His Christmas Assignment

by Lisa Childs

  Unconvinced, Nikki shook her head. “I can’t. You need to come back, Candace. The agency is taking off right now. We’re busy as hell. We need you.”

  Stacy said nothing—to Candace. Instead she turned to her sister-in-law and asked, “Will you give us a few minutes alone?”

  Nikki nodded and headed toward the door. “Hope your pitch works better than mine did.”

  Candace waited until the door closed behind Nikki then asked, “Why would you give me a pitch? Why would you care whether or not I came back?”

  “Because I care about my brother.”

  Candace had never had a problem recognizing fear in others. She heard it now in Stacy’s voice. “What are you talking about?”

  And what had Garek told her?

  “I’m losing him.”

  “Milek?” That was who they were talking about? Candace had never had a problem with the younger Kozminski brother, but she’d never had a relationship with him either. Not that she had a relationship with Garek either. She’d had just that one, unforgettable night…

  Stacy’s breath escaped in a shaky little sigh. “I think I already lost Milek. And now I’m losing Garek, too.”

  “Have they quit, too?”

  Stacy shook her head. “No. They both get along with Logan.”

  Candace couldn’t suppress a smile. Men were so simple. They could go from being archenemies one minute to best friends the next. Maybe that was why she’d always gotten along better with them than women. “Then I don’t understand what you want me to do. If Logan can’t help you mend fences with your brothers, I certainly can’t.”

  “I don’t want you to help me mend fences,” Stacy said.

  Her patience worn thin, she asked, “Then what do you want?”

  Stacy’s dark gray eyes glistened as tears welled in them. “I want you to help me stop Garek from getting himself killed.”

  While she hated to admit it, she found herself leaping to his defense. “He’s handled himself well in a lot of dangerous situations. He’ll be fine.”

  “Not this time,” Stacy insisted. “Not with these people.”

  “Did he take that assignment with the starlet?” That was another reason she’d gone off the grid and rented a place with no TV and no internet. She hadn’t wanted anyone or anything to find her—to disturb her peace. If only she’d really found peace…

  Stacy shook her head. “No. Logan sent Milek. Garek had already taken another assignment—one he sought out on his own. He’s going back to his old life, Candace. He’s working for Viktor Chekov.”

  Candace should have felt vindicated. It was what she’d been saying about him all along—that he hadn’t changed. But over the past year she had watched him closely, nearly as closely as he’d watched her, and she’d never seen any evidence that he was still a thief. He’d worked hard—nearly as hard as he’d teased and flirted with her.

  Had she actually been right about him?

  Her legs weakened, and she felt the need to sit down. So she dropped onto the edge of the rental’s lumpy couch. Of course he’d always had that effect on her—that ability to make her knees weak—no matter how much she had fought her attraction to him. She should have kept fighting.

  “What does any of that have to do with me?” she wondered.

  “He didn’t take that assignment until you left,” Stacy said, and now there was anger and resentment along with tears in her eyes. “You drove him back to his old life.”

  She laughed at his sister’s outrageous claim. “That’s ridiculous.” Garek would have actually had to care about her for her leaving to affect him. And it just wasn’t possible that he did.

  “I know my brother,” Stacy said. “I know he really liked you. But you never gave him a chance.”

  He definitely hadn’t told his sister anything about that night.

  “So he’s gone back to his old life,” Stacy continued. “To Viktor Chekov. Those people are dangerous, Candace.”

  She didn’t need to tell her. As a former cop, Candace knew exactly how dangerous Chekov was. While he’d never been convicted, he had committed every crime on the books. The last news she’d heard as she’d driven out of the city had been a report that Chekov’s right-hand man had been executed. While the reporter hadn’t dared to speculate, it was clear that everyone thought Chekov was the killer.

  “They’re really dangerous,” Stacy said, her voice shaking with fear. “Garek’s in trouble.”

  *

  Garek was in trouble—more trouble than he could have even imagined. He couldn’t get Candace out of his mind. And he couldn’t afford the distraction right now—not with the dangerous game he was playing.

  What if he’d been followed to this meeting? He’d watched the rearview mirror and hadn’t noticed anyone tailing him. But instead of the road behind him, he’d kept seeing Candace: her blue eyes wide with shock as she’d stared up at him, her lips red and slightly swollen from his kiss.

  What if he’d missed a tail? He reached beneath his jacket and closed his hand around his weapon as he stepped out of the SUV. Nobody was going to get the jump on him. But he still could have been followed. And if someone saw him with the person he was meeting…

  From an alley between two buildings, beams of light flashed. On and off. On and off.

  Garek glanced around the deserted industrial area. Had anyone else seen the signal?

  He could detect no movement but the December wind tossing snowflakes around the night sky. Maybe he hadn’t been followed. But he still had that uneasy feeling, that tingling between his shoulder blades that made him feel as if he was being watched.

  The lights flashed again. Of course he was being watched by the person who waited for him inside the other SUV. Garek glanced around once more before heading toward the alley. He moved, as he always did, quickly and silently—keeping to the shadows.

  Slipping between the SUV and the building beside it, he pulled open the passenger’s door. No dome light flashed; the person he was meeting knew all the tricks of maintaining his anonymity. In his line of work, he wouldn’t have lived long if he hadn’t.

  FBI agent Nicholas Rus had done a lot of undercover work in his career with the Bureau. Before Garek had agreed to work with the man, he’d checked out his background. He didn’t care that Rus was related to the Paynes—that with his black hair and blue eyes, he looked eerily like the twins Logan and Parker. The FBI agent hadn’t been raised with them, by Penny Payne, so Garek questioned his integrity. He didn’t know too many people who were beyond corruption—besides the Paynes.

  “Why you acting so nervous?” Rus asked as Garek slid into the passenger’s seat. “I didn’t notice any tail coming in behind you. Did you see a suspicious vehicle?”

  “No.” But that didn’t mean that he hadn’t been followed. He peered through the tinted windshield, trying to see beyond the alley.

  The snow had thickened, now, from flurries to sheets of white. The mild winter was over; the cold and snow coming in earnest now. He couldn’t see anything out there anymore. But whoever was watching him wouldn’t be able to see either.

  Rus sighed and murmured, “Guess you’d be an idiot if you weren’t nervous…”

  “I was an idiot to let you talk me into this,” Garek said.

  “You’re the only one who could do this,” Rus said. “Viktor Chekov wouldn’t have let anyone else inside, and there’s no time. We have to recover the murder weapon before he ditches it.”

  “If he hasn’t already,” Garek said. “He’d be a fool if he hasn’t.” And Viktor Chekov was nobody’s fool.

  Rus shrugged. “The witness says he hasn’t.”

  “The witness could be lying.” Especially if the witness was who Garek suspected it was. Viktor would not have killed in front of her.

  Rus shrugged again. “That’s why we need the murder weapon.”

  “We need more,” Garek said. “We need an admission of guilt.” Because that witness would never testify—for a few
reasons.

  Rus laughed. “If you think Viktor Chekov is going to confess, you actually might be an idiot.”

  “He won’t confess to authorities,” Garek agreed.

  “You think you can get him to confess to you?”

  “Confess?” Garek shook his head. “Threaten? Brag?” He nodded. “Yeah, I can get him to do one of those.”

  A muscle twitched along Rus’s jaw he clenched it so tightly. He hadn’t been raised with his half brothers but yet he shared some of their tells when it came to stress.

  The special agent asked, “Is he still having his guys check you for a wire every time you show up for a protection duty shift?”

  Garek nodded. As he’d said, the man was nobody’s fool; he knew not to trust Garek.

  Rus’s irritation escaped in a ragged sigh. “He’ll kill you if he catches you wearing one.”

  Garek nodded again. But his life was the least of his concerns. He was more concerned about his family.

  At least Candace was gone. He didn’t have to worry about her. He only had to worry about getting her off his mind so that he wouldn’t get so careless that he’d wind up dead.

  Rus gripped the SUV steering wheel so tightly that his knuckles turned white. “I want this guy. I really want this guy. But if your family knew that you were risking your life to help me…”

  “They’re your family, too,” Garek reminded him. Actually they were more Rus’s family since he was a blood relative albeit not a legitimate one. Garek was only related through marriage, and his sister’s at that.

  Rus shook his head. “They don’t feel that way—at least not all of them.”

  Garek knew the Paynes well enough to know who had welcomed Rus and who hadn’t. Nikki hadn’t. But of all of the Paynes, Penny had welcomed him the most—despite his being the evidence of her late husband’s betrayal.

  But that was the kind of woman Penny was—the kind who’d taken an interest in the kids of the man who’d confessed to killing her husband. She had welcomed the Kozminskis as warmly as she had Nicholas Rus.

  “Give them time,” he said. While Penny had accepted Garek and his siblings, it had taken the other Paynes more time.

  “If something happens to you while you’re carrying out this assignment for me…” Rus shook his head.

  Garek wanted to assure the FBI agent that nothing would happen to him, but he knew Viktor Chekov too well to make any promises. “I’ll let you know when I get the evidence you need…”

  If I’m alive…

  Rus must have had the same thought because he reached out and squeezed Garek’s shoulder. “I appreciate your doing this.”

  Garek shrugged off his gratitude and his hand. “It’s like you said. Nobody else could do it.”

  “But that doesn’t mean you had to agree. You could have refused.”

  He could have. He might have…if Candace hadn’t taken off on him the way she had. But she was gone and with her any excuse he might have had to not finally do the right thing—what he should have done fifteen years ago. Take down Viktor Chekov.

  He pushed open the passenger door and stepped out into the snow and the cold. “I have nothing to lose.”

  “Just your life…”

  He softly shut the door and hurried away from the alley. He moved quickly now, not so he wasn’t noticed, but so that he didn’t freeze off his ass. Christmas was only a few weeks away. Hopefully he would wrap up this assignment before then, so that he could spend an honest holiday with his family.

  And Candace?

  Where was she?

  Other than on his mind? She was always on his mind, staring up at him with such confusion and desire. Her pupils had dilated so only a thin rim of blue circled them. She’d wanted him, too. But then why had she left?

  Dimly he heard the SUV pull out of the alley and drive away. But he didn’t glance back as he hurried toward his vehicle. He didn’t look back until it was too late—until he’d finally heard the footsteps rushing across the asphalt behind him.

  He had been followed. He had been watched—just like he’d feared.

  Before he could turn around, a body connected with his and slammed him into the side of his SUV. His head struck metal, and like the snowflakes, spots danced across his field of vision—momentarily blinding him. He had no idea who had attacked him and no idea if he would survive the attack.

  Chapter 3

  Candace was home. In River City again, at least. Raised an army brat, she’d never had a real home. But she had lived in this city longer than any others. So it was probably as close to home as she had ever come.

  She had already done what she’d had to do. Not what she’d wanted to do. She wasn’t sure what she actually wanted anymore.

  Her hand trembled as she slid the key in the lock and turned the knob. But Candace hesitated before pushing open her apartment door.

  He was gone.

  She knew that. After all, two weeks had passed and she knew what he’d been doing during that time. Sort of. As much as anyone ever knew what Garek Kozminski was doing. He wasn’t still in her apartment. But he’d been there the last time she had been.

  So she stepped carefully inside, but she didn’t stop in the living room. She carried her suitcase directly down the hall to the bedroom.

  Some of the clothes she hadn’t packed had fallen to the floor around the bed. And on the bed the silk sheets were as tangled and twisted as she—as they—had left them. Her face heated with embarrassment. What had she done? And why the hell had she come back here? To the scene of the crime. The scene of her stupidity.

  The scene of the most exciting night of her life. And Candace, as a soldier and a police officer, had lived an exciting life.

  Her breath shuddered out in a ragged sigh—like it had that night he’d kissed her. She should have stopped him then. She’d pulled back. But then he’d looked at her—like no one else had ever looked at her—with such hunger and desire. And instead of shoving him away, she had looped her arms around his neck and pulled his head down for another kiss.

  She had been a fool that night. And she’d been an even bigger fool to come back. Garek Kozminski had gotten what he’d wanted from her. He wanted nothing else—or he would have been the one who’d tracked her down. Not his sister.

  She shouldn’t have let Stacy get to her. She should have just stayed away. Not that she doubted what his sister had told her. She believed that Garek had gone back to his life. What was the saying—once a thief always a thief?

  But she had found no evidence that he’d been stealing anything since he’d been a teenager. Was he just so good that he had never gotten caught?

  Or that lucky?

  If he was working for Chekov again, his luck would probably run out. Like Stacy had said, he was in danger. Candace just didn’t believe there was anything she could do to stop him. Or to protect him.

  By coming back, she had only put herself in danger—her heart and maybe even her life.

  *

  “What the hell are you doing?” Garek asked when his vision cleared and he recognized his brother as the one who’d knocked him into the side of his SUV.

  “What the hell are you doing?” Milek asked, his voice raised and sharp with anger.

  Garek blinked again—making sure he was really seeing his brother. Milek didn’t get angry; he didn’t lose his temper anymore—not even when he had every right. “What’s wrong with you?”

  Milek shoved him back, knocking him against the SUV again. “What’s wrong with you?”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Garek answered honestly. His brother wasn’t making a whole lot of sense. “And how the hell did you find me here? Did you follow me?”

  He had suspected someone might have, but he hadn’t seen anyone behind him. He’d been distracted, though. But…

  “Did you follow me?” he asked again.

  Milek snorted. “How else would I have found you? Of course I followed you. You’re not as good as you t
hink are.”

  His brother must have been right—about Garek’s not detecting a tail. But maybe that wasn’t the only thing Garek wasn’t as good at as he’d thought he was. Candace had left that night—after they’d finally given in to the attraction that had burned between them for a year.

  At least he’d felt it.

  “I taught you everything you know about following someone,” Garek reminded him. That was why Milek was so good. “And I may have noticed you were behind me, if I’d known you were back already.”

  Milek had taken the assignment Candace hadn’t wanted him to take—protecting the reality star. Why hadn’t she wanted him to take it?

  She had never explained her real reason. Jealousy?

  But if she’d cared, she wouldn’t have run away—like she had sometime in the night. She wouldn’t have left him if she’d really wanted him.

  “The girl wasn’t in any danger,” Milek said. “It was just a publicity ploy.”

  Which was what Candace had suspected. The woman was so astute. How had she never realized how he’d felt about her—how he’d felt about her for nearly a year?

  “It took you two weeks to figure out it was all a publicity stunt?” Garek teased.

  Milek shook his head. “It only took me two minutes.”

  “So you milked the assignment to enjoy the weather in California?” Garek gestured at the snow. “I don’t blame you.” He would have razzed him about staying for the starlet. But it was too soon to tease Milek about women.

  “I might have stayed longer,” Milek admitted, “if Stacy hadn’t called me.”

  Garek shook his head, both frustrated with and sympathetic to his sister. “I told her to back off and give you time.”

  “She didn’t call me about that,” Milek said.

  That was the single most devastating thing that had ever happened to his brother. So it was no wonder he didn’t want to talk about it; he probably couldn’t.

  Garek had tried a couple of times to get him to talk, and Milek had asked him to move out of the warehouse apartment they’d once shared. He’d moved into an apartment while he’d looked for something more permanent.