She nodded without making eye contact and replied softly. “It’s okay. I understand. You must do as you are told. I’ll fix you both something.” Then, with some hesitation, she whispered shyly, “I…I will leave my door unlocked tonight. You can slip in after the others have gone to bed.”
Dmitriy’s hand covered and held hers. Softly lifting her chin with his other hand, he urged her to meet his eyes. “Are you sure?” Stunned, all Dmitriy can do was stare into her eyes. He had waited so long for that, for those words. Tatiana nodded, her answer a soft smile. His heart soared as he eased forward and kissed her gently on the lips.
“I have to go. He is waiting for me. I will come to you later.” He gently squeezed her hand as he moved away.
Tatiana’s tenderness had taken some of the pain and discomfort from the beating, but Dmitriy’s mind still swirled with anger over the treatment he’d received from his uncle and that bastard, Sergei. More than ever, he was unsure whether he would ever earn his uncle’s approval, or if all his effort and dedication could ever compete with Sergei’s status within the Glazov.
Tatiana had been the reason he had accepted the job in Russia and the only motivation to further his cause and stay within his uncle’s good graces. Dmitriy would do anything he could to remain at the mansion and continue his pursuit of Tatiana’s love.
His hope was to wear her down and convince her to marry him. Once she agreed, they would move to Moscow and start afresh. Approaching the guest room to take on his babysitting duties, he was again filled with rage over Sergei’s treatment of him. One day he would show Sergei that brains were better than brawn.
Chapter Forty
No Fucking Way!
CASSANDRA’S DOCTOR HAD BEEN AS nice as she had built her up to be. Dr. O’Malley was a five-foot, four-inch ball of fire with flaming red hair, startling green eyes, a dusting of freckles across her nose, and a feisty personality to match. Her wide friendly smile was engaging and made Jessica feel comfortable right away. The day before, Dr. O’Malley had put her through every imaginable exam under the sun, and some that Jessica hadn’t even heard of. Holy Moses, the woman was an efficient tyrant. No wonder Cassandra loved her so much.
Jessica cursed. She needed to move her butt if she wanted to make her appointment to go over the results in time. She hated having to leave the warm, cozy cocoon of her bed so early, but it was the only time available on such short notice. She rolled out of her comfortable position, grumbling for having promised Cassandra she would take better care of herself. Once dressed, she grabbed her purse and jacket and headed out the door.
*****
No fucking way! Jessica’s mind screamed and swirled with information she couldn’t quite seem to comprehend. Her ears were hot and her heart raced a mile a minute as she piled into her car. On the way home, her eyes kept straying to the paper bag and envelope on the passenger seat, and her heart did a somersault in her chest each time.
Pulling up to the curb, Jessica cut the engine and dropped her head on the steering wheel. No fucking way! She squeezed her eyes tightly and tried to breathe without hyperventilating. “Pull it together!” she murmured as she grabbed the things off the seat and walked on rubbery legs into the lonely house.
*****
Jessica was tearing a path through the rug in Cassandra’s living room as she paced back and forth, trying to wrap her head around what had just happened. She squeezed her eyes shut, blinking to clear the film of denial that coated them, and ran her fingers through her hair in agitation. She couldn’t wait until later to talk to Cassandra. She needed to hear her friend’s reassurances to keep her sanity in check.
Sitting at the dining room table, Jessica pulled the laptop closer and opened chat.
Cassie, let me know when you can talk.
Hold on! Give me a second. Cassandra’s text was quick. Shortly after, a video chat request came through.
“Hey, Cassie.”
“Jessie, we’ll have to make it quick. I’m in the middle of something.” Concern flooded Cassandra’s eyes. “You look kind of pale. What happened? What did the doctor say?! Oh god, I poisoned you didn’t I? How long does it take to get sick off bad food? Was it the paella? Geez! That was a month ago. Did I leave something else in the fridge?
Jessica couldn’t help but laugh. “I wish.”
Cassandra’s eyes sharpened. “Wish what? Bad paella poisoning?”
Jessica sighed. “Yes.”
“Jessica Marie Forrester. You better start making sense, woman, or I’m shipping your ass back to the States!”
“I’m pregnant.”
“I mean, I should have cleaned out the refrigerator before I left,” Cassandra continued as Jessica waited for her friend’s brain to catch up with her ears. “Lord knows how long some of the veggies have been there. Leftovers, too—” Understanding flooded Cassandra’s eyes and her mouth dropped open. She stared at Jessica as if she too were struggling with the news. “Holy shit!”
“I don’t understand how this happened.”
Cassandra shot a droll look at Jessica. “Part A inserts into part B—”
“Shut up, Cassandra. This isn’t a joking matter,” Jessica berated her.
“I know! I know! I’m just trying to understand. I mean these things happen. Not often…but they do.”
“We were careful. Always used protect—” A shocked look snapped into place across Jessica’s face. “Oh my god. The office—”
Cassandra’s eyebrows rose. “Office? What office? My office? Eww, Jessica.” Jessica narrowed her eyes at Cassandra and her mouth snapped shut. “Sorry, Jessie. Just a little overwhelmed at the moment. Mouth taking over and foot joining it.”
“I don’t know what to do.” Jessica’s voice trembled with each word.
Her friend eyed her. “Okay. So we are pretty sure you’re pregnant. You told me you love Stephan. You still do, right?” Jessica nodded. “Okay. ‘Nough said. You have to tell him.” Jessica gave Cassandra a sour look. “Don’t look at me like that. You have to. It’s only fair to him. He deserves to know.”
“You didn’t see his face, Cassie.” Jessica’s voice hitched. “He was over me. If I tell him now, he’ll think I was trying to trap him. I made it no secret that I wanted him for ever after. He’ll hate me.”
Cassandra’s eyes turned from the video call and a frown creased her brow. “Shit. I have to go. Look at me, Missy.” Cassandra snared her eyes. “You need to think about this very carefully. I’m like your older sister, and, as such, I would never guide you wrong. I say you have to tell him. Tell him. No matter what, he deserves to know. We should be out of here in a couple of days, I hope. When I get there, we’ll figure out the fallout. Do not do anything crazy, okay? Promise me.”
Cassandra held her gaze until Jessica nodded in agreement. “Okay then. Gotta go. It’ll be okay. Hey! Does that mean I’m an auntie?” Jessica rolled her eyes at Cassandra’s excited tone. “Damn…that foot just won’t get out of the way. Bye.”
When the connection cut off, Jessica chuckled and shook her head at the force of nature that was her friend. Leave it to Cassandra to spell it as it was. To make her laugh even when she felt like she could splinter into a thousand pieces with just the hint of a breeze. She was glad that she had been able to get the whole Stephan thing off her chest and share the news.
Jessica switched the lights off and, on her way to her room, panic set in again. Her heart hammered against her ribs and her legs grew wobbly. She stumbled through the door and plopped on the edge of the bed, dropping her head between her knees. She was pregnant with the man of her dream’s child. And that scared her more than anything ever had before. She hadn’t looked at another man since she had set eyes on Stephan all those months ago. That had not been his reality.
Joy and anguish warred in her chest and wreaked havoc in her head. A sob caught in her throat as she sat up and pulled the prenatal vitamins from the bag lying on her bed. Staring blindly at the little plastic bottle, her mind reeled.
How could this have happened to her? To them? Should she even tell him, like Cassandra had advised? Would he believe her, or think it was a trick to get him back? Above all, would he be happy? She’d seen the look on his face that day in the restaurant. He didn’t want a family. In that moment, she’d never felt more alone in her life.
Chapter Forty-One
Courtesy Visit
PAVEL ZAREV WAS STANDING BY the window looking out over St. Petersburg when he heard a knock on the door. Turning to face it, he called out in a curt demand, “Come in.”
Vitaly Karyshev, his right-hand man and longtime friend, walked into the office, a serious expression on his face. “Edik has traced the withdrawal. The money was deposited into another account in the same bank.”
Pavel had fumed over the hack discovered by one of his accountants during a routine money transfer he had requested be made to an associate’s account. “Good. Then tell him to return it to mine—with interest. Did he find out who took it?” Fury leached into Pavel’s voice. “I will show whoever did this they cannot steal from Pavel Zarev and live. It is like prison all over again.” Vitaly nodded in agreement.
Pavel continued with his musings out loud. “Suppose someone in prison told you to fuck off and people around you heard it. You would have no choice but to pull a knife and cut into the bastard, otherwise you would lose respect. In prison, anyone with self-respect would respond to such words with retaliation, deeds. I want who did this dead. Planted in the woods,” Pavel ordered coldly.
Vitaly dipped his head in understanding. “Edik was able to pull a name for the other account.”
Pavel raised an eyebrow, waiting for his henchman to spit out the name.
Vitaly appeared to hesitate. He eyed Pavel warily and then finally blurted, “Mikhailov.”
“Son of a bitch!” Zarev pounded on his desk with closed fists, his eyes darted with anger. “He is dead!”
“There is more. The money—it is no longer there. They moved it somewhere. We have no way to pull it back from the account.”
Vitaly’s words fueled Pavel’s anger. Heat suffused his face. He slammed his fist on the desk again, sending the items dancing across the wooden surface. “If Mikhailov thinks he is getting out of this alive, he is wrong! Nobody messes with me and lives to brag about it!”
This was not a question of pride anymore. It was survival of the fittest. Pavel knew that if he accepted the theft without retaliation, it would be the end for him. Fights between gangs in Russia came down to more than money. It was all about defending their honor, reputation, power, and territory. Accepting such an offense showed weakness, an open invitation for other gangs to try the same: his organization would become the prey.
“Gather the others. Tell them to arm themselves with as much ammunition as they can carry. Load the cars.” Pavel paused, mentally planning their course of action, and added, “Call in whoever you can. Instruct them to meet us at Mikhailov’s mansion. He is about to be paid a courtesy visit.”
Chapter Forty-Two
Clusterfuck
TREVOR’S THREE DAYS WERE UP. He had to deliver the damn decrypter by the end of that day or shit would hit the fan. He wasn’t concerned about handing the finished product to Mikhailov. The program would literally implode and self-destruct like the message in a Mission Impossible movie once he added the Trojan virus to it. Sometime after he demonstrated the decrypter’s capabilities and before he left the mansion, he would find a way to slip the code in and recompile it. For now, his concerns focused solely on the destruction of the data stored on the mainframe and backup.
Without that crucial step, his effort to inject the virus in the software would be for nothing. Mikhailov would still have the source files and could easily hire someone else to finish the job. If, and only if, he could find someone skilled enough to handle the code. The time he had spent in that hole away from Cassandra would be in vain if he didn’t accomplish that one crucial task. The completion of the job and retrieval of his father’s notes in Prague depended on its full success.
The clacking of keys against the door indicated his new friend had arrived to release him. Dmitriy was later than usual, and Trevor was chafing, eager to get away from the small room. When the door opened, a roughed-up Dmitriy stood just outside. The left side of his face was swollen and bruised, his left eye a mere slit, the damage clearly caused by a well-aimed fist. He avoided Trevor’s gaze as he dabbed a handkerchief against his bloodied nose.
“What the fuck, man?!” Dmitriy, who appeared flustered and embarrassed, like a child who had been spanked in front of friends, ignored his startled comment. Trevor watched him closely as they walked to the mainframe room. He was puzzled, but, not wanting to embarrass Dmitriy further, held his tongue in check. Trevor would probe him later to find out who had used him as a punching bag and why.
Once the door clicked locked behind them and they reached the subterranean room, Trevor headed straight to his usual workstation and continued with his charade, initiating the sequence of commands to open the programming tool and subsequently the decrypter files. Dmitriy moved to his own computer and sat quietly, dabbing at his bloody nose.
Trevor glanced over at Dmitriy. Impatient to find out what exactly had happened to him, Trevor broke the silence. “If it’s a new fashion statement you’re going for, you missed the boat on that one.” He had hoped his smart-ass remark would bait him, drag him out of his shell. When Dmitriy didn’t bite, he shrugged. Unable to ignore the ticking of the clock, Trevor returned his attention to figuring out how to accomplish the last part of his job.
*****
Time was teasing and slowly driving Cassandra mad. The knowledge that Trevor didn’t have much time left was unnerving. Her confidence in his ability to complete the task and get out of the shark tank alive, once rock solid, was now cracked and chipped at the edges. It had been a while since Trevor’s last broadcast. Once he’d disappeared into the hole, she’d double-checked everything. Cassandra caught sight of the corner of the airline tickets peeking out from under her notebook and remembered that she needed to change their flights, since they were leaving later than expected. The penalty fee would be a bitch, but more than worth it to leave Russia and the mafia behind.
Cassandra finished clearing out the last of their belongings and returned to her laptop just as the incoming chat window alert flashed on the screen. Clicking it, she saw a curt message from George.
Stand by.
“Shit. Come on, George! Don’t leave me hanging!” Pushing her chair back, her stomach tied up in knots as she paced the room, waiting for him to come back online. Ten minutes later, the chat window flashed with activity a second time.
Cassie, are you there? Can you talk?
Yes.
A voice call request promptly popped up on the screen.
“What do you have, George?”
“Is Trevor with you? Hey, Trev. You’re both going to want to hear this!” When Cassandra didn’t respond right away, George’s tone became inquisitive. “Cassie? Trev?”
“Trevor isn’t here at the moment.” She paused, trying to find a way to introduce the subject. “We have a small development.”
“What kind of development?”
Cassandra released a deep breath. George wasn’t going to be happy with her answer. She wasn’t happy with the answer. “He’s been in the mansion for over two weeks now, George. As you know, physical access was the only option in this case, but we ran into some minor complications.”
“Shit, Cassandra! Minor complications? Ah, hell! Please say he isn’t the developer I’ve heard being discussed on the feeds.”
Cassandra could hear the anxiety creeping into his voice and in her mind’s eye could see him raking his fingers through his hair again and again in frustration. She could almost see his hair standing on end.
“Well…we didn’t think things would get this prickly. But we’ve got it handled.” Cassandra opened a blank document to capture any valuable information for h
er file. “What do you have? Anything useful to us?”
“That friend of your father’s? It took me a while, but I managed to track down new information on him. I am sending you a few files. Check it out.”
Cassandra saved the incoming files to her desktop and opened them as soon as they transferred. Her breath hitched and her head spun as she absorbed the information they contained.
“Holy hell!” Cassandra sat dismayed by another confirmation that wolves amongst them were wearing sheep’s clothing. “This is big. I need to let Trevor know. Damn it! I wish he had ears!”
“Wait, what? What do you mean ‘had ears’?”
“He doesn’t have a receiver, only a transmitter. And even that only works when he is out of the room he’s been working in. Some sort of strong signal dampening.”
“Damn, Cassie. This is bad…. We need to find a way to pass this info to him.”
Stunned, Cassandra’s eyes grew bigger as she read each new line. A fist squeezed her heart and her breath accelerated in tandem. Trevor was in the lion’s den, oblivious to the fact that he was a pawn being used by both sides in a dangerous game.
*****
Trevor eyed his keeper for the hundredth time. He had observed Dmitriy’s bruise changing hues to a deeper purple as the day went by. He didn’t seem to be going anywhere anytime soon and hadn’t said much since they’d settled to work. All Trevor’s attempts at small talk had only resulted in nods or grunts and the occasional chuckle, but nothing productive had been exchanged, which was very unusual for them. They usually enjoyed full geek-out conversations throughout the day.
Trevor decided on the direct approach. “What happened to you?”
Dmitriy was silent for a long time. Trevor watched as a frown creased his brow, his eyes narrowed, and his expression darkened. Anger seemed to get the better of him. “Sergei.”
To Russia With Love (Countermeasure Series) Page 34