Loving the Lone Wolf

“It’s been a long day and it’s late.”

“Do not lie to me.” He narrowed his eyes. They were the same height when she wore flat heels, so his gaze bored into hers. His eyes were so much like Jamie’s, and yet so empty of warmth, the resemblance made her shudder. “I can see that something is troubling you,” he said.

Kelly felt a bubble of hysteria. She was about to cheat an egomaniacal heroin czar, put the blame on a drug smuggler who looked like an Indian warrior and she was facing the rest of her life on the run from both of them with her child.

What could possibly be troubling her?

“I know what it is.”

She pressed her tongue hard to the back of her front teeth, an old singer’s trick to stem the panic reaction and force her body to relax. God, he couldn’t know, could he? She’d been so careful.

“Gloria told me the boy got his hands on a gun.”

It took a second to change gears. With everything else going on, Kelly had pushed that particular nightmare to the back of her mind. At Stephan’s words, the image from this afternoon returned full force: Jamie in his playroom, his hair tousled as he backed out of the couch cushions, the sunlight gleaming from the pistol.

“You should have told me,” Stephan said. “Instead I heard it from the nanny.”

“You were busy,” Kelly said. “And I had to leave for the Starlight.”

“Simply because I do not spend as much time with our son as you do, don’t think his welfare doesn’t concern me. When he is old enough, he will be trained to take his place at my side.”

Trained? The prospect chilled her to her bones. She couldn’t let that happen. Whatever the cost, she had to get Jamie away before he fell under his father’s influence. “I spoke to the guards,” she said. She took a step back. “I told them not to bring their weapons into my and Jamie’s suite.”

“Pah!” He muttered a string of oaths in Russian. “That is not enough. I have dealt with it myself.”

“How?”

He returned to his desk and pressed a button on his phone. “Dimitri? Where’s Alex?”

A guttural, heavily accented voice came through the speaker. “In the basement, Mr. Volski.”

“Bring him to my office now.”

A few minutes later, the marble in the hall clattered with a set of heavy footsteps, along with a scuffing, thudding noise. The tall, blond Dimitri Petrovich, Stephan’s lieutenant, entered the room with a burly, middle-aged man in tow.

It was Alex Almari, a veteran guard who also served as one of Stephan’s enforcers. Kelly barely recognized him. His lower lip had been split open, the skin on his cheeks was raw from abrasions and his eyes were reduced to slits behind pulpy, purple swelling. He staggered a few steps sideways when Dimitri released his arm, then locked his knees and managed to stay on his feet.

Kelly pressed her fingers to her mouth. “Oh, my God. What happened to—”

“This is the imbecile who endangered the boy,” Stephan said.

Kelly swallowed hard. When she had seen the weapon in Jamie’s hands, she had been so shaken that if the person responsible for leaving the gun had been standing in front of her then, she probably would have struck him herself. She would do anything to protect her child.

But these injuries weren’t the result of a parent’s impulsive blow, they were from a methodical beating. Even though Alex Almari had probably inflicted far worse on others over the years, the sight of his face left Kelly sickened.

Stephan walked to the man and grabbed his chin to turn his face toward her. Fresh blood welled from Alex’s lip and trickled onto Stephan’s hand. “Do you not approve of my punishment, Kelly?”

“There shouldn’t be any guns allowed near Jamie,” she said. “That’s the only sure way to prevent it from happening again.”

“I prefer my way,” Stephan said. He stepped back, taking a handkerchief from the breast pocket of his suit to wipe the smears of blood from his fingers. “Dimitri?”

“Yes, sir?”

“Take Alex outside and shoot him. Use his own gun.”

“Stephan, no!” Kelly cried.

The gaze Stephan turned toward her froze her where she stood. “I value what’s mine, Kelly. Anyone who threatens my son deserves no mercy.”

“Please,” Alex said. The burly enforcer’s voice was distorted by his swollen face, his accent thick. Through the purpled slits over his eyes, his gaze was pleading. “It was…mistake. Didn’t mean…no harm.”

“He’s right, Stephan,” Kelly said. “Jamie’s fine. It was a mistake.”

Stephan glanced at Dimitri and held up his palm, then focused on Kelly once more. “If I spare Alex for you, what will you do for me, Kelly?”

Too late, she recognized the trap. Stephan knew her too well. Pride and paranoia might be his weaknesses, but sentiment was hers.

Damn! She was using her heart again instead of her head. She really hadn’t learned anything, had she? “What do you want, Stephan?”

“You think we shouldn’t trust Nathan Rand. To ensure we can, I want him here where we can keep track of his movements until the shipment is safely in our hands. And since you presented the deal, I believe it would be best if you continue to be my liaison with him.”

“I had only agreed to negotiate. That’s all I’ve ever done in the past. My part in this is over. I won’t participate in—”

“You have no reason to pretend squeamishness now.” Stephan’s gaze sharpened. “Or is there something you’re not telling me about this deal?”

Kelly jammed her tongue to her teeth hard enough to stop her breath. This complication was the last thing she needed.

“Kelly?”

“No,” she said. “I’ve told you everything.”

“Excellent, then we shall proceed.” Stephan flicked his hand toward Alex. “Take him back to the basement, Dimitri. Don’t shoot him. Cut off his trigger finger instead.”

Kelly gagged, fighting to keep her revulsion inside as the men moved away.

“I seldom give second chances, Kelly,” Stephan said. He folded his handkerchief, tucked it back in his pocket and returned to sit behind his desk. “You would be wise to remember that.”

Chapter 3

Kelly was good, Nathan thought, but tonight she wasn’t great. Tension stiffened her shoulders and clouded her face. It was as if a curtain had come down, or a light had dimmed inside her. Although her voice was on key and her timing was perfect, she was keeping her emotions under tight control. The passion that had suffused her performance the night before was missing.

Oh, she was still sexy as hell. She couldn’t help that. Just the sight of her standing in the spotlight, her eyes half-closed and her fingers wrapped around the shaft of the microphone was making Nathan’s palms sweat. The dress she wore tonight was black and covered her in front to the base of her throat, but in the back it plunged enticingly to the gentle rise of her buttocks.

It was all part of the act, he suspected. This was what Volski and the customers at his club would expect to see. Her appearance would please the crowd just as her voice would entertain them without making them uncomfortable. She packaged sex with class.

She sure had come a long way from singing in her church choir in Maple Ridge, Ohio.

He folded his arms over his chest, leaning one shoulder against the wall as he paused near the bar to watch her. He’d asked his personnel department to make some discreet inquiries into her background when he’d gone into the office this morning. What he’d learned had answered some questions, but had led to dozens more.