by Jennie Lucas
“Anna. You’re awake,” Nikos said. “Come in.”
His face was dark, half hidden in the shadows of morning where he sat behind a black lacquer desk. The furniture here was as sleek and soulless as everything else in this penthouse. Anna suddenly felt uneasy.
“I thought you were going to wake me up,” she said. “Early-morning wedding and all that.” She glanced behind her. “Why was your lawyer here? Oh. He brought the prenup?”
His eyes flicked at her in surprise. “You knew I wanted you to sign a prenuptial agreement?”
“I assumed you would. I mean, of course you’d want me to sign one. You’re a wealthy man,” she said lamely, even as disappointment surged through her. He didn’t trust her. He honestly thought she cared about his money, that she’d try to take it. He thought they were at risk of getting a divorce. It cast a pall over her happiness.
Then she realized what he’d said. “Wait a minute. You wanted for me to sign a prenup? But not any more?”
“No,” he said quietly. “Not any more.”
She blinked as the joy came back through her. He’d realized he could trust her!
“Nikos,” she breathed. She crossed the room in five steps and, pulling back his chair, climbed in his lap and threw her arms around him. “You won’t regret it,” she murmured against the warm skin of his neck. “I’ll never let you down. I’ll be true to you until the day I die. We’re going to be so happy…”
She kissed him then, a long, lingering kiss that held her whole heart in every breath.
“Stop, Anna. Just stop.” Pushing her off his lap, he stood up, rubbing his temples. His whole body was tense. He didn’t seem like a man who was about to get married. He seemed miserable. And furious. Like a wounded lion with a thorn in his paw. He seemed both hurt and dangerous.
“What is it?” she asked warily. “What’s wrong?”
He picked up a file from his desk and held it out to her without a word, careful not to let their hands touch. Pulling the papers out of the file, she looked down at the first page and her knees felt weak.
She looked up at him slowly, her mouth dry. “I don’t…I don’t understand.”
“There’s nothing to understand. I’m giving you joint custody. You can live wherever you like, and I’ll provide you with a generous allowance. Enough to clear your family’s debt. Enough to support your mother and sister. My brownstone in the Upper East Side will be transferred to your name. My son will have every support, the best schools, vacations abroad—whatever you think best. All I ask is that I have visitation at will, as well as some arrangement to be made for holidays.”
Her head was spinning. “But I don’t need custody papers. Once we’re married we—”
He was shaking his head grimly. “That was a fairytale, Anna, nothing more. I wanted you in my bed, that’s all.”
“No.” She frowned at him, feeling like she’d fallen into some strange nightmare. “You could have had me in your bed long ago. You were the one who insisted we wait. You’ve done everything under the sun to convince me to marry you. Why would you change your mind now? It doesn’t make sense.”
He gave her a careless smile. “I guess I’m just not marriage material.”
“But you are!” she gasped. “I know you are. You’ve changed over the last weeks. You’ve become the husband I’ve always wanted, the father I dreamed of for Misha. Kind, brave, strong.” She closed her eyes, a thousand images going through her of all the time they’d spent together over the last weeks. Working together. Laughing. Nikos playing with their child. “All the time we’ve spent together—”
“It was a trick, Anna. God, don’t you get it? It was all an act. I wanted you. I would have pretended anything to win you. It was pride, I suppose. I couldn’t stand the thought of you leaving me. But now—” he shrugged. “The charade’s already growing old. I don’t want the burden of a wife or the full-time care of a child. I want my freedom.”
“It’s not true! You’re lying!”
He grabbed her wrist, searing her with his hot dark gaze. “You know me,” he said cruelly. “You know how I am. So many beautiful women, so little time. Did you really think I could ever settle down with one woman? With you?”
She felt like she’d just gotten punched. She looked up into his face as tears filled her eyes. “Why are you saying this?”
For an instant something like regret and pain washed over his handsome face. “It’s better for you to be free,” he said finally. “Forget about me, Anna. You deserve a man who will truly love you.”
“But you love me. You said so,” she whispered.
He shook his head, and now his eyes were only cold. “I lied. I don’t love anyone. I don’t know how.”
At those words, all the hope she’d been holding in her chest disappeared.
Nikos didn’t love her. He’d chased her out of pride, out of his determination to possess her, to beat his rival. But now that she’d given him her heart he was already bored with her.
For the first time she believed him, and she felt sick. She turned away.
“Fine.” She was relieved that her voice didn’t tremble. She tried to remember the plan she’d once had—the plan that had sounded so wonderful before she’d fallen back in love with Nikos. “I guess I’ll…I’ll go back to New York and get a job.”
“No.” His voice was dark, inexorable. “I told you. You’ll never need to work again.”
She looked up at him, pressing her fingernails into her palms to fight back tears. She had her pride too—too much pride to ever cry in front of him again.
“I won’t take a penny from a man who doesn’t love me. I’m going to find a job. Whether you give me a recommendation or not.”
He blinked at her, then turned away, clenching his jaw. “I didn’t want it to end like this.”
“How did you expect it to end?”
He didn’t answer the question. His dark eyes looked haunted as he gazed down at her. “You’re right. If you truly want to work, I can’t stop you. I have no right to stop you,” he said in a low voice. “All I can do is ask that you make the decision carefully. And I know you will. I see now that you’ll always look out for Misha. I just have one favor to ask. When you marry again, choose well. Choose carefully for our son.”
“I thought I had,” she said softly. Her feelings were rushing through her, almost uncontrollable. He’d finally agreed that she could work, but even that didn’t matter anymore. She wanted to wrap her arms around him, to weep, to beg him not to leave her.
But she was the great-granddaughter of a princess. She was Misha’s mother and she had to be strong. Anna clung to her dignity and pride. They were all she had left.
Reaching into her purse, she quietly handed him two pieces of paper. “Here.”
“What are these?” he said, sounding shaken.
“The two best résumés for an executive secretary. I lied when I said they weren’t any good because I hoped you’d hire me instead. But now that I’m leaving I don’t want the company to suffer. I care too much about the company. I care too much about you. I love you.”
“Anna—”
She stepped away from him, looking into his eyes. “Goodbye, Nikos. Good luck.”
She turned to go, still praying he’d stop her.
He didn’t.
Going into the next room, she found the overnight bag Mrs. Burbridge had packed for her the previous night and put on a T-shirt and jeans. She carefully placed the custody agreement into her old diaper bag. She fed and changed Misha and cuddled him close.
Taking a deep breath, she glanced down the hall, hoping against hope that Nikos would appear, put his strong arms around her, and tell her this had all been a horrible mistake.
But Nikos’s office door remained closed.
He didn’t even care enough to say goodbye. He was probably already phoning the employment agency about the résumés. Or maybe he was calling some sexy showgirl to ask for a date.
Appare
ntly she was easy to replace. In every way.
Straightening, she held on to the frayed edges of her dignity and walked out of the penthouse where, just an hour ago, she’d thought she found love and security at last. She wouldn’t let herself cry. Not in his casino, where his men and his security cameras were everywhere.
She managed to hold back her sobs until she reached the sidewalk on Las Vegas Boulevard. Where to now? There was a taxi stand at the hotel across the street. She could barely see through her tears as she stepped off the curb. Just in time she saw the van barreling toward her in the sparse early-morning traffic. She jumped back on the sidewalk in a cold sweat, frightened at how close she’d come to walking into traffic with her son.
“Just who I was looking for,” a cold voice said. She looked up with a gasp to see Victor sitting inside the van’s open door with several of his men. “What? No snappy comeback? Not so brave when you’re alone, are you? Grab the kid,” he ordered.
Anna started to fight and scream, trying to run away, but it was hopeless. When Misha was ripped from her arms she immediately surrendered. Ten seconds later she was tied up in the back of the van, on her way to hell. Victor faced her with cold eyes and an oily smile.
“You have a choice to make, loobemaya. What happens next is up to you.”
Nikos had a sick feeling in his gut.
Pacing around his L’Hermitage penthouse, he poured himself a bourbon, then put it down untasted. He went to his home office, started to check his email, then closed the laptop without reading a single message. He finally went to the window overlooking Las Vegas. Twenty floors above the city, he had a clear view. He could see the wide desert beyond the city to the far mountains. It seemed to stretch forever. The emptiness was everywhere.
Especially here.
I did the right thing letting her go, he told himself. But the sick feeling only got worse. His knees felt weak, as if he’d just run twenty miles without stopping, or gone twenty rounds with a heavyweight champ; he sank into the sleek red-upholstered chair by the edge of the window. He put his head in his hands.
It was the silence that was killing him.
The absolute silence of his beautifully decorated apartment. No baby laughter. No lullabies from Anna. No voices at all. Just dead silence.
He could call one of his trusted employees, like Cooper. He could call acquaintances from the club. He could call any of a dozen women he’d dated. They would be here in less than ten minutes to fill his home with noise.
But he didn’t want them.
He wanted his family.
He wanted her. His secretary. His lover. His friend.
“I had to give her up,” he repeated to himself, raking his hand through his hair. I didn’t love her.
“Are you sure about that, sir?” a Scottish voice said from behind him.
Nikos jumped when he realized he’d spoken his last words aloud. Mrs. Burbridge was standing in the doorway, her hands folded in front of her. A sharp reply rose to his lips, but her plump face looked so gentle and understanding he bit back the words. Instead, he muttered, “Of course I’m sure.”
“You told me to pick up the baby early this morning, as you’d be going to a wedding, but I’ve arrived to find an open door, no wee babe, and no bride. Am I to understand the wedding’s off?”
“They’re both gone,” he said wearily. He went to his desk, sat down and opened his checkbook. “Your job here is done, Mrs. Burbridge. I’m sorry to bring you so far for just a few weeks. I’ll compensate you—”
She reached over and shut the checkbook with a bang. “Where are they, sir? Anna and your child?”
“I let them go,” he said, resting his head in his hands. “My son deserved a mother.”
“But the bairn was happy enough. So was his mother, I thought. Why send them away?”
“Because Anna deserves better,” he exploded. “She deserves a man who can love her. She’s been through enough. From her family. From me. I just want her to be happy.”
“And you? You don’t look terribly happy.”
He gave a bitter laugh. “I’ll get by. But Anna…” He rubbed the back of his head wearily. “I couldn’t let her down. She loved me. Marrying me would have ruined her life.”
“Her happiness means more to you than your own?”
“She’s the mother of my son. The best damn partner I ever had at work. My friend. My lover. Of course I want her to be happy. It’s all I want.”
The Scotswoman raised her head and looked at him. Her eyes were kind, but sad. “Sir, what do you think love is?”
For a second he just stared at her. Then his heart started to pound in his chest.
“Oh, my God,” he whispered.
Was it possible that she was right? That he loved Anna?
He didn’t just want her in his bed, that was true. He didn’t just enjoy her company, appreciate her skills as a mother or respect her perfect secretarial work.
He wanted her face to be the first he woke up to and the last he saw before he slept.
He wanted to see her face light up when she had a business idea, or when she was splashing around in the pool with their son.
He wanted her to be happy. To work as his secretary if that was what it took to make her glow from the inside out. Her happiness was everything.
That was love?
Oh, my God. He loved her. He didn’t deserve her, but what if he could spend the rest of his life striving to make her happy?
Because without Anna he now realized that his life was empty. His fortune, his business empire—meant nothing. Without her this penthouse was no better than his childhood tenement, and his life was just as lonely and hungry.
Money didn’t matter.
Love mattered.
Family mattered.
Oh, my God. Anna.
“Bless you,” he said to Mrs. Burbridge. He raced down the hall to the door. He had to find Anna—now, at once.
He stopped short when he saw Cooper standing outside his door. The burly bodyguard’s face was white and drawn.
“Boss—”
But at that moment Nikos saw the bundle in Cooper’s arms. His baby son, wrapped in a blanket. Michael’s little face was red and miserable as he cried.
“We found him at the front entrance to the casino,” Cooper said. “Alone.”
Nikos’s heart stopped in his throat as he took his son in his arms. “Alone?”
The burly man nodded grimly. “A valet said a van stopped beneath the marquee, left the baby on the ground, and drove away.”
Nikos held his son close, crooning to him softly, rocking him back and forth against his chest, just like Anna had taught him. The baby’s tears subsided. Michael was comforted, but Nikos was not. “Anna wouldn’t let herself be separated from Misha.”
Looking miserable, Cooper handed him a letter. Nikos scanned it quickly.
Nikos
I’ve realized that sharing custody will never work. I’m in love with Victor Sinistyn and leaving with him for South America. You once said I was no kind of mother, and I guess you were right. Trying to keep our baby safe and warm would be too much effort where we’re going. Please don’t bother trying to find me. Raise our son well.
Anna
“Boss?” Cooper repeated unhappily. His voice echoed in the private outside hallway against the steel of the elevator doors. “What do you want me to do?”
Nikos’s heart was pounding. She’d left him. The moment he’d realized he loved her with all his heart, she’d left him. His worst fear had come true.
But something nagged at him, overriding the pain, and he read the letter again. A mere hour after she’d left Nikos she’d decided to leave both him and Misha behind for a life with Victor Sinistyn?
Maybe it was her handwriting, but he didn’t believe a word of it.
“She’s in trouble,” Nikos said slowly. “Someone forced her to write this letter.”
“You think she’s been kidnapped?”
“Sinistyn,” he breathed. The man had made it clear he wanted Anna, and when Nikos had shoved her out of L’Hermitage without bodyguards he’d handed her to him on a silver plate. He cursed himself under his breath. “Get the plane ready.”
“It’s ready now—for your trip to Asia.”
“Screw Singapore. Let Haverstock take the bid,” he said, throwing away the billion-dollar deal to his chief rival without a thought.
“Where are we going to look for her? South America?”
Nikos shook his head. “Sinistyn put that in to throw us off the track. No. He’s going someplace else. Somewhere private. Somewhere my power does not easily reach.” He glanced down at the letter, forcing himself to read it again slowly.
You once said I was no kind of mother…
Trying to keep our baby safe and warm would be too much effort where we’re going…
He sucked in his breath. She was trying to tell him where they were going. Folding the letter, he shoved it at Cooper. “They’re going to Russia.”
“Let me guess, boss,” Cooper said sourly. “You want to handle this alone.”
Nikos gently handed the baby to Mrs. Burbridge. Kissing his son goodbye, he turned to face Cooper with rage surging through his veins. “Hell, no. I want every man we’ve got on the plane within the hour. And get Yuri Andropov on the phone. It’s time to call in a favor.”
CHAPTER NINE
ANNA shifted slightly in her chair, trying to shift the cords that bound her wrists without attracting the attention of Victor or his goons. Her hands felt hot and sweaty with the effort, but the rest of her felt like ice as she worked the broken tines of her great-grandmother’s ring against the rope.
On the car ride from St. Petersburg she’d briefly felt the spring sun on her face, but the backroom of the Rostov Palace felt cold as ever. Especially as she’d listened to Victor’s men ransack the Princess’s china in the kitchen. Biting her lip, she watched as Victor and one of his men set up an old black-and-white television near the fire.
“It’s not working. We’ll miss the game,” the bodyguard complained in Russian, trying to position the antenna.