His Vow: The Protector Series: Book 1

by Monroe, Lilian

  His Vow

  The Protector Series: Book 1

  Lilian Monroe

  Contents

  1. Zane

  2. Sadie

  3. Zane

  4. Sadie

  5. Zane

  6. Sadie

  7. Zane

  8. Sadie

  9. Zane

  10. Sadie

  11. Zane

  12. Sadie

  13. Zane

  14. Sadie

  15. Zane

  16. Sadie

  17. Zane

  18. Sadie

  19. Zane

  20. Sadie

  21. Zane

  Epilogue - Sadie

  Acknowledgments

  Lilian Monroe

  Engaged to Mr. Right

  1. Max

  2. Naomi

  3. Max

  4. Naomi

  Also by Lilian Monroe

  Copyright © 2019 Lilian Monroe All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written permission from the author except for short quotations used for the purpose of reviews.

  1

  Zane

  As our car approached the meeting point, I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. It wasn’t nerves, exactly. It was more like a string of tension that pulled my spine straight. Undercover operations were high-risk, and this one was more dangerous than most.

  The men I was meeting were armed, vicious, and not afraid to exact revenge whenever and however they wanted. The Russians were known for being remorseless. I’d met some Russians during my time in the Marine Corps, and they were not men that I wanted to cross.

  …and that was exactly why I wanted to meet them. I’d fought hard to be placed on this CIA Tactical Unit after my time in the Marines. I’d even spent three years learning the Russian language. That skill gave me a fast track to the Central Intelligence Agency job that became my post-military obsession.

  And now I was here, nearing the end of mission. Everything was going exactly as I had planned.

  One man, Senator Nathan Blanchet, would have to pay for what he did to me. Fifteen years in the making, my revenge was going to be sweet, vicious, and fucking glorious.

  And now, with the help of these corrupt Russian fucks, I would finally be able to do it.

  Chris, my driver and right hand man, stopped the car outside an old, stately house near Glover Archbold Park. Chris had been in the Marines with me. He knew my past, he knew what was on the line with this operation. He was the only person in the world who knew my past and knew what Senator Blanchet had done to me.

  He stared at me as I stared out the window. I knew the area—the Russian Embassy was only two blocks away.

  My heart thumped. Fifteen years of hoping, wishing, seething in my own fiery rage—it would all come to a head in the next few weeks. Today was the day that things would finally be set in motion. Senator Blanchet would feel my wrath.

  “We’re right here with you, Zane,” the earpiece buzzed. I grunted, ripping it out of my ear. I needed to do this on my own. I could hear the tinny voices in the earpiece as I dropped it in into a hidden compartment in the back seat.

  “Zane?” Chris looked at me in the rear-view mirror. His thick, black eyebrows were drawn together in concern.

  “They sweep for bugs every time I go near them.” I straightened my tie, avoiding Chris’s piercing blue gaze. It wasn’t exactly true, but it was close enough.

  “Those earpieces are undetectable. You shouldn’t be going in there solo.”

  “I’d rather be alive and solo than dead with an earpiece.”

  I slammed the door behind me and marched towards the big house. A bead of sweat dribbled between my shoulder blades in the muggy, late-August heat. The air felt thick and heavy with summer and the tension of the upcoming meeting. I gripped my briefcase tighter as a sense of calm started to wash over me.

  This was it.

  This was the moment I’d been waiting for. I’d gained Mikhail Ivanov’s trust as his lawyer, and now I would broker a deal between him and Senator Blanchet that would land them both in prison forever. Today was the day we would start the paperwork that would seal both their fates.

  And, if things went the way I hoped, I’d be able to shoot Blanchet myself and blame it on the Russians. No one would blink at a dirty Russian deal gone wrong.

  My hand was steady when I rang the doorbell. Years of training in the Marine Corps allowed me to keep my heartbeat slow and my face relaxed. This was another mission, another tour. It just happened to be in my own backyard.

  A large wall of muscle opened the door.

  “Grigory,” I nodded. My six-foot-three frame looked almost tiny next to the massive Russian. His deep-set, expressionless eyes swept over me. After a few tense seconds, he finally stepped aside.

  “Ofis.” He nodded his head down the hallway towards the office, keeping his eyes steady on mine. Even after three years, I wasn’t sure if Grigory liked me or hated me. I was leaning towards ‘hated’.

  “Is everyone here?”

  “Da.”

  Grigory could speak English, but he refused to do it. Three years ago, when I first started the undercover operation, I’d met Grigory in a bar. I’d been tasked with gaining his trust, and that involved vodka—lots of vodka. But as I got drunker, Grigory somehow remained stone-cold sober. He’d put his meaty palm on my shoulder.

  “The English language is vague and weak,” he’d told me in his thick, rolling accent. “Just like its people. Speak the language, and you will become it.”

  He never spoke English to me again, but I was in. For the next three years, I became Dennis Norton, lawyer and premier counsel to the Russian mob in Washington, D.C. Every bit of trust that I gained was hard-won and even harder to maintain.

  But it would be worth it in a few short weeks.

  I could still feel Grigory’s eyes on me as I made my way to the office. I heard voices through the thick oak door, and I forced myself to keep my steps measured and my back straight. Showing weakness in here was not an option. I was in the lion’s den.

  When I pushed the door open, my heart stopped.

  Despite my years of training, I wasn’t prepared for this. A man was sitting across from Ivanov. His name almost slithered through my lips before I stopped myself with a cough. The hatred curled through my chest, gripping my heart like a vice. He didn’t turn to look at me, but I’d recognize him anywhere. I had pictured his pudgy, red face every time I had target practice for the past fifteen years.

  Here, in the flesh, was Senator Nathan Fucking Blanchet.

  “Mister Norton.” Mikhail Ivanov rose from the tall leather chair behind his desk and spread his arms towards me. “So good of you to join us.” Two men flanked him, as they always did. Mikhail was never unprotected.

  My eyes flicked from him to the man sitting across from him. He wasn’t supposed to be here… not yet. I was supposed to have more time to plan, more time to execute. Not everything was in place to catch and convict these corrupt assholes. I cleared my throat.

  “Mikhail,” I nodded.

  His icy blue eyes glinted as a grin swept across his lips. Mikhail’s bodyguards stayed as still as statues, their faces impassable. They were as tall as me and made of pure, Russian muscle. One of them blinked, but that was the only indication that they were human.

  Mikhail Ivanov gestured to the man sitting across from him. “Meet Senator Nathan Blanchet. Senator Blanchet was kind enough to pay us a personal visit today to make sure that all the arrangements are in order. This is my lawyer and good friend, Mister Dennis Norton.”

  M
ore like he was kind enough to make sure he gets his fat check.

  The Senator’s eyes swung towards me and a glint of recognition flitted across them. I hardened my face, keeping it steady. It had been fifteen years. I was a grown man now, not a seventeen-year-old boy. My hair was darker, I was taller. I’d packed on thirty pounds of muscle. I’d been to war. I looked nothing like I used to.

  Still, when the Senator rose to shake my hand, he held it for a moment too long.

  “Dennis Norton… Have we met?” His deep trombone voice was still the same—the voice that had penetrated my nightmares for most of my adolescence.

  “I don’t believe we have,” I answered, holding his gaze. He nodded, and then dropped my hand.

  “Well,” Mikhail smiled genially. “Shall we get down to business? Mister Norton here has made all the necessary arrangements.”

  “Mr. Ivanov is ready to place a large order for the weapons and ammunitions in this list, as long as your partners are able to fulfill the order.” I turned my eyes to Blanchet and handed him a paper. A vein in his jaw ticked, and hatred flared inside me.

  “My partners are still on board.” He didn’t take the paper. I placed it on the desk in front of him and folded my hands on my lap.

  “Yet you’re still unwilling to divulge their names.” I tilted my head.

  “What good would that do me? Once I receive my commission, you’re free to trade at will.”

  Greedy bastard.

  “We’re all in this for the same reason, Senator,” I said. “We all just want to make money. American weapons are highly sought-after. This will be very profitable for everyone, once the vote on Senate Bill 747 goes through.”

  “I understand your reservations to giving us your source,” Ivanov interjected in his overly generous way. He smiled. “But one needs… assurances… that the product is satisfactory.”

  “I can get you samples.”

  Ivanov nodded. “Good.” The two men flanking him puffed their chests, and Blanchet swallowed. He was nervous.

  As he should be.

  This was just the beginning of the end of his career, his fortune, and his life as he knew it. As soon as he brokered this deal and we caught these guys trading weapons illegally, both the Russians and Blanchet were going away for good. We had enough to arrest the Senator on conspiracy charges, but we needed more. We needed hard evidence.

  We needed Blanchet with Ivanov and a bunch of fucking guns. Anything less would be too easy for a good lawyer to wriggle out of.

  This corrupt Senator would be going down in flames. If I had my say, he’d be going down with a bullet in his head.

  Nathan Blanchet nodded at Mikhail.

  Mikhail smiled. “Excellent. We’re agreed.” He leaned back in his chair, and the tension in the room eased. “I hear your daughter is engaged. Congratulations.”

  My heart skipped a beat. I had blocked Blanchet’s daughter out of my mind. She was too hard to hate. It was easier not to think about her.

  But… Sadie was engaged? Since when? Last time I saw her she was still an innocent pre-teen who cared more about her dogs than she did about anything else.

  I swallowed, stealing a glance at Blanchet.

  “Thank you.” The Senator’s voice was strained. He smoothed the front of his suit down and shifted in his seat. He wanted to leave.

  “And she’s engaged to such a prominent businessman,” Mikhail continued as if he hadn’t noticed anything. He smoothed his tie and folded his hands over his stomach, but his eyes never left Blanchet. “It’s a match made in heaven, as you Americans say.”

  “It is.” Blanchet stood, and I resisted the urge to shove him back down in his chair and explain himself. Selling himself to the highest bidder was one thing—but his daughter? This man was worse than the shit under my shoe. He didn’t deserve to have a daughter like Sadie.

  Anger flared in my chest, burning bright and hot in my veins. I clenched my fists. Nathan Blanchet nodded at Mikhail, and then gave me a hard look. He turned and walked out without another word. As soon as the door closed, Mikhail started chuckling.

  “Shame about the daughter.” He waved the two other men away, and they stalked out the door after Blanchet. “It would have been convenient for her to marry my son, Alexei. I’ve seen her, and she’s a pretty little thing, for an American. Having our families united would have prevented the Senator from doing anything stupid. He’s not the type of man that inspires trust, don’t you think?.”

  In that moment, my hatred for Mikhail nearly matched my hatred for Blanchet.

  Sadie never hurt anyone. She was the only one who spoke to me when I was a kid living on her father’s estate. All she wanted was to be a veterinarian. She was nerdy and sweet and innocent in all this. Or she had been fifteen years ago. What kind of woman had she turned into?

  With Mikhail’s eyes on me, I just nodded.

  He smiled, and his eyes became hard. “The way under a man’s skin is through his daughters.”

  I gritted my teeth. Mikhail’s intelligent gaze took in everything about me, and I knew I was on thin ice. There were too many unknowns here. Too much uncertainty. Too much Sadie.

  “You’re becoming more Russian every day, Deniska.” Mikhail laughed, his pearly white teeth gleaming in the office’s light. I grinned with him, but in my heart, I knew that everything had just changed.

  * * *

  I shouldn’t have been there. It wasn’t part of the plan, and it was supremely risky.

  Supremely stupid.

  Staring at the huge estate as I slid further down the seat in the car, my heart started to thump. I knew every inch of that house, from top to bottom. I knew all the nooks and crannies, all the hidden staircases and disused rooms. I knew it better than the Blanchets did, but I was out here, and they were in there.

  The house that I grew up in looked exactly the same. The lush gardens sprawled out from it in all directions. The small apple orchard was still in the north-eastern corner of the lot. They’d changed the front gate, but apart from that, not much was different.

  I drove around to the back of the property. There used to be a little gate back here that no one but the gardener and I used. I parked my car in the shadow of a large tree and got out. The gate was still there, unlocked.

  I shook my head. A Senator should have better security than this. I glanced at the house and set my jaw. This might be supremely stupid, but that wasn’t going to stop me.

  Sticking to the shadows, I zig-zagged my way towards the big house. Its windows were yawning wide and yellow with the light within. My heart squeezed in my chest, and anger bolstered my steps. What happened inside that house had filled me with so much bitterness that it was hard to ignore it. Memories invaded my brain. I glanced over to the Staff House, where my parents and I had lived before Blanchet ripped them away from me.

  I shouldn’t have been here, but I was. With a quick sprint across the back garden, I stood beneath one of the few windows that didn’t have any light on.

  Sadie’s bedroom.

  I leaned against a tree, staring up at the window. She would be up there now. Maybe she was in bed, asleep. Maybe she had her nose in a book, just like she used to. Her dog—or maybe it was dogs, now—would be lying across her lap, and she’d be absent-mindedly scratching it behind the ear.

  My muscles turned to stone as tension stiffened my body. When I had vowed to destroy her father, I hadn’t considered her. She’d been collateral. But now…

  My jaw ticked.

  This wasn’t part of the plan. I shouldn’t have cared about Sadie, but then I remembered how she would always help my mother bake my birthday cakes. She would pick flowers for our family and walk her dogs with my father.

  She wasn’t just collateral. She was the only Blanchet that had a heart.

  What kind of woman was she now? What had fifteen years done to her? Was she as beautiful as Ivanov said?

  I definitely shouldn’t be here. I was risking the whole mission. I was r
isking three years of work, and fifteen years of planning. I was risking my life.

  For what?

  Was it to destroy Senator Blanchet’s life, or was it to satisfy my curiosity about Sadie?

  I snorted at myself, disgusted.

  I was stronger than this. I was harder than this. I wanted to destroy Nathan Blanchet, and nothing could stand in my way.

  Not even Sadie.

  I glanced one last time at the black window and then turned away. It was time to leave all this behind me. In a few weeks, hopefully, I would pull the trigger myself and end the Senator’s miserable life. Sadie would be fine. She wasn’t my problem.

  I stepped from the shadow of the tree. Something rattled behind me, and I heard the sound of an old window scraping up.

  “Shh—” A giggle exploded behind me and I retreated back to the tree’s shadow. The trunk wasn’t big enough by half to hide my large, six-foot-three frame, but the darkness helped. I stayed light on my feet, keeping my eyes on the second-floor window.

  “Come on, Sadie! Hurry up!” I squinted at the second floor window as a dark figure climbed out. A girl landed on the awning below it, and then reached up towards the window.

  “I don’t know, Mags,” came a second voice from inside. My heart shook. I knew that voice. It was older and smoother, but it was that voice. Sadie.

  “Sadie! Come on! We’ll miss the show.” Mags was Sadie’s cousin, and they’d been inseparable as kids, even though Mags was always the wilder one of the two. Nothing had changed there, apparently.

  “What if we get caught?” Looked like Sadie was still the same goodie-two-shoes that I’d known.