His Christmas Assignment

by Lisa Childs

  Here was his out. He could use her fear for his safety to send her away. But it wouldn’t matter. He would still be distracted because he would be missing her. He would be worried that someone might have followed wherever she’d gone.

  “No.” He shook his head now. “From now on, we work together.”

  Her eyes brightened with surprise and hope. “You’re not going to listen to Agent Rus?”

  He sighed. “I probably shouldn’t have listened to him in the first place. I shouldn’t have let him talk me into taking this assignment.”

  “But you did,” she said. “You wanted to do this.”

  He grinned. She knew him well now. She knew he wouldn’t have done something he hadn’t wanted to do. “I felt like I needed to,” he admitted.

  “You regretted not taking Chekov down all those years ago—when the judge offered you that deal.”

  He sighed. “I was a scared kid back then.”

  And when it came to Candace, he was a scared man. For the past year he had deliberately misled her about his character in order to keep her from getting too close. Now he worried she wouldn’t stay close to him since she knew him better than anyone else ever had—even his family. He’d always acted strong and fearless for them. Only Candace knew his fears and weaknesses.

  She was his biggest weakness.

  “You were just a kid,” she said with sympathy instead of condemnation, “and you were all alone.”

  “I had Stacy and Milek.”

  “They were younger than you, and probably even more scared.”

  Remembering how scared they’d been brought back a rush of emotion. He couldn’t speak, could only nod.

  She reached out then, wrapping her arms around him—holding him like he’d never been held. And another kind of emotion rushed over him. He wanted to express his feelings, but he didn’t want to distract her either—not when they both needed to be focused to take down Chekov.

  “We end this now,” he said.

  It was past time for Viktor Chekov’s reign of terror in River City to be done.

  Candace nodded. “The sooner the better. What do we need to do?”

  “We have to find that damn gun—” he’d looked everywhere for it, though “—before he disposes of it.”

  “Or uses it to kill again.”

  *

  Candace had faced down some dangerous men over the course of her career. But she had never been as uneasy as she was taking this meeting with Viktor Chekov. She had to stay true to the character she’d already shown him, though—or the character he had probably witnessed, if not in person, then on security footage. So she’d bullied her way past his usual sidekicks and into his back office at the club.

  He should have been furious with her. Instead he’d looked up from his desk and laughed. “I’ve been expecting you, Ms. Baker. You’re quite determined.”

  He had no idea how determined. She needed this man behind bars, so she could tell Garek how she felt about him—how much she loved him.

  She shrugged off the compliment and acknowledged, “I am determined—when I’m right.”

  He stood and walked around the front of his massive desk. The office was big, too, and dimly lit.

  So Candace couldn’t determine his age. He could have gone prematurely gray, and that was why his hair was so thoroughly silver now. His face had few wrinkles—just lines of ruthlessness, which were reflected in his dark eyes. He reached out and grabbed her shoulder.

  She tensed, but she didn’t react. “And I’m right about who is the better bodyguard for your daughter. I would be a much better bodyguard than Garek Kozminski.”

  “I cannot figure out what it is between you and Garek,” he said, and those dark eyes narrowed as he studied her face. “Is it love or hate?”

  For a long while she hadn’t known either. So she just shrugged.

  And he laughed again. “I feel the same way about that damn boy.”

  Garek hadn’t been a boy for a long time—if ever. He’d had too much responsibility—too much disappointment in his life and too much tragedy. This man had been part of all of that.

  “Sit,” he told her. But he didn’t give her time to comply; he pushed her down into one of the chairs in front of his desk while he sat on the edge of the desk nearest her.

  She knew exactly what she felt for him. Revulsion. Mistrust. Anger. She wouldn’t acknowledge fear. She had survived her deployment and her assignments—undercover and protection—because she hadn’t admitted to feeling any fear.

  “Then you must agree I’m the better person to protect your daughter,” she said.

  He arched a gray brow. “Why is that?”

  “You can’t trust Garek Kozminski,” she said, “especially not around any female.”

  A glint twinkled in the older man’s dark eyes. “Garek has always been a heartbreaker. Did he break your heart? Is that why you’re trying to steal his job?”

  “Revenge?” she asked. “You think that’s what this is?” She didn’t care what he thought if it would make him trust her enough to hire her, too.

  He chuckled. “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned…”

  She uttered a heavy sigh. “I have felt scorned…”

  But she’d been wrong. Garek had only been lying to protect her. He hadn’t wanted to hurt her any more than he’d wanted to risk her hurting him.

  “But this isn’t about Garek Kozminski,” she said. “He only got hired because his sister married our boss.” She had thought that a year ago.

  But she hadn’t known then how many clients Garek had brought to the agency. He hadn’t had to join Payne Protection; he’d had an active security business of his own. But he would do anything for family—for his brother and sister and the Payne family, which had become his. He was the most loyal and generous man she had ever known.

  “He has no business being a bodyguard,” she said. Knowing what a lie it was, she could barely utter the next line. “He has no experience protecting people.” Except he had been doing it pretty much his whole life.

  “I have a lot of experience,” she continued. “I could show you my résumé.” She had brought it along in a folder, but one of his men had taken it from her before letting her inside the club.

  The business wasn’t open yet, so it was only her and Viktor and his men. It could have been a suicide mission. Garek was with Tori at the Chekov estate. Hopefully he would find the safe and the gun while she occupied Chekov.

  Garek wasn’t certain how much he dared to look with Tori along, though. He didn’t completely trust the young woman; neither did Candace. So even if he found the safe, he was going to wait for another time to crack it—for an opportunity to be alone in the house. He already had an idea of what night would present the best opportunity—the night Viktor Chekov hosted his company Christmas party at the club.

  But that plan would only work if Garek had someone else to protect Tori in his place. Viktor had already beaten him up and threatened him for letting Milek take too many of his shifts. So someone else had to take over his protection duty. That was why Candace had made her move to replace him.

  The older man chuckled. “I am quite aware of your résumé, Ms. Baker,” he said. “Ex-soldier, ex-cop.”

  “That’s why I should be protecting your daughter,” she said, “not Garek.”

  Chekov nodded as if in agreement. But then he moved quickly, pulling something from behind his back. Light glinted off the metal of his gun as he pressed the barrel against her temple.

  She drew in a breath and held it, afraid to move because he might cock the gun.

  If he hadn’t already…

  With eyes dark with hatred and maybe madness, he ruthlessly told her, “I have no use for cops—ex or otherwise.”

  Chapter 18

  “Daddy!” Tori shrieked as she rushed into the room ahead of Garek.

  She had stopped him from drawing his gun—from shooting Viktor dead. But he held his hand close to his holster, ready to
draw and shoot. He wouldn’t be fast enough, though. With the gun pressed against her head, Candace would be dead before Garek could put a bullet in Viktor’s brain.

  “Don’t hurt her,” Tori implored her father.

  “Why not?” he asked. “I thought you’d want me to get rid of your competition.”

  Tori stiffened—all concern gone. She snorted derisively. “She’s no competition for me.”

  Garek caught Candace’s flinch. She was such a strong, beautiful woman, but she had a vulnerability, an insecurity…

  He wanted to tell her that he loved her. But it would seal her death warrant for certain. He hadn’t liked this part of the plan—the part where she forced a meeting with Viktor alone while he picked up Tori at her father’s house. He’d intended to search it for the safe, but the place had been crawling with guards and other staff. Ostensibly there had been so many people there getting ready for the holidays—decorating the house and grounds.

  But the Christmas party was being held at the club the following evening. And maybe it was the club Garek should have searched first for the gun.

  Had it been here all along—in Viktor’s office—and now in his hand? Was the weapon pointed at Candace’s head the one that had already taken the lives of two men?

  “He’s just testing me,” Candace spoke to Tori carefully and casually, acting as though she had taken no offense at what the spoiled girl had said.

  She shouldn’t have taken any offense; she was the woman Garek wanted—the one he loved. She didn’t know, though. He hadn’t told her; now he wished he had.

  Candace continued, “He’s seeing if I’m strong enough to protect you…” She caught Viktor’s wrist and snapped the gun from his hand. Then she checked the cartridge. “It’s not even loaded.”

  She exchanged a glance with Garek. A significant glance. It wasn’t the gun. And now that it was away from her head and he could focus on the weapon; it was the wrong caliber.

  So she handed it back to Chekov.

  Garek tensed, waiting for Viktor’s short temper to ignite—waiting for him to strike out at her as he had at him so many times. But the masochistic mobster surprised him as he leaned his head back and barked out the loudest laugh Garek had ever heard him utter.

  “You need to teach her that move,” Viktor said with a dismissive gesture at his daughter. “So I don’t have to hire guards to protect her. She needs to know how to protect herself.”

  Tori sucked in an audible breath. She was the one who was offended now.

  “I can teach her all the self-defense maneuvers I know,” Candace offered.

  Viktor nodded as he walked back around his desk and dropped into his chair. “You’re right,” he acknowledged.

  Had the older man just been testing her? Garek wondered. Or was he simply trying to salvage his ego now and he’d really intended to scare her away?

  He could have told Viktor that Candace didn’t scare easily. At least she wasn’t afraid of physical threats, just emotional ones. It was another thing they had in common.

  “She does need a female bodyguard.” Viktor pointed at Candace. “You have the job.”

  Garek tensed, waiting for his pink slip. Would it be a bullet? Fortunately the gun wasn’t loaded.

  Viktor turned his finger toward Garek. But then he pulled his thumb back as if cocking a gun. “You—I have other uses for you…”

  Candace shot him a glance of concern. Was Viktor going to coerce him into a crime? Or kill him?

  *

  “She’s in,” Special Agent Rus said as he snapped off his cell phone. He and Milek were sitting in a Bureau SUV, in an alley, near the club.

  But they wouldn’t have been effective as Candace’s backup. They wouldn’t have made it inside the club before Viktor hurt her—or worse.

  Rus sighed. “But Garek doesn’t sound very happy about it.”

  Milek nodded; he hadn’t had to hear his brother to know he wouldn’t have been thrilled. He knew Garek well. Or at least he’d always thought he’d known him well. But he had never realized Garek could fall so hard for someone like he had fallen for Candace.

  Of course Garek hadn’t admitted it—probably not even to himself, let alone to her. But his brother needed to share his feelings before it was too late. Before he didn’t get the chance…

  “I still think you should have sent me in,” Milek persisted. “I could have gotten closer to Tori than Garek had and certainly closer than Candace will.” While Tori had once loved Garek, she had been flirting with Milek when he’d filled in for his brother as her bodyguard. “I could have made sure she follows through with testifying against her father.”

  A muscle twitched along Rus’s jaw. Her recanting her eyewitness story of Viktor murdering his right-hand man was obviously a concern for Rus and rightfully so. Garek was convinced the young woman would never testify against her father.

  Rus shook his head. “She wouldn’t have fallen for you. Everybody knows about you and Amber.”

  “Amber’s gone.” Murdered along with their son. She had died thinking Milek hadn’t cared about her or about the child they’d created together. He should have explained why he’d stayed away—for her and for their son. They had deserved a better man than he was. “She’s dead, and there’s nothing I can do about that.”

  If only he’d known she was in danger…

  If only he’d been talking to her…

  But he’d forced himself to stay away from her—from them. He’d considered himself the threat to her safety and her happiness.

  Rus sighed and pushed a hand through his hair. That hand shook slightly, and he wouldn’t quite meet Milek’s gaze. He was clearly uncomfortable.

  Then Milek recognized the FBI agent’s emotion because it was one he’d been struggling with for years: guilt. Why was Nicholas Rus guilt stricken, though?

  Suspicion niggled within Milek and he mused, “You know something…”

  “I know a lot,” Rus vaguely admitted. Then he quoted Milek to himself, “I know everything’s not always what it seems…”

  Milek’s heart lifted for a moment, but he refused to hope. It just wasn’t possible…

  But then he hadn’t thought it possible his big brother would actually fall in love. Now that he had, hopefully he and Candace would survive this assignment.

  *

  “He’s playing with us,” Candace said as both anger and fear coursed through her. She had never met anyone as diabolical as Viktor Chekov. “He must know we’re looking for that murder weapon. That’s why he pulled the gun on me.”

  “He pulled the gun because he’s a sick bastard,” Garek said. As he drove, he gripped the steering wheel so tightly his knuckles had turned white. He was obviously every bit as angry as she was—maybe more.

  “But why else would he have sent those men after me?” she asked. “He must somehow know your real assignment is for the FBI.”

  Garek shrugged. “I don’t know what he knows or if he’s just a sadist. He murdered the man his daughter loved.”

  Candace gasped. She’d known Alexander Polinsky had worked for Chekov, but she hadn’t realized he had also been involved with Tori.

  “I feel bad,” she said. “I thought she was just a spoiled bitch. I hadn’t realized she was hurting.”

  “Oh, she’s definitely a spoiled bitch,” Garek said. “But she is pretty devastated—devastated enough to go to the FBI and report what she’d witnessed.”

  “She saw her father kill the man she loved?” Candace’s heart ached for the other woman’s loss. “He knows she could have gone to the police or be worried she might. She really could be in danger.”

  “That’s why I’ve been watching her, too,” Garek said. “Or having Milek watch her when I—”

  “Have been rescuing me,” she said. Now guilt flashed through her. Maybe Agent Rus was right and she would be the one who’d wind up getting him killed. “I should have stayed out of it.”

  Bitterness deepened his voice when he
said, “You would have if Stacy hadn’t tracked you down and talked you into coming back.”

  She didn’t want him blaming his sister for the danger Candace had willingly put herself in. Even when she’d considered the Kozminskis dangerous criminals, she had envied their family’s closeness and loyalty. They had been like the Paynes in that respect. But now they were estranged, and she didn’t want to be responsible for any part of that.

  She chuckled. “You think Stacy could have talked me into something I didn’t want to do?”

  “How did she?” he asked, and he spared a glance from the road and the rearview mirror for her. His silver eyes held curiosity and something else. Hope?

  Did he want her to admit her feelings?

  She hadn’t yet admitted to her feelings—even to herself—when she’d come back. She’d had other motives.

  “I took what she’d told me about you going to work for Chekov as an opportunity to prove I was right about you,” she said. “She handed me the means to prove you were the criminal I’d been saying you were.”

  He chuckled now. “So you wanted to say I told you so to Logan and whoever else had defended me to you?”

  She sighed. “I didn’t have to prove to other people I was right about you. I had to prove it to me,” she explained. “So I had an excuse for running from you…”

  He took one hand from the wheel and reached across the console. His palm skimmed over her thigh. Her skin heated and tingled from even the brief touch over her jeans. “I don’t blame you for running. In my own way, I was doing the same thing.”

  Frustration clenched her heart over the year they had wasted—a year they could have been together—without someone trying to kill them. “I should have trusted you.”

  “Why?” he asked with a laugh. “I gave you no reason to trust me. I wanted you to believe the worst of me.”

  “I was wrong to not look into you further, to not find out what kind of man you really are…” An amazing man. A loving brother. A fearless protector.

  He squeezed her leg, making her tingle inside, before releasing her. He drew the SUV to the curb outside her apartment building and shifted it into Park.