Vengeance Unleashed (The Wanted Men Series Book 1)

by Nancy Haviland

  She scooted her tight ass into a leather chair when he approached, bringing her knees up and wrapping her arms around them. As she stared up at him with those big sapphire eyes, she suddenly looked young and scared, and Gabriel wanted to give himself a shot in the face for being such an asshole.

  He sighed and handed her one of the tumblers. “You’re right, of course, I didn’t have to fuck you.” Bullshit. Deep down, he still felt as if he’d had no choice. Liking that his crass description had made her blush, he went around and took his seat. “But I did, and we can’t change that now.” He put his glass down and gave his eyes a rub with the heels of his hands. “Listen, the bottom line here is, you have to stay with me. I can protect you because I know the threat that’s coming. I gotta stop fighting me on this.” Even though I get off on butting heads with you. “I don’t even want to think about what your father will do if something happens to you on my watch.” It would kill Vasily. Gabriel knew that without having to be told.

  Eva slowly lowered her feet to the floor and stared into her glass. She took a sip, shivered a bit. Didn’t have a clue his mouth started to water because her nipples were now visible and he wanted at them.

  “What if I get away from you and go to the police.”

  “We all have connections. Including Stefano. Word would get back to him before you could spit and, depending on whose payroll the cops in question are on, you might find yourself in the back of a squad car being delivered to my brother with a pretty bow on your ass. Who would help you then?” He was her only option. He had to make her understand that.

  “Fine.”

  Thank fuck. He celebrated the relatively easy win by taking a drink. “You’ll stay?” he confirmed. “Without screaming the place down or trying to take off first chance you get?”

  “Yes.” She placed her glass square in the middle of a coaster on the table next to her and sat there with her back arrow straight. Her hands came together after a second and she began linking and unlinking her fingers, her tapered nails clicking as she drummed one set on top of the other in that way he’d noticed she did when she was nervous.

  She finally looked at him. “Would my father hurt you?”

  Concern? For him? “If something were to happen to you on my watch?”

  She nodded.

  “Absolutely.” Probably gonna kill me the second he sees me.

  “What if it isn’t your fault? What if I decide to sneak away? He shouldn’t make you pay for something you have no control over.”

  Swallowing a growl because she was too fucking precious for words, Gabriel stood and went to her, covering her hands with one of his to still her fingers as he knelt at her feet. “Eva, if you sneak away and my brother or Furio—the guy that broke into your house—finds you, the least of your worries will be how painful your father will make my death. You will be in the presence of men who—”

  “No, no, no.” She shook her head violently, her hand turning so she could grasp his fingers. “I…I don’t want that. I don’t want you to even be hurt. No matter what’s happened between us, I don’t want that. I don’t want you to die.”

  His fucking heart squeezed at her words and he reached out to trace his knuckles down her cheek, rubbing a lock of her dark silky hair through his fingers. She didn’t flinch away from his touch. Now whether that was because she was on her way to forgiving him or just too tired to care, he didn’t know. But he’d take it.

  “As long as you stay by my side, everything will work out as it should. But you have to stay right by my fucking side,” he stressed. “And, Eva?”

  She made a little sound as she looked into his eyes.

  “Don’t think badly of your father. He isn’t the only one who would kill for you.”

  She winced and turned toward the window; her profile was as perfect as the rest of her. God, she was flawless. From her beauty to her spirit to her guarded heart.

  “Your word, Eva. I want your word that you’ll stay.”

  She squeezed his fingers, her voice cracking when she gave it. “I swear, I’m not going anywhere.”

  He had a feeling he was going to hold her to that.

  FIFTEEN

  Eva was sitting with her legs tucked under her, the light of morning streaming into the main room, when the bedroom door opened and Gabriel came prowling out.

  His hair, still wet from a shower, shone blacker than a raven’s wing. He’d dressed in a casual black button-down that had the sleeves rolled to expose his forearms, a pair of well-worn jeans, and black boots like the kind Caleb wore.

  He stopped next to the sofa, leaving a good stretch between them, and feeling her attraction to him spike, she pulled the lapels of her robe tighter. His quirking lip told her he noticed. She should have gotten dressed, but she’d been too worried about waking him because, much to her deteriorating mental health, he’d slept next to her last night. She’d learned that when she’d woken in the wee hours…in his arms.

  She blushed now, remembering how content she’d felt as she’d cuddled in and fallen back to sleep like the big, stupid dummy she was. When what she should have done was come out here and take the sofa while reminding herself what had happened to women who had romantic relationships with mobsters.

  She’d do that tonight, she thought, eyeing the sofa.

  “So many thoughts floating around in there, hmm?”

  Mmm. His voice was all rough and rumble.

  “Did you sleep well?” The heat in his gaze grew with every second that ticked by.

  She didn’t want to give him credit, but she did by nodding. Then her stomach growled loudly. “Sorry.” She covered the noise with her hand as her cheeks heated. “Hungry.”

  “Yeah. I know the feeling,” he threw dryly over his shoulder as he walked to the door.

  Did he? Why, because he was also hungry for breakfast?

  While his back was turned, she skipped quickly into the bedroom and dug through one of her two suitcases that she’d spotted next to the closet when she’d woken. She tossed the robe onto the foot of the bed and quickly slipped on underwear and a bra before sliding her legs into a pair of navy leggings. She pulled a loose white tank over her head and left her hair down but slipped her usual hair tie around her wrist before she headed back out.

  Or had he meant he was hungry for her?

  Could he be, after the way she’d fallen to pieces last night? She doubted it. But then, he was a man, and men liked sex.

  So did she.

  With him.

  She groaned and went back out to find him standing in the doorway to the dining room. His level stare unsettled her more and more with every step she took.

  “Stop looking at me like that.”

  He just smiled a little and pulled out a chair for her at the table.

  She sat, tucking one leg under her, and inhaled the tantalizing aroma of coffee, bacon, and eggs. Her mouth watered as he sat on her right, at the head of the table. While he lifted the covers off their breakfast plates, she poured two steaming cups of coffee before adding cream to hers.

  “Let’s talk about your father,” Gabriel said as they began to eat.

  Like it had been doing all morning, Eva’s heart shifted again, softening for a man she’d always assumed was self-serving and irresponsible, nothing but a rich playboy. When, instead, he might be someone who’d sacrificed his own happiness, his family, in order to keep them safe from the indisputably dangerous world he lived in.

  What kind of person would do such a noble, painful thing?

  Your sperm donor.

  As regret for her awful judgment rose, she thought about how, in the end, it had all been for nothing. Because her mother’s life had indeed been taken by the very people Vasily Tarasov had tried to protect them from. Members of a rival Russian organized crime family.

  She was the daughter of a Russian mob boss.

  She pushed away the rising hysteria she should probably give herself permission to feel. After all, in the last week, she’
d moved home, met Gabriel, lost her virginity, started a new job, found out her boss was the man she’d lost her virginity to, been attacked in her home, was being held hostage against her will—sort of—and found out her father was a Russian crime boss.

  Shaking her head at the impossibility of it all, she did something extremely normal and took a drink of her coffee. Maybe it would do her good to talk about it. God knew she wasn’t getting far with it on her own.

  “I don’t know if you’ll understand,” she admitted, forking up some eggs. She chewed and swallowed.

  Looking surprised—that she wasn’t being a pain in the ass, stubborn hard-head?—Gabriel put a half-eaten piece of toast down on the side of his plate. “Try me.”

  “I hate him.” Nice. Very subtle. She cringed and dropped her eyes to the twisty orange garnish on the edge of her plate. “I mean, I did hate him. For so many years, for abandoning us. He seemed so irresponsible and selfish.” She clutched her napkin in a death grip. “My mom never gave me any details about him, other than that she’d loved him. I used to ask her stuff when I was younger, and she’d change. Get really still, like she might break if she moved. The light in her eyes would go out, and her voice would become hollow. It was like watching the life drain out of her. Needless to say, I stopped asking.”

  She forked up more eggs but had to wash them down with some orange juice in order to swallow them so she placed her utensils aside.

  “Once I was old enough to realize what I was seeing, I knew my father had destroyed her when he left us. Sure, she lived, took amazing care of me, created a wonderful home for me. But for her?” Eva shook her head. “A huge part of her was dead. It’s the main reason I’ve shied away from getting involved with anyone. I didn’t want that to ever happen to me.”

  But now she was very afraid it could.

  Her anger toward him faded that much more when she looked up and saw the sympathy swimming in Gabriel’s eyes. He reached over and squeezed her fingers. “I don’t mean to disregard your mother’s pain, but what about you?”

  “I always thought he left because of me,” she answered honestly. “I thought I ruined things when I was born, and it made me wonder if she regretted having me. I still wonder if she ever looked at me and thought about what her life would have been like if I hadn’t come along. If my father would have stayed. I just…I just wish I knew if I was enough for her.”

  She was absently twisting the ring Gabriel wore on his thumb around and around. He didn’t seem to mind, and it was soothing, so she kept at it.

  “I know that’s my grief talking. Or that’s what my counselor at school said. She also said that second-guessing the decisions I’ve made over the past couple of years will pass. Because, naturally, I wish I’d stayed in Seattle and not gone to New York at all. Then I wouldn’t have missed these final years together. I mean, who knew we didn’t have the rest of our lives.”

  “Eva—”

  “I know.” She waved her hand and refused to meet his eyes. “But if I’d been here, we’d have been somewhere together that day and she wouldn’t have been killed.” Or, for all Eva knew, she might have died that day, too.

  “Or you could have been at school or at work or out with Nika and it would have happened anyway.”

  She glared at him, annoyed by his reasonable tone.

  He glared back. “And Vasily never left because of you—he left for you. Because he thought it would keep you both safe.”

  She swallowed the knot that formed in her throat.

  “All it takes is to hear him talk about you one time to be convinced of his love for you.” He leaned in. “Are you hearing me?”

  She nodded and felt the broken part of her heart that belonged to her father begin the long journey of healing.

  “He deserves huge props for such a sacrifice.” He let out a rough laugh as he ran his thumb over her knuckles in a smooth circle. “Alek did the same thing last year—ended a year-long relationship with the love of his life to keep her safe from a mole in Vasily’s organization. Poor guy’s still struggling.”

  Could a man who loved his friends so deeply be that bad?

  “The point here is you were a goddamn gift to both Vasily and Kathryn. And, despite what you just told me, you’ll never convince me that your existence didn’t save your mother’s life. I have no doubt in my mind that you gave her more joy and comfort, especially with the strength of your love for her, than any man ever could have. Even your father.”

  With her defenses swiftly crumbling, Eva intertwined her fingers with his and gave him her first real smile since finding out he’d lied to her about being her boss. She was getting to know him well enough to know he didn’t make impassioned speeches unless he meant them.

  “Thank you for that. I guess talking about this was a good idea,” she admitted.

  “Of course it was,” he agreed arrogantly.

  “I’ll have to keep working on rewiring my brain to think of my father as a good man instead of the immature jackass I’ve made him out to be all these years.”

  “You do that. Because he is one of the best men I know. He’s protective, loyal to a fault when it comes to the people he loves. And is man enough to show it. Embarrasses all of us with his easy affection.”

  She sat back in her chair. “How?”

  “Smacking kisses to our red faces every time he sees us.” He flashed a crooked smile, as though picturing what he was saying, and poured himself more coffee. He held the carafe over her cup and she nodded. “Uses it being a Russian custom as an excuse. Vincente has the hardest time with it—his family was the opposite of Alek’s with showing emotion, kind of like mine—which is why your father makes V’s greeting louder and longer-lasting than any of ours. He has a dry sense of humor, is generous, but not ostentatious about it. His support, in certain things, is always anonymous. Last year he financed some sort of rebuild in his hometown of Noginsk, on the outskirts of Moscow. Refused to put his name anywhere. Made Maksim wire gobs of money through an untraceable account to make sure no accolades came his way.”

  Affection and respect rang clear in Gabriel’s voice, and, even though it was ridiculous, a feeling of resentment had her wrinkling her nose. “I’m sorry, but speaking of selfish, I’m jealous that you know him so well,” she said as she took a drink from her warmed-up coffee.

  “Oh, sweetheart…” He reached up and gently tugged a lock of her hair. “You’ll have your chance. I don’t think there’s anything he’d want more than to have you in his life. And don’t think he had any choice in getting to know me. All it took was a time or two that Alek invited me and Vincente to come hang out—after that we just showed up on our own. Anything was better than our places.”

  “Why?”

  He shrugged and got up to go out into the main room. Coming back with his phone, he placed it next to his plate, facedown. Always facedown, she noticed.

  “V’s old man was a flashy asshole who left V to raise his little sister on his own after his mom died. Fuckin’ guy wasn’t even in high school yet, for chrissakes. And in my case, Stefano never hid the fact that he couldn’t stand me, for reasons I’m still not aware of. Even when we were kids, he always looked at me like…” He thought for a second and then shrugged. His knee connected with hers under the table. She didn’t move, and neither did he. “Like he hated my guts. I get why he does now, but back then, it never made sense to me. You’re his fourth target in this eye-for-an-eye thing, by the way. He already took the lives of three women I was involved with.”

  Eva put her cup down and tried like hell not to show she was sickened by thoughts of him with those other women. It was awful that they’d been killed, yes, but the idea of him having a relationship with them… Three of them. Having sex. The way he had with her.

  Ice trailed down her spine, making her teeth scrape together. He certainly hadn’t been lonely.

  “Anyway,” he said, oblivious to her experiencing her first bout of jealousy. “The point I was trying to ma
ke was that my brother made being home miserable and I took advantage of any opportunity to be anywhere else. And not only him, but my father. ‘My responsibility’ was all I ever heard about.” His lip curled. “Couldn’t sneeze without him asking if that’s the way a Don would do it. He was a pro at reminding me that leading the family was all I was good for.”

  Compassion for the young boy he’d been eased her further down the path of understanding. And forgiveness. No, she wasn’t forgetting that he’d done some shitty things, but he hadn’t done them not out of spite. In his own way, he’d always had her best interests at heart. She saw that now, and it touched her.

  Leaning over the corner of the table, she finally gave in and kissed this complex man who was becoming harder and harder to resist.

  † † †

  Fuck. Yes.

  This was it. This was what he’d been waiting for. What he needed.

  Eva giving in. Coming to him.

  His body reacted instantly, his physical hunger fighting to take over. His blood roared, his hands itched to haul her into his lap. But he pulled back on the reins and forced himself to take this for what it was. Comfort. She was affected by what he’d shared. And he had to respect that by not taking advantage.

  But that wasn’t to say he couldn’t enjoy the fuck out of her soft heart. He did so by parting her lips and deepening the kiss. When her tongue met his, the sound of enjoyment she made had him reaching for her.

  The hard knock that landed on the suite’s outer door fucked him before he even touched her.

  She pulled back with bright eyes and a soft smile. “Shoot,” she whispered.

  “I will. Whoever’s out there,” he promised.

  She laughed in a surprised burst.

  He’d been serious.

  Another knock sounded and she sobered as apprehension crept onto her face. “Are you expecting someone?”

  He sighed. She didn’t need this shit in her life. “It’ll be Alek. Maybe Jak. Quan would knock more politely.”