Gregory lifted an ornament from the pile. On it was a picture of a Christmas tree. “This one is for you, Cody, because Santa brought you a special tree.”
“Wow, Gregory. That’s the nicest gift I’ve ever been given,” Cody said.
Her son certainly enjoyed Cody’s company and seemed to look up to him, even after such a short time. She also knew that Gregory needed the attention and guidance of a good man—despite what he said—someone like Cody Samuels. Warmth filled Viktoria’s heart and at the same time, it left her adrift with no place to moor. She prayed for word soon that Peter Belkin had been taken into custody. Until this nightmare was over, Viktoria couldn’t truly relax.
She moved to the living room and sat on the sofa. Cody and Gregory were busy trimming the tree. Paperclips had been fashioned into hooks that held ornaments, which now hung from various branches.
“What do you think?” Gregory asked with a smile.
“That,” said Viktoria, “is the most beautifully decorated tree I have ever seen.”
“That’s a pretty big compliment,” said Cody.
“It’s well deserved.”
Gregory moved to Viktoria’s side on the sofa. He leaned into her and she wrapped her arms around his shoulders.
“Can we decorate cookies now?” he asked with a yawn.
Even from where she sat, the clock above the stove was easily seen—11:30 a.m. “The cookies need time to cool. Let’s have some lunch, get you down for a nap and then when you wake up, we can take care of the cookies.”
Gregory agreed with a sleepy nod. She wondered how much of the drug Peter Belkin had given Gregory was still in her son’s system. Because the Mateevs wanted Gregory so badly she doubted that he’d been given anything toxic. Still, as a mother she was worried.
The Mateevs. Like a snake eating its own tail, her thoughts returned to the real problem.
As much as Viktoria was enjoying her cozy Christmas Eve with Cody, she couldn’t ignore the reason they were stranded with him in the first place. They still hadn’t gotten any word about Peter Belkin. That made her extremely uneasy and until she was exonerated, she would continue to worry. Cody said he’d investigated the Mateev family. He must know so much more than she about them and what they were capable of. Once Gregory was asleep, Viktoria and Cody could compare notes about her in-laws and find a way to get Nikolai Mateev out of her life for good, or better yet—behind bars.
* * *
With Gregory settled down for his nap, Cody retrieved the second box of evidence that he’d collected from the CI, along with work he did after leaving the DEA. He set it on the table in front of Viktoria, next to the first. He swiped a hand across the top, collecting a thin layer of dirt before wiping his palm on the seat of his pants. “This is everything I have on the Mateev family.”
Viktoria leaned forward, her elbows on the table. “That’s quite a case file,” she said. “You must know everything about them.”
He did...and yet, the first thing he didn’t know was what she knew. Viktoria claimed to have only met Nikolai once at her husband’s funeral, and knew nothing else about the family beyond that they were rich and ruthless. At the same time, her story could also be nothing more than an act and a long list of lies. He decided on giving full disclosure, if only to gauge her reaction.
“There’s a heroin-trafficking ring that encompasses much of the mountain west. I learned that it was funded by criminals from Russia, and led by Nikolai Mateev...” His statement trailed off, waiting for her to pick up the thread and give him something.
Viktoria closed her eyes, as if she didn’t want to see the truth. When she opened them, she said, “My husband was raised in Brooklyn by his mother, who died of cancer during his senior year of high school.”
The facts she shared made sense, but nothing was helpful. “Years ago, the Mateev family ran their United States operation out of Brooklyn,” he said, deciding only to give her a brief history, even though he could talk at length. Hell, he knew more about the Mateevs than he did about his own family. “The FBI brought the patriarch up on racketeering charges. He fled the country—taking his son, also a criminal—with him. That son was your father-in-law.”
She paled and her mouth hung open for a moment. “I really had no idea.” She hesitated. “And what happened with your case? Someone else must be investigating them since you left.”
“The DEA wasn’t interested,” Cody said. “They didn’t think that I had enough information.”
“But you have all of this.” She swept her arm out to encompass the two boxes.
“It never made sense to me, either, although I pressed. Maybe too much.”
“And that’s why you left?”
Her supposition wasn’t the entire truth, but close enough to accurate. He shrugged. “Basically.” Another thought came to Cody. Sure, he was a trained investigator, but he couldn’t imagine that Viktoria was without desire to learn more about the Mateev family. “And what about you? You never tried to learn anything about them?”
She shook her head. “Lucas had a maternal aunt and uncle in Brooklyn who were like his parents, so it never felt like he was lacking a family. I did urge him to invite his dad to the wedding. He refused. Same with sending an announcement after Gregory was born.”
“No internet search? Nothing?”
“Before or after they tried to frame me for being a neglectful mother?”
“Both,” Cody said.
“I allowed Lucas to set the level of contact he wanted with his father. Besides, Nikolai was more than half a world away. It’s not like he came up in our daily conversations. So, no, I never wondered beyond what he shared.”
“And after?”
“When I ran, I wanted to drop off the grid—not open up a search engine that would lead Belkin right to me. Or is that just something used in the movies?”
She was smart and her instincts were good. More than once, the Russians had proven adept at using the internet to meet their own evil ends. Which left them with the evidence he had in the two boxes—and what Viktoria knew.
“Lucas must have said something over the years,” Cody coaxed.
“I know for certain that he went to his father in Russia after high school. Things didn’t go well and Lucas returned to the US after a few years.”
“Any idea what happened?”
Viktoria stared off through the picture window as if trying to see beyond the blowing snow. “My former husband was right about his father. In fact, this whole episode is my fault.”
Her fault? His jaw tensed. “How so?” he asked.
“I just assumed that Lucas and Nikolai’s falling out had been over something minor—but then feelings were hurt and both men were too stubborn to apologize—so I called Nikolai and told him about Lucas’s death.” She pressed her thumb to her lips for a moment and then continued. “I did what I thought was right and in doing so invited this man back into our lives.”
Cody pulled out a thick manila file and hesitated. “This is all the information I have on your father-in-law, Nikolai Mateev.” He continued, “After returning to Moscow, Nikolai married again. He and his current wife have several children—all girls.”
Viktoria nodded. “I’m Russian by heritage and I understand how important boys are to their fathers. Very old-school,” she said. “If Nikolai wants to pass his business on to the next generation, his son would be the obvious heir. Except he can’t have Lucas now. That explains the desire to have Gregory in Russia. I guess stealing my son and murdering me to accomplish that isn’t a big deal to a man with his morals.”
Cody opened the file. “Nikolai’s a pretty cagey guy. There are only a few photos. He’s never mentioned by name in any of the wiretaps the FBI has had over the years, but he’s tied into the drug trade all the same.”
He wit
hdrew three black-and-white surveillance pictures of Nikolai Mateev. Two of them showed a balding middle-aged man in a rumpled trench coat next to a dark-colored sedan. The last photo was a close-up of Nikolai lifting a cigarette to his lips. The gray tendril of smoke twisted upward, and the Russian squinted against the haze. His hands were covered in tattoos, as, Cody assumed, was the rest of his body. For the vory v zakone, the thieves in law, each tattoo meant something, a prison where they served, an offense committed. Their body was a codex of crime.
Viktoria reached for the close-up photo. “You know—Nikolai looks nothing like Lucas. My husband had dark hair and eyes. Gregory really is a perfect mix of his father and me.”
Like sludge had been poured in Cody’s veins, he couldn’t help but feel sick with jealousy that Lucas Mateev, the son of a criminal dirt bag, was able to get married and have a kid. Where Cody, always trying to do the right thing, was alone.
“In fact,” Viktoria continued, unaware of Cody’s sudden change in mood, “there’s no resemblance between the two, except for that.” She pointed to a tattoo on Nikolai’s ring finger. Inked into the Russian’s hand was an Orthodox cross with triple bars, which was surrounded by a diamond.
He immediately cast his envy aside and Cody’s heart stilled for a moment. “That tattoo? Your husband had that exact same tattoo?”
Viktoria lifted the picture again. She stared at it for a long moment. “He did,” she said.
Withdrawing a half a dozen other files, Cody removed a close-up picture of different thugs. They all had the same tattoo. He lined the photos up in front of Viktoria.
“Is it,” she asked with a small voice, “a family thing?”
She was a smart woman. She knew better.
“Not exactly.” Cody gave Viktoria a moment to come to her own conclusion.
She pressed her lips together. It was a gesture Cody had come to see as Viktoria’s way of keeping her emotions inside. “This tattoo is something criminal, isn’t it?”
Cody nodded. “It is.”
“Tell me.”
“It’s the initial tattoo for the vory v zakone, or the thieves in law. The tat basically announces to the world that you are a professional criminal and you’ve done time in a Russian prison.”
“One of the men last night mentioned the vory v zakone. At the time, I was too scared to even think about what he might have meant. But...are you saying that my husband served time in a Russian prison?”
Cody didn’t have time for diplomacy. “The tattoo is a clear indication of his involvement in some kind of criminal activity at some point in his life.”
“He was in medical sales,” she said. Her voice caught. “Last year we attended his office Christmas party.” A hint of fresh loss crept into her voice. “I thought I knew him.”
Betrayal was an old friend to Cody and he knew it well—the dizziness, the cut, the burn. He reached for Viktoria’s hand and willed her pain to pass to him.
“He had changed over the last year,” she said, twining her fingers through his. “Moody. Angry. Out all night.” She gave a snort of a laugh. “I thought he was having an affair, but he might have been romancing gangland violence.”
“Or something from his past could have resurfaced and his distance was meant to keep you safe.”
“Either way, it makes two things clear. First, Lucas’s death was no accident.”
“And?” he asked, afraid of what she might say.
“And Gregory is probably in more danger than I ever dreamed.”
* * *
Viktoria sat on the sofa. She wrapped her arms around her chest as she tried to fend off a sudden chill, a coldness that came not from the blowing snow outside but from the icy landscape within her heart. Her husband’s death was no accident, but rather an unsolved murder and the killer was still at large.
“In a way,” she said. The room was too quiet and her words boomed. “In a weird, sick, twisted way, Nikolai Mateev was right to want to take Gregory to Russia. If my husband was a criminal, despised enough to be murdered here in the States, there could be more retributions. Gregory could be a target.”
“You don’t know that,” said Cody.
Anger toward the world flared. She rose to her feet. She paced, as if she could somehow put distance between herself and the truth.
“Listen, we can only look at facts, Viktoria.”
Cody’s words stopped Viktoria’s feet, but her mind still raced.
He continued, “And one fact that I know is that if Gregory went to Russia he would be raised by a criminal and undoubtedly learn the family trade. You don’t want that for your son—he’s too good a kid to be a mobster.”
“But I can’t keep him safe,” Viktoria said, finally daring to enter the deepest and coldest cave of her soul. “What kind of mother am I? I cannot even keep my child out of harm’s way.”
Cody approached her from behind. He placed his hands on her shoulders and rubbed her tense muscles. She pulled away, wanting to hold on to her anger. It gave her a sense of strength. He continued to massage her neck. With a sigh, Viktoria relented and leaned into Cody’s solid chest.
“I will keep you safe,” he said. He leaned forward, his lips grazing her hair, his breath warming her. “As long as I am able. I swear to you. Do you believe me?”
He leaned into her more, until they both supported each other. “Sure.”
His mouth moved to the place where her shoulder and neck met. He kissed her, his lips traveling upward. His tongue flicked over Viktoria’s earlobe and gooseflesh sprang up on her arm. Cody’s hands moved from her shoulders to her breasts. Through the soft fabric of her sweatshirt he found her nipples—already hard—and rolled each of them between his thumb and finger.
She gasped. Arching her back, Viktoria pressed her breasts more fully into his hands.
“You are strong and beautiful and brave and smart,” Cody whispered into her ear. “In a word, perfect.”
The exquisite pleasure he was giving her combined with his words and Viktoria became weak in the knees. Cody held her up, his hands moving to her waist. And then they moved lower.
His touch skimmed under the fabric of her sweatpants. Flesh to flesh, Viktoria’s lust began a slow simmer. Lower still, as he began to explore her body. He traced a circle around the top of her sex and Viktoria moaned. Cody reached farther and slid a finger inside her. He was aroused; she could feel him through the fabric of his jeans.
“Tell me you want me,” he said.
Viktoria had never desired anyone more. “I want you,” she panted, as every inch of her body came alive. “I want you inside me. Now.”
Cody whirled Viktoria around to face him. He placed his hands on her face and kissed her deeply. Carefully, he lowered her to the nearby couch. Viktoria gazed at Cody as he stood above.
He removed his sweater to reveal broad shoulders and tight abs, just as she’d imagined. Better, really. A light sprinkling of hair covered his pecs and surrounded his nipples. It came together at the center of his chest and dove downward to the low-hanging waist of his jeans.
He was a work of art. Yet more than that, she had begun to care for Cody. At the same time, her life was far from simple—and falling for a guy was a complication she did not need. All she did know was that she was with Cody right now and that nothing else mattered.
She gave a quick glance at the clock. Gregory was upstairs and asleep. He shouldn’t wake from his nap for another hour—maybe a little more—giving Viktoria time to be something other than a mom.
He knelt before her and tugged down her pants. Viktoria slipped off her sweatshirt. She wanted his flesh warming her skin as they moved together and became one. He slipped off his pants and let them fall to a heap on the floor. He was hard and Viktoria bit her lip in anticipation of him entering her fully.
Cody slipped his finger inside her again. And then another. He knelt on the sofa, his head between her thighs. His tongue teased and explored. Viktoria’s hips lifted as her pleasure mounted. Cody continued to touch and taste and savor. Her ecstasy expanded, crested and Viktoria cried out with her climax.
Sliding up between her legs, Cody hovered above her. He kissed her—the taste of her pleasure lingered on his lips. He reached for his jeans and removed his wallet from his back pocket. From one of the compartments, he withdrew a foil packet. It was a relief to see that Cody was being responsible for the two of them. When he removed the translucent condom from the packet, Viktoria reached for his hand. “Can I help you with that?”
“Sure,” he said.
Viktoria stroked Cody as she slipped the condom over his length, unrolling it down his shaft.
She scooted back on the sofa and Cody moved above her. He situated himself and slid forward, entering her just a little. He moved in deeper with his second stroke and she rose upward to meet him, taking him inside her all the way.
Cody took in a hissing breath as he filled her. “Perfect,” he said. “You are absolutely perfect.”
In her estimation, it was Cody who was perfection. Handsome, well built—in all ways, brave, honest and smart.
He began to move. She met him slow, languid stroke for slow, languid stroke. Yet, the more he was inside her, the more she wanted. The deeper she needed him. Viktoria wrapped her legs around Cody’s waist and he entered her just a little more. His thrusts became harder, stronger. Viktoria cried out with pleasure as she met the tempo he set.
Cody reached for the top of her sex. He barely touched her, manipulating her flesh with the slightest pressure and another orgasm crashed down upon her. It was like being drowned in pleasure, every part of her submerged, unable to breathe and so very aware of her physical body and yet not entirely within herself. Yet, she was not alone in the depths, Cody was with her and taken away by the same current.
His body. Her body. One.
As she surfaced, her heart racing, her pulse resounded in the base of her skull. Cody thrust again and again. Rearing his head back, he came. He collapsed atop Viktoria, his body slick with sweat. She pushed back a wayward lock of his dark hair.
Her Rocky Mountain Hero (Rocky Mountain Justice Book 1) Page 12