Her Hero: Next Door

by George H. McVey

  “I’ll bring them personally.”

  The line went dead and Kris clicked the button ending the call on his end. Raisa looked at him. “Where are we going?”

  “I have a house on an island in the middle of the lake. We’re going there for a while.”

  “Why there?”

  “It’s harder for anyone to get to without us seeing them coming. I need you safe while I deal with Gregori.”

  “I’m supposed to meet with Mac tomorrow.”

  Kris looked at her and Sparky spoke up. “Something I set up, Thorn. Charlotte insisted.”

  Kris looked in the rear view and raised an eyebrow. Sparky sighed. “Raisa doesn’t understand who you are yet. She’s worried that Gregori will win. Charlotte said that Mac knew Raisa was family and would inform her of your prowess. However, I think after seeing you in action today she has a better understanding.”

  “Yeah well from the sounds of things Mac’s coming to you tomorrow, love. Tonight let’s just relax and try to put the events of earlier out of our minds.”

  Raisa reached over and took his hand. She nodded and then gave him a naughty smile. “How do you suggest we do that, hmm?”

  Sparky sighed. “OH brother. I’m glad the lake house is big. I’ll take the security office as my room. It’s as far away from your master suite as one can get. I don’t need to hear the two of you playing reindeer games.”

  Raisa blushed, and Kris laughed. “Eagle is on standby. Want me to ask him to come play poke and tickle with you?”

  Sparky glared. “You do and Raisa will be mad at me because I’ll roast your weenie next.”

  There was the snap of electricity and the three of them started laughing, the tension of the last few hours dissipating.

  Chapter Thirteen

  R aisa was in love with the lake house. It was three stories tall and the master suite was on the top floor. The room had floor to ceiling glass walls on all four sides. With the exception of a small corner room in the bathroom which she was convinced held the toilet. Other than that she had an unrestricted view of the lake in every direction. There was a queen size platform bed in the center of the room with matching nightstands on either side. Control panels on the nightstands controlled blinds for the window wells and lights that were set to illuminate the room. Directly over the bed was a large window that Kris informed her was perfect for watching the stars. She couldn’t wait to try that tonight with Kris’s strong arms around her. This house had several panic rooms. One on the main floor behind Kris’s office was where Friday’s interface and the arsenal was. It was three times the size of the safe room in the apartment. Also on the first floor was the security office with its small bedroom attached that Nova had claimed for herself. There was another interface to Friday and monitors for the multitude of cameras covering the whole island and boathouse on the main land. No one was going to sneak up on them, that was for certain. Also on the first floor was a chef’s kitchen with breakfast nook overlooking the lake and a set of French doors that led to an outdoor kitchen and huge deck for parties or relaxing outside. The dining room sat twelve at the large table. There was also a media room and a library. The second floor was all bedrooms, eight of them to be exact.

  The panic room for their bedroom was actually on the floor below and accessed through a hidden entrance under the bed. There was a hand plate on the side of both night stands and whichever one was activated that was the direction the bed moved away from, exposing a set of stairs into the room.

  The room itself was larger than the one at the house and there was a small arsenal in it as well. After what had happened today Raisa could see how having weapons in the panic rooms could come in handy. She also understood how having hidden weapons in each room of the house might be useful. If she’d known how to use those weapons she could have opened one of the hidden compartments in the kitchen and ended her abduction before it started. As it was she was grateful for Kris and the skills he possessed because once again he had saved her. Maybe she thought, Charlotte and Nova were right and Kris could win against Gregori. At least she was beginning to see why they thought he could.

  The stress of the day was starting to hit her and she felt cold and achy. She noticed that the huge soaker tub in the bathroom was big enough for two people to soak at once. She filled it with water as hot as she could stand it and added the lavender essential oil she found on the glass shelves beside the tub. She sank into the water trying to warm up and soak away the concerns of the day. When she was finished she climbed out and dried off with a large soft towel she found and then quickly dressed in her brilliant blue undergarments and comfy pajamas. She wished she had some of the new sleepwear she’d bought that day but had been told that their things would be delivered to them the next day. At least she had a pair of her favorite PJs in the bag Kris had her store in the bug out vehicle.

  Kris came up the stairs into the room and took her in his arms. “How are you, sweetheart? I know this whole ordeal has to be rough on you.”

  She looked up at him and nodded. “It is, but I’m better when I’m with you. Even though I know anything can happen you make me feel safe and protected.”

  Kris leaned down and kissed her. “I’ll always protect you, Raisa. I want nothing more than to take care of you and be here with you for the rest of my life.”

  She felt the way his words sparked those feelings deep inside her. She wanted the same thing. “Me too.”

  He smiled. “Let’s get through this Syndicate issue and then we can talk about the rest of our lives. For now, come downstairs. I grilled up some steak and veggies. Let’s eat and then see if we can’t chase away all the bad memories.”

  She nodded, his words sparking the desire deep within her. “I could eat but I could use some private time with you more.”

  “Food first, my love. We both need our strength and energy for that private time.”

  She blushed and let him lead her downstairs to the kitchen island where there were three plates of food. Nova was already seated before one of them. She took the seat beside Nova and Kris sat opposite her. They talked about jobs and funny encounters with people in a lighthearted way through dinner and Raisa knew the other two were trying to help her relax. She loved that Kris could be so intense one minute, protecting her and getting her to safety, and then loving the next. Then he followed that by another type of care and protection; trying to keep her mind off everything that had been happening. It was just another reason for the feelings of love that she knew were growing toward him. If she lost him she wasn’t sure she’d ever recover. He had worked his way deep into her heart, maybe even her very soul. She couldn’t help but hope he was as good as everyone said and could end the threat that Gregori and the Syndicate posed to her.

  Kris looked at Raisa asleep beside him. They’d retired to the bedroom after dinner and as promised had loved each other, chasing away the bad memories of the day. He couldn’t take his eyes off the beauty in his bed. Yes she was lovely and his body couldn’t help but respond to the lust she brought out of him, but his heart ached inside him too. She was as lovely a soul as she was a body. He knew he wasn’t falling in love with her. He was fully committed to her. She was his one and only. There would never be another woman for him. She owned him heart and soul and he would do whatever it took to protect her and provide for her. With that thought he pulled the covers up over her sleeping body and tucked them in tight to her. Once again, they’d made love like it was the last time until she was completely worn out. He was tired himself but he had work to do. He’d surveyed three sites that he knew were stash houses for the Syndicate and from everything he’d been able to work out they were three of the places that drugs and money were exchanged for Gregori’s dealers around the area. They were tonight’s targets. However, after what happened today he wanted to make sure that Volkov knew he was the one who hit him so he went down to his garden and clipped three red roses from the bushes. Then he went to his office and the arsenal behind the boo
kcase and slipped into tactical gear and loaded up with weapons and rappelling gear. He was going to enter from the top, incapacitating any and all Syndicate members and leave them for the DEA agents he was to contact once the site was secure. Drugs were to be left and he planned on giving a rose and note to a lower level employee and send them to Gregori. The note said, “Give her back her restaurant and leave her alone or I’ll keep taking your organization away from you. The Florist.”

  Once dressed and packed he slipped out of the house and sped across the lake to the boathouse. Once there he slipped into the Land Rover and headed toward the first of his three targets. He had no trouble moving from the roof of the building across the street to the top of the stash house which was more of an empty building than a house. Only the first and top floors were used. The first was where the drugs and money exchanged hands between the dealers and Syndicate workers. The top floor was the counting and wrapping operations. The money brought by the dealers was brought upstairs where it was counted, wrapped in bundles, and then wrapped in shrink-wrapped bricks that would then be placed in plain nylon tote bags and loaded for transport to the office building that Gregori had met Kris at two days earlier. Tonight that delivery wasn’t going to be made. Kris hooked a canister of anesthesia gas to the air conditioning unit and turned the knob flooding the place with enough gas to knock everyone out. He waited twenty minutes and then rappelled to the first set of windows below him and using a small amount of prima cord across the window and a remote triggering device he was inside in under five minutes, oxygen mask firmly in place. He zip-tied the men he found on the top floor and quickly gathered all the packed nylon bags. His mission parameters said he had to turn over personnel and drugs to the DEA agents. However, standard mission operating procedures said any valuables he found he was allowed to collect as his “bounty” on the contract. With ten bags filled with bricks of cash, he estimated he’d leave with close to a million dollars tonight. He exited the top floor and made his way down to the front door. He exited, shooting tranquilizer darts into the two men standing guard in front of the building. He pulled one of them across the street into a dark corner and then jogged back to the Land Rover placing the ten bags in the back compartment. He drove to where the sleeping gangster was and zip-tied his hands and feet before tossing him into the back of the vehicle as well. Then he drove to the next place on his list for the night and repeated the procedure again, netting twelve bags of cash that time, as well as another zip-tied gangster. After the final building was hit he called his contact in the DEA and gave him the address to all three buildings and the condition of the gangsters inside. Then he drove over to Volkov’s office building and unloaded the three zip-tied gangsters onto the loading dock out back with a rose in each of their shirts, his note wrapped around them. Then he drove back to the lake and went back up to his room, leaving the bags in the back of the Land Rover. He’d go and have them sent to his offshore bank by private courier the next day. Once he’d slipped back into bed with Raisa she scooted up close to him and he wrapped her in his arms, letting all the adrenaline and stress of the night go as he breathed in her scent of rose and jasmine. He knew this was what he wanted. Coming home to Raisa every night or at the end of every mission. Tomorrow he’d pick three more targets and strike again, maybe weapons this time so as not to be predictable. But for tonight he decided to wake Raisa and enjoy her wonderful body once again. He kissed her and felt her stir. She looked at him and smiled as their kisses turned passionate and they again began to explore and excite each other.

  Chapter Fourteen

  K ris was roused from sleep the next morning as he had been the night after their first date with Raisa licking and kissing down his neck and across his chest. He grabbed her and pinned her to the bed returning the favor on starting lower than she had ended. When they were both satisfied and happy he pulled her up and kissed her. “Is this the way it’s going to be every morning, my love? You waking me with kisses and having your way with me?”

  She grinned at him with lidded eyes. “For as long as I can, I think it will.”

  He frowned. “What does that mean?”

  She bit her lip and a tear leaked from her eye. “I came so close yesterday to being hauled away and forced into Gregori’s bed. I know you are doing everything you can to keep me safe but we have to be realistic; eventually he will get me. I told you, everyone has tried to tell you, Gregori always gets what he wants. I just want to enjoy as much time with you as I can.”

  Kris reached over and hit a button on the control panel on his nightstand and a television lowered from the ceiling. Reaching into the drawer he pulled out a remote and turned on the local news. After the weather report a story started and Kris pointed at the tv. “In local news, agents from the Drug Enforcement Agency today told of a late night raid at three drug staging areas for the crime family known as the Syndicate. According to our source in the DEA, over twenty-million dollars worth of illegal drugs were confiscated and thirty mid-level members of the Syndicate were taken into custody. Because of the amount of drugs and the weapons found at each scene they are being held at county lock-up without bail pending trial. It is a great day for the citizens of our fair city and a blow to suspected Syndicate leader Gregori Volkov.”

  Kris turned off the television before turning to Raisa. “There were actually thirty-three gangsters caught last night. Only I dropped three of them at Volkov’s back door with a warning that as long as he has your restaurant and is pursuing you more reports like this will be appearing on the news.”

  Raisa looked at him and he tried not to laugh at the shock on her face. “That was you? You took out three of his drug houses last night? When? And why would the DEA take credit for the busts?”

  Kris nodded, “Yes after you went to sleep last night I went to those three buildings and secured the middle men for the DEA, then I called them and they raided the places and hauled the gangsters to jail and the drugs to federal lock up. As to why they take credit, I’m not law enforcement, Raisa. I don’t arrest people. I take bad men who are terrorists or help fund terrorists and I stop them from ever hurting America or Americans ever again. Plainly put, I kill them. But I’m not allowed to kill anyone on U.S. soil, however in our investigation into the Syndicate you remember I mentioned a Cartel I’d disbanded. That Cartel supplied Gregori with drugs and weapons. The money he gave them went to fund terrorist cells around the world. That makes Gregori part of a terrorist organization and I’ve been authorized to bring his operation to an end. I can’t kill him or anyone unless they are trying to kill me or innocent people. What I can do is disable his men and turn them over to the organizations that can arrest them. He will not be a problem for you much longer one way or another. Either he will give up and go away, leaving you and your family alone or I’ll end him one way or another.”

  She looked at him shocked. “You could have been killed last night. You still could be killed.”

  He thought about that and then nodded. “That is a possibility certainly, but I’ve done this for close to fifteen years now and I’ve never failed a mission. I don’t plan on starting to now.”

  “How can you say that?”

  “I can say it because I have better training and better equipment than Gregori does. I am careful, which he isn’t; look at yesterday with you. Nestor and those men weren’t careful, if they had been they’d have seen me coming. They’d have been better armed and trained. Instead I wiped the street with them. Then last night I would have expected retaliation if I was Gregori, instead he figured we were hiding and trying to outlast him. Now he knows if he doesn’t stop I won’t either, but will he sit and quietly plan his next move?”

  She shook her head. “No, that’s not how Gregori operates.”

  “Exactly and yet my next move is already planned.”

  “It is?”

  “Yes, I plan to drag you into the shower with me and have my way with you again then I’m going downstairs and fixing us breakfast. Then
I plan on giving you a tour of the island. This place doesn’t belong to Blackguard, Raisa. It belongs to me. It’s the place I always thought I’d move to when it was time to settle down and start a family. I want that so much and I want it with you.”

  Raisa blushed and he pulled her into his arms. “I meant what I said, my love. I’m yours and you are mine and once this Gregori situation is settled I plan to ask you to marry me. That’s my plan.”

  She smiled and laid her head on his chest. “I like that plan. Especially that shower part.”

  He laughed and picked her up, carrying her to the glass enclosed shower to show her he always kept his word.

  Raisa sat at the breakfast nook table trying not to blush at the knowing looks of those sharing the meal with her. Nova kept smiling at her in a way that said she knew exactly why Raisa was embarrassed. What had surprised her when she’d come downstairs was that Kris’s boss from Blackguard was also sitting at the table having a cup of coffee. He too looked like he knew exactly what she and Kris had been up to and why it had taken her extra time to come downstairs. “Miss Felfan. I wanted to let you know that the three men who attacked you yesterday are still in the hospital. They are being held as well by the local police for questioning. The detectives are very curious how they all sustained multiple gunshot wounds and there is also some question about the unregistered firearms they all were carrying that also had been discharged. I expect charges to be forthcoming though we all know that none of them will stick.”

  She frowned. “Then why charge them at all?”

  Mac smiled at her before shrugging. “The police are like most people in this city. They are afraid of Gregori and the Syndicate. However, they also have to appear to be upholding the law. They’ll charge them and their lawyer who also works for the Syndicate will produce paperwork making their guns legal and they will let the charges drop. I’ve been looking into things with the Syndicate, it’s the pattern that repeats. But Kris will bring an end to all that by going to the federal agencies, not the local ones.”