.”
Kayla turned and opened the door.
Owen stomped up to Hayley. “Now you’ve made the lass sad.”
Kayla shook her head. “Don’t mind Owen. I’m fine. Though my life kind of sucks right now. I got left behind on the whole wedding-in-paradise thing because I’m avoiding an ex-lover who I might or might not have spied on.”
“You could give her something.” Owen held the door open for Hayley.
Give the crazy chick something? Like what? She didn’t owe the gorgeous, dangerous woman a damn thing. So why did she feel guilty that Kayla’s shoulders were slumped? Fine. It wasn’t like she didn’t know all the stuff anyway. Des had obviously told Kayla that Hayley and Nick had a relationship. “Nick wasn’t selfish. He was an incredibly giving lover right up to the point that he left me for my cousin. Still, he did pay for my cab. So there’s that.”
When Kayla turned, her smile lit up the room. “Seriously? That’s awesome. And Des could be a total bitch. A likable bitch, but a bitch, and not in the super-cool, I-want-a-squad-with-her way. Nick always seemed like a guy who would want to settle down at some point, and that was so not Des’s scene, if you know what I mean.”
Such an odd woman. Hayley stopped because Kayla wasn’t the only thing that was odd.
She was in a garden. A real live, ground-to-six-floor-roof garden.
It was the single most stunning room…building…she wasn’t sure what to call it…that she’d ever seen. She looked up and down and all around and what she saw was green and calm. There was a skylight overhead, and she realized the whole building was centered around this atrium.
“It’s prettier at night,” Owen said, standing beside her. “At night the blooms open and the whole world feels fresh and young.”
Kayla put a hand on his shoulder, a sheen of tears in her eyes. “It does, buddy. It’s beautiful at night.”
Something passed over Kayla’s face, something Hayley didn’t understand. Something about Owen.
It wasn’t her problem. She had too many of her own to deal with. She was going to dump this problem in Nick’s lap and find a way to move on with her life. She wasn’t going to get drawn into these people’s problems. They were Nick’s people. Not hers.
She didn’t have people anymore.
“The elevator’s over here. Nick’s office is on the third floor.” Kayla pressed the button that called the elevator. “Owen can show you in. I have to stay down here and monitor security until they get back from lunch. Don’t go too hard on Nick, okay? Sometimes he talks about you when he’s drunk or half asleep. He only ever talks about you in Russian, but I know a few words.’”
You could be the one to lead me out of this hell. You could be my guide, Hayley. I don’t know how to live in the real world anymore. I want this. I want you.
She shoved the words aside because they’d meant nothing. “I’m sure he was talking about Des. She was everything to him.”
Kayla nodded. “They were an interesting pair, to say the least. She was quite a character. Des knew how to keep a person off balance. She kind of delighted in it. I think he’s still hurting even years later. Like I said, go easy on him.”
The elevator door opened and Owen stepped in. He was such a gorgeous man despite the fact that his clothes somewhat hung on him. He had that red hair one only found in Scotland and Ireland. He smiled readily, but he looked as though he’d been through an illness. There was a gaunt look to his face that told her he’d been through something and was only now seeing the other side.
Doctor? Before she could ask the question, Owen was continuing on.
“Yeah, this place is fascinating. I think you’ll love it here. Especially at night.”
“When the flowers bloom,” she said, thinking of what Owen had mentioned.
“And when the whole damn place turns into a sex club.” The gorgeous Scot winked her way. “That’s when the fun starts.”
“Wait. What?” Hayley felt her jaw drop, but the elevator doors had opened and Owen walked through.
“He’s this way. Yes, I think you’ll like it here.” Owen moved down the hall.
Hayley wondered exactly what she’d gotten herself into.
* * * *
Nick looked up as he heard the knock on his door. It was a bit of a lifeline, that distraction. It might keep him from giving in and pulling the vodka out of the bottom of his desk. He needed to keep that particular demon at bay until tonight when he could lock himself away and no one needed to know he couldn’t get to sleep without it.
No one ever needed to know that even the vodka couldn’t banish the ghosts that haunted him. The ghosts of both the dead and the living.
Five years had gone by and he still thought about that moment in the motel parking lot. That had been the moment that had decided his life. He’d chosen vengeance and death over peace and possibility. So often in his dreams he went back to that moment and chose again.
“Mr. Markovic?” Owen stood in the doorway and Nick felt the guilt that always rose in him the minute he saw his partner. Owen had been his closest friend and yet Nick hadn’t seen that he was in trouble. Owen was a shadow of his former self. Owen had betrayed the team on their last major mission and he’d paid dearly for it. He’d sold out Theo Taggart to Hope McDonald, a doctor who liked experimenting on military men. Owen had done it to save his mother and sister, though McDonald had murdered both despite Owen’s help. She’d then given Owen a dose of her experimental memory drug that had not only wiped Owen’s mind clean, but made him sick for months.
