Viktor’s face softened. The harsh lines disappearing, revealing the handsome man he kept hidden behind a facade of indifference. “The man you’re looking for is an illusion, Iz,” he said with almost a pang of regret. “Stripped down . . . this is me.”
“No.” She gently brought a hand up to Viktor’s face. “There’s much more to you.”
“Marissa,” Viktor warned, his face shuttering into cold planes again.
“Goddamn it, Viktor. Try,” Marissa snapped. “Or I’m not doing this with you anymore. And you’re not ordering me around like some damned flunky. You were out of line, and you know it.”
“I was pissed,” Viktor bit out, his arms coming around her, pinning her to the length of his body. He lowered his head and muttered, “Thinking of someone else inside you—” His eyes turned murderous. “Makes me want to kill him and fuck you.”
Marissa’s heart rate skittered, her skin tingling with sensual awareness as she pulsated between her legs.
“I haven’t slept with Brian, or any man, in six months,” she squeaked, a tad breathless.
Realization dawned on Viktor’s face, which made Marissa wary. He was pleased about something.
“Great, we’re good to go then,” Viktor murmured, his mouth brushed the corner of her lips.
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“Your last check-up was three months ago, and you were clean.” The blond devil pulled back slightly and shrugged.
“How?” she sputtered. Why would she even ask? Viktor had no problem with blatant invasion of privacy.
Viktor’s blue eyes darkened with lust and were the last thing she saw before his lips claimed hers in an urgent, demanding kiss. His tongue delved deep inside her mouth. An arm braced her front closer while his hand drifted to her ass and hauled her into him, plastering them together tightly. It seemed impossible to pull them apart. The heat between them ignited with Marissa returning his kisses feverishly, wanting to strip him bare and feel his skin over the ripples of muscle. Her sex flushed with arousal as his swelling hardness rubbed against her.
Something vibrated between them.
Marissa tried to pull away.
“Ignore it.” His voice was ragged. “I need to fuck you.”
“It could be important.”
Cursing, Viktor reluctantly set her from him and answered his phone.
“Yeah.”
He listened for a beat. His lips were set in a grim line at first, but they gradually curved into a faint smile. “She did, did she? . . . I’m not expecting anything different from you, McCord, but I agree. Maia comes first . . . good . . . tell her we’ll be there in an hour.”
Ending the call, Viktor looked at her.
“We?” Marissa asked.
“Sweetheart, I may have been an ass earlier, and I apologize. But nothing has changed,” Viktor told her. “You’ve got half an hour—” he leaned in until his mouth was a breath from hers. “—to pack your shit.”
*****
Viktor glanced surreptitiously at the woman beside him. They were on their way to see Maia, riding in the elevator that would take them to the wing of private rooms where Jack had Maia ensconced.
He chewed on his lower lip to prevent the grin of triumph from breaking through. Although it stung that Marissa had castigated him for his less than stellar behavior in handling Jack, she at least agreed that having them watch each other’s back was a prudent suggestion, particularly given that Harry Matthews had a questionable demise. Marissa wasn’t the idealistic black ops agent of eight years ago. There was a confidence and stubbornness that wasn’t in her before, and her uncanny ability to push his buttons grated on him. It also excited him.
The elevator doors slid open. The VIP wing at New Park Medical was expensively appointed in a sleek contemporary style. The nurses’ station was a sweeping half circle of cold efficiency punctuated with state-of-the-art technology.
Viktor nodded to the head nurse who was eyeing him suspiciously. Marissa tried to walk ahead of him, but he grabbed her hand, pulling her beside him. She raised a brow, but there was a smile playing on her lips. Yeah, he was turning into a sap, but he liked holding her hand, and he didn’t give a damn who looked at him strangely—for example—Kane Taylor, who stood outside room 602—Maia’s room.
Kane Taylor was a contractor who frequently worked bodyguard duty for the McCord family. Obviously, Jack wasn’t taking any chances when it came to his wife. Viktor would have offered some of their agents, but he and Jack were barely civil to each other.
“Taylor.”
“Baran.” The other man glanced curiously at Marissa.
Marissa pulled her hand out of Viktor’s grasp—much to his irritation—and extended it to Taylor.
“I’m Marissa Cole.”
“Kane Taylor, ma’am.”
Viktor pointedly grabbed her hand back and rapped on the door. Jack’s voice invited them in.
He tried hard not to react to Jack and Maia’s shocked faces when their gazes fell upon their intertwined fingers.
Maia spoke first. “Have we jumped the time-space continuum and pigs started flying?”
Marissa blushed beet red.
Viktor ignored Maia’s smart-ass remark and bent down to kiss her. “How are you feeling, Katerina?”
“Better,” Maia said. “I certainly can’t wait to get back into the action.”
“Babe—” Jack started with a scowl.
“Jack, you honestly believe I’d let someone do this to you and get away with it?” Maia said, her eyes flashing angrily.
“You’ll be back in the thick of things in no time,” Viktor said.
“Damn it, Viktor,” Jack snapped. “Don’t make me throw you out.”
Marissa squeezed Viktor’s hand.
“All right,” Viktor said. “Truce.”
Jack was struck speechless. Maia’s overprotective husband was all prepared to spar words with him and was blindsided by his unnatural acquiescence. Viktor paused and wondered why he was reining in his acerbic tongue. Was he trying to prove something to Marissa? And if he was, why in the fuck was he? Shit. That was troubling.
Maia was grinning as she looked at Marissa. “I think I like you in Viktor’s life.”
“Ah . . . I think you’re getting the wrong idea,” Marissa said awkwardly, trying to pull her hand away from Viktor again, and this time he let her.
Maia stared at her dubiously. “Uh-huh.” She shifted her gaze to Viktor. “So fill me in. How in the hell did I get out of there alive?”
Jack moved closer to his wife’s bed, intent to listen to what Viktor had to say.
“The CIA had reason to believe that someone is hell-bent on revenge against the Guardians.”
“Yes, Jack filled me in on the cache of information found in Syria. But what is Grave Digger?”
“Grave Digger is a team of operatives that are tasked with extracting any injured agents targeted for assassination and getting them immediate medical care while leaving the impression that they died. Fortunately, France has an active team at the Paris CIA station.”
“So, I’m dead to whoever wanted to kill me?” Maia asked.
“For now. With Jack’s rescue, I’m sure they’re keeping an eye out at MDI and your apartment.”
“I’ve got Derek installing extra security cameras around the Trident building and my apartment. I’ve also got some of Taylor’s men on twenty-four-hour surveillance rotation,” Jack added.
Viktor nodded briefly in satisfaction.
“Tim added several layers of encryption to our agent NOC database,” Viktor added. “I have a feeling that’s what our enemies are after. They’ve also been targeting CIA.”
“What’s their end game?” Maia asked, concerned.
“No fucking clue,” Viktor replied. “Anything else you remember, Jack?”
Jack shook his head. “All they wanted were the codes.”
Someone’s phone buzzed. Marissa’s.
She loo
ked up apologetically, stared at the number, frowned, and turned it off.
“I have to return a call. I’ll be back.”
Viktor’s nape prickled, but he shrugged it off. He was being paranoid because he’d just gotten Marissa back.
“Anyone want coffee when I return?”
Maia and Jack shook their heads.
“I’ll take one, Iz,” Viktor said.
She smiled at him. “Black, right?”
He nodded, his breath hitching as he stared into her sparkling green eyes.
He was in trouble.
*****
Marissa shivered as she stepped out of the sliding doors into a frigid evening punctuated with below zero wind chills. Winter was making a last stand, and after the warming trend over the past few days, the polar vortex returned with a vengeance.
The VIP wing was adjacent to the medical offices, and today being a Saturday and 10:00 p.m., there was virtually no activity outside this side of the hospital. Street lamps cast a sinister glow over the parking lot. A slither of unease crept up Marissa’s spine.
She warily assessed her surroundings. There were too many dark corners. Not the kind of environment a spook wanted to find herself in if she wasn’t the one in the shadows.
Allison better have a good reason for calling her. She pressed “Call Back” on her phone.
“Marissa?” Allison’s voice sounded surprised and Marissa’s gut was immediately gripped with a sense of foreboding. “Why are you calling?”
Footsteps rushed up from behind her.
Without thinking twice, Marissa spun around in time to ram her elbow into an assailant’s masked face. The man cursed violently and staggered back. Another came at her with a stun gun. Marissa bounced on the balls of her feet, arms cocked in front of her at the ready. Gauging the distance between them, she spun a roundhouse kick to knock the stun gun away.
But she realized there was one assailant too many as bulky arms grabbed her from behind. She stamped on her attacker’s instep, but the man must have been wearing boots of steel because he barely grunted.
She bent forward to crack her head against the guy’s face when he suddenly let her go, shoving her away from him.
Stumbling forward, she was gripped by the excruciating pain of her muscles spasming. Dark spots danced in front of her just as her knees buckled and then there was nothing.
*****
Marissa had been barely gone five minutes before Viktor decided to go after her. The sensation that something wasn’t right wouldn’t go away. Years on the job had honed that instinct into a sharp edge and he wasn’t ignoring it, especially when his woman was involved.
What he successfully ignored though, was the smirk on Jack’s face when he informed them that he needed to step out and check on something. McCord knew he was going after Marissa.
He tried to calm his racing pulse as he reached the ground floor and turned toward the exit. And that’s when he saw it. The scene of Marissa fighting off three masked men and finally falling down in a heap, sent a blast of rage coursing through his veins. Son of a bitch, did that bastard stab her?
Bursting through the sliding doors, gun at the ready, he fired two shots at the startled assailant, hitting him right between the eyes. Viktor never missed. Seeing their comrade’s head blown off, the remaining hostiles beat back a hasty retreat.
Viktor didn’t bother chasing after them as he dropped to his knees beside Marissa, who was slowly coming around.
The sound of gunfire had drawn a circle of people around them. The sight of a body, sprawled on the ground with a dark pool forming from the head, elicited more than a few gasps and shrieks. But Viktor focused on Marissa.
“Iz? Can you hear me?”
One hand checked her body methodically for any signs of blood and injuries while the other whipped out his phone to warn Jack and Maia.
“Jack, Marissa’s been attacked,” Viktor said.
“Is she all right?” Jack exclaimed.
Not answering his question, because he didn’t know himself, Viktor said, “You and Taylor keep an eye out. I’ve got a dead body to process.”
He called Lance Henderson next, all the while keeping a wary eye on the crowd of onlookers.
“Are you at New Park Medical?” Viktor asked abruptly.
“Yes. What’s up?”
“Good, I want you to process a dead body for me . . . West entrance.”
His gaze returned to Marissa when a low moan escaped her lips.
“You can stop feeling me up,” Marissa said as he ended the call. “They stun gunned me. No biggie.”
He helped her sit up. She winced when she saw the expression on his face. “Seriously, Viktor, I’m fine.”
“It was stupid to leave the hospital,” he snapped. “You were a target, damn it. If I hadn’t come after you—”
“But you did,” Marissa reached out and touched his face. “I’m still here, Viktor.”
He shut his mouth, but he had an overwhelming desire to throttle her. He was starting to unravel and he didn’t like it one bit. He rose wordlessly and helped her to her feet.
Dr. Henderson showed up with two orderlies who were cleared to work with AGS.
“You got this, Henderson?”
The doctor nodded.
“Aren’t you guys supposed to wait for the cops?” A hospital staffer pushed through the gathering crowd.
Viktor cursed and stalked over to the man who had the gall to interfere.
“Mind your own fucking business,” Viktor snarled at the staffer who cowered back when he came at him.
“Viktor!”
His gaze shifted back to Marissa.
“You fine?” he asked coldly.
Marissa nodded, frowning.
“Good.”
He left her standing where she was and walked back to the hospital.
“Asshole,” Marissa muttered behind him.
Viktor stopped, stared at his feet, and exhaled deeply. Shit. What am I doing?
He waited for Marissa to catch up to him, put an arm around her, and kissed the top of her head.
*****
“I’ll try better, Iz,” Viktor murmured into her hair, his arm tightening around her. Marissa was annoyed when Viktor just turned around and left her, not knowing what ticked him off.
“So what set you off, big guy?” Marissa asked. “It couldn’t be me yelling at you to stop intimidating the hospital staff. You’d hate to be banned from the premises, wouldn’t you?”
“I didn’t handle seeing you hurt very well,” Viktor admitted.
“And your answer is to up and abandon me?” Marissa asked incredulously.
“I did not abandon you.” His voice was tight. “You were right behind me.”
Marissa nodded, deciding not to back him into a corner. Yet. She knew he was struggling to make it work between them. Whatever the “it” was. He seemed content to go with the flow. Unfortunately, the flow got interrupted unexpectedly and put him in an unfamiliar situation. She saw a mixture of fear and worry in his eyes, and knowing Viktor, he hated feeling vulnerable.
Did he feel…?
She shook those thoughts from her head. Keeping her hopes up that Viktor might actually fall in love was like waiting for China to embrace democracy.
His arm slid from her shoulder, his hand rubbing her back lingeringly before finding its way to link his fingers again with hers.
“What’s with the hand holding?” Marissa teased.
Viktor glanced at her playfully. Her breath caught. He looked boyish, and boyish was not a word used to describe him. Ever.
He raised their linked hands as they entered the elevator.
“I’m trying it on for size,” Viktor answered her. “I’m finding I like it.”
“Who are you and what have you done with Viktor?”
He did his version of an eye-roll, which was a subtle movement of his eyes.
“Shut up, Marissa.”
CHAPTER FIVE
Rafiq Shadid watched the gyrations of the stripper before him. He hated to keep up the pretense of a perverted young sheik. Women were the last thing on his mind. He wanted revenge for his family. Every last one of them must die or suffer. He flicked his wrist and checked his watch impatiently. His men should have returned by now. They finally had a fix on their other target, who he now knew as CIA operative Marissa Cole. He thought she was his friend, and she had betrayed him. But she wasn’t the one who pulled the trigger that murdered his mother. Viktor Baran had received the very first taste of his revenge—the killing of Maia Pierce by an associate in Paris.
There was a knock on the private room’s door.
“Enter,” Rafiq said, and ordered the stripper to leave. His men walked in—one of them was missing.
“The man Viktor Baran was at the woman’s place,” his man answered nervously. “We followed them to a hospital.”
“A hospital?”
“Yes,” his man said. “We did as you told us, used the phone provided by Matthews to call her. She came outside, but immediately grew suspicious.” They related the rest of what happened.
“You. Ran,” Rafiq said slowly. He probably shouldn’t have told his men tales about Baran’s ruthlessness. “You men are imbeciles. Find Ali. I’m not paying him to have sex with women.”
He should have taken care of Cole himself, but he wanted to test the mettle of his new recruits. But more importantly: who were Baran and Cole visiting in the hospital?
McCord? The man should have recovered by now. They couldn’t break him. For three weeks, Rafiq had held him, and he couldn’t get the codes he needed. They hadn’t wanted to damage him too much because he was too valuable as leverage. Rafiq was bothered by how AGS was able to locate Jack McCord.
“You wanted me, boss?” Ali entered the room.
“We’re a man down.”
“Yes, your men told me.”
“I’m turning over the information Matthews gave me to you,” Rafiq said. “I want you to start eliminating every person on that list. The CIA and AGS probably know we’re behind their deaths, but it’s time to step out from the shadows. I want you to send them a strong message.”
Smoke and Shadows Page 6