His Christmas Assignment

by Lisa Childs

  He grabbed it from his pocket. “Did you find another body you want me to identify?” He hoped like hell not.

  Rus sighed. “No. I just got a call Candace shook the tail I had on her.”

  Garek chuckled. “Of course she did.”

  “My guy said he wasn’t the only one watching her,” Rus added.

  Garek cursed now. “Chekov.” It was how he knew so much about her. Hell, he’d probably even known she’d been in the apartment when he’d had his guys knock down the door. “Did she shake him, too?”

  Rus drew in an audible breath now, as if bracing himself for an admission. “My guy doesn’t know.”

  Garek kicked the damn door again. “I’ll find her.” He had intended to look for her anyway. But now there was even more urgency. He clicked off the cell and dialed her number.

  Or he’d thought he’d dialed it. It didn’t ring or go to voice mail. Had he punched in the right number? He didn’t have it programmed in the phone Agent Rus had given him. But he’d memorized it long ago. He used to call her often—mostly just to tease her.

  And because he loved the sound of her voice in his ear. Even when it was sharp with irritation, it sounded sexy to him. Everything about her was sexy to him—even her stubbornness. He punched in the number again. But again it didn’t ring. It didn’t even go to voice mail. What the hell did that mean?

  He punched in another number.

  And a woman answered immediately. “Hello?”

  “Niks, I need you to run a trace on Candace’s phone.”

  “What’s going on with you two?” she asked.

  Not enough—because he’d been stubborn. Because he’d been scared. He should have told her everything. He shouldn’t have kept any secrets from her.

  “She’s pissed at me,” he admitted. Was that why she’d shut off her phone?

  “Tell me something I don’t know,” Nikki said with a laugh.

  He couldn’t—not until he told Candace first—how he felt and what he was keeping from her. “Tell me where she is.”

  Through the phone, he heard keys clicking. Then a curse. “Sorry, Garek, her phone’s dead. No way to tap into her GPS and get a location on her.”

  “Damn her,” he said again.

  “You think she deliberately disabled it?” Nikki asked, her voice a little lighter with hope.

  And Garek cursed himself now. He shouldn’t have automatically assumed she’d done it. But it was better than the alternative—that someone had abducted her and destroyed her phone so she couldn’t be found.

  “I’ll find her,” Garek said.

  “She’s not easy to find if she doesn’t want to be,” Nikki warned him.

  But Garek was worried now she hadn’t chosen to hide—maybe someone was hiding her instead. Chekov?

  If he’d hurt her, Rus wouldn’t need the gun or Tori’s testimony anymore. There wouldn’t be any trial. Garek would take care of him. But first he had to take care of Candace—had to make sure she was okay…

  *

  Because Candace hadn’t been certain who was following her—Rus’s men or Viktor Chekov’s—she had made certain to lose her tail. She wouldn’t have risked anyone following her here; she wouldn’t have risked this woman’s safety for any reason.

  She walked up the steps of Mrs. Payne’s wraparound porch and right into the arms that the woman held open for her, like she held open the front door. Candace wouldn’t have risked Mrs. Payne’s safety, but she’d needed her. She’d needed this.

  Mrs. Payne ushered her inside the warmth of her house, closing the door behind her. Candace glanced uneasily out the window into the darkness. She had lost the tails, hadn’t she? There was no one out there.

  “Sorry to bother you so late,” she said with a flash of guilt as she noticed the clock.

  “It’s not late,” Penny said. “And you are always welcome. You were welcome earlier for dinner.”

  Candace noticed the tree glowing brightly in the front room. Mrs. Payne was a wedding planner who owned a wedding chapel with a reception hall in its basement. Probably because she did it so often, she was an awesome decorator.

  “The tree is beautiful,” she said. “But it always is.”

  Candace had always been too busy—too focused—to worry about decorating. But now she felt a longing for a tree of her own—for someone to help her decorate it. For someone to cuddle with in front of the tree.

  And she imagined Garek as that someone. But the image quickly faded—replaced by the picture Logan had shown her from the morgue. But in her mind, the man in the photo was Garek—not the stranger who had attacked her.

  She shivered.

  “Let me get you some hot chocolate,” Mrs. Payne said.

  “No, please don’t go to any trouble,” Candace said. “I shouldn’t have come here.” And risked someone following her.

  Penny patted her hand. “I’m glad you came. I can see you need to talk.”

  Candace shook her head, but then frustration overwhelmed her and the words spilled out. “I already talked too much,” she said. “What I needed was for him to listen. But he didn’t.”

  Penny smiled. “Garek?”

  Candace nodded.

  “Men don’t always hear us right away,” Penny said. “But eventually the words get through to them.”

  Tears stung Candace’s eyes. But she furiously blinked them away. She wasn’t sure she wanted Mrs. Payne to give her hope. Then the disappointment would only hurt more. “Garek is more stubborn than most men.”

  Penny laughed. “Garek? Stubborn?” Then her smile faded and she tilted her head as she considered it. “He acts so laid-back and happy-go-lucky I hadn’t realized how stubborn he actually is.”

  “He is stubborn,” Candace insisted.

  “He is,” Penny agreed. “He hung in there a year—trying to get you to see him for the man he is. He kept trying to get you to give him a chance.”

  “I was just a challenge to him,” Candace said. “Because now that I see him, he’s scared.”

  Penny laughed. “Of course he is. Who wants to be completely vulnerable to someone else?”

  Candace shivered again. She didn’t want that either. But she was vulnerable with Garek. He’d always seen in her what no other man had: beauty, desirability.

  “Was I too hard on him?”

  “Always,” Penny said. “You were determined to think the worst of him.”

  “That was my way of running,” Candace admitted.

  “So you’re both runners,” Penny said with a smile. “He chased you first, so now it’s your turn to chase him.”

  Candace shook her head. “I don’t want to chase a guy ever again. I don’t want to force someone to love me.”

  “You can’t force someone to love you,” Penny said.

  “I know that.” Candace sighed. “I know that…” Or she would have been Penny’s daughter-in-law instead of Stacy Kozminski.

  “The right person will love you,” Penny said. “But he may be too stubborn to admit it.”

  “Damn him,” Candace murmured.

  “You’re stubborn, too,” Penny reminded her.

  She was. If only she’d given him a chance earlier—before he’d gotten involved with Chekov again.

  “You were determined to think the worst of him,” Penny continued. “And you’re still thinking the worst of him.”

  “I’m not wrong about his being stubborn.” But she could have been wrong about Chekov. There could be another reason he was working for Chekov…

  Realization dawned. He’d known about her reporting the assault in the alley. He’d been called down to the morgue to identify the attacker. Who’d called him both times? It had to have been Special Agent Rus. Was he working for Rus?

  Mrs. Payne touched the end of her nose. “I think you might have it this time.”

  Of course Mrs. Payne would know. Nothing escaped her attention. And she had sources everywhere.

  “Is he—”

  Mrs. Payne
pressed a finger over her lips now. “Just trust your heart, Candace. It won’t lie to you.”

  She hugged the petite woman. “Thank you!” She always made Candace feel better. No matter how many times she’d made a fool of herself.

  She would probably be making a fool of herself again when she ran back to Garek after telling him that she was really going to leave him alone this time. But she needed to know if she was right—if he was working for Rus.

  With another hug, she hurried back to her car. Snow was falling more heavily now—enough that it had blanketed her car. She quickly brushed it off and slid behind the wheel. Her cell lay in pieces on the passenger’s seat. She’d taken it apart as a precaution. Chekov was powerful; he might have bugged her phone—especially if he had any suspicion Garek might have been trying to entrap him.

  That was why he’d roughed him up, why he’d broken into his apartment to threaten him. If she and Mrs. Payne had figured out Garek was working for the FBI, Chekov had probably figured it out, too—which put Garek’s life in extreme danger.

  She shouldn’t have left him earlier—no matter how hard he’d been pushing her away. She tried to accelerate, but her wheels skidded in the snow. She eased off the gas and grasped the wheel tightly as she turned out of the driveway and onto the street.

  She sped up on the straight stretches of road. But they were snow covered and slick. So, for the curves, she needed to slow down. But headlights suddenly appeared behind her, burning brightly and quickly coming closer.

  “Slow down,” she murmured. The guy was going to lose control more than she momentarily had.

  But he couldn’t hear her. Or apparently see her, since he continued to bear down on her. Then she realized he did see her, and he intended to plow right into her vehicle.

  She accelerated again, trying to speed up and get some distance between them. But her tires spun before gaining traction. The other vehicle didn’t slow; instead it smashed into her rear bumper.

  Her car flew forward, propelled by the other vehicle and the snow. It spun, then rolled. Lights and darkness flashed as her car somersaulted into the ditch. Like those flashes of light, stars danced around her vision. She blinked to clear it and reached for her weapon.

  Because she knew this was no accident. She had been purposely forced off the road. Whoever was attacking her this time would not dare to fail—because with Viktor Chekov, failure meant death.

  *

  Penny flinched with each shot fired as it echoed throughout the river valley she called home—where she’d raised her children. She hadn’t raised Candace, but she’d known her long enough that she felt like one of hers.

  Had she lost her?

  Candace had left just moments ago. She would not have been far away yet—especially with the snow falling so hard. So she was definitely within range of those gunshots—even if the sound of them was carrying on the cold night air. Before the gunshots, Penny had heard what had sounded like a crash—tires squealing, metal crunching…

  That sound had carried, too.

  But just like she instinctively knew those shots were being fired at Candace, she knew the crash had involved her, too. Due to the late hour and the snowstorm, there wouldn’t have been many other cars on the road to crash right around the time Candace had left.

  It wasn’t a coincidence. The accident and the gunshots involved her.

  And if Candace was hurt—or worse—Penny knew Garek would never forgive himself. And he would never get over losing her.

  Chapter 15

  Garek slid down the snowy embankment as he rushed toward the car that had gone off the road and into the deep ditch. It was Candace’s car. If not for Mrs. Payne’s call, he might not have found her. And he wouldn’t have found the car if the lights hadn’t been left on, burning holes in the snow in front of its smashed bumper.

  Snow kept falling while a gusty wind blew the flakes that had already fallen around the ground—covering the road and the tracks of the vehicle as it had gone off the road. But her car hadn’t gone off alone: parts of two vehicles had lain in the snow above the bank. Bits of black plastic and chrome and glass. And bits of Candace’s blue car.

  Penny had been right about hearing a crash and about it being Candace’s vehicle. But when he hunched over to peer inside the wrecked car, he found it empty, but for the pieces of her phone strewn about the passenger side. It looked as if it had been run over by a car, too.

  No wonder Nikki hadn’t been able to track down its GPS signal.

  But Candace wasn’t inside the vehicle. She was gone.

  Where the hell had she gone? Had they—whoever had crashed into her—taken her?

  He shook his head, refusing to believe it. They couldn’t have just taken Candace. Not his Candace. Not without one hell of a fight. She would have left behind more than a broken phone. She would have broken someone’s body, too.

  “Candace!” he called out to her.

  Of course she might have been too mad still to answer him. No. If she was mad at him, she would yell or fight him. She wouldn’t stay quiet.

  She had only been silent when Chekov and his men had broken into his apartment. That must have been who had run her off the road. Chekov must not have believed him when Garek had claimed she meant nothing to him.

  Fortunately she hadn’t believed him either. She’d known he’d been lying to Chekov. But he hadn’t told her what she actually meant to him: everything.

  Was that why Chekov kept going after her? Did he know what Garek was up to—that he was working for Special Agent Rus? Then why not just fire him?

  Of course Chekov didn’t fire unsatisfactory employees. He terminated them—permanently. The man in the morgue must have worked for him.

  Candace wasn’t in the morgue, though. No rescue crews or police had arrived on the scene. Garek had beaten them all there.

  The slick roads hadn’t slowed him down. After Penny’s call—and the fear in her voice—nothing would have kept Garek from getting to Candace.

  But she wasn’t here. Where was she? He had grabbed a flashlight from his vehicle, but he didn’t need it.

  Now that the snow wasn’t falling as hard as it had earlier, the moon was full and bright; its light illuminated the night and gleamed and glittered on the snow. Then he realized it wasn’t the snow glittering. It was glass on the snow—glass from the driver’s side window. Had Candace smashed it out or had someone else?

  Then he noticed there was more than glass in the snow. There were bright crimson drops of blood. She was hurt. She was out there somewhere—injured or worse.

  Mrs. Payne had warned him the crash wasn’t all she’d heard. There had been gunshots, too.

  Was the blood because someone had been cut on the broken glass of the vehicle? Injured in the accident? Or was the blood from a gunshot wound?

  “Candace!” he yelled her name. But he wasn’t certain she could hear him. He wasn’t certain she could hear anything anymore. “Candace!”

  Why had he been such a fool—such a coward like she’d called him? If he hadn’t pushed her away, they would have been together. They could have protected each other.

  Instead she had gone off alone. And while Candace was tough and smart, she was probably outnumbered. Because the wind wasn’t as brisk in the ditch, it hadn’t obliterated the tracks down here like it had on the road above. So he could see footprints in the snow. There was more than one set—more than two.

  There was more than one person after her now. But she wasn’t alone anymore. And he wanted them to know that—wanted them to know help had arrived.

  He didn’t care if that put him at risk, too. He would rather they came after him than her. He would gladly give up his life for hers.

  “Candace!” he yelled again. His voice cracked while panic clutched his heart, cracking it, too. If something had happened to her…

  He wouldn’t—he couldn’t—consider it. She had to be okay. He had to find her. If he had a guardian angel—like he’d thought
when the car hadn’t struck them in the alley—then he needed that angel’s help now to find the woman he loved.

  “I love her,” he murmured to himself. And maybe to that angel. He needed all the help he could get to find her. And fast.

  He wasn’t running from her anymore. He was running to her.

  *

  Milek’s gut tightened with the fear that cracked his brother’s voice. “I can’t find her. She’s bleeding. She’s h-hurt!”

  “We’ll find her,” he promised. “I’m on my way.”

  “Hurry!” Garek urged before clicking off his cell.

  Milek had never heard his brother sound like that. Garek had always seemed so strong. But maybe he’d just acted that way because he’d been the oldest, and he’d wanted to be the one on whom he and Stacy could depend.

  They hadn’t had anyone else to depend on. Their mother had had little to do with their upbringing; she’d cared only about money and men.

  And their father’s first love had been stealing. It had meant more to him than his children. Eventually it had taken him from them completely—leaving them alone with only each other to turn to.

  And both he and Stacy had turned to Garek. They had always depended on Garek. Now he needed to depend on them.

  Milek punched another number into his phone. Despite the late hour, his call was answered immediately.

  “Yes?” Stacy asked. And despite the time, she sounded wide-awake.

  “He needs us,” Milek said. “All of us. Candace has been run off the road.”

  Stacy gasped. “Is she all right?”

  “He doesn’t know. He found the wreckage of her car, but he can’t find her,” Milek said. “He needs everyone’s help to find her.”

  Milek was already walking out of his apartment. He sucked in a breath at the cold. If she was out there, they didn’t have a moment to lose to find her. If she wasn’t already hurt—like Garek obviously feared—then she was still at risk of freezing to death.

  “Of course,” Stacy said. “I’ll let Logan know.”

  “Garek needs you, too,” Milek admitted. In case they didn’t find her…