A Reputation For Revenge

by Jennie Lucas

  He kissed her again. In the distance, he dimly heard noises outside the dacha—the call of the birds, the crack of wood in the bare forest.

  With a sob, Josie pulled away. A single tear fell unheeded down her cheek. “I love you both.” She drew a deep breath like a shudder, then lifted her gaze and whispered, “But if I must choose, I choose you.”

  Kasimir’s heart almost stopped in his chest.

  Josie chose him.

  It was a selfish thing he’d asked of her, he knew. Selfish? Unforgivable. And yet this amazing woman had chosen him. Over everything and everyone she’d ever loved. He got a lump in his throat. “Thank you, Josie,” he said in a low voice. “I’ll honor your sacrifice. For the rest of our lives….”

  The outside door banged against the wall. Whirling around, Josie gasped, “Bree!”

  As if in slow motion, Kasimir turned his head.

  Vladimir and Bree stood in the open doorway.

  “Josie.” The slender blond woman ran quickly towards her younger sister. “Are you all right?”

  “Of course I’m all right,” Josie tried to reassure her. “You’re the one who’s been in trouble.” She patted her sister’s shoulders as if to be sure she was really there. “But are you okay?” she said anxiously. She scowled at Vladimir. “He didn’t—hurt you?”

  “Vladimir?” Bree looked astonished. “No. Never.”

  “What are you doing here?”

  “We came to save you.”

  “Save me?” Looking bewildered, Josie looked at Kasimir with a smile then tilted her head. “Oh. You mean from my marriage.” She sighed. “I knew you’d be upset I married Kasimir, but you don’t need to worry. It started out as a business arrangement, yes, but now we’re in love and…”

  Her voice trailed off as she looked at the faces of the others. Vladimir folded his arms, glowering at Kasimir. He stared back at his brother warily.

  What’s going on?” Josie breathed, looking bewildered.

  Kasimir set his jaw. He’d been so close—so close to getting her away forever. But now he had no choice but to tell her everything—before the others did. He turned to her, his arms folded.

  “There’s something I need to tell you,” he said tightly. “Something I need to explain.”

  “Go on,” she said uncertainly.

  He desperately tried to think of a way to make her understand, to forgive. “It was… I thought it was fate.” He tightened his hands into fists at his sides. “When you fell into my lap.”

  He parted his lips to say more, then stopped.

  “Kasimir threatened me on New Year’s Eve,” Bree stated. “He said if I didn’t trick Vladimir into signing over his company, he would make sure I never saw you again!”

  Josie gasped.

  Her sister scowled. “I had to get the contract signed by midnight tonight, or Kasimir was going to make you disappear into the desert forever. Into his harem, he said!”

  Josie’s face went pale. “No,” she breathed. She turned to him. “It’s not true,” she whispered. “Tell me it’s not true. It’s some kind of—misunderstanding between you and my sister. Tell me.”

  Kasimir’s shoulders and jaw were so tense they hurt as he looked down at her. “I was going to explain, the night I came back on New Year’s Eve. Having you with me, when Bree was with Vladimir, it just seemed—well, I told myself I’d be a fool not to take advantage of the situation.” He paused, then forced himself to continue. “I… I was the one who arranged for you and your sister to get jobs in Hawaii.”

  “You did!”

  He gave a single terse nod. “I hoped to convince you to marry me. And I hoped Vladimir would see Bree.”

  “You mean you hoped I’d cause a scene,” Bree retorted.

  “Which you did,” Vladimir murmured, giving her a wicked grin. She blushed.

  “That’s neither here nor there,” she said primly.

  But Josie’s soft brown eyes didn’t look away from Kasimir’s face. “That’s why you took me from Honolulu to Morocco?” The color had drained out of her rosy cheeks, leaving her skin white as Russian snow. “You weren’t keeping me safe—you were keeping me hostage? To blackmail my sister?”

  Kasimir’s heart twisted in his chest. “Josie.” He swallowed. “If you’ll just let me explain….”

  And again, she waited, still with a terrible, desperate hope in her eyes. As if there could be any way Kasimir could explain his actions that didn’t make him a selfish monster. He took a deep breath. “I did do a terrible thing. But an hour ago, I called and told them the deal was off. I told Vladimir he could keep his company. All I wanted was you.” Urgently, he grabbed her hands in his own and looked down at her. “Doesn’t that mean something?” he said softly. “I called off the blackmail. For you.”

  For a moment, Josie’s eyes glowed. For that split second, he thought it was all going to be all right.

  Then her expression crumpled. “But you were going to separate me from my sister forever, rather than confess how you tried to blackmail her. You were going to force me to give her up, her friendship, her love, for the rest of my life, rather than tell me how you threatened her—with my safety!”

  “I was afraid.” Words caught in his throat. He felt her hands starting to slip away and he tried to grab them, hold on to them. “I was afraid you wouldn’t understand. I couldn’t take the risk you wouldn’t forgive me….”

  She pulled her hands away. “If even an hour ago, you’d confessed everything, I think even then I could have forgiven you,” she whispered. “But not for th-this.” Her teeth chattered. “You d-demanded that I make that horrible choice. When it was never necessary. Even knowing what it would cost me!”

  “I’m sorry,” he said in a low voice.

  Her eyes widened, then narrowed. “You never loved me,” she choked out. “Not if you could do that.”

  Desperately, he took a step towards her. “It was the only way I could keep you!”

  She flinched. Closing her eyes, she exhaled. “I always wondered why a man like you would be interested in a woman like me. Now I know.” She opened her eyes, and tears spilled over her lashes. “I was just a possession to you. Someone to be married for the sake of land in Alaska, then traded for your brother’s company. Then kept at your whim, as what? Your mistress, your sex slave?”

  “My wife!”

  “You never thought of… of me. How I would feel. You either didn’t think about it, or you didn’t care.”

  “It’s not true!” With a deep breath, he said, “Yes, I tried to use you to get revenge on my brother. But everything changed, Josie, when I… I fell in love with you.”

  She stared at him. Turning away with a sob, she pressed her face against her sister’s shoulder.

  “Please,” Kasimir whispered, taking a step towards her. “Doesn’t it mean anything that I gave up what I wanted most—the company that should have been mine?”

  “You don’t have to give it up.” Vladimir stepped between them, his face grave. Reaching into his coat, he pulled out a white page. “Here it is.”

  For an instant, Kasimir stared blankly at the page. He took it from his brother’s hand. Looking down, he sucked in his breath. “It’s the contract I gave Bree.” He looked up in shock. “It transfers your shares in Xendzov Mining to me. You signed it.”

  “Let this be the end,” Vladimir said. “I was wrong to force you out of our company ten years ago. I was angry, and humiliated, and my pride wanted vengeance. But I was the only one to blame. So take back what I owe you, with interest. Take it all. And let this be the end of our war.”

  Kasimir’s mouth was dry. “You’re just giving it to me?” His voice was hoarse. “Just like that?”

  “Just like that.”

  “A lifetime’s work. You’re throwing it away?”

  Vladimir’s forehead creased. “I’m trading it. For the happiness of the woman I love. The woman who will soon be my wife.” His blue eyes, the same shade as Kasimir’s own, wer
e filled with regret as he said softly, “And to make amends to the little brother I always loved, but have sometimes treated very badly.”

  A lump rose in Kasimir’s throat.

  “I should have waited for you,” Vladimir said in a low voice, “all those days we walked to school in the snow.” Glancing behind him, he gave a sudden snort. “And I should have listened when you said Bree Dalton was a wicked creature, not to be trusted…”

  “Hey,” she protested behind him.

  Lifting a dark eyebrow, Vladimir gave her a sensual smile. “You know you’re wicked. Don’t try to deny it.” Then he looked back to Kasimir, his expression serious. “I was wrong to cut you out of my life,” he said humbly. “Forgive me, brother.”

  Kasimir’s world was spinning. He gripped the contract like a life raft. “You can’t mean it,” he said. “You’ve put your whole life into Xendzov Mining. How can you just surrender? How can you let me win?”

  “For the same reason that, an hour ago, you were willing to let it go.” Vladimir gave a crooked smile. “I’ve won a treasure far greater than any company. The life I always wanted. With the woman I always loved. You reunited us in Hawaii. And I have you to thank for that.”

  “I was trying to hurt you,” he said hoarsely.

  His older brother’s smile lifted to a grin. “You did me the biggest favor of my life. Now you’re taking the mining company off my hands, I’m off to Honolulu. I’ve just bought the Hale Ka’nani resort for Bree.”

  “You did what?”

  “Oh, Bree,” Josie breathed, clutching her sister’s arm. “Just like you always dreamed!”

  “I dreamed of running a little bed-and-breakfast by the sea.” Bree’s lips quirked as she looked at Vladimir. “Trust you to buy me a hundred-million-dollar hotel for my birthday!”

  “It was way easier than trying to buy you jewelry,” he said, and she laughed.

  Kasimir’s throat hurt as he looked down at the signed contract in his hand. He had the company he’d always wanted. He’d soon have Josie’s land in Alaska. He even had his brother’s apology.

  He’d won.

  And yet, he suddenly didn’t feel that way. He looked past Vladimir and Bree to the only thing that mattered.

  “Can you forgive me, Josie?” he whispered. “Can you?”

  She looked up from Bree’s shoulder. Her cheeks were streaked with tears, her face pale.

  His heart fell to his feet. He tried to smile. “It’s in the marriage vows, isn’t it? You have to forgive me. For better, for worse. Can’t we just agree that you’re the better, and I’m the worse—”

  Josie held up her hand, cutting him off. He stared at her, feeling sick as he waited for the verdict. She’d never looked so beautiful to him as she did at that moment, when he knew all he deserved was for her to walk out the door.

  “I was willing to give up everything.” She sounded almost bewildered. She put her hand to her forehead. “Everything. How could I have been so stupid?” She looked up, her eyes wide. “I was willing to give up everything for you. My family, my home, my life—everything that makes me me. For a romantic dream! For nothing!”

  Kasimir’s heart stopped in his chest. “It’s not a dream. Josie—”

  “Stop it!” Her sweet, lovely face hardened as her eyes narrowed. “It was a dream. I knew you were ruthless. I knew you were selfish. But I didn’t know you were a liar and more heartless than I ever imagined!”

  “I’m sorry,” he whispered. He swallowed. “If you’ll just—”

  “No!” She cut him off every bit as ruthlessly as he’d once done to her, again and again. He flinched, remembering. She took a deep breath, and her voice turned cold. “As soon as my land in Alaska is transferred to your name, there’s only one thing I want from you.”

  “Anything,” he said desperately.

  Josie lifted her chin, and for the first time, her brown eyes held a sliver of ice. He saw her soul there, what he’d done to her, in a kaleidoscope of blue and green and shadows, glittering like a frost-covered forest, frozen as midnight. “I want a divorce.”

  CHAPTER TEN

  ALMOST FOUR WEEKS later, Josie watched her sister and Vladimir get married in a twilight beachside ceremony in Hawaii.

  Seeing their happiness as they spoke their wedding vows, a lump rose in Josie’s throat. The sun was setting over the ocean as they stood barefoot in the sand, the surf rushing over their feet. Bree wore a long white dress, Vladimir a white button-down shirt and khakis, and they both were decked in colorful fresh-flower leis. As the newly married couple kissed to the scattered applause of friends and family surrounding them on the beach, Josie felt a hard twist in her chest. She told herself she was crying because she was so happy Bree had found love at last.

  Josie had filed for divorce the day before.

  When her lawyer had called yesterday morning to tell her that the land in Alaska now officially belonged to Kasimir, Josie had thanked him, and told him to file papers for their divorce.

  She’d had no choice. She’d given Kasimir all her trust and faith, and he’d still selfishly asked her to make a sacrifice that would have destroyed her—a sacrifice that didn’t even have to be made, if he’d just been honest enough to confess!

  But her heart was breaking. She’d loved him so. She loved him still.

  She’d never forget when Kasimir had told her he loved her on that cold winter day in Russia. She’d thought she would die of happiness. Now, Josie looked down, her tears dripping like rain into the bouquet of flowers she held as matron of honor.

  Love. Kasimir hadn’t known the meaning of the word. He’d never loved her. All the time she’d spent worshipping him, all the sunny optimistic hopes she’d had that she could change him—what a joke. She felt like a fool. Because she was one.

  Blinking fast, Josie watched Bree’s fluffy white puppy happily entwining herself around the happy couple, before running up and down the beach in pure doggy joy. She’d been like Snowy, she thought. Like Kasimir’s slavishly adoring pet, waiting by the door with his slippers in her mouth. Pathetic.

  And now he’d gotten what he wanted all along. His brother’s company and his apology. Seducing Josie had just been a way for the notoriously ruthless womanizer to pass the time.

  Everything changed, Josie. She had the sudden memory of his haunted eyes. When I… I fell in love with you.

  She squeezed her eyes shut. No. She didn’t believe it. Kasimir was just a man who didn’t know how to lose, that was all. He’d wanted to keep her, but not enough to pursue her back to Hawaii. He’d let her go, and had never bothered to contact her since. If he’d loved her, he would have tried to fight for her. He hadn’t.

  Should she still tell him?

  Josie shivered. Still standing in the surf on the beach, surrounded by applauding friends and her new husband, Bree looked at her sister with worried eyes.

  Straightening her shoulders, Josie forced her lips into a quick, encouraging smile. She couldn’t let Bree know. Not yet.

  She exhaled as the group started walking back up the beach towards the Hale Ka’nani for the reception.

  Bree was working sixteen-hour days as the new owner of the five-star resort and loving every minute of it. Her first act had been to double the salaries of the hotel’s housekeepers. The second was to fire the vendors who’d been double-charging their accounts. Employee morale had skyrocketed since the tyrannical reign of their hated ex-boss, Greg Hudson, had ended.

  And both sisters’ futures were brighter than Josie had ever imagined. Thanks to Vladimir, there were no longer angry men demanding that Josie and her sister repay their dead father’s debts. Without a company to run, he had pronounced himself—at thirty-five—to be retired. But Bree confided she thought he missed working. “Not for the money. But for the fun.”

  Fun? Josie had shaken her head. But who was she to judge what made people happy? Life was wherever your heart was.

  Her own life had become unrecognizable. She’d left Hon
olulu a poor housekeeper, desperate, broke and completely insecure. Now, she’d started spring classes at the University of Hawaii, and instead of living in a dorm, she had her own luxurious beach villa, right next to her sister’s at the Hale Ka’nani. She’d finally gotten her driver’s license—and she’d bought herself a brand-new, snazzy red two-seater convertible. For which she’d paid cash.

  But she was going to have to return the convertible to the dealer. And see if she could exchange it for something that had room for another passenger in the back.

  Josie put her hand over her belly in wonder. As the small, intimate wedding reception began in the open-air hotel bar, and Bree and Vladimir cut their wedding cake together beneath the twinkling fairy lights in the night, she still couldn’t quite believe it. How could she be pregnant? She blushed. Well, she knew, but she’d never thought it could happen.

  Pregnant. With Kasimir’s baby.

  A soft smile traced her lips. She was starting to get used to the idea. Maybe Kasimir didn’t love her. Maybe Josie’s heart would never recover. But he’d still given her the most precious gift of all.

  A child.

  No one knew yet. She was afraid of what Bree would say. At twenty-two, Josie was young to be a mother. Other women her age were worried about the next frat party or calculus test.

  But thanks to Kasimir, there was at least one thing Josie would never need to worry about: money. The day after she left Russia, before he’d even gotten the land in Alaska, he’d placed an amount in her bank account that she still couldn’t even quite comprehend, because it had so many zeroes at the end.

  “Josie? Is everything okay?”

  Looking up, she saw Bree in front of her. Her long blond hair tumbled over her flower lei and white cotton dress as she looked at her sister with concern.

  “You look beautiful,” Josie whispered. “I’m so happy for you.”

  “Cut the crap. What’s wrong?”

  Trust her sister to see right through her. Forcing her lips into a smile, she said, “It’s your wedding. We can talk later.”

  “We’ll talk now. Is it Kasimir?” Bree’s gaze sharpened. “Has he tried to contact you?”