Ever Fallen in Love

by Katie MacAlister

“I wish I was joking,” Theo answered.

  “But ... he’s never been a big-time player.”

  “Unfortunately, he is now.” Theo’s eyes were dark with concern.

  I shook my head again. “I never knew. I mean, I had an idea that his import business wasn’t as kosher as he said, but money laundering? That never occurred to me.”

  “Did you ask Harry?” Theo squatted next to me, holding out his hands for Peter when the baby tried to climb over the edge of the wading pool to get to him.

  Harry replied before I could. “We’re happy to have Peter for as long as you need. Matilda loves babies, and was trying to convince Iakovos that just because I’m forty and he’s been snipped doesn’t mean we can’t have more babies.”

  Iakovos gave his wife a glare. “Do you have to tell everyone about that?”

  She giggled, and nodded at Theo. “Hey, they have to worry about birth control. We don’t. We win.”

  “Point taken,” Iakovos said.

  Theo gave me a speculative look. I held up my arm and flexed my bicep. “Implant. It’s good for another three years, so don’t even think about it.”

  He laughed, and grimaced when Peter banged the toy dolphin down directly on Theo’s crotch. “The point may be moot if you keep doing that, Peter. I need to make a few calls to make sure everything is ready for us, but if you’re ready to go in about half an hour, that’ll give us time to get to the airport.”

  I stayed with Peter as long as I could, feeling torn about leaving him, but knowing that if a few days away could ensure peace from Misha for the rest of our lives, then the separation was well worth it.

  I won’t say there weren’t a few tears I sniffled back when we took the boat to the mainland, and Harry held Peter in her arms, waving his little fist good-bye. I clutched Theo’s hand, watching until they were too small to make out anymore, swallowing back the big lump of tears.

  Theo sniffled.

  I looked at him in surprise.

  “What?” he said, pulling me down onto a seat next to him.

  “You sniffled.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous. I’m a man, and thus I do not tear up at saying good-bye to my ten-month-old son who I just found out about two weeks ago.”

  I leaned into him, wrapping my arms around him, amazed that such a wonderful man was mine. “I’d tell you that I was sorry we have to do this, but I know you’ll tell me it’s not my fault, so instead, I’ll just hug you and rub your back in a comforting manner, all right?”

  “Deal,” he said, and hugged me tight, his chin resting on my head for the duration of the trip to the mainland. One of Iakovos’s staff was driving the boat, and normally I would have enjoyed looking at the lovely green-blue water, the amazing village that seemed to cling to the side of the cliff as it spilled down to the sea, and just the whole wonderful ambience of Greece, but I was too upset to appreciate any of it.

  The trip back to New Zealand was much less horrible than the one out, but with the frequent refueling stops, it took over a day. Theo spent most of the time working, dealing with not only the situation with Misha but his own businesses, which he’d had to push aside while he got us to safety.

  “I hope we get some sort of private-jet frequent-flier miles,” I told him when we stepped out into the heat of Wellington almost twenty-six hours later. “I feel downright rummy.”

  “It’s better than flying to the States,” he pointed out. “I always feel out of it for a couple of days after one of those flights.”

  The following two days were spent closeted in various government buildings making statements, telling our story over and over again until I thought I’d go mad if I had to tell just one more time how it was that we found the flash drive. Statements were taken in person, on video, and in writing that neither Theo nor I had had knowledge of the drive, or what it contained, until we found it.

  As annoying as that was, it was relatively smooth sailing until the officials who were working with us suggested that the best way to make sure Misha was convicted was to catch him red-handed. And that meant I had to give him back the flash drive.

  “No,” Theo said before I could even respond to the suggestion. “It’s too dangerous. He almost killed her last week, and that was on a public street.”

  I thought about what the official—whose name was Dermot—said when he explained that given the circumstances, they needed a watertight case against Misha to ensure he was convicted, which was what Theo demanded.

  “You’ll be wired and have a GPS tracking unit on you,” Dermot told me, ignoring Theo, who stood next to me, his legs braced wide and his arms crossed over his chest. “We’ll pick the meeting place carefully, and will have undercover officers seeded throughout the area. If, at any time, you feel threatened, you will have a panic button that will send the extraction team in.”

  I looked behind Dermot to where George, Paul, and John stood. They wore their usual impassive expressions, which, oddly, I found reassuring.

  “Absolutely not,” Theo said, looking downright belligerent. “It’s out of the question. What if he shoots her? We’ll find another way.”

  Dermot gestured away the question. “We will naturally protect her—”

  “No!” Theo thundered. “There’s nothing to stop him from shooting her.”

  Dermot shook his head. “On the contrary, there are a great many things we can do to prevent that.”

  “Such as?” I asked, torn between fear and a strange calm determination to see this through. I wanted a life with Theo. Misha had to be stopped in order for that to happen.

  “This is New Zealand, not the US.” Dermot’s eyes were steady on mine. “We have a relatively low rate of gun-related violence. And naturally, we will make sure there are a number of security cameras monitoring whatever location is chosen.”

  Theo snorted, and muttered something under his breath.

  “What would you do if you were me?” I asked George.

  He raised his eyebrows. “If I wanted the perpetrator put away for good, I’d do as these gentlemen suggest.”

  “Kiera, leave the room,” Theo demanded, and tried to shoo me out the door. “I will deal with this from here on out.”

  I resisted being shooed and stood firm. “Do you trust them?” I asked George.

  “Yes,” he said without even the slightest hesitation.

  “All right.” I turned to Theo, my thumbs stroking the line of his jaw, which I loved so much. “I know you are trying to protect me, my love. I know you don’t want me to be traumatized anymore by Misha. I know you don’t ever want me to feel frightened or terrorized by him again, but you have to think about something important.”

  “What’s that?” he asked, his curiosity getting the better of his animosity toward the government men.

  “The bone-deep satisfaction I’m going to have when they haul Misha away in handcuffs, knowing that there is no way his dirty-cop buddies can save him. It’ll be the best therapy I could ever have.”

  He thought about that, pulling me close to say softly in my ear, “I don’t want you to do this. I won’t be able to protect you from him.”

  “You already have, you adorably wonderful, yet silly, man,” I said, biting his neck. “Let me do this, Theo. It won’t be fun, but oh, how I want to see him go to prison.”

  It took another half hour of persuasion, pleading, and bribery before Theo finally agreed to let the plan go forward.

  “But only if we take a few of our own precautions,” he muttered darkly when we, accompanied by George, Paul, and John, climbed into a car to go back to the hotel where we were staying.

  “What precautions?” I asked.

  He just smiled and cracked his knuckles.

  I made a mental note to have a private chat with George so I could warn him to keep Theo from attacking Misha on his own. I had no doubt that Theo could hold his own in a fight, but Misha had no honor or sense of fair play. And I was not going to risk the man who made my life complete. Not when, f
or the first time in five years, I had a future worth preserving.

  FIFTEEN

  Theo made the call two days later.

  “We have the flash drive,” he said, his voice emotionless, but I knew he was holding back the desire to threaten Misha with any number of dire actions.

  I could hear the rash of Russian spilling out from the earpiece of the phone before Misha said, “Where is it? What do you do to it?”

  “Let me make this absolutely clear: Kiera didn’t know you’d hidden it in her Zen garden rocks. If you think about trying to hurt her or otherwise harm her in any way, the drive goes to the police immediately.”

  Misha, predictably, snarled obscenities at Theo, who waited until he finished before he added, “Do you understand? If you so much as lift a finger toward her, we’ll turn the drive over to the police.”

  “I understand,” Misha said, his voice silky smooth, a sound that sent goose bumps down my arms. I knew that voice; he was at his most dangerous when he spoke like that. “Where is Kiera? I will talk with her.”

  Theo raised his eyebrows at me. I nodded and took the phone, holding it angled so he could listen. “Theo doesn’t want me handing over the drive to you,” I told Misha. “He wants to give it to the cops, but I told him that since it was yours, I didn’t feel right in doing that.”

  “Good, you good girl,” he said, laughter in his voice. I quelled the warning bells screaming in my head and willed myself to ignore the note of fat satisfaction in his voice. “You don’t listen to this man. He doesn’t treat you like I do.”

  That was the understatement of the year.

  “Where do you want to meet?” I asked, my eyes on Dermot. He nodded.

  “You come to warehouse in Wellington.”

  “How about we find somewhere neutral, where I won’t be walking into a group of your buddies?” I tried to remember all of Dermot’s instructions for successful negotiating, and which areas they were prepared to set up in advance.

  “Warehouse,” Misha insisted.

  “Theo would never allow that, and you know it as well as I do.”

  Misha spat out what I knew was a derogatory Russian word. “The Dominion.”

  “The park?” I asked.

  “Yes. Simmington Point, by the pool. Is neutral enough?”

  I ignored the mocking tone in his voice, my eyes on Dermot. He gave me a thumbs-up. “All right. What time?”

  We settled on a time that evening. Misha had wanted me to go out there immediately, but Dermot said they needed time to secure whatever area we had chosen, and also, night was better in terms of hiding Specialist Response Team members.

  Two hours before the time I was to be at Dominion Park, a glorious stretch of land that sat right on the bay, Theo pulled me into our hotel bedroom.

  “You remember everything I told you?” he asked.

  “Yes. Are you sure about the name?”

  “The detectives came up with three names, but only one is active right now.”

  “OK. I wouldn’t want to get an innocent person in trouble.”

  “We will only precipitate an investigation,” he told me, his hands on my shoulders. “Nothing more.”

  “Just remember I’m counting on you,” I said, giving in to temptation and biting his chin.

  He looked surprised for a moment, then cocked his head, offering me his neck. I laughed and gently bit that, as well.

  “I should call you vampire instead of gazelle,” he murmured, his hands getting busy with my ass.

  “Theo, stop. You’ll mess up all my equipment,” I protested, squirming when he slid one hand down into my leggings.

  “Oh, your equipment will be very messy by the time I’m done with it,” he said with a sexy growl, wiggling his fingers against sensitive flesh.

  “Fine, but you get to explain to Dermot why they spent an hour fitting me up with everything, and you took it all off me in two minutes.”

  He sighed, but pulled his hands back after giving my behind a little pinch. “Just remember my restraint later. I will expect much reward for it.”

  “You better believe I will.”

  His smile faded. “Are you sure about this, Kiera? It’s not too late to have me deliver it.”

  “He won’t gloat to you like he will me,” I said, giving him a smile that had a lot more wattage than I felt. “There’s little Misha loves more than to tell me how brilliant he is. We can’t risk losing that admission.”

  “All right.” He took a deep breath. “Just remember what I told you to do.”

  I saluted him. “Roger Wilco and all that jazz.”

  We left shortly after that. Dermot had a handful of agents planted around the park, watching the traffic, but no one had seen anything suspicious thus far. We sat in the groundskeeper’s building nearby, waiting, watching the video feeds, each second dragging by.

  An hour before I was due to meet Misha, word came into the building that he and four of his buddies had been spotted in the park heading toward the pool area. There was also an increase in the usual number of police in the area.

  I leaned against Theo, saying nothing. My fate, I believed, was at that point set.

  Security cameras showed the movement of Misha and his men moving casually through the park until one by one, the men disappeared from the video feeds.

  Theo’s arm tightened around me when Misha moved out of range of a trail camera.

  “Not long now,” Dermot said, giving me a smile.

  I tried to smile in return, but suspect it came out more of a grimace since he looked vaguely horrified.

  “Are you ready, love?” Theo murmured in my ear.

  “Yes.” I turned to kiss him. “I’m trusting you, Theo.”

  “I look forward to when this is over, so that you can tell me in a very tangible way how sorry you are that you ever doubted me,” he said lightly, but I saw the shadows in his eyes. He was just as afraid as I was.

  He slipped away, leaving me with Dermot, George, and one of Dermot’s men.

  “You’ll be fine,” George said, giving my shoulder a pat before he, too, left the building to take up the position Theo and he had agreed upon.

  My stomach turned on itself while the last few minutes crawled by.

  “I wish I knew what he was doing,” I said softly. “I hate being blind like this.”

  “His men have hidden themselves,” Dermot replied, listening for a moment to his headset. “The police are gathering on that side of the park, although only one of them has approached the pool building. Are you ready?”

  “Is it time?” I said, suddenly nervous. I wiped my hands on my leggings, my heart quickening.

  “A little early, but he will be expecting that. Let’s give him what he wants, hmm?”

  “Chocolate doughnuts,” I told him. “Mothballs. The great big planet earth.”

  Dermot said nothing when I opened the door and made my way out of the building, slipping through a clutch of trees that stood near the building, before appearing on a paved path. I looked around nervously, knowing Misha would expect that, not that I was in the least bit pretending to be worried.

  It was about half a mile to the pool, and the crowds started to thin as the sun went down. I followed the paved walkway down to where the glistening eight lanes of water turned inky before the blue-white lights that ran the length of the pool came on one by one with a soft buzzing noise. A few people were in the pool, swimming laps, but all the families had left once the open swim time ended. I strolled by the tall white fence that kept park-goers from entering the pool area, nervous enough that I felt like I’d never again be able to eat.

  “You come.”

  Misha’s voice sounded behind me, so unexpectedly that it made me shriek and whirl around. He stood almost close enough to touch me, having come from God knew where. In his hand he held a gun. At the sight of it, something inside me snapped. He was so predictable, so trite. I wanted to yell at him that he needed to get a new routine.

  “Y
es, I came.” I allowed my expression to slip into fear. Misha loved to make people afraid. “I just want you to leave me alone.”

  “Why? So you can screw this man, this Theo who threatens me?” Misha’s lips peeled back in a smirk as he gestured toward me with the gun. “I told you he lies to you. You are my woman. You always are my woman.”

  “I was with you for five long years, Misha. I did my time,” I said, going a bit off script, but I felt like I needed to keep the conversation real so he wouldn’t be suspicious.

  “Is not over,” he said, stepping closer to me, his eyes traveling over me in the possessive manner I was used to seeing. This time, however, it made me physically ill. “Give me flash, then I take you back to hotel and we fuck.”

  “Not so fast,” I said, crossing my arms over my chest. “Let’s talk about what’s on the flash drive for a minute. I looked at it, Misha. Theo doesn’t know I did, but I loaded it up and saw everything.”

  He snarled, his hands flexing convulsively.

  “Looks to me like you are dealing with a lot of money that isn’t yours.” I tried my damnedest to mimic Theo at his most urbane. “I know you, and I know that you’re not one to let that much money slip out of your grip. So, what say we make a little deal?”

  A slow, ugly smile spread over his face. “I knew you want something. Is too good you saying you give me flash. How much?”

  “How about three million?”

  His smile grew, and I knew that, like me, he was wired. “You want me to give you three million for flash?”

  I shrugged. “If you want it back, yes, I want three million. That’s pocket change compared to the amounts listed in the documents.”

  He took a step closer, and knowing that the old me, the me he scared the peewadding out of, would have backed up, I did so. Right through the gate that led into the pool area. Dermot might not approve of my apparent improvisation, but I trusted Theo and George to have my back.

  “Don’t think you can scare me, Misha. I hold all the cards here. Your name is all over the documents on this drive.”

  “Is my property. You take it from me, and now you want moneys to give it back. Is blackmail, Kiera.”