Christmas Tsar (Blood and Thunder 1)

by Susan Stephens

  He drew up alongside Russian Thunder and sprang down. “Let her through,” he barked over his shoulder, tossing his keys to one of the guards.

  She jogged up the gangplank in his wake. “Will there be more missions like this one?”

  Alexei stopped dead in front of her. “Why? Is the adrenaline racing?” he mocked. “Does the danger excite you, Ms. Smith?”

  “You should see to that wound,” she said, ignoring his jibe.

  He glanced down to where the pooling blood had painted a darker shade of black on his sleeve, and then indicated that she should follow him.

  “Medical supplies?” she asked the moment Alexei had closed the door on his study.

  He shot a glance at the phone on his desk.

  Crossing the floor, she lifted the receiver and waited for the call to connect. Then she gave some brief instructions. Ignoring the barrage of swearing in Russian behind her, she replaced the receiver in its nest. “Obviously, you’ve got a ship’s doctor,’ she said, turning to face Alexei. “And that wound might need stitching.”

  “How do you know we have a doctor on board?” he challenged suspiciously.

  “I’d be pretty amazed if you didn’t. My best guess is that you have a fully stocked pharmacy, an operating theater, and a morgue for icing those unlucky enough to need refrigeration.”

  Alexei’s face remained stony, but he raised a brow and softened enough to murmur, “Touché.

  “Stay,” he instructed when she turned for the door. “We’ll talk more when the doctor has finished.”

  Amber shrugged as if this were fine with her, but her heart was beating like a drum. It was one thing standing up to Alexei and something else when he appeared to enjoy it. His stare might be icy, but it could undress her, pleasure her, and promise her more, all within the space of a split second.

  He did need stitches. And the doctor was another of the hard-faced crew she’d seen before in passing. She acted as his nurse in silence. He accepted her assistance without comment. Alexei was stoic, as she had expected. He made not a sound as the doctor cleaned and stitched. She cleared away the debris and then showed the doctor to the door. “Thank you, Doctor,” she said politely as he went on his way as silently as he had arrived.

  “You’ve got your uses,” Alexei observed. “And you don’t flinch at the sight of blood.”

  “I don’t flinch at anything, apart from injustice.”

  Alexei’s considering look was long and steady.

  “I’d like to do more,” she admitted. “I’d like to help the women you helped to save tonight.”

  “There’s already a program in place.”

  “And I’d like to be part of it,” she said bluntly.

  “Our work will never be done. There will always be more gangs like the one we came up against tonight, and more women looking for a better life.”

  “What do I have to do to join you?”

  “You? Join us?” Alexei looked at her skeptically. “Do you think it’s that easy?”

  “You said the gang belonged to a network of criminals?” she pressed undaunted.

  “Correct.”

  “Then you need all the help you can get.”

  Alexei leaned back against one of the snowy-white barstools to regard her sternly. He looked like a dark angel that had alighted briefly on a cloud; a very bad dark angel. She cleared her throat, and attempted to clear the smutty thoughts from her head. “So tonight’s gang will have colleagues who’ll want revenge?”

  “I’d hate to be out of business,” he said dryly.

  He reached for two shot glasses and put them on the bar. When he leveled a stare on her face, every lustful thought inside her sprang to attention and saluted.

  He poured two equal drinks and held one shot glass out. “Vodka—”

  “Oh no, thank you. I don’t drink spirits.”

  “That wasn’t a question.”

  She stared at the glass.

  “Vodka,” he repeated. “You’re shaking. It will steady your nerves.”

  She doubted any drink had the power to do that.

  “Unless you’d prefer hot milk?”

  Alexei’s mocking remark and the challenge in his eyes were all it took for her to pick up the gauntlet and run with it. She took the glass, careful not to touch his hand. Taking a sip, she almost choked.

  “Like this,” he said, knocking it back. “Za zda-ró-vye! Cheers!” Alexei slammed his glass down on the bar.

  “Right now, hot milk sounds great to me,” Amber admitted as she put her still-full glass down next to his.

  Alexei laughed derisively. “How are you going to join the team when you can’t even drink with us?”

  “Perhaps one of us should keep a clear head?” she suggested mildly.

  Judging by Alexei’s expression, it was touch and go as to whether he would fire her or throw her over his knee and spank her, a possibility she found irrationally arousing.

  “You have heard of mutiny, I presume?” His tone was low and faintly menacing.

  “And the brig,” Amber confirmed. “Where you could lock me up and throw away the key. But I’d like the opportunity to prove myself first—if that’s okay with you?”

  “In what way?” Alexei looked interested.

  “In the gym?”

  “The gym?” Now he looked amused. “So the little English girl thinks she can handle herself in the gym?”

  “She knows she can,” Amber said coolly. She’d watched Alexei’s back tonight and had taken full part in the raid. She deserved some respect for that at least. “And it’s English woman,” she emphasized.

  His eyes narrowed and his lips pressed down as he considered her offer. “Six a.m.—before you start work tomorrow. In my gym, not the crews’. The officer will show you the way.”

  Amber glanced at the deck beneath her feet as the huge vessel shifted almost imperceptibly. Alexei confirmed her suspicions. “We’re casting off. This is your last chance to change your mind.”

  “I’ve got no intention of changing my mind.” Picking up the shot glass, she exclaimed, “Za zda-ró-vye!” and knocked it back.

  Banging her glass down on the bar, she ran for the hills—or the lower deck, at least, making it out of Alexei’s study with seconds to spare before her throat turned into an inferno and her legs gave way.

  Chapter Four

  Amber wasn’t a drinker, so the single shot of vodka she’d swigged the previous evening had almost knocked her out. She didn’t remember much about getting to bed but thanked her lucky stars that she’d only had one drink, so the effects had worn off by the next morning. She wanted the chance to warm up in the gym before sparring with Alexei. Exciting though the thought of grappling with him was, she couldn’t pretend she wasn’t apprehensive. She was agile and fast, but Alexei was built like a tank.

  She stared at her reflection in the mirror above the sink. She had graduated top of her class in self-defense. The thug on shore in Monte Carlo had just gotten lucky. She would rely on her speed. Loading her determination with a double dose of stubborn intent to keep her job on board Russian Thunder, she brushed her hair back and secured it out of the way.

  ~o0o~

  He swam in his lap pool first to loosen up his muscles, and then grabbed a towel, dried off, and strolled to his gym, where he was surprised to find Amber already well into her routine, kicking six bells out of his punch bag. With her fists raised and her feet flying, she was quite something in sweatpants, gloves, and a tiny exercise top. He stood watching her from the doorway as she gave the bag everything she got. She was fast and effective. And as hot as hell.

  “Don’t let me stop you,” he said when she sensed him watching and paused mid-blow.

  Wiping her forehead on the back of her arm, she leveled a stare at him. “You’re not stopping me. Shouldn’t you be warming up?”

  Things had changed between them since last night. She demanded respect now. She got it, and he looked forward to testing her further.

/>   “How’s your arm?” she asked as she launched a flurry of kicks and punches at the bag. “I don’t want an unfair advantage.”

  “You won’t get one,” he assured her. Temptation swung between teaching her a lesson and a primal need that had nothing to do with a workout.

  He worked methodically through his sets, finding the calm that always filled him when he used his body to the full. “Ready?” he asked her as he toweled down.

  “If you are,” she said.

  She had guts. He’d give her that.

  ~o0o~

  Ten seconds in, Amber knew she was in trouble. She might be fast, but Alexei was warp speed. Stripped to the waist with loose-fitting fight shorts slung low on his hips, he was also a dangerous distraction. She couldn’t afford to get caught by one of those swings. He’d kill her if he landed a blow. He parried and deflected her shots as easily as swatting a fly. Her speed was all that saved her, for a while—

  She yelped with shock as the mat flew up to meet her. Alexei had tripped her. She hadn’t seen that coming. Somehow he got to the mat before her, and she landed on top of him with a grunt.

  “Since when was playing dirty in your rule book?” she demanded when she could find enough breath to speak.

  “Lesson one, myshka. In my team, there are no rules.”

  “Little mouse?” she demanded, outraged, struggling to break free before her body insisted she rub against him. “Did you just call me a little mouse?”

  “You speak Russian?”

  “Enough to know when I’m being insulted.” She narrowed her eyes. “I thought you’d read my CV. The unofficial one?”

  As she scrambled up, Alexei reached out and grabbed her wrist. ‘But you are tiny, myshka.”

  “Maybe. But I’m no fucking mouse!”

  Grabbing her towel, she stalked, head high, out of the gym, with Alexei’s laughter following after.

  ~o0o~

  Not knowing if Alexei would throw her off at the next port, Amber decided to make up for her loss of control by working through every single instruction the purser had given to her in half the time expected. She cleaned every one of the guest cabins until they gleamed and made sure they were restocked with necessities. Returning to the spacious galley after taking a shower, she gratefully accepted a giant bowl of spaghetti from one of the chefs. She had just dug her fork in when a familiar voice rang out.

  “Idling on duty, myshka?”

  Stifling the urge to upend the bowl of spaghetti on Alexei’s feet, she turned slowly to face him. Everyone else in the kitchen was standing to attention, Amber noticed, while she was still seated with her chin resting on her shoulder. Something about the look in Alexei’s eyes and the faint angling of his chin brought her to her feet like everyone else. His air of command was impossible to ignore.

  Trying not to be impressed by a sight that made her heart go crazy, she saw he’d showered and changed into snug-fitting jeans and a casual shirt with the sleeves rolled back to display his formidable forearms. She could detect the faint scent of shower gel on him, and his hair was still a little damp. She refused to be intimidated, either by his incredible physique or by the way he moved like a silent big-pawed predator across the galley toward her. She certainly wasn’t impressed by the mocking expression on his hard, ruthless face, or by the freakin’ ridiculous bulge in his jeans. Especially not that.

  “Hello again,” she said coolly.

  “My quarters now,” he said, jerking his chin.

  ~o0o~

  “Where are we headed?” she asked the moment Alexei had closed the door on his high-tech study. Her body was still singing from being manhandled by Alexei on the mat, but her brain was functioning clearly enough to know that she had to keep her wits about her.

  “You’re in no position to question me. Shut your mouth,” he added coldly, “and listen for once. You did a good thing last night. And you put up a reasonable show on the mat this morning. You could be of use to us when we reach the island.”

  “Are you offering me a job?”

  “I thought you already had one,” Alexei commented with a lift of his brow. “Only a few unique and special individuals work with us.”

  “And I don’t qualify?” Amber’s hackles rose. “How can you say that when you don’t know anything about me?”

  Folding his arms, Alexei stared down at her. “You think I don’t know about you? You think that’s not what I do? How do you think I’ve stayed alive so long? I know everything about you, even down to the fact that you took the job at Hard News, and turned down an offer to join one of the UK’s elite undercover squads because you could see a time coming when you might want to settle down to civilian life.”

  “But I never planned to work for you.”

  “Not until you were sent here,” he reminded her.

  Which was true. Working for Alexei would be full of risk, and not just because of the dangerous missions he undertook. Her heart was at risk too. Unfortunately, the more coolly he behaved toward her, the more of a challenge she found him. Currently, he was right up there in the space marked “Stay away from this man. If you can.”

  “I do need to deliver my story,” she admitted, “But I can tailor it to suit whatever story you want to put out.”

  With that statement, she had just declared her loyalty, Amber realized. She felt good about it too. Part of her had wondered if Alexei was just another member of the privileged one percent of society, who lived their lives in an ivory tower, but he had proved to be so much more than that. He used his wealth to help others rather than himself, and because of it, he appealed to her on so much more than just a sexual level.

  She’d freely admit that she’d fallen for the world he inhabited. She’d always thought of herself as a woman of action but had somehow had got stuck in a low-level reporting job. What could be better than working to change the world for good, as Alexei did, and with a powerful team around her? It would be a culmination of her life’s training and dreams.

  “If you do come to work for me, I’ll need to know more about you so I can protect those you care about,” Alexei explained. “The first place any gang will strike to try to get at you is at those you love.”

  “I thought you knew everything about me?”

  “I need to hear your version of events to be sure nothing was left out of the reports I’ve received.”

  Amber only wished she could read the reports he’d received and know where he’d got them from, and who had compiled them, but like all the other secrets she suspected Alexei held close to his chest, she guessed she’d never know. “Where would you like me to start?”

  “Childhood,” he instructed.

  “Father in the military.” The rush of pain she always felt when she thought about her father silenced her for a few moments. His memory was like a clear bell chiming through all the fug in between. “He was killed on the battlefield, trying to save his comrades.” Pressing her lips together, she lifted her chin. “My mother married again.” This all came out clipped. She didn’t want to relive that part of her past at all—not the mocking she’d suffered at the hands of her stepfather, or his verbal abuse of her father, or the way he’d hit her mother, and worse, when he’d had too much to drink.

  “Your stepfather abused you?” Alexei guessed.

  “Are you asking me or telling me?” She fixed Alexei with an unblinking stare.

  He shrugged. “As I said, I’d like to hear your version of events.”

  “I spent a lot of time hiding,” she admitted. “When I was older and the army recruitment team moved into the nearest town, it seemed like the right time to follow my dad into the military. I guess you pulled my record, so I won’t elaborate beyond saying that I loved my time in the forces. Further training in Special Ops was mentioned, and I seized the opportunity. Joining the forces was like joining another family for me.”

  “And your stepfather?” Alexei prompted.

  “He was forces too, and had never got over the fact th
at he’d failed advanced training, while I got through. It pissed him off. I pissed him off. He liked to test me when I was home on leave, until one day his test became…shall we say, a little more intimate?”

  “Did you survive it?”

  “Clearly, I did.” Amber’s face froze as she remembered. “He got no further than a quick grope. He wouldn’t have got that far if I’d expected him to do something like that while my mother was in the room. I suppose now that was just further proof of his contempt for both of us.”

  “You had a lucky escape.”

  She laughed without humor. “You could call it that. My father had insisted I learn judo from the age of five. He said every woman should be able to defend herself, so I kept it up. Even as a young teen, I wanted to honor his memory, and that was something concrete I could do.”

  ‘You must have loved him very much.”

  “I adored him,” she said bluntly.

  “And your stepfather?”

  “He was an arse. I was a black belt by the time he assaulted me. He thought he could take me on, and he ended up in hospital. My mother took his side and asked me to leave. He beat her to death shortly afterward. So, no,” she said. “You don’t need to worry about me. No one can get at me through those I care about, because there’s no one left.”

  “Why did you leave the forces?” Alexei frowned. “Why Hard News? Why investigative journalism?”

  “My mother’s death shattered me. I was determined to see my stepfather brought to justice, and I did. He’ll be locked up for the rest of his life. I started to think about life after the forces. My job at Hard News was suggested by the forces resettlement officer—and not entirely by coincidence, I think now. My training as an investigative journalist was supposed to be all action, which appealed to me enormously, but it turned out to be no action—until I was given this assignment. Maybe this assignment isn’t a coincidence either.”