by Nalini Singh
Monique's living area was set up in a way similar to Silver's neighboring apartment, with the windows overlooking the city. But that was where the similarities stopped--where Silver's was elegant gray and pristine, Monique's was a startling chaos of colorful clothes and objects against white: white sofas, white walls, white table, white chairs. One shoe he could see was bright red, a purse on a sofa vivid blue.
"Excuse the mess," Monique said with the bubbly insouciance of a woman used to men doing as she wished.
Valentin found her sweet the same way he found other pretty, harmless things sweet. His bear would eat her alive in a second. That same bear wouldn't dare even take a bite out of Silver unless they were playing. His mate was titanium fire to Monique's gentle flame.
"This is nothing compared to Denhome after a big party," he said with a grin. "Imagine a whole clan of drunk bears and party decorations. I once saw my second-in-command fast asleep in bear form--some wit had decorated her with string lights and crepe paper after painting her claws pink." Stasya had not been amused at the twins' stroke of drunken genius--after she stopped laughing. "Just when the bears responsible thought she'd forgotten the incident, they happened to get drunk at a party and woke to find themselves encased in melted chocolate that had gone hard."
"Oh, that sounds like so much fun." Monique glowed. "You want coffee? I was just making some."
"I wouldn't say no." He followed her to the kitchen area, keeping things casual. "You know Silver's moved out?"
"I heard." Monique's lips turned down. "I really liked her as a neighbor--she was the kind of person I knew would respond if I ever screamed, you know? She wouldn't just ignore it."
Yes, that was his Starlight. "Part of the reason she moved was because of a possible security breach."
"Her grandmother asked me about that on a comm call." Monique pushed the Start button on her coffee machine. "I was so surprised--this place is locked up tight." She turned, leaning her hip against the counter. "Did they steal anything important?"
Valentin knew from Ena that she'd framed the breach as aimed at stealing restricted data rather than an attack against Silver. "Doesn't look like it. Silver had taken all her electronics to work with her, so they were out of luck."
"I do that, too," Monique confided as the rich scent of coffee filtered into the air. "I deal with so much classified corporate information that it's just not worth the risk."
"Silver said you had a high-powered position." He couldn't quite marry this bouncy woman with a suit-and-tie corporate. "In fashion, right?"
"She remembered!" A beaming smile as she turned to pour their cups of coffee, her machine one of the fastest brewers on the market. "I wish I could help you figure out who might've breached her security, but I swear I didn't see anyone suspicious. I would've remembered--my mom always says my mouth might be a runaway train, but my memory is a steel trap." She handed him a mug of coffee. "And the people I've brought home with me have all been people I trust."
There it was. "You're searching for a mate?" He quickly followed with, "My eldest sister's doing that at the moment." Rolling his eyes, he added, "I have to mop up all the broken hearts she leaves in her wake." Thankfully, Pieter's wasn't one--a single kiss and the two had realized they were meant to be friends. "The woman's giving bears a bad name."
Laughing, Monique said, "I just can't find the right man or woman." She took a sip of her coffee, sighed. "I'm totally open to anyone, but most people can't handle the fact I easily earn five times a normal income. Or if they can handle it, they want me to spend all my money on them. I love buying gifts, don't get me wrong, but I don't want it to be expected."
Valentin nodded, suddenly realizing he and Silver had never once discussed finances. She probably made ten times a normal salary. As alpha of StoneWater, he was the CEO of their business ventures, but he didn't think of that money as his--it was the clan's. He drew the same income as his senior staff, nothing extravagant. The rest of the money went toward raising and educating their cubs, keeping their territory strong, and further developing their business interests to the betterment of the clan as a whole.
He wondered what Silver would say to that . . . and realized she'd understand exactly how the clan worked. From all he'd seen, the Mercants functioned the same way. "I had the same trouble until I found Silver," he said to Monique. "Then, boom." He thumped his fist against his chest.
Monique made a melting face. "Oh, that is so romantic."
"Of course, she made me work for it," Valentin admitted before casually asking, "You didn't have any luck the last time you were in Moscow? There might've been an earlier attempt to get into Silver's apartment, so we're looking at anyone who was in the building during the time frame."
"Not really." Monique bit her lower lip. "I mean, there was Jai Shivani from work, but it never went anywhere and he's hardly the type to do industrial espionage. Straight as a ruler, you know?"
Valentin's instincts stirred. "Was he the only one?"
"Yup. I was really busy with work, hardly any time to play. Even Jai was only here maybe four times." A conspiratorial grin. "One time, the power went out when some big-deal processor melted down or something. That was fun. Too much fun. I ended up with the worst hangover."
Power didn't usually go out in buildings like this one; there were fail-safes upon fail-safes. Which was why Ena had come to suspect that someone had made very sure the power would hiccup that night. To date, however, she'd found nothing to confirm that Silver had been the target of that hiccup--the building housed countless high-profile individuals.
"Vodka?"
"What else? I'm in Russia!" Monique giggled. "Actually, there might've been a bottle of tequila involved, too."
Valentin grinned. "You weren't worried about mixing business with pleasure?"
Monique waved a hand. "Jai is in accounts. We hardly ever see each other except at the company Christmas party."
Valentin stayed another fifteen minutes but didn't learn anything else that might be useful. His next stop was the security-control station, where Ivan Mercant brought up the security feeds from the night of the power cut.
Ena and Arwen had already been through these, but that was before Ivan was cleared. The other man's demeanor changed from all business to ruthlessness camouflaged by a flawless black suit the instant he saw the gap in the recording. "This shouldn't happen," Silver's cousin said, his blue eyes hard. "The security system has multiple redundancies. It should always stay on, power outage or not."
"Why didn't you notice this at the time?"
Ivan found his organizer, checked the dates. "I was on leave a week on either side of the incident. My return briefing wouldn't have covered this." He put down the organizer. "I would say I can't believe this was missed, except that the individual noted as being on duty that night was a man I had to fire only a month later when he came to work high."
"Could he be the inside man?" Valentin asked. "Someone had to turn off the security system."
"If he was," Ivan replied, "we can't question him. While high one night, he fell into the Moskva and drowned. He was also a talker--I wouldn't have trusted him with any kind of a conspiracy that required keeping his mouth shut. I'll have Arwen trace his finances regardless."
Valentin stared at the blackness of the missing footage. And thought of what Silver had told him of a family with strong ties to the energy market--and access to complex chemicals--whose leader was against racial integration, against Trinity, to the point that he might be funding a terrorist organization. "Anyone on your team connected to the Patel family?"
"Human conglomerate headed by Akshay Patel?"
Of course a Mercant would have that information in his perfectly coiffured head. "That's the one."
"Not according to my current data, but I'll do some digging."
"If the cameras went off, does that mean Silver's internal security devices would've also gone off?"
"Yes. I helped her with the setup, and we locked them int
o the power grid to guard against failure." His face displayed no expression, but had the very dangerous and highly trained man been a bear, Valentin would've said he was pissed. "I never considered that an enemy would take down the entire power grid to get to her--that shouldn't even be possible with the safeguards in place."
Yet someone had pulled it off, and the end result was that for twenty minutes that night, Silver's apartment had been open to intrusion. "Someone really wanted her off the chessboard." Valentin's claws shoved against the skin of his fingertips.
"I'll work on unearthing the traitor in our midst," Ivan said flatly.
Valentin had a feeling that if there was a traitor, his cover wouldn't last long with Ivan Mercant on the trail. The man reminded him of a spy from the silver screen, suave and handsome on the surface, deadly underneath.
Leaving the other man to his task, Valentin went to his car, used the car's system to call Pavel. "I need you to find out about a man named Jai Shivani who works in the Moscow branch of the same company as Monique Ling. Look for any connections to the Patel family--of the Patel Conglomerate, headed by Akshay Patel."
"Gimme a few minutes." The other man hung up.
As it was, Pavel didn't return the call until Valentin was about to get out at Silver's complex, the dash clock showing it was eight forty. She wouldn't normally be home at this time, but given how late she'd worked, Valentin was hoping she'd gotten some extra rest. He wasn't sure he could control his protective instincts if she was running herself ragged. The possibility of a telepathic whack on the head or no, he might throw her over his shoulder and kidnap her to his lair.
"Jai Shivani is related to the Patels. Third cousin twice removed," Pavel said. "But, distant relatives or not, he went to the same boarding school as Akshay Patel, and they seem close in the school photos I was able to unearth."
"Boarding school probably made them closer than many siblings."
"Fewer connections between them in their adult lives," Pavel added, "but they both go to certain parts of the world at the same time every year. Family reunions maybe."
Or planning sessions.
"Send me everything you have." Once that information came through, Valentin had a decision to make: He knew the Human Alliance had asked everyone to wait, but it was focused on Akshay Patel. Jai Shivani was a small fish not even on their radar, according to the information they'd shared with Silver. The man was also in Moscow. Literally a ten-minute drive away.
Valentin's instincts raged at him to head that way, eliminate a possible threat on his mate's life. But Silver was also the head of EmNet and couldn't afford to lose the Alliance's trust.
Claws releasing, he gritted his teeth, made a call.
"I want to talk to him," he said bluntly to Lily Knight after explaining that Jai Shivani's name had come up in the course of another investigation. "I'm right here, and I can be a scary bastard." He was very careful not to promise to hand the man over to the Alliance--if Shivani had orchestrated the attempt on Silver's life, his own life was forfeit.
Bears didn't take prisoners.
"I can't make that decision," Lily replied. "I need to talk to the leadership." She returned his call five minutes later. "They want a human observer with you. Your mate has one working for her in the main EmNet office, a man named Erik Jahnssen."
"Done." Valentin knew he could drive away right now and Silver would never know about the upcoming confrontation. Of course, that kind of secret was how stupid bears lost their women.
Valentin was not a stupid bear.
He walked to her apartment, knocked.
Chapter 46
Itgrl42: I heard Silver Mercant is already separated from her bear mate. I knew it wouldn't last.
LvrBoo: Did you drink a cup of idiot soup this morning? Mates are forever and bears aren't exactly known for walking away from those they love.
BB: I once got mad and walked away from my bear boyfriend. We've been happily mated for twenty years. I never bet against a bear out to woo his woman. smile
--Forum of Wild Woman magazine
SILVER OPENED HER door seconds after Valentin's knock, already dressed in a gray pantsuit with a white shirt and sky-high heels. Her hair was also up in that fancy twist that made his hands itch to mess it up. "Valentin." Her eyes scanned his face. "Is something wrong?"
He wanted to yell at her. She had lines of exhaustion on her face, shadows under her eyes. "You have a half hour?" It came out a rumbling growl, his bear was so mad at her. "It's important."
She glanced at the complicated timepiece on her wrist, the face a large square that displayed all kinds of data. "My deputy is meant to log off at nine. I'll ask him to take an extra thirty minutes."
That she'd cleared her schedule without asking him why he needed her time, it crashed right through him, slayed him. Angry though it was, his bear rubbed against the inside of his skin, wanting her fingers running through its fur, her weight on its body as the bear took her for another ride. "Eat first," he ordered.
"I'll grab a bar." She did exactly that and was in the car with him two minutes later.
"We also need Erik Jahnssen from your office."
Again, she made the call without questioning why.
"You should be resting." The words burst out, a loud thunder of sound. "This is not how you recover from neurosurgery!"
She chewed a bite of her bar, swallowed. "I'll take that under advisement." A calm statement that made it clear she'd do nothing of the sort.
"Grr." Valentin made his claws slide back in. "You are an infuriating woman, Starlichka."
When he stopped at the Psy cafe and grabbed her a hot nutrient drink, she took it but gave him a stern look. "Valentin, the bar was enough nutrition. You'll increase my weight if you keep feeding me."
He fought the urge to tumble her into his lap, kiss her, and kiss her until she laughed and became his Silver again, the one who said things like that to him but who also loved him. "Because I'm a gentleman bear," he grumbled, "I won't point out that a woman who barely sleeps is never going to get there. But if it ever happens, it'll just give me more of you to cuddle."
Silver focused pointedly on her organizer, drink in hand. "Are we crossing off another date on your list, this time with an observer?"
"Very funny." His worst scowl had zero effect on his mate. It was like she was immune. "Do you think I'd waste a date by putting a time limit on it?" Snorting, he shook his head . . . just as she took a sip of her drink.
Bear satisfied, he said, "No, I just had a very interesting conversation with Monique Ling."
"Monique?" She took another sip. "Everything I know of her--and I dug deep when I first met her--says she has no political or fanatical leanings."
"No, but at least one of the men she brought home might."
When he told her what he'd learned, she turned off the organizer and angled herself to better face him, her fingers still around the drink. "Have you told Grandmother?"
"No. I want to know if we're right first."
Silver nodded at once. "Agreed." The possibility of Silver's poisoner being a Mercant had caused a deep schism in Ena, calling all her beliefs about family, about loyalty, into question.
To heal that schism and return her grandmother's absolute trust in the bonds of family, they had to give her categorical proof that no Mercant had been involved. "Erik is waiting outside his apartment down this street."
Silver briefed the rawboned human male after they picked him up--even after a short acquaintance, she knew he could be trusted to keep the secret. According to the psychological profile run by a previous employer, if Erik had a flaw, it was that he tended to be loyal to people long after they'd failed to live up to that loyalty.
At this point, after watching her work from her hospital bed to handle crises with no bias motivated by race, creed, or any other divisive factor, he'd given that loyalty to Silver.
"I have to make sure you two don't torture this dude?" Erik made a face, his eyes--a pal
e brownish-hazel--dubious, and stubble rough on the red-flushed skin of his jaw. "If he tried to poison Silver," he said in his Dutch-accented Russian, "I'm happy to help you pound the mudak into dust."
"I like you," Valentin said with a baring of teeth, just as his phone rang.
Tapping an earpiece Silver knew he couldn't stand but that was useful for private conversations, he said, "Pasha, what have you got?" He listened, asked several more questions before hanging up.
She wasn't the least surprised when he pulled out the earpiece and threw it onto the dash. Shoving a hand through the thickness of his hair, he said, "The possible asshole is still at his apartment--surfing the news sites on his comm. His focus seems to be the recent spate of HAPMA attacks."
"Pavel does realize hacking is illegal?" Silver curled her fingers into her hand when those fingers wanted to reach out and straighten the strands of Valentin's hair about to fall into his eyes.
"Who said anything about hacking?" Valentin's innocent look wouldn't have fooled a four-year-old. "Here's how we do the interrogation--you be scary and I'll be scarier."
"To a human with ordinary shields," Silver said coolly, "I am far scarier than you."
Valentin's claws sprung out, curved and razor sharp. "What do you want to bet?"
Silver took in those deadly claws. "If you sharpen them to a point, perhaps."
Both men laughed, but it was Valentin's laughter that sank into her bones. "Silver Fucking Mercant." An affectionate look as he pulled into an open parking space on the street.
Getting out, he went around to open her door. "Ready?"
"Let's do this." She held eyes that had gone amber when he laughed, still held the bear's delight. "The loser in the scariness stakes has to eat the other's choice of food for a day. Erik is the challenge witness and judge."
A grinning Erik clapped his hands once. "I accept."
Valentin shuddered. "Now I have to be super scary." He lifted her out of the vehicle, the move so absentminded she didn't think he was being purposefully aggressive.
As she and Erik walked with him into the secure apartment building, their way cleared by Pavel in some no-doubt illegal fashion, she was glad she'd worn her highest heels. With Valentin wearing work boots, it put them on a somewhat even footing--he was still taller and much bigger, but they . . . matched.