Midnight Alpha

by Carole Mortimer

  Until Gaia knew the truth, she wasn’t going to trust anyone.

  “Least of all me?” Gregori repeated softly.

  Gaia met his glittering gaze unflinchingly. “You’re a dangerous man, Gregori Markovic.”

  He straightened to his full and imposing height of several inches over six feet. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

  Inwardly, Gaia was quaking at her temerity in speaking to this man so frankly, but she showed none of that inner turmoil on the surface. “You live in a violent, turbulent world. A world where people die if they get in your way or oppose you.”

  “As you are opposing me now?” he said softly.

  She swallowed. “Yes.”

  “And knowing that, you still continue to do so?”

  “Yes.”

  Gregori breathed out his frustration with Gaia’s accusations. Accusations that may have been true of his father but were certainly not true of him. He gave an impatient shake of his head. “I don’t believe I have had anyone killed recently—”

  “You think this is funny? A joke?” she choked, her face so pale her freckles showed out starkly across her cheeks and nose. “Those people have families, loved ones who mourn their death!”

  All of this sounded extremely personal to Gregori, as if—“What the fuck!” he rasped as Gaia gave a gasp, a streak of red suddenly appearing high up on her cheek.

  “I—what was that?” she prompted dazedly as she raised a hand to where the blood was now running down her cheek. “Gregori?” The pupils of her eyes were so enlarged they almost eclipsed the light brown iris.

  He reached out to grasp the tops of her arms as she swayed unsteadily on her feet, even as he gave a hurried glance towards the road. He had been so concentrated on their conversation he had only been vaguely aware of the other vehicles passing by them; it was a weekend in London, so of course there were other vehicles driving by, no matter what the time.

  He spotted the culprit immediately: a black SUV on this side of the road, the passenger window down halfway, the nozzle of a silencer on a gun visible in the gap.

  Aimed directly at the two of them.

  “Get down!” was all he had time to shout as he heard the soft popping sound of another shot, even as he dragged Gaia down onto the pavement, his car now acting as a shield between them and the SUV.

  “What just happened?” Her face was a pale oval in the streetlight as she continued to look down at the blood on her fingers.

  Gregori gave another glance towards the road, relieved to see the driver of the SUV had no choice but to increase his speed as several of the other drivers beeped their horns at him for holding up the traffic, in total ignorance of the situation.

  It had only been seconds rather than minutes, and yet in those few seconds he and Gaia had been shot at twice. And it wasn’t over yet, the SUV could come back so the shooter could try and finish the job.

  Gregori rose quickly to his feet, the adrenaline pumping through his veins as he pulled the still-dazed Gaia up beside him to throw open the passenger door of his car and bundle her inside.

  “It will be okay, Gaia.” He quickly fastened her seat belt at the same time as he kept half an eye out for the return of that SUV.

  “Why is my cheek bleeding?” She touched where the blood was still flowing copiously down her face before dripping onto her sweater.

  “Everything will be okay, Gaia,” Gregori repeated grimly.

  He pulled his cell phone from his pants pocket, hitting speed dial as he closed the car door and hurried around to the driver’s side, keeping his eyes on the road all the time.

  “Nikolai?” He confirmed as the call was answered. “The house. Now. Bring some of your men with you.” He ended the call before Nikolai could ask any questions.

  He gave Gaia another concerned glance as he climbed into the car beside her, frowning as he saw there was even more blood on her fingers.

  Thank God he’d left the car engine running. Thank God there was a brief gap in the traffic that allowed him to cross the road and turn the car back in the direction of his home. Thank God, thank God, thank God.

  Gregori repeated the litany over and over inside his head as he pressed the accelerator to the floor, weaving the car in and out of traffic, narrowly avoiding a couple of collisions with other vehicles in his need to put distance between them and the SUV, all the time keeping half an eye on the driving mirror to make sure they weren’t being followed.

  Someone would pay for this.

  Someone would pay for daring to shoot Gaia.

  Gaia gave a pained wince as she located and touched a gash high on her cheek that appeared to be the source of all that blood. It didn’t feel deep, was just a graze really, and yet it didn’t seem to want to stop bleeding.

  How it had gotten there at all was what puzzled her… “Someone shot me,” she realized dazedly.

  “Yes,” he bit out harshly, his face all sharp, grim angles in the streetlights overhead.

  “I— But— Someone really shot me?” she repeated incredulously.

  “Yes,” he confirmed again abruptly.

  Black spots began to dance in front of Gaia’s eyes. “I don’t understand. How…”

  “A drive-by. Black SUV,” he supplied economically with another glance in the driving mirror. “Don’t worry, I’ll know who was responsible by morning.”

  “And do what?”

  “Whatever I have to.” His eyes were a cold, glittering black as he glanced at her before turning his attention back to the road.

  Don’t worry, Gregori had just told her. Don’t worry? She had just been shot at, not exactly in broad daylight, but certainly the streets weren’t deserted—she had met several other pedestrians as she walked home, and there was still a lot of traffic on the roads. Someone could have been seriously hurt or killed.

  She could have been killed.

  Those black spots in front of her eyes all converged into one huge black hole and Gaia felt herself falling into it, only the seat belt holding her up as she collapsed into a faint.

  “—no reason to think she was meant to take the bullet.”

  “Think, Nikolai. I’m wearing a white shirt and no jacket. I had my back to the road. I might as well have painted a fucking target on it.”

  “Maybe if you’d taken Jerome with you like I asked you to—”

  “This is not the time for I-told-you-so, Nikolai. We were standing out in the street, an open target, so much so that I’m convinced they meant the shot to wound and frighten rather kill. It was a warning. A threat. The bastard is taunting me, Nikolai.”

  “You’re convinced it was Orlov?”

  “You aren’t?”

  “Well I can’t think of anyone else you’ve pissed off recently—”

  “Nikolai!”

  “I’ll talk to Jack Montgomery, see if any of Ivan’s men have been seen in London,” the other man nodded. “In the meantime, do you intend to keep Gaia Miller here?”

  “Where else?”

  “She could always stay at my place—”

  “We both know that isn’t going to happen.”

  The other man gave a snort. “I’m not about to steal your woman, Gregori.”

  “She is not my woman.”

  “Whoever shot at you tonight now thinks she is.”

  “Which is precisely the reason Gaia will stay here, where we already have security in place and the men to ensure her safety.”

  Gaia had absolutely no idea where ‘here’ was. Any more than she knew whom Orlov was, or why he should want to send a warning to Gregori. What she did know with absolutely certainty was that she wasn’t staying anywhere with Gregori, for her own safety or otherwise.

  She slowly raised her lids before carefully turning her head in the direction of those two voices. Carefully, because her cheek was throbbing and her head seriously ached.

  She was lying on a pale gold brocade sofa in what she could only describe as being an extremely elegant sitting room: t
he furnishings were all Regency, with a beautiful piano at one end of the room, original paintings on the silk-covered walls, the ceiling a fresco of nymphs and cherubs. There was also a large Adam fireplace with a fire crackling merrily in the hearth.

  Gaia knew, without having to ask, that this elegance and understated wealth belonged to Gregori, and she wondered if he could actually play that beautiful piano or if it was just another piece of elegant furniture to him.

  “—need to go to her apartment and collect some of her things.”

  “Consider it done—”

  “I don’t think so,” Gaia had listened to quite enough of these two arrogant men discussing and deciding her immediate future for her.

  She didn’t want Nikolai going anywhere near her apartment. She didn’t have any photographs of herself and Angela on show—she wasn’t a photograph person. But she did have several in her bedside drawer showing the two of them together at the twenty-first birthday dinner Angela had insisted on treating Gaia to. She wouldn’t put it past Nikolai to search her apartment while he was there.

  The two men watched her as she slowly sat up before swinging her legs to the floor, the rub of denim against her inner thighs reminding her that she still wasn’t wearing any panties.

  And the reason for that oversight was standing near the doorway next to Nikolai, the blood on the front of Gregori’s previously pristine white shirt telling her that at some time he had been in close contact with the blood on her cheek. No doubt when he carried her from the car into this house.

  Well she was fully conscious now, and totally aware of the fact she had been shot.

  Shot, for God’s sake.

  Things like this did not happen in the streets of London.

  Not unless you were standing next to Gregori Markovic, apparently, because then it was a question of taking your life into your own hands. Or the hands of a man called Orlov, who seemed to want to taunt Gregori for some reason. Although why he would have thought shooting at her would do that was anybody’s guess.

  She gave a careful shake of her head. “I don’t need anyone going to my apartment to collect my things because I’m not staying here.” She frowned as she saw the look that passed between the two men. “Do I have no say in the matter?” She frowned her frustration as the two men now looked at her.

  “None,” Nikolai stated flatly.

  “No,” Gregori’s negative response was accompanied by him striding across the room to stand beside the sofa where she was sitting. “I’m not taking any chances on someone trying to repeat what happened tonight, perhaps with more dire consequences.”

  “What could be more dire than being shot— Oh.” Gaia sank back against the sofa as she realized what could be worse than being injured by a bullet wound.

  “I’m trying to protect you, Gaia,” Gregori obviously tried, and half succeeded in gentling his voice, although his expression remained as grim.

  Gaia glanced across the room to where Nikolai watched the two of them between narrowed lids. The coldness of his expression and the iciness of those pale eyes told her that he wouldn’t even waste his time trying to placate her, that as far as he was concerned she would damn well do as she was told, or else.

  She gave an inward shiver as she wondered exactly what that ‘or else’ might entail.

  Gregori was every bit as arrogant as the other man, but at least he gave the appearance of listening to her before telling her no.

  She looked up at him accusingly. “You’re the reason I need protecting in the first place.”

  He tensed. “What makes you say that?”

  “Maybe because no one shot at me before I met you?” She didn’t think now was the time to admit she had overheard some of the conversation between the two men as she came out of her faint. Or to ask him about the man who seemed to have some sort of grudge against him. After tonight, the less she knew about Gregori’s business, private or otherwise, the better.

  If nothing else, this had also shown her that she really wasn’t equipped to deal with Gregori’s world. She spoke to him as she would any other man, but he wasn’t just any man, he was Gregori Markovic, and violence was a part of his life. Something he had grown up with and accepted.

  She would have to find some other way of finding the truth behind Angela’s death—

  “I find that very surprising,” Nikolai answered her mockingly. “She’s everything you said she was Gregori, and more,” he added dryly as Gaia frowned.

  She wondered exactly what Gregori had told the other man about her. But maybe, under the circumstances, it was better if she didn’t know?

  She blushed, and the warmth in her cheeks only made her graze throb more. She tentatively touched the gauze on her cheek. “Thank you, whichever one of you dressed this and wiped the blood off my hands.”

  “That would be me,” Gregori bit out grimly. “It bled a lot, but it isn’t deep enough to need stitches, and it shouldn’t leave a scar.”

  “Thank goodness for that, otherwise it might have ruined my modeling career! I’m joking, Gregori,” Gaia drawled wryly as he frowned. “Do I really look like model material to you?” she added derisively.

  Only Gaia would joke at a time like this, Gregori acknowledged impatiently. When he felt more like strangling someone with his bare hands.

  “Did you call the police— No, of course you didn’t,” Gaia answered her own question. “No doubt you normally settle…disagreements like this amongst yourselves.”

  Gregori wished he could assure her that wasn’t true, but unfortunately he couldn’t. He had no proof as yet, but he had no doubts that tonight’s shooter belonged to Ivan Orlov. For which there would have to be consequences. Even in their world, there were rules, and one of those rules was no family made a hit on another’s territory without informing them of it first. Obviously, as Gregori had been the intended target, directly or indirectly, that hadn’t happened.

  He was also convinced that Gaia had simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time: after all, Gregori hadn’t been seen in public with her until tonight.

  Until tonight his sister Katya had been perceived as being his only weakness. Tonight Gaia may have only been a random target, chosen because she was with Gregori, but he knew that wouldn’t be true in future. Gaia was now in danger.

  Until this situation with Ivan was resolved, Gregori would do all in his power to protect her.

  A woman who had made it clear she didn’t want his protection. Despite the fact that she was currently sitting in front of him with a face almost as white as the gauze he had applied to her wound after cleaning it earlier.

  Gregori straightened, knowing he looked every inch the Markovic patriarch as he looked down the length of his nose at her. “There will be no further discussion on the subject, Miss Miller. You will either give Nikolai the keys to your apartment or I will instruct him to break in. He will also need a list from you as to what clothes you would like brought here,” he continued firmly as she looked about to argue again.

  He was rapidly coming to appreciate his brother-in-law’s method of subduing Katya, if she seemed set on endangering herself. As Gaia now seemed set on doing.

  Gaia knew by the uncompromising expression on Gregori’s face, and the knowing smirk on Nikolai’s, that there was no point in her arguing further. She was going to be staying here as Gregori’s guest whether she liked it or not.

  All she could hope for was that Nikolai didn’t find any of those damning photographs in her apartment…

  Chapter 7

  “This is all so unnecessary.”

  Gaia stood uncomfortably in the opulent and beautiful bedroom suite Gregori had told her would be hers for the duration of her stay here.

  “Did you hear me?” She watched him as he crossed the room to place a stack of cream bath towels down on top of the maroon silk duvet covering the huge double bed.

  “I did, yes,” he answered distractedly.

  And he chose to ignore her, Gaia recognized wear
ily.

  She pushed the weight of her hair back from her face to glance about the room. The bedroom alone had to be as big as the whole of the floor space in her apartment, bigger when you added the terra cotta tiled bathroom she could see through that open doorway.

  Gaia was feeling totally disorientated. Trapped in a world where her sister had been killed by a drug overdose, even though she had never taken drugs until the night of her death. A world where Gaia herself had now been shot at.

  Just thinking of that bullet whizzing by, so close to her face, was enough to send another cold shiver down the length of her spine.

  Being forced to stay in this elegant mansion with the even more elegant—and lethally attractive—Gregori Markovic, a man of raw power and domination, was somehow even more frightening.

  “Sit down before you fall down!” Gregori swiftly crossed the distance to Gaia’s side to lightly grasp the tops of her arms as she swayed precariously on her feet. “Come.” He kept a firm hold of her as she stumbled slightly, and he helped her sit on the side of the bed before going down on his knees to unfasten and remove her left boot.

  Delayed shock?

  Probably, Gregori acknowledged grimly. The wound was shallow, but Gaia had bled a lot, and the fact that she had been shot at all was probably enough to send her into shock. Gregori may have grown up in a world ruled by violence, but this had to be Gaia’s first experience of it.

  It shouldn’t have happened now either. Nikolai had his instructions. It was time he contacted Ivan Orlov and arranged a meeting. This situation had to end. Once and for all.

  In the meantime, Gregori had a dazed and shocked Gaia to deal with. Once she came out of that shock he had no doubts he would hear a lot more from her on the subject of the shooting and being forced to stay here.

  “You will feel better if you lie down and try to get some sleep,” he assured her.