“This is crazy. You can’t go up against him, he is absolutely ruthless.”
“So am I. Don’t you understand? You are everything to me and he almost killed you. There is no question that I will do what I can to destroy him.”
Vries took several deep calming breaths. There was only a slight hitch in her breathing now. The doctors said eventually even that would fade. It was taking the muscles in her chest a while to recover from the insult presented by the large caliber bullet tearing through her chest. Even so, she doubted she’d ever be able to return to the field and had already told Lelia that she would take the position as operations manager in Europe. She was already looking forward to working with other operatives.
Leo was right. Putilin had overplayed his hand. He had awakened a sleeping lion. She stared at Leo, horrified at the thought of him returning to Russia to imprisonment if not certain death. Even so having a fit of hysterics probably wouldn’t help the situation.
“What do you plan to do?” she said. For the first time she wished Lelia had assigned her to assassinate Putilin, though she doubted she could have pulled it off there would have been a certain satisfaction in taking a shot at the bastard.
“For right now I will maintain a low profile. Meanwhile I am gathering information. Information that at some point I will use against him. I will also be amenable to working with your State Department, but all that is a long way in the future.”
She calmed down. Maybe there would be a way to talk him out of this. “So you will make me a widow before I’m even a bride,” she said with a melodramatic sigh.
“Oh you can be a bride tomorrow if you like.”
“A girl likes to be asked.”
“Does she? I thought it was understood. Is this another of those cultural issues we seem to have trouble with?” he asked, both brows raised.
“No, Lyova, everyone else gets it. It’s an issue you have trouble with,” she said with a sigh.
“Vries St. John, love of my life, center of my universe, will you do me the honor of being my lovely bride?”
“Yes, but it’s conditional.”
“Conditional?”
“As I recall, you promised to tie me down. And you haven’t kept that promise. If this is an example of how you plan to fulfill your husbandly duties…”
Leo laughed, then pulled her down beside him on the bed. “I believe I can rectify that little matter right now,” he said against her lips.
And he did.
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The Lion in Russia Page 13