The Player

by Kresley Cole

  "Because I want you to understand I'm not perfect. And that I trust you, even with my family's secrets. Perhaps now you'll see I can be as accepting as you are, far more so than you seem to think."

  Dmitri and his family operated outside the law. Could he really raise a brow at one or two or thirty grifters?

  For the first time in weeks, hope filled me. Dmitri had risked his life to save Maksim, just as Maksim had for him. Then they'd done whatever it had taken to survive. If I explained how desperate I'd been to protect my parents, surely Dmitri could forgive me.

  If he loved me . . .

  He'd told me his history; he deserved mine. I would confess everything, betting the pot with this man, but only after he comprehended my motivation--for targeting him. "Dmitri, you know I would do anything for my family."

  He sat beside me. "Of course."

  "I believe you'll like them very much. Do you want to go to Vegas for a few days and see what they're like? We could fly out on Friday." Giving them a couple of days to prepare.

  Please, please Lady Luck, let him forgive me.

  The look in his eyes . . . maybe it would be enough. "Yes, Vika." His voice was hoarse. "I would like that very much."

  CHAPTER 35

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  "I don't want to let you out of my sight," Dmitri said, his hands covering my shoulders.

  I smoothed my palms over his crisp button-down. "I'll be fine for an hour, big guy." I still couldn't believe I was staying in the Caly penthouse for a week. When we'd arrived a short while ago, other employees had bugged at the sight of me wearing a couture slipdress and diamonds, on the arm of a man like Dmitri, with Starsky and Hutch hovering around to "buffer irritations."

  "I would skip work"--Dmitri had already set up his computer and things in the study--"but I have a couple of business calls I need to make."

  He hadn't gotten in his hour this morning before we'd been due to leave, which was my fault. I'd caught him vacillating over which ties to pack and said, "You never give this much thought to your clothes."

  With his brows drawn, he'd held up his options. "Making a good impression on your family is very important to me, love."

  Yep, I'd jumped him, ties flying.

  Now I said, "I need to call in our catering order for later anyway." I planned to bring my pack to visit in shifts, starting things slow. All of them together would be overwhelming for anyone, but especially for Dmitri. I'd invited just Karin and Benji over tonight, for wine and dinner on the terrace.

  I couldn't wait to see my family, had missed them so much. And I needed to talk to my sister face to face and ask for her advice. . . .

  Dmitri pressed a kiss to my head, then drew back to gaze down at me. "I'm looking forward to meeting everyone."

  "I kinda figured." Ever since I'd broached his meeting them, he'd been keyed up. "Just like I'm looking forward to seeing your family soon."

  "They are on my list to call now." His answer didn't sound that promising.

  I adjusted the strap of my royal-blue dress. "Am I the source of the rift between you and Maksim?"

  He curled his finger under my chin. "Every single person in my family believes you are wonderful for me--and that you are the only one for me. If anything, they're worried I will bungle things with you."

  Then why wouldn't he tell me what the fight had been about? "They don't see me as a gold-digger?"

  "Not at all. They know I insisted on that postnup. You can walk away at any time with half of our fortune, and yet"--he grinned--"you keep wearing my ring and waking me up with blow jobs."

  I arched a brow. "Fine, husband. Go forth." I pushed at his chest. "Work. Provide. I'll see you in an hour."

  At the study door, he hesitated. "Vika, everything will turn out well. I will make sure of it."

  I wished I could believe that.

  Because even after Dmitri had bared his soul, my grift sense still needled me. Something was off, that thorn nagging my subconscious. Maybe Karin could help me figure it out.

  Left to my own devices, I took a few minutes to check out the penthouse with new eyes. I strolled into the guest bathroom, memories making me blush. Dmitri had waited eight years for that night. I remembered every blistering second with you.

  No, he'd waited his entire adult life: Because, beautiful girl, this is the most pleasurable thing I have ever done, and I'll give anything for it to continue.

  I wandered outside to the terrace and climbed up to the deck, with its wisteria-covered trellis and bubbling fountain. My beast's lair. This is foreign territory for me, he'd said. But I like my new guide very much. It'd been new territory for both of us, for different reasons.

  Though the sun beat down, such a change from that moonlit night, I twirled my ring on my finger and replayed our first kiss. I will play games with you. . . .

  I'd had no idea how much my life was about to change. I'd had no idea I'd ever have to confess to him.

  But first, introductions.

  I headed back down, deciding to order all of Karin and Benji's favorite dishes, even if none of them went together. Steak, risotto, sushi, pizza . . .

  I'd just entered the living room when a text chime sounded from my purse on the coffee table. I hurried over and dug out my pink phone.

  I blinked in disbelief at Karin's message.

  KV: Teotwawki outside.

  What the . . . ? I read it again, as if the message would change.

  When I'd texted her two days ago to invite her over, she'd replied: I will contact you when you reach the Caly.

  The abrupt response was puzzling, but I'd shrugged it off, figuring she'd been upset about Walker. When Karin had sent him back all his child support and that note, he'd written:

  Apparently you've gotten your claws into a new dupe. But if you think I'll let another man raise my son, think again.

  Now I feared something else had already been wrong. I glanced toward the study. I had an impulse to tell Dmitri, but what if the message was a false alarm? I could go downstairs and be back up before he even knew I was gone. I hurried to the penthouse's main entry, my heels clicking down the foyer.

  Starsky stood at the entrance.

  "Just going to talk to a friend for a few minutes," I told him. "I won't leave the property."

  He hesitated, so I said, "Wasn't asking permission, Starsky," and breezed past him. Even when they were on my side, bodyguards were annoying as hell.

  Outside the casino, checkout-time traffic clogged the main drive. I finally spotted Karin, Benji, and Pete in my cousin's new sedan. All three looked pensive as I wove through the bumper-to-bumper snarl of cars to reach them.

  When I hopped in the backseat beside Benji, he snapped his fingers at me. "Lemme see your phone."

  Frowning, I handed it over. "What's going on?"

  While he flew through screens at lightning speed, Karin gazed at me from the front seat with something like pity. "You aren't falling for Dmitri, hon. You're already there, aren't you?"

  I hesitated, then murmured, "Yes, I am."

  Her expression said, Welcome to the world of heartache.

  "What the hell's happening? He's going to wonder where I went."

  Pete glanced back from behind the wheel. "We're rescuing you."

  "From what?"

  He honked at the cars blocking his way. "We'll explain everything, but for now, we need to get out of here."

  "To go where?"

  Benji glanced up. "Don't say. Not yet. Her phone is hot."

  "Hot??" My heart raced. "Who would bug it? Did you guys just wake up this morning and think 'Vice probably has a bug'?"

  Pete said, "Your husband did it."

  "That's ridiculous." Panic churned. "Why would he?"

  Benji powered down my phone, handing it back to me. "Pretty sure we can talk freely now."

  "You can't know it was Dmitri." But who else would do something like that to me? Who wou
ld have the chance? "Maybe . . . maybe the cartel is monitoring us for some reason!"

  Benji shook his head. "You're the only one in the family with a tap. Plus, the hack to pirate the microphone is really sophisticated. Something you'd see from a tech genius. Assume he made a clone and accessed all of your data in real time as well."

  Data. Every text, picture, e-mail, and web search. My face heated as I thought of everything I'd written about him, all the things I'd said about him while in range of that phone. "Since when?"

  "No way to tell," he said. "If I had to guess, I'd say from the beginning."

  From the first night? Then Dmitri had probably heard me telling Karin I'd never come harder than with him. I cast my mind back. He must've heard my family plotting how to shake him down. He'd called with news about my new car right when we'd been wondering how to monetize his interest! "Then he knows what we are. What we've done." And he still wanted me? I stared down at my ring. He might've started spying on me in the beginning for security reasons. Maybe he regretted it--the same way I wished I'd never used him. Maybe he and I could try counseling. "This isn't necessarily teotwawki here."

  "There's more," Karin said. "A couple of weeks back, I was talking to Giovanni, the Caly concierge. He said Sevastyan was at the casino about a year ago."

  "Dmitri told me about that trip." When he'd made the decision to turn his life around then.

  Karin said, "I used some juice to order security footage of his visit. We got it two days ago." She'd waited for me to reach Vegas before she would risk communicating with me on a potentially hot phone.

  My anxiety multiplied. Here comes the other shoe. "And?"

  "Sevastyan sees you. He followed you."

  "That doesn't make any sense. If he saw me and was interested, why not approach me? He's a gorgeous billionaire."

  "He wasn't so hot back then," Pete said. "He was much thinner and looked strung out. Pretty sure he was a drug addict. And he'd been drinking like he was trying to kill himself."

  He kind of had been. But that was before he'd started to work out and eat right. Before he'd kicked those pills. "Still, I would've given him the freaking time of day."

  "No, Vice, you wouldn't have," Karin said. "Because you were at your bachelorette party."

  "What are you saying?"

  Pete laid on the horn. "He got rid of your fiance that week."

  My mind zoomed back to the night I'd caught Brett. Yes, I'd marveled at how off-the-charts hot that woman had been.

  The showgirl who'd somehow found her way to our party. To Brett.

  Oh, my God. "My grift sense said it was a badger game! I just suspected you guys of pulling it--to get the gull out of my life."

  "Not us," Karin said. "Sevastyan must've hooked up with a private investigator in Vegas and put a temptation scenario into motion."

  I had no urge to get back together with Brett or anything, but could any man have withstood that kind of lure? Fifteen minutes ago, I would've bet my life on Dmitri. Now I didn't even know him.

  He'd set me up for devastation, ensuring I found my fiance with another woman. The success of his scheme had depended on my pain.

  "We've started digging with detective agencies," Pete said. "We'll know more soon enough." He craned his head, looking for a way to reverse.

  I'd love one too--a way to reverse the last month of my life. I'd known something was off, had felt it down to my bones! "You guys think Dmitri's been spying on me for a year?"

  "Yeah, sis." Benji's solemn eyes made mine water. "I'd bet ten large he was."

  That manipulative stalker!

  Movement near the hotel entry drew my attention. Speak of the devil.

  Dmitri's head jerked in all directions as he searched for me. His frantic gaze darted.

  Karin mumbled, "Shit. He's already down here."

  He caught sight of us and charged forward, his long strides eating up the pavement.

  Pete locked the doors.

  Dmitri reached the car, pulling the door handle. Masking his panic, he bit out, "Open this for me, love."

  I shook my head.

  In a roughened voice, he asked, "What's happened?"

  "Don't you already know?" I held up my phone.

  His eyes widened. "Let me explain, Vika!"

  Explain what? He'd played with my life. He'd played with me. I understood the irony, could see the parallels. But short of impending murder, I'd never targeted a decent person.

  Why had he targeted me? Tears welled.

  "Just talk to me." He sounded so agonized, and even now it gutted me. "Please don't cry, moya zhena."

  Tears spilled down my cheeks.

  Each one maddened him more. "Open this door!" He pounded a fist on the roof of the car.

  Karin jumped. Pete snapped, "For fuck's sake."

  Dmitri was just getting started. "Goddamn it, let me . . . get to you!" His accent was the thickest I'd ever heard it. "Just give me a chance to explain." Another pounding hit to the roof. A month ago, he'd warned Pete, "Do not ever get between me and her. You do not want to do that." This car was between Dmitri and his wife.

  I could only stare and cry. Karin reached back to take my hand. An infusion of strength.

  He stabbed his fingers through his unruly hair. "I can make this right! Vika, love, I can." He looked crazed, as if he was barely holding it together. Like how I felt.

  I spotted his bodyguards at the entrance, "buffering" against Calydon security.

  I murmured, "Did you set Brett up?" But Dmitri must've heard.

  He bellowed with frustration and yanked the car handle so hard I thought it would break.

  I had my answer. A sob broke free. But I wanted to hear him say it. "Did you set him up?"

  Dmitri swallowed, growing still. "Yes."

  I battled a wave of nausea. The anxiety I'd grappled with had never been about fate or luck or a too-perfect husband. I'd subconsciously picked up clues from his behavior and sensed my own impending doom. I'd been tied across the railroad tracks, perceiving the vibrations of an oncoming locomotive.

  "I can't even look at you!"

  That seemed to snap him past the limits of his control. "Guess what, wife? I'd do all of it again!"

  "Stay the fuck away from me! I never want to see your face again!"

  The sedan lurched ahead a few feet, but was blocked by a taxi.

  Eyes wild, Dmitri yelled, "Nooo!" Still yanking on the car handle, he pounded his fist against the window. The car rocked.

  Benji muttered, "Jesus."

  "Just unlock the door, Vika." Another brutal punch against the window. Blood smeared the glass. "You cannot leave!"

  Even now I fought the impulse to soothe his anguish.

  Pete said, "Finally!" The car sped forward out onto the Strip, leaving Dmitri behind.

  I gazed back as he stumbled out into the traffic, yelling, "Do not leave me!"

  CHAPTER 36

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  "Is she hyperventilating?"

  "She looks like she's about to throw up."

  "Not in my new car!"

  "Shut the fuck up, Pete."

  "Vice, say something, hon."

  I couldn't, could barely think with the roaring in my ears. I had all this noise in my head, yet my body was numb.

  Was this what crazy felt like? How had Dmitri stood it for so many years?

  Familiar scenery passed by my window, but Dmitri's dried blood on the glass colored every sight. Vegas no longer felt like my home.

  I'd made my home alongside a wave-tossed cliff with a man who was a stranger to me.

  I glanced down at my ring, and the tears fell and fell. . . .

  After what must've been ages, we pulled up to my parents' house. I let Karin walk me inside.

  When Mom and Dad leapt up to hug me, I gave a humiliating sob. Cold-as-Ice Vice had broken into frozen shards. Even Cash's welcoming gurgle from his playpen barely regis
tered. I dimly noticed Al and Gram had traded up from sherry to hard liquor--vodka. Because things were seriously fucked.

  Mom brushed tears from my face. "Honey, we're going to figure this out."

  Dad searched my expression. "Did he ever hurt you, sweet pea?"

  I shook my head. Finally found my voice. "He was . . . wonderful. Obviously too good to be true."

  I sat on the lumpy couch, Mom and Dad on one side, Karin protectively on the other.

  Mom rubbed my back. "Then help us understand this."

  How? When I couldn't wrap my mind around it? "I don't know. I don't . . . I can't think."

  How much of Dmitri's interest was real? How much of his sentiments?

  Everything between us was as fake as the Strip.

  I muffled another sob.

  "We can't figure out why." Mom frowned. "Does he like playing games?"

  Dmitri had warned me he would do just that.

  Benji sat on my parents' love seat. "Maybe he's a typical rich asshole who enjoys manipulating people. He could've made a bet with one of his brothers or something, then ended up falling for Vice."

  Karin said, "Maybe he's an unlovable person--and he knows it. He could've spied on Vice, learned everything about her, then changed himself like a chameleon to trick her into loving him."

  They debated possibilities, each one getting more far-fetched.

  I finally said, "I want to see the surveillance."

  Karin nodded. "Benji put a compilation together."

  He pushed buttons on a remote. "I'll cue it up." The TV flared to life.

  I noticed they had a new flat-screen, courtesy of Dmitri's money. Good. They'd proudly hung the art I'd bought them.

  Video footage of the Caly's main lounge began to play, with a date and time stamp at the bottom. August 21 at ten after ten.

  I barely recognized Dmitri sitting at the end of the bar. Because he'd been a drug-addicted, addled, suicidal wreck--a shadow of what he was now.

  He'd weighed at least twenty pounds less. His skin had been pale and clammy, his face gaunt, his eyes deadened and filled with pain.

  Seeing him like that . . . Emotion squeezed my chest till my lungs threatened to collapse.

  Then my group of seven women came on-screen--Karin and I, cousins, and grift friends. We'd booked rooms that night at the Caly; right then, we would've been heading out to a club next door.

  Karin, dazzling as ever in a slinky red dress, had led the way. She'd been pregnant, but hadn't looked it, except for her glowing skin and lustrous hair. Every man she'd passed had done a double take. Yet as she'd traipsed past Dmitri, he hadn't spared her a second glance.