by Lucy Leroux
“Then it’s the son.”
Dmitri blinked. “He’s not sick either.”
Or at least, he didn’t think so. He hadn’t gotten close enough to be absolutely certain of course. He’d been playing it safe. Too much contact with the groom and he might give in to temptation to knock the git senseless. He was Nina’s ex after all.
“But he’s a doctor,” Cass pointed out with a frustrated snap of her jaw that was audible even over the line.
“So?”
“So, isn’t he up for a prominent position?”
“Nina mentioned they were competing for a post,” he confirmed, mulling it over. “Nina is the frontrunner, but her friends were concerned Lawrence Senior might make a play to buy the post for Junior with a big donation.”
“Well, that’s it then?”
“What is? Lawrence Junior does have a shot, but only cause of the cash his father is willing to throw around. I plan on making a competing donation to even things out.”
Cass sniffed. “Maybe you should leave things alone. Let the money talk, then Lawrence won’t need the collar to make his son look good.”
The lightbulb belatedly went off in his head. “That’s why he wants it, isn’t it?” He swore aloud. “Lawrence knows his doctor son can’t win the job on his own. Nina is the superior surgeon. In fact, she’s so good she’s getting famous. Even if the donation gets the younger Lawrence the job, everyone will know he didn’t earn it. But if he starts pulling off a few miracles, then it won’t be strange when the hospital brass gives it to him.”
“It gets worse,” Cass said in her voice of doom. “You said the collar transfers a person’s life force. With it, Lawrence could save his own patients, but he’d have to sacrifice others in order to do it.”
He almost groaned, finally understanding what his pessimistic partner was trying to tell him
“Of course,” he muttered. “Lawrence Junior could get a leg up, but it might not be enough—not at this stage of the game. Nina’s reputation is too solid. It could survive a competitor having a sudden hot streak. He’d have to discredit her at the same time.”
“Yes,” she agreed. “The choice of who died wouldn’t be random. He’d kill her patients to save his own.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Dmitri rubbed his face, pacing the spacious bedroom of the Caislean hotel. “Well, at least we both agree. The Lawrence family can’t have the collar.”
“I didn’t say that,” Cass muttered.
“You can’t be serious. Not now that we’ve figured out what they want it for.” Dmitri wrinkled his nose, giving the collar the side eye. The stones winked malevolently in the light.
Cass cleared her throat. “That’s a given. But why not make the reason he wants it irrelevant? Tell your mate the truth. Tell her to withdraw from consideration for the job. If she’s such a good doctor, she can get another one, someplace where you can live and run free. Your real mate would understand—Boston is untenable for one of our kind. Well, for one of our kind who can still shift.”
“Shifting is like breathing,” he pointed out. “You just haven’t tried since the accident. But it’s not something you can just forget.”
“And what if I can shift?” she whispered.
Dmitri winced. He could feel her pain across the line.
“My rear legs would drag behind me, completely useless,” she continued. “This isn’t a temporary injury shifting can heal. I’ve consulted the best doctors among our kind. I’m paralyzed from the waist down.”
His eyes were drawn almost unwillingly to the collar. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”
“No.” Her answer was sharp and immediate. “I would never trade someone else’s life for my legs. How dare you even suggest it?”
“I wasn’t really,” he lied.
What if he found someone who deserved to die, like a murderer? He stumbled across them from time to time.
“Sure you weren’t.” Cass knew him too well. “Forget it. Focus on the real problem.”
I need a drink. Sometimes talking to his partner gave him a headache. “Well, according to you, the solution is to give up.”
“I didn’t say that. I just think we need to figure a way out of this mess, one that minimizes the body count and keeps your reputation intact.”
“I don’t give a damn about my reputation,” he said.
“Well, I do,” she snapped. “Not all of us have enough tucked away for retirement. The medical bills after the accident ate away at a lot of my nest egg.”
Fuck. He hadn’t thought of that. “I promise I won’t retire until you’re all set up, whether that means retiring yourself or continuing on with other clients.”
“My other clients don’t earn as much as you.”
“Some have the potential I’m sure.” He didn’t know much about the other men and women Cass worked with, but they had to have a fair amount of talent. Otherwise she wouldn’t have chosen to associate with them.
“If I pull back on these high-priced jobs in order to spend time with my mate, one of them can step up to fill the void. They just need the right person out there, booking those jobs.”
“Maybe…” Cass sniffed. “But let’s not forget the matter at hand. Crossing Lawrence may have consequences. You were stupid enough to show your face to him. And your mate is mixed up in all this.”
“Like I could forget that. But you’ve forgotten that Alec and the Elementals are waiting for this thing. Crossing them is a thousand times more dangerous. However, I think I’ve come up with a plan,” he said, leaning over to study the central stone more carefully.
“Is it a good one?”
“Under the circumstances… But you’re not going to like it.” He stood, facing the mirror. “I need you to go to my vault.”
“Which one?”
“The big one‚ the one I call my retirement fund. It’s the only one with a ruby this size. Send it to me ASAP.”
“You’re going to swap the stones?”
He nodded even though she couldn’t see him. “It takes a lot of dark magic to create an artifact like this, usually a human sacrifice. The stones are a part of that. They would have absorbed the death and been turned into conduits. From what I could tell, the stones focus the energy during the life-force transfer. If I take one out, it should render the thing harmless.”
At least, he hoped that was the case. But he didn’t have a choice. He had to try. “I’ll give the original stone to Alec and the altered collar to Lawrence.”
I hope the ruby I have is a close match. The stones on the collar were a distinctive shade, the color of blood, but Lawrence only had a photograph as a reference.
He pursed his lips. If his memory served, the stone in his vault was a little brighter and lighter in color, but only a touch. He didn’t dare swap it with a fake synthetic stone. He strongly suspected the client would be able to tell the difference.
Cass sighed. “Before I drag my ass all the way to your bank upstate, you should tell your mate the truth and see if she accepts you first.”
“I will tell her as soon as I get a chance. I’m just waiting for the right time.”
Nina was a strong and intelligent woman. He was confident she would accept his true nature…but making sure she learned about it under the ideal circumstances was the best course of action. Setting the right mood was important, almost as important as when and where a man proposed.
First things first. “Cassandra…I need that stone.”
“Fine. I’ll go get it, then have it sent out by special courier.”
When she huffed, the wheelchair made the tiniest of squeaks, one he’d noticed in their last few calls. Cass was on the move. He made a mental note to oil the wheels the next time he saw her.
“I sincerely hope this human is worth it,” she added waspishly.
“She is.”
Something was wrong with Dmitri. Nina was sure of it, although why she was so certain, she couldn’t really say.
Her swaggering Russian lover was still his effortlessly charming, incredibly oversexed self. Dmitri was provocative, entertaining, and fun. She would come home after a long day in surgery with the desire to do nothing more than take a bath and sleep. He could turn that around in minutes flat, either making her laugh over a dinner he prepared or joining her in the shower, making her scream in ecstasy at least twice in the process of getting clean.
Her neighbors officially hated her, but she ignored their dirty looks. Nina had never experienced so much joy and pleasure in a partner.
But there was something was off. She couldn’t pinpoint it, but it was obvious it had to do with whatever job he was doing in town. Her Russian loved to talk, but whenever she asked about his work, he grew tight-lipped. All he said was he was waiting on a delivery before he could wrap things up. Then he would change the subject or distract her by making love to her.
Other than this mysterious delivery he was waiting for, Dmitri appeared at ease. He’d thoroughly ingratiated himself to her entire family. He was a great favorite at their gatherings. Her aunt Toni baked him an extra sweet potato pie to take home. Nina couldn’t think of a time she’d ever done that for Matt.
Even her parents adored Dmitri. In fact, they liked him more than they liked her at the moment.
Nina had done her best to mend the rift with her sister; she really had. They spoke whenever the two happened to visit their parents at the same time. Despite her busy schedule, she’d made time to see them, strictly hit-and-run visits. But Nina hadn’t been able to accept their many dinner invitations because she knew her new brother-in-law would be there.
Her mom and dad wanted to pretend all was well now. Mom seemed to think that now that she had Dmitri in her life, Nina had no reason to be bitter. The humiliation was over and done with. As her mother said—she had a man now, too. Couldn’t she just get over it?
Nina strongly suspected Dmitri shared her mother’s opinion, but he was smart enough to keep quiet about it.
Should a new relationship erase all the wounds inflicted by an old one? Wasn’t that too much of a burden on the new partner?
It was true her scars were healing, but what was going to happen when the fellowship was announced? Hospital gossip had the contest narrowed down to her and Matt. Most were surprised that the winner hadn’t been decided yet, but the administration seemed to be dragging its feet.
She and her ex were barely on speaking terms, but regardless who was awarded the Downey prize and the job that went with it, the outcome was going to strain their already-tense relationship. Matt had never liked being upstaged. He’d like it even less if it was by his former girlfriend. There you go counting your chickens. It was hardly a done deal, not with Edward Lawrence writing six-figure checks to the hospital.
Think about it later, Nina ordered herself sternly as she scrubbed up outside of the operation suite. She had two surgeries scheduled back to back today. Neither was particularly complicated, but things could change on a dime on the operating table.
She walked into the surgical suite, nudging the head nurse with her hip. “Give me a beat, Jason.”
A happy pop tune began to play. Nina got to work.
Hours later, her feet aching, Nina decided to shower at the hospital. She normally preferred to bathe and eat at home, but dinner had come and gone hours ago. Her last surgery had taken longer than planned due to a few added complications—including a blot clot in a hard-to-reach vessel.
With most any other doctor, the elderly patient probably wouldn’t have survived. At the very least, their prognosis would have been substantially dimmer. But Nina was tenacious in the OR. She never closed up a patient until she was sure she’d given them their best chance.
Staying late wasn’t an issue for Dmitri in any case. He’d texted he was going to be home late so there wouldn’t be a shot at hot shower sex anyway.
That was probably for the best. She really needed to talk to him. If all he was waiting on was a delivery, then it was just a matter of days before it was finished.
He won’t leave. Well, that wasn’t quite true. Dmitri wasn’t about to end their relationship, but he might actually leave, resuming his work as a marshal.
C’mon, even you aren’t this stupid. She knew air marshals didn’t run around town doing mysterious errands. They spent their careers in the air, flying from city to city. If that was what Dmitri did for a living—even part time—then he’d barely be able to spend any time with her. Instead, he’d practically moved in. He hadn’t even mentioned the air marshal job after they arrived in Boston. It was as if he’d stopped pretending.
So, what was her new boyfriend’s true employment? She closed her eyes under the stream of water, trying to recall all the minute details he’d let slip about his work. Those weren’t many. More significant was what he hadn’t said.
Dmitri was a criminal. There was no point in denying the obvious anymore. The question was, what was she going to do about it? Sooner or later, she was going to have to confront him. Either he would lie, or he would tell the truth. Once that happened, it would all be over.
Yes, Dmitri cared for her, but she wasn’t fool enough to believe he’d give up a life of crime for her.
Nina turned off the shower, grabbing the towel and drying herself roughly before leaving the stall. Her thoughts a tangled muddle, she wrapped the damp cotton around herself and stepped out only to come face to face with a man waiting a few feet away.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t her current lover intent on surprising her. It was the former one.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Nina hitched the towel up higher in a vain attempt to cover the cleavage threatening to spill over the suddenly small length of cotton.
“What the hell, Matt?” She glowered.
He was leaning against the sink, his arms crossed and a distinctly dark expression on his face.
“What?” he asked, his lips twisting derisively. He straightened. “It’s not like I haven’t seen it all before. I wouldn’t have to ambush you like this if you weren’t avoiding me.”
What right did he have to be annoyed? She was the one naked and dripping wet under her towel. The bathroom in the doctor’s lounge was unisex, but that didn’t mean common courtesy didn’t apply. Crowding someone in the small shower area was bad form.
“I’m not avoiding you,” she snapped. “As far as I’m concerned, the last time we spoke in depth—the time you told me you were breaking up with me, so you could marry my sister—was the last conversation we needed to have.”
She didn’t mention what he’d said at the wedding. His stupidity was his own cross to bear.
He sighed dramatically. “We are still colleagues, or did you forget?”
“Obviously I haven’t. The fact we have to work together is the only reason I haven’t run you over with my car.”
“Really, Nina…” He huffed. “I thought we were past this.”
Adrenaline coursed through her, and she clenched her fist. Nina had been in a single fight back in grade school. The elementary school bully had wiped the floor with her. After realizing there would always be someone bigger and stronger, Nina resolved to work out her problems by talking things through. But right now, she’d give her left tit to be able to punch him. But she couldn’t do that without exposing herself.
I need a bigger towel. Or a robe.
“Speaking of being past this,” she muttered, brushing by him with a hard shove. Her clothes were on a bench near the window. “You may have seen all this before, but you risk a lot by assuming you get a free pass now.”
“Will your new Russian boyfriend beat me up?” he said, a hint of a sneer in his voice.
“Yes,” a deep voice rumbled.
Startled, Nina’s head snapped up, clutching her clothes to her chest. Dmitri had appeared as if by magic. He filled the doorframe, towering over her and Matt.
Crap. How long had he been standing there?
Apparently, it was long eno
ugh. He took one step and reached out, grabbing Matt by the neck and lifting him like a recalcitrant puppy. A low animalistic growl emanated from him, vibrating her teeth, as he drew her hapless ex-boyfriend closer to his face.
The noise was low and full of menace—a predator’s warning. It was so real she whipped her head around to make sure a bear hadn’t suddenly joined them in the little room.
“Shit. Dmitri, put him down.”
“Yes, put me down.” Matt’s voice was strained, but Nina was relieved he could still speak. It meant Dmitri wasn’t crushing his windpipe.
Reluctantly, Dmitri set Matt down. Her ex jerked away, rubbing his neck. “I just came to tell her the decision for the Downey fellowship has been delayed. Dr. Strickland, the head of the committee, is going out of town again, so they’re postponing till he gets back.”
“Well, that’s convenient for you,” Dmitri said, his disdain clear. “It gives your father more time to maneuver, to get his plan in place.”
Matt scowled at him. “I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about. I’m going to leave now.” He turned back to Nina. “By the way, Kate wants you to call her.”
Right. Nina’s sister would never have Matt pass on that message. Kate was still too insecure with Matt to encourage any kind of contact between them if she wasn’t around.
Matt turned to the door, attempting to edge past Dmitri, but the stubborn Russian just stood there, an immovable mountain with eyes that promised death.
He leaned down. “Remember your viewing pass is revoked. If you even look at Nina sideways again, I will know, and you will regret it.”
Even Nina shivered at the icy tone.
“Enough already.” Her concern and edginess sharpened her tone. She lifted her pile of clothes in an unmistakable get-out gesture. “I’m cold, and I want to change.”
Dmitri nodded shortly, moving to the side just enough to let Matt squeeze past him. He turned back to her as the other man’s footsteps faded. His expression warmed lasciviously.