After Kyle finished flirting with Zhanna, Melanie, and Sam, he walked around the table with a chilled bottle of Pallini Limoncello in his left hand and two snifters in his right. “How ‘bout dessert, me and you?”
Xander answered in the voice of a southern belle, “I do declare, Mista Hamilton, you know how to make a girl swoon . . . I’ll grab some cigars.”
“I love it when you talk dirty to me. I’ll be in the lounge chair.” Kyle motioned toward the other end of the pool toward a lounge chair that sat in front of a wood-burning fire pit, and walked on by. Xander went to stand up when Sarah grabbed his arm. Xander was halfway up but sat back down to hear what she had to say. He leaned in as she began to whisper in his ear. He didn’t catch what she said the first time because her short, yellow cotton dress had ridden up her long tanned legs, and he could just make out the white panties that hid underneath. He felt a warmth move through his lower midsection.
“What was that?” he whispered in her ear. She smelled amazing. Like lavender and honey.
Sarah giggled and leaned back in, whispering, “I said, when you are finished with dessert, maybe we can have some of our own?”
Xander smiled. “Why, Ms. Gilbright, are you coming on to me?”
A devilish look flashed through her eyes. “I want to do more than that.”
Xander was a little taken aback. He wasn’t expecting her to come on so strong, but a lightning bolt of want struck through to his core, the sparks from which tingled all the way to his fingertips. He was going to have to hurry through his cigar. And that wouldn’t be easy, because Davidoff Oro Blanco cigars should never be rushed. He had a feeling it would be worth it.
“I don’t think that will be a problem.”
Just as he spoke, he noticed Zhanna staring at him from the end of the table. A sincere look flashed across her face. Could he be wrong about her?
“No, I don’t expect it will be a problem. I know I’ve had a little too much to drink, but I’m ready for what you were going to give me in Lexington.” She separated her legs and took Xander’s hand. She turned slightly to shield this from the others, and slowly she moved his hand onto her silky smooth leg. He gave her soft skin a subtle brush of his hand as she nuzzled his neck. Xander took his hand away and let out a deep breath. Sarah did the same. “I’ll be in my room. Don’t be long.”
“Don’t worry, I won’t be,” Xander assured her. Just then he noticed Zhanna noticing the moment. She didn’t shy from him catching her staring. In fact, she raised an eyebrow and took another sip of wine. Xander held her stare with a coldness that could have extinguished the fire in the pizza oven.
He kissed Sarah on the cheek, stood from the table, doing his best to hide his arousal, and grabbed the cigars from a humidor that sat atop the stone outdoor bar. He took a moment to watch Sarah saunter into the house, and he took a deep breath as he grabbed his lighter. When he turned back around, Zhanna was standing right in front of him. He really needed to stop hanging out with such gorgeous women. He had a feeling one of them would be the death of him. No coincidence that thought hit him as he stared into the eyes of a Dragov.
“Xander, can I please have moment with you now?”
“Not now, I’m busy.”
“Xander, I talked to Sam a moment ago, but now I must speak with you about this. It is important.”
“Then I’ll let Sam fill me in.”
“But—”
“Listen, goddammit.” Xander’s tone was sharp. Everyone at the table turned toward him. Even Kyle turned from the far side of the pool to see what was going on. Xander lowered his voice a few decibels. “Listen to me. I don’t give a shit what you have to say. The only reason you are here is because Jack vouched for you, and Sam confirmed it was safe. But I don’t buy it. So, steer clear of me, and we’ll get along just fine.”
“Just let me say one thing, then I’ll let Sam fill you in.”
“Fine.” The annoyance in Xander’s tone was unmistakable. She was walking a thin line.
“Thank you.”
“Thank you? I didn’t do anything.”
“By letting me come here, you saved my life. So, thank you.”
“Whatever.”
Xander walked right past her toward Kyle. Though he completely blew off the thank-you, Xander was a pretty good read of people. Women in particular. His read at that moment was that she meant what she said. He was going to have to find out what was going on from Sam. Sarah might be waiting a while.
Xander walked around and sat down beside Kyle. He sank into the rust-colored cushion that covered the brown wicker lounge chair.
“There he is.” Kyle handed Xander a glass of limoncello. “Everything okay over there?”
“It’s fine.” Xander cut the tip of a cigar and handed it to Kyle. Kyle put it in his mouth and Xander lit it for him.
Through the side of his mouth as he got the cigar going, he joked with Xander. “You realize that talking to her like that only enhances my chances of getting her in bed before you do.”
“She’s all yours.”
“Seriously? I mean, I know you’ve looked into those eyes.”
Xander thought it over as he lit his cigar. They were amazing eyes. Windows to the soul, and what he saw in there was deep. He decided to change the subject. “Sarah just made a pass at me.”
“What? Just now? I hate you. She is so beautiful.”
“So beautiful,” Xander agreed.
“Where is she now?”
“Waiting for me in bed.” He grinned.
“Jesus, X, get your ass up there. She’s top shelf.”
“It can wait. I’m right where I want to be.” Xander clanged his glass against Kyle’s.
“This place is unbelievable. You gonna make some wine this year?”
“Oh yeah, grapes should be starting to grow as we speak.”
“Awesome. So, joking aside, what do you think of Zhanna being here? Pretty f’d up, right?”
“Right.”
“I tried to play it off, but I know it must bother you. I mean, her dad . . .” Kyle decided not to ruin a good moment, and left it at that.
“Something about her eyes, though,” Xander said as if he were in another world.
“Right? I told you.”
“No, I mean, something sincere. I don’t know. Maybe she’s just gorgeous.”
“Well, she’s definitely that . . . shit, she’s hotter than a whore’s ass on nickel night.”
“I hate to break up this little bachelor party, but we need to talk,” Sam said as she came around the lounge chair, Jack following close behind. Xander normally would fight it, but after Zhanna said she spilled it to Sam already, he was too curious to deny her. Instead, he scooted over, handed Jack a cigar, and let Sam have the floor.
A half an hour went by in a time that felt more like five minutes. Xander’s world had shifted on its axis. Was he losing his touch? Was Sam losing hers? For no reason whatsoever, the slogan to the reality TV show Big Brother flashed in his mind.
“Expect the unexpected.”
“What’s that?” Sam asked.
Xander took a final draw from his cigar and placed it on the ashtray. His chiseled jaw protruded as his mind sifted through the overwhelming information.
“Nothing. I’m just trying to get my head around all of this.”
“It’s a lot, I know.”
Xander leaned forward in his chair and took a hard look into Sam’s and Jack’s eyes. “So . . . you think it could be Sarah?”
“We can’t be sure,” Sam replied, her eyes full of anguish.
Zhanna had it on good authority that there was a mole in Xander’s camp. Someone was feeding information to Pavlovich. Xander didn’t want to believe it was Sarah, but he knew it wasn’t Sam or Kyle, so who else could it be? Xander stood from his chair and stared out into the darkness. “I just can’t believe it.” He started to walk back toward the mansion.
“Where are you going?” Sam stopped him.
&nb
sp; “To find out for sure. I can’t stand this shit not knowing who to trust. That’s why it has always just been me and you, Sam. And Kyle, of course. Jack, I’m sorry, my man, but I don’t even know you.”
“So what do you propose we do?” Jack asked him as he settled into the chair and crossed his leg, cowboy boot lying across his knee.
“Trial by fire.”
“What are you suggesting, Xander?” Sam asked.
“Jack, you said Zhanna was KGB, right?”
“Yep. The two of you have a lot in common. She joined up to take down her father, you joined the military for the same reason. You just didn’t know that you both had a common enemy in Dragov.”
“And tell me again, why is she so set on taking down her father?”
“Same as you. She watched him kill her mother. She’s been stewing on it ever since. It wasn’t until she heard about what happened to you that she thought she could actually make it happen . . . take him down, I mean.”
“And she heard about me through who again?”
“Her friend. Nicoli Pavlovich’s niece overheard Pavlovich making a deal to send the Middle Eastern militia to kill you at your home in Lexington a couple weeks back. It stood out to her because she had never heard of Kentucky. When Zhanna heard you killed them all, she reached out to me. She thought maybe the two of you, working together, could take Dragov down.”
“And Director Manning?”
“I’d had my suspicions for a while now, but when Zhanna told me about the secret bank account he has in the Caymans and the two-million-dollar deposit he’d made to it last month, I knew he was working with Dragov.”
“Mother fucker!” Xander shouted. His voice echoed through the hills. A cool breeze blew through the pencil pines and rows of grape vines, a welcome sensation for Xander because at that moment his blood was at a full-on boil.
“Xander, I am sure that Dragov is the man who had your parents killed, but I am just as sure that Manning is the man who set your daddy up,” Jack explained as he stood from his chair and joined Sam. “There is no way of knowin’ how far back Dragov got to Manning. And as for your question about Sarah, she has only been involved with tailing you for the last six months, when Manning put her in charge of monitoring you. It’s obvious now why he wanted you watched. He didn’t give a good goddam about you taking out criminals in your spare time. All he cared about was making sure you didn’t find out about Dragov without him knowing, so he could give Dragov the heads-up. When Manning thought you found out who killed your parents, that’s why he had Sarah’s team go to Moscow instead of Syria. He didn’t know you were on the wrong scent by going after Khatib.”
“This is fucked up,” Kyle said as he sidled up beside Sam and Jack.
Xander didn’t know what to say. His head was spinning. “Why the hell would Sarah go through all the trouble of saving my ass if she is in on it with Manning? Why wouldn’t she have just let them kill me on the yacht in the Virgin Islands?”
Sam stepped forward. “Maybe to make sure you wouldn’t come after her if the truth ever came out?”
“But she killed Dragov’s own men when the two of you saved our ass on that boat.”
“Wouldn’t that give her plausible deniability?”
“Jesus, Sam. Is all of this really that messed up? The head of the CIA worked with a mob boss to kill my father, and now because I put a wrinkle in the plans to keep it covered up, he’s helping Dragov take me out too? How much money does it cost to pay off the CIA these days?”
“Xander, you know as well as I do that double agents happen all the time,” Sam said.
Xander pondered that for a moment, then turned his eyes to Jack. “You’re right, Sam. Double agents do happen all the time.”
“Now, Xander—”
Before Jack could finish, Xander had closed the ten-foot distance between them and had Jack by the shirt collar for the second time that day. Fury rumbled in Xander’s eyes. “Give me one reason not to end your life right here, Jack. One reason!”
Kyle stepped forward but stopped himself when Xander shot him a clear “stay out of it” look.
“Your father was a friend, Xander.”
“Manning put you on this detail, Jack. If Manning is in on it, then you are too! Why else would he put you on my case if he thought for a second you might help me?” Xander threw Jack onto his back and pulled a pistol from the back of his belt. Jack held out his hands and just before Sam could form a protest, Zhanna stepped out of the darkness and into the lights that were still glowing above the pool.
“Because I made sure Manning put him on it.”
Xander swung the gun in Zhanna’s direction and held it there. “Bullshit! There’s no way you could make that happen. I’m going to bury you right beside Jack and let you both fertilize the grapes that will make my Chianti!”
Xander was losing control. The one thing he couldn’t stand was a liar, and the thought of being surrounded by liars was driving him mad.
“It’s not bullshit, Xander.”
Xander pulled the slide on his Glock 19. Zhanna didn’t flinch.
“We are not so different, you and I.”
“You’d better do better than that. Jack already tried that one.”
Zhanna walked from the poured concrete around the pool into the grass, putting only inches between her and Xander’s gun. “Fine. The KGB has a mole inside my father’s inner circle. I needed Jack to be in yours. All I had to do was make sure that my father got wind of this retired cowboy agent that had a falling out with Martin King, and just like that, my father made certain that Manning put Jack on the team.”
Xander swung the gun back to the now standing Jack. “Well, Zhanna, you are a little late with that make-believe story, ‘cause Jack already told us he was friends with my dad. Jack, you have three seconds to tell me the truth, or I’ll just shoot you both.”
“We were friends, Xander.”
Xander put the gun back on Zhanna. The moonlight swam in her eyes, eyes that held no fear of Xander’s gun. “So you’re the liar then, Zhanna.”
“Xander, we aren’t lying. What Jack doesn’t want to tell you is that after he slept with your mother, your father and Jack’s friendship ended rather abruptly.”
Xander lowered the gun as rage coursed through his veins. “My mother . . . would never do that to my dad. Never!”
“It’s true, Xander. I made a horrible mistake. Your mother and I both did.”
“Shut your mouth, Jack!” Xander turned toward him, his chest heaving, and his heart pounding.
“I tried to make it up to your father, but that is when the two of them were killed. That’s why this thing has haunted me for so many years. I figured the least I could do for your father was find out who killed him and make it right. When Zhanna reached out to me with the plan, I immediately reached out to Manning.”
“Then why didn’t you reach out to me to tell me all of this before we met with Manning?”
“Because I needed Manning to know for sure that we didn’t know each other. I couldn’t risk anything else.”
Xander’s head was doing cartwheels. How could all of this have been going on and he and Sam didn’t know about it? He hated to admit it, because it was admitting a mark against his own mother, but it did make sense to him. His mom and dad hadn’t been the same that last year. That was why Xander was so surprised when his dad was coming along to the amusement park on the morning they both were killed. They hadn’t been spending time together at all before then. They had been so distant.
“I’m sorry you had to find out this way, Xander.” Zhanna tried to console him.
Xander just looked at her, a blank expression on his face. Kyle stepped forward, took Xander’s gun, and looked between Jack and Zhanna. “Can the two of you just leave us the hell alone right now?”
“That’s a good idea,” Sam agreed. Without another word spoken, Zhanna and Jack went inside.
Kyle put his arm around Xander’s shoulder, but Xander
quickly shrugged it off. Kyle didn’t know what to say, neither did Sam. Xander turned his back to the two of them and looked up into the star-dotted blackness above him. From behind, Kyle and Sam could see Xander’s chest heaving more and more as he stood staring at the sky.
“Xander,” Sam whispered. “Can I get you some water?”
Xander turned toward her. His look frightened her. She’d seen him angry, but the cool, calm, and collected Xander had never given off madness. He took in a deep breath and held her stare.
“Sam, no matter what you hear, promise me you won’t interrupt me.”
“Xander? Calm down. What do you mean, Xander?”
“Promise me.”
“I promise, Xander, but please, don’t do anything rash.”
“Yeah, man, let’s just sit out here and have another cigar,” Kyle urged. Xander had gone to a place he’d never seen. It truly scared him.
“I will not sleep in this house with a traitor. I must know, right now, if Sarah is with us, or with them.”
“Xander, I promise you I will find out by tomorrow morning. I promise.”
“No, you promised you wouldn’t interrupt.” Xander started to walk away. “That’s the promise you’d better keep.”
“X! Don’t! Just stay out here and chill with me!” Kyle shouted to him.
It fell on deaf ears.
17
The Calm Before the Storm
Xander rolled his neck in a circular motion and took a deep breath to calm himself as he gave a light wrap against Sarah’s closed door with his knuckle. He didn’t know if he could go through with this. His head was swimming from the conversation with Jack and Sam. He didn’t know if he would be able to put all of that out of his head long enough to be with her or not. He slowly pushed open the door, and lying on her back on top of the comforter was Sarah, wearing only a light-pink lace bra and matching panties.
He could do this.
Xander King BoxSet Page 36
