“So we need to devise a way to get hold of this Chicha,” she said to break the silence and divert attention from her gaffe.
“We?”
She considered Nico’s question. It was a reasonable one. This was none of her business and she’d learned early to mind her business. Yet, there was a woman out there with her face and body. A woman whose image made her stomach flutter.
She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. As she looked at the image frozen on the giant screen, memory tickled at the back of her head, almost like a soft bed of cotton candy. She knew without a doubt that she did not know this woman. Still…
Something drew her to the woman. Was it possible that they were not related? She did not know her father’s people. Or her mother’s for that matter. Her mother had been an only child of an only child and her grandmother had raised her after her mother abandoned her when she was four years old. She had no idea who her father was and she hadn’t seen her mother since she was four.
If there was any chance that this woman was related to her, she needed to find out.
The feeling surprised her. She had not thought about family for years and hadn’t tried to find out anything about her relatives, not since she turned sixteen. So she couldn’t explain the way she was feeling. Yet she knew she was going to pursue this.
“We,” she replied with certainty. “It’s not every day you see your own face staring back at you. I need to know more about her, and you need to find your plans. I believe we can help each other,” she said, turning to face Nico.
He was standing much closer than she’d anticipated and she fought the urge to take a step back. One side of his mouth lifted in amusement, like he knew just what she wanted she was contemplating.
“I don’t know. Maybe you’ll just get in the way.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Seriously? You couldn’t even find the right woman.”
“She has a point there,” Alex chipped in.
“Shut up, Alex,” Nico said, his gaze fixed on Tamika. “If I let you in on this, you’ll have to take orders from me.”
“In your dreams, mister.”
He cocked his head to the side and seemed to be contemplating her words. “Yeah, there too,” he murmured, his eyes suddenly flaring with heat.
“Get serious.” Tamika reached out and pushed him back. He took one step back and broke into a smile. Her breath caught. He really was a handsome bastard. “I have a team of special operators. We can track down this Chicha for you.”
“What are you called?” Alex asked curiously.
“Silver Shield.”
Alex began to choke. Both Nico and Tamika turned their attention to him.
“What now?” Nico asked, sounding exasperated.
“You abducted a Silver Shield special operator?” Alex asked in shock.
Nico looked at him with an expression that said So?
“You’re lucky she only tied you to the bed naked. Jesus, man! She could have had her team here seconds after you got here.”
“We took her phone,” Nico said with a frown.
Alex just shook his head and muttered, “So naïve.”
Nico turned to her. “We took your phone. How would you have called for backup?”
She lifted her arm and pointed to her wristwatch. “My team is aware of my exact coordinates and if I tapped this button, you would have had some very angry former Marines on your hands.”
Nico swore.
“So naïve,” Alex repeated again.
Tamika shook her head. “So what’s it going to be, mister?”
Chapter Four
Nico watched her leave with his housekeeper. She was still wearing the dress she’d worn the night before and had asked for a room to take a bath and get refreshed. Since he didn’t think she’d slept much, it didn’t look too bad. Actually, as she walked, he watched her ass sway gently and decided that the dress looked damned good.
“You don’t want to mess with that.”
Nico shifted his gaze to his brother and frowned when he saw him settled in his chair with his feet on the table.
“Get your damn feet off my table.”
Alex gave him a knowing glance. “Hey, don’t take your frustrations out on me. It’s not my fault your ass got whooped by a girl.”
Nico clenched his teeth, but decided to ignore his brother’s teasing. Instead he focused his gaze on the pair of Italian loafers currently resting on his antique oak table and narrowed his eyes.
“Fine, fine,” Alex grumbled, swinging his feet off the table as he muttered something about killjoys and bloodsuckers.
Nico turned back to the screen and hit the play button. Somehow, his fingers must have touched something else because it skipped several frames to the most recent one. When he saw the pale yellow dress and the dreadlocked hair, his gaze sharpened.
He watched as two of his men led Tamika into the house through a side entrance. The feed showed them walking through a short corridor until they came to the Blue Room. It was named that way because it was painted blue. Nothing more.
What happened next had his mouth opening in shock. Once minute, the men were trying to bind the woman’s hands and feet and the next minute, it was a flurry of wind and motion. With practiced ease and controlled moves, she swung her leg. The action caught one of the men at the side of his head and he went down. At the same time, she grabbed hold of the other man’s hand, twisted it behind his back at an angle that made Nico wince. She brought the side of her palm to his neck in a sharp move and he also went down.
Damn, those guys hadn’t stood a chance.
The feed showed her picking up the ropes and heading out. He knew what was coming next of course. She’d found his room and tied him up to the bed. He did not need a visual reminder of that. And he also did not need his brother using that to screw him over for the rest of their lives.
With a quick movement of his thumb, he turned off the screens.
There was silence in the room.
“What the hell was that?” Nico finally asked, breaking the silence.
“That, dear brother, was a Silver Shield operator in action.”
“She didn’t even break a sweat,” he said with a frown.
“Well, they were both much larger than she is so she didn’t bother to engage them in combat,” Alex said.
Yeah, he’d noticed that as well. She’d used the element of surprise to her advantage and hadn’t messed around. She’d demobilized them and headed for her target. If she’d been out to kill him, he would have been dead by now.
A chill went through his spine as he realized for the first time how vulnerable he was.
“Is there any food in this place?” Alex asked, prowling
“You just had breakfast,” Nico pointed out.
“What? I’m a growing boy.”
Nico snorted. Alex was what their mother had termed a bottomless pit. He was always hungry.
“Shit!” He remembered that he hadn’t called their mom. A feeling of dread passed through him. He still hadn’t called her.
Katerina Dmitrievna Orlov was one of the sweetest women on the face of the earth. She had a heart that was large and generous and opened her arms to everyone. Yet, she did not suffer fools gladly and he would have to grovel and beg before she forgave him for this.
He picked up his phone to call her. He had her on speed dial. He stared at the phone for several moments without placing the call. His courage failed him.
“Just call her, you ingrate,” Alex said.
Nico glanced at his brother. The bastard was seriously enjoying this. Usually, Nico was the one who never forgot her birthday. He sent text messages to his other siblings every year, reminding them. Because of that damn Chicha woman, he had been so distracted lately.
He turned his attention back to the phone and sighed. He really should call her and get this over with. The only problem was that there was no getting it over with. This would require a visit to New York to go grovel in per
son.
He swore again.
Just then the phone rang. He almost dropped it when he saw who was calling. Oh shit! This was going to be bad, but it would be a lot worse if he didn’t pick up the phone.
Closing his eyes, he answered the call and brought the phone to his ears.
“Hello, Mama.”
“Nico, Moi Mal’chik, are you fine? You’re not in hospital or dead?”
Great. She was eliminating all the possible reasons why he had been unable to call, so she could kill him personally. And she began meting out her version of slow death by calling him my boy.
“No, Mama. I’m fine.”
“Then why didn’t I hear from you yesterday?”
He heard the confusion and sadness in her voice and his heart clenched.
“I’m sorry, Mama,” he said simply.
There was a pause, then, “You forgot?”
“Umm…well, the thing is…”
“You forgot.”
“Mama, it wasn’t like that…”
“How the hell did you forget my birthday?” Now she sounded pissed.
“Mama, let me explain.”
“Don’t explain anything, Nikolai. You are dead to me!”
“Mama…”
“He found a woman, Ma,” Alex said into the phone, shooting Nico a devilish grin.
There was a brief pause.
“Oh, thank you, God. You have been listening, you answer the prayers of the faithful ones…”
Nico glared at Alex, feeling angry and frustrated as he listened to his very religious mother offer praises to the almighty. His brother had just screwed him over. Big time.
“Ma—” He tried to interrupt but was cut short.
“Is this true, Kolya boy? Please tell me it’s true.”
He heard the hope in her voice even as she used the nickname she’d had for him as a child and his heart clenched. He didn’t know how to tell her it was all a misunderstanding; it would break her heart. She’d been after them for grandchildren for ages, and Alex had chosen to throw him under the bus. He made up his mind right then, he no longer had a brother.
“Listen, ma—”
“No, you listen, my boy. You will bring her home for Christmas.”
“But ma—”
He was left listening to the dialing tone.
He looked up at the ceiling and clenched his teeth. God, he hated it when she did that. She knew how to stick it in and turn the sharp point at just the right angle.
“You are so dead,” Alex said with a snicker.
“Don’t talk to me, you son of a bitch,” he snarled. “You are dead to me.”
Alex rolled his eyes and smiled. “So dramatic,” he said with a sad shake of his head.
“Why the hell did you do that?”
“Seriously? You are just angry because you didn’t think up a way to screw me over first.”
Nico sighed. He was right. He should have mentioned something about Alex’s fiancé. That would have won him a reprieve from his mother.
“Well, looks like you have two weeks to meet and fall in love with a woman.”
Nico glared at his brother. He was enjoying this too much. He needed to find a way to kill the bastard slowly. A slow and painful death would definitely be appropriate.
“Damn,” Nico said, already resigned to the fact that he would be on board a plane to New York that same day.
“Must have broken her heart. Her darling Nico, forgetting her birthday… unbelievable.”
“Just shut up, asshole.”
“But oh, what joy! You’re about to make her dreams come true. A possible daughter-in-law…wow!” He placed a hand to his heart with a rapturous look on his face.
Nico shook his head. “You are one sick bastard,” he said without heat.
Alex laughed and moved closer. He placed his hand on Nico’s shoulder. “You know she’ll forgive you, right?” he said earnestly. “But you are going to have to seriously grovel.”
Nico’s shoulders slumped. “I know.”
“And if you do show up with someone, say a certain delectable special ops agent…”
“Perish the thought.” Nico ignored his brother’s sly smile as he thought about ways to make it up to his mom.
It wasn’t that he hated the thought of groveling. He would lick her boots if that was what it took. He didn’t just love the woman that raised him from the time he turned twelve, he was grateful to her. She took him and through love, unconditional acceptance and firm discipline, she gave his life direction. If not for her, he would have been in jail or dead with the life he’d been living.
He hated disappointing her or doing anything to make her sad. It tore at him.
“Damn.” He sat down on his recently vacated chair. He swiveled around to face the large French windows that gave him an unhindered view of the ocean.
He needed to come up with something and fast. His best bet would be to show up at Christmas with a broken heart. He could claim that the heartless bitch had dumped him just a few days before Christmas. It would take some damn fine acting to make his mom believe his bullshit, but it could work.
He picked up a pen and silently clicked the end as he contemplated his options. Staring at the water, his thoughts swung to the missing plans. He needed to be back at the site, overseeing the plans for the opening of their new resort in a few months. He did not have the time to chase after some thieving woman who may have sold his plans on the open market. But if he didn’t get hold of those plans soon, there would be no resort to open. All their hard work would be in vain.
He sighed, running his hands through his hair. He was exhausted. He had been working nonstop to ensure that their latest baby was a success. He sure as hell did not need this shit.
“We need to get those plans back.”
He slowly turned his chair so that he was facing his brother. Alex met his gaze, his blue eyes worried. Nico shut his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. They needed a break desperately.
“If this gets into the hands of…” He let his words trail off, knowing from the look in Alex’s eyes that he understood the implication.
“Have you told Masha yet?” he asked, referring to their sister and the head chef at their flagship resort.
Nico opened his eyes and shook his head. “I’ll let her know,” he said with a wave.
He should have informed her as soon as it happened. But Masha was, well…Masha. She would get mad, then cuss him out for being so stupid, then order him to fix it. She was a terror. Always had been.
“So we’re hiring Silver Shield, then?”
He didn’t see any other choice. It was obvious that they were in way over their heads. There was no way he could oversee the final details without being physically present. Alex needed to be on site also, since he was the architect who designed the resort in the first place. There was nothing for it, they had to call in help.
“We’re hiring them.”
Alex nodded. “Looks like you’ll be working closely with Ms. White.”
Nico’s mind flashed back to the sway of that delectable ass as she worked out of his office. Damn. He really didn’t need any sort of distraction. He still hadn’t recovered from the last time he’d let a woman who looked exactly like her come close to him.
He didn’t think that Tamika was going to steal his plans. She didn’t even seem to know who they were, nor did she seem to care one way or another. But he had a feeling that if he let her get close, he might end up losing more than he bargained for.
He made up his mind then. He was going to call in the security firm, but he would make a special request. He wanted another special operator detailed to him. The sooner he sent that delectable ass off on her way, the better for him. Yep. That was exactly what he was going to do.
“I’m going to find Ms. White and see if I can interest her in a lazy day by the pool.”
Nico couldn’t help himself. He imagined that body encased in a two-piece bikini and growled, “Don�
��t you have anything constructive to do?”
Alex pretended to consider the question for a moment then shook his head. “Nope.”
“There is so much work to do,” he reminded his brother, not bothering to examine the feeling of annoyance that was gradually increasing.
“Sure,” Alex said, agreeing readily.
Nico eyed him suspiciously. “So you’re going to focus on that?”
“Absolutely. I’m sure Ms. White should be a fountain of, um, knowledge. If you know what I mean.” He wagged his brows suggestively.
It took an effort, but Nico managed to turn on his bored expression. “Okay, have fun,” he said waving his hand dismissively.
Alex watched him through narrowed eyes for a full minute. Then he pointed two fingers towards his eyes and turned them to Nico before slipping out the door.
Nico waited a moment before picking up the intercom. He punched in a number.
“Hello?” A breathless female voice answered in the most sensual voice he’d ever heard, sending a shiver of awareness down his spine.
“Ms. White, I would like to see you in the office right away.”
There was a brief pause then, “Yes, sir. Okay, sir. How high, sir?”
He glanced at the phone in his hands. Was the woman insane? With an impatient sigh, he brought it back to his ear.
“Please?” he said.
“Since you asked so nicely, I’ll see you in five,” came the dry response, then he was left holding a dead phone.
He placed it on the cradle and let out a sigh. Managing this woman wasn’t going to be easy, but he knew women and how to relate with them. He was sure that he could bring her to heel pretty soon.
With renewed confidence, Nico sat down to wait for her.
Chapter Five
Tamika decided to take a shower before meeting with Mister Hot-and-Gorgeous. Since she hadn’t been able to take a run, she’d done a few pushups, just to keep the blood in circulation. She glanced around the room; it was different from the first one they’d taken her to. This one was painted a dark lavender and light grey. The lavender was used as a sort of accent wall and the lamp shade beside the large double bed was the same color. It wasn’t one she would have chosen, but strangely, it worked really well. The colors were soothing and she’d found herself relaxing as soon as she stepped in.
Silver Shield Security Box Set Page 53
