She shot Niko a glance out of the corner of her eye. “Understood, sir.” After a pause, she continued, “I saw Kai. He looked at me, then ran.”
“Did he recognize you?” Ryker asked. “Or did he think you’re one of the others hunting him?”
Jenna’s expression grew thoughtful. “I thought he recognized me, but I was disguised as a boy. It’s possible he didn’t know it was me…except…he met my glance and my eye color isn’t exactly common.”
“Niko?”
“I saw a man running from the alley. Could have been anyone. I didn’t get close enough to see his eyes.”
“Hmm. Our analysts have been picking up a lot of chatter from your location. Locals, your uncle, foreign government agencies. Everyone’s excited. That would fit if Paterson has reappeared.”
Yeah, but what were the odds Paterson had been spotted by one of the other searchers in addition to the SSU’s informant? Niko bet either Tonelli’s CIA pals had somehow tipped off the other parties, or Ryker was right and the SSU had a mole.
There was a long silence. “Jenna, if Kai ran from you, then you’re no use as bait,” Ryker said. “With so many other parties interested in using you as leverage against your brother, it’s too dangerous for you in Moscow. I want you back at the compound immediately. Understood?”
“Yes, sir.” Despite her agreement, her eyes flashed with anger.
“Right. Think of Niko as your bodyguard until you’re back. Niko, I need to talk to you privately, so take me off speakerphone.”
“Done.”
Niko watched Jenna storm into the bathroom and close the door. Something told him getting her on a plane and back to the SSU wasn’t going to be easy.
#
Half an hour later, Niko paced around the suite’s sitting room like a caged tiger waiting for dinner. He was freaked out, having Jenna here. Not because of the men after her. He knew he could protect her.
The problem was that his body still remembered how good it felt to have her softness pressed against his back and it wanted more. What if she got a hint of his thoughts? He didn’t want to scare her. He’d cut off his right nut before he hurt, or even frightened, her in any way.
He rubbed the base of his neck. Hell.
How was Jenna going to react, now that it was night? Even with her having a separate bedroom, would she lie awake, afraid of being attacked?
Yet he couldn’t leave her alone in the suite. Not after he’d recognized one of Alvarez’s men in the alley. Not after the Russians had nearly kidnapped her off the street.
The corner of his eye twitched. What the hell was the matter with him? He knew how to control himself. He’d make damn sure—
Jenna opened the bathroom door.
Ah…fuck.
A totally inappropriate wave of lust nearly sent him to his knees. Shit. Where’d all the air go?
Jenna’s freshly scrubbed skin was porcelain pure. Her short, spiky white hair left the delicate lines of her face bare. With her petite frame dwarfed by his sweats, she should have looked like a child. Instead, she looked fragile and mysteriously feminine. He couldn’t remember ever seeing a more arresting woman.
Jenna met his gaze.
Man, he could get lost in her eyes. They were the color of honey touched by the sun. Beautiful, yet so bleak he wanted to cry. Shower her with kisses until she smiled.
For a second he thought he saw an answering heat in her eyes, then she flinched and took a step back.
He immediately shuttered his expression, but it was too late.
Jenna backed up another step until she was in the doorway, holding on to the edge of the bathroom door like it was a lifeline.
Jesus, what kind of sick bastard was he? After today’s attack, the woman needed space. Maybe a little platonic comforting. But here he was, hard as a board, fighting the compulsion to pull her into his arms, press his nose against the side of her neck, and find out what Jenna Paterson smelled like fresh out of the shower.
He held up his hands to show he wasn’t going to attack and retreated to the far side of the couch, giving Jenna plenty of room to bolt to her room if she wanted.
But she seemed frozen in place, eyeing him like a doe watching an approaching wolf.
He ran his hands through his hair. “Shit. I’m sorry, Jenna. You have nothing to worry about from me. Nothing, you understand?” He met her eyes and tried to will her to trust him. “You’re an attractive woman. As a man, I responded to that. But I will never, ever make a move on you. Particularly not with your history.”
Jenna’s eyes flared wide in panic. “My…history?” she croaked. Her already pale face turned ashen and her fingers gripped the edge of the door so hard, he was surprised she didn’t dent the wood.
Ah, man, could he possibly screw this up any farther? “You know…” He rubbed his neck, wishing he could rewind the scene and take back his words. “The attack against your family. The rape…”
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Even from halfway across the room he could hear the air shudder on its way in.
He waited tensely for her to ream him a new one. Or to launch into hysterics.
She did neither, just continued sucking in great gulps of air. With each inhalation, her spine seemed to straighten. Finally, her eyes opened.
They were completely, coldly, blank.
Je-sus. He’d seen men in combat do this. Shut down their emotions from one moment to the next in order to survive.
Acid burned in his stomach. He’d triggered this, damn it, but how was he supposed to know she was still sensitive about the rape? It had been two years. She’d been given the all-clear from the SSU’s psychiatrists.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I…” She shook her head. She was still so tense the air vibrated.
“No, I owe you an apology. I didn’t mean to panic you.” He paused, knowing the right thing to do, but reluctant to let Jenna out of his sight. “Your room has a lock on the inside, but I can get you a completely separate room if that will make you feel safer.”
It wouldn’t be safer. Not with so many agents looking for her. But if she needed her own space, he’d find a way to make it happen without putting her at risk.
Jenna thought about it, then shook her head. “No. I’ll settle down. Besides, I’m armed.” She lifted the sleeve of his sweatshirt to reveal a thin leather bracelet dotted with beads circling her wrist just below a sheathed knife. She turned around and raised the back of the sweatshirt, revealing the sexy, bare curve of her low back.
Niko nearly groaned out loud. Didn’t Jenna have any mercy? The weapon that grabbed Niko’s attention wasn’t made of steel, but of flesh. Lord help him, he wanted to drop to his knees and put his arms around her. Show her that a man could be gentle with a woman by placing a tender kiss right above the spot where her waistband dipped. Just next to where…her pistol rested.
Finally, his lust-clogged brain tuned in to reality. Weapons. Safety.
Right.
He turned away and scrubbed a hand over his face, grateful that Jenna was facing away from him. This time she wouldn’t be able to pick up on his thoughts.
He hoped.
Jesus. It was the stress over Aunt Madalena. Had to be. There was no other explanation why he felt so off-center. He’d never reacted so inappropriately to a woman before.
Jenna snapped to get his attention. He squeezed his eyes closed briefly, hoping she wouldn’t be able to see his thoughts in his eyes when he faced her.
“I’m sorry I freaked before. I know you won’t hurt me,” she said. “I don’t need another room.”
“Great. I mean, good. That’s good, because you’re absolutely safe with me. Your bedroom doesn’t have hall access, so if anyone finds us, they’ll have to deal with me first.” He took another couple of steps away from Jenna. “So…I’m going to clean up. You go on to bed. You get scared or nervous, knock against the wall and I’ll come running, okay?”
Jenna nodded and moved toward the bedr
oom. But she still looked on edge.
Dammit, he wanted to hug her. To tell her no one was going to hurt her again.
But life had shown him such promises were worthless. So he grabbed a change of clothes and headed into the bathroom, hoping Jenna would be asleep when he finished.
#
Monday, Evening
Washington, D.C.
Ryker set the handset back on its cradle. He tapped his index finger against his lips, processing what he’d just learned and running possible outcomes. Of all the people he’d expected to be first on the scene, Alvarez’s men hadn’t been it. Niko wouldn’t have called them, and everything Tonelli knew went right to the CIA.
So was the SSU’s mole reporting to Alvarez? Or was someone at the CIA on the crime lord’s payroll?
Either way, Jenna was in more danger than he’d expected. The temper Ryker usually kept hidden threatened to burst free. If anything happened to Jenna, both Tonelli and Andros could kiss their careers good-bye.
He ran his hand over his hair, as if his head was a magic lamp and by rubbing it he could grant Jenna immediate passage back to the SSU compound, where he could keep her safe.
He did not want her anywhere near Alvarez. The crime lord was deadly and brutal, particularly to women. And despite her promise to the contrary, she was stubborn enough to go after Alvarez if Kai eluded her grasp.
Ryker sighed. Unfortunately, Kai was potentially as big a threat. Kai had left a message for him two days before the attack on his family, snarling about his cover being blown and threatening that if Ryker sent assassins after his family the way he’d sent them after Kai, there’d be hell to pay.
Ryker hadn’t received the message in time and it was sheer accident that he’d been surfing through deleted phone messages searching for a particular phone number and stumbled across the message. He’d called Eric Paterson right away and told him to evacuate his family.
When no one showed up to meet him at the airport rendezvous, Ryker had headed out to the house, but he’d been too late.
He’d arrived just as the coroner’s van pulled up. In his grief, he’d turned away and his gaze had collided with a familiar pair of amber eyes. Kai had held his stare for a long, hate-filled minute before he disappeared into the crowd.
It was the last Ryker had seen of the man he’d once considered a friend. And despite his gut’s denial, he had to accept the possibility that Kai had been involved in the killings. Perhaps not willingly. He could have been strung out on one of Alvarez’s designer drugs, or even under Nevsky’s mind-control formula.
Whatever the case, Kai was as much a potential threat to Jenna as Alvarez.
But if anyone could keep her safe, it was Niko.
His gaze fell on one of the pictures in the open file folder in front of him. The photo had been taken the summer before the attack. Jenna and her sister Isabel were in their backyard, dressed almost identically in t-shirts and jean shorts. They were dancing a tango, hamming it up and grinning at the camera. Jenna looked young and vibrantly happy.
It was his fault that carefree girl was gone forever, replaced by a grim, focused woman who knew more about pain and grief than most people could bear.
He closed the file and turned his chair around, staring out the window at the small rooftop garden of the building next door.
He’d never apologized to Jenna. It had been his decision to send Kai undercover at Nevsky’s lab. He was the one who’d authorized Kai to work with Alvarez when her brother had been approached about stealing the chip containing the program’s data.
Time and again he’d questioned whether he should have sent an agent without a family. If Ryker had sent another agent, Kai’s family would still be alive. Yet Kai’s biochemistry degree had made him uniquely qualified to fit in at the highly specialized lab.
Ryker had lost more than just a damn fine agent in Eric Paterson. He’d lost his closest friend.
An ache radiated up his jaw and he realized he’d been clenching his teeth. Ryker opened his mouth and made chewing motions until the ache stopped.
He couldn’t ask for absolution until the chip was found and destroyed. Too many innocent people had already died because of it. If Alvarez got his hands on the chip and recreated the program, more innocents would die at the hands of his extraordinary, mind-controlled army.
The weight of responsibility pushed him deeper into his chair. Even if he hadn’t promised to be Jenna’s guardian if anything happened to her father, Ryker would do anything to protect her. She was the daughter he’d never had.
Once she was back at the compound, he was placing her under constant supervision. She wasn’t going anywhere until after this was all over. She’d already experienced too much violence in her young life.
Ryker swiveled around to face his desk. This time he reached for a different file. Several men from law enforcement and the military who’d been declared dead had shown up alive in the Adirondack Mountains. Witnesses reported exceptional strength and volcanic rage that made the men nearly impossible to stop.
Those symptoms too closely resembled the side effects of Nevsky’s drugs. Ryker feared some of Nevsky’s data had survived the fire that killed the scientist. He needed to find out where the men had disappeared to after their supposed deaths.
If another lab was continuing Nevsky’s experiments, it would have to be destroyed.
The world already had enough monsters.
#
Tuesday, Early Morning
Moscow, Russia
Jenna jerked upright in bed. She couldn’t see! It was dark. Why was it dark? It wasn’t supposed to be dark. The walls pressed in around her, suffocating her, choking her with her own fear.
Oh, God. Let me see, let me see, let me see!
Her lungs felt like they were going to implode as she desperately patted the area in front of her, then swung her arms forward, trying to find the lamp. Something heavy crashed to the floor.
No. Please, let me see. Help!
She had to find the light. She couldn’t bear—
“Easy, Jenna.” The male voice sent her rocketing off the bed. Her foot tangled in the bedspread and she tumbled to the floor.
Have to get away. Get to safety.
The light went on, the sudden brightness a shock to her eyes.
“You’re safe, Jenna. Okay? You’re safe. Safe.”
She blinked several times until her eyes adjusted. She was in a red room. Not the box of her nightmare. A box with no light, where all she felt was pain. Where she could hear the screams of her family yet was powerless to save them.
Jenna glanced frantically around. She didn’t recognize this room. She leapt to her feet and bolted for the door.
“It’s okay, Jenna,” the voice said again. “You don’t have to run. You’re safe. I’m Niko, remember? From the SSU. We talked to Ryker last night. He said for you to stick with me. You’re in my hotel room. In Moscow.”
Jenna froze.
Niko. She remembered now. He’d found her in the restroom. Helped her escape those men in the alley. He’d attended one of her training sessions back at the SSU.
Ashamed that he’d seen her panic, she focused her eyes on the floor and greedily drew air into her starved lungs.
“You with me, Jenna?”
She nodded. Then screwed up her courage and looked at him.
Niko’s eyes were steady on hers. Although she searched, she didn’t see any sign of pity. Just understanding. And a palpable calm. She held his gaze and let his strength pulse into her.
“You know you’re safe, yeah?”
She nodded again.
“Okay.”
She expected him to ask about the nightmare. He didn’t.
What an overwhelming relief. She didn’t talk about the nightmare with anyone. Not even the shrinks.
The bottom line was that she was afraid of the dark. She needed to be able to see her surroundings at all times, otherwise she panicked, particularly when she woke from nightma
res.
She sighed and rubbed her eyes. She’d left the light on when she’d fallen asleep, but she was so used to living alone, she hadn’t thought to warn Niko.
The poor guy stood on the other side of the room, as far from her as he could get, his body relaxed, his hands dangling in an unthreatening position. The bedside lamp lay broken on the floor.
She felt like an idiot. A scared, weak child.
Jenna gulped air and wrapped her arms around her chest. She was so cold. It always took her hours to get warm again after a nightmare. She bit down on her molars to stop her teeth from chattering.
“Damn. You’re cold. Climb back into bed. I’ll turn up the heater. You can have one of the blankets from the sofa bed. I’m warm enough.”
The problem was, she didn’t want to go back to bed. She was afraid of another nightmare. But it also wasn’t fair to stand here, keeping Niko awake.
“Can I keep the light on?” she asked.
Niko’s eyes flickered to the lit floor lamp next to the door. “Damn. I’m sorry. I checked on you before I turned in. Turning out the light was instinct. Of course you can keep the light on. Is there anything else you need? A hot drink? Music?”
She was about to shake her head, when she realized there was something she wanted. She didn’t want to be alone. Maybe, if Niko stayed over by the door for a bit, she’d relax enough to fall back asleep without dreaming.
An image flashed into her mind of him climbing into bed next to her and holding her through the night, his warmth and strength protecting her. But the uneasy fluttering in her stomach stopped her from putting that into words. Instead, she asked, “Would you mind staying here for a little while? Maybe…talk to me until I fall asleep?”
Surprise flickered across his face, then his eyes softened with understanding and just a hint of relief that she’d given him a task to fulfill. “Yeah, I can do that. Just let me get the blanket.”
Five minutes later he’d disposed of the broken lamp, draped the extra blanket across the bed, and tucked Jenna back under the covers. Then Niko settled cross-legged on the floor just inside the door.
“What do you want me to talk about?” he asked.
Vengeance (SSU Trilogy Book 1) Page 8
