The Exit Strategy Bundle

by Jocelynn Drake

“The next time you’re going to be right beside me, and those bastards don’t stand a fucking chance against us.” Gabriel cupped his cheek with his free hand and smiled. “I love you. And we’re going to do this together.”

  Justin’s heart skipped a beat at Gabriel’s whispered words. He hadn’t expected to hear him say it as well, wasn’t sure that Gabriel was at that point with him. Hoped? Yes. But hadn’t really believed it.

  With his free hand, he grabbed the back of Gabriel’s head and pulled him down for a long, slow kiss. Their tongues dueled, sliding over one another in a sinuous dance. Justin wanted the moment to stretch on forever. Let the outside world disappear. He finally had Gabriel in his arms, and he didn’t want to release him yet.

  But if they were going to be truly free and together, they needed to deal with Gabriel’s problem.

  Ending the kiss, Justin smiled at Gabriel’s dazed and drunklike expression. “You’re mine, Gabriel Prescott. We’re going to get you free of whatever this nonsense is that’s hunting you.”

  Gabriel’s eyebrows furrowed and his slightly puffy lips dipped into a frown. “Viktor Krestyanov.”

  “Who’s that? The man behind these attempts on your life?”

  “Viktor Krestyanov…is me. It’s the name I was born with.”

  Justin’s heart ached at the sad look in his lover’s dark eyes. He carefully ran his fingers through Gabriel’s…er…Viktor’s hair. “I think you left this Viktor Krestyanov behind a long time ago. Unless you prefer the name, I’m gonna stick with G Love. You’ll always be G Love to me.”

  Gabriel’s eyes turned bright and he nodded before clearing his throat. “I would prefer that as well. But we need to talk…about my family.”

  “We’ve got to do this before sex?” Justin grinned. “Because I’m feeling this is a big moment for both of us. We should really seal this with a great orgasm.”

  Gabriel chuckled and the sound came out rusty. “Sex sounds great, but I think we need to deal with family first.”

  Justin lifted one skeptical eyebrow. “Sex later?”

  Gabriel’s smile was back, helping to lift some of the lingering shadows from his incredibly dark-brown eyes. “I promise.”

  “Then let me get my coffee. We’re going to need as many working brain cells on this issue as we can get.”

  “Yes, and we both know you don’t have that many to spare.”

  Gabriel slowly climbed off Justin’s lap with only a little wincing at the movements. Justin needed to grab the guy another painkiller. He’d managed to get one down Gabriel’s throat before they climbed into bed the previous day…night. Fuck, he wasn’t even sure what time of day it was any longer. They really needed to get their shit together.

  Picking up the mug of coffee Gabriel had brought him, Justin carried it into the living room while Gabriel made one for himself. When he brought it in, Gabriel set it on the coffee table in front of him and sat in the one chair while Justin dropped onto the couch. Gabriel stared at the coffee, seeming to get lost in the steam rising from the surface. Justin didn’t want to pressure him, but he also didn’t want Gabriel to get lost in a lot of bad memories.

  “How is your family behind these attacks?”

  “You have to understand who my family is. The Krestyanov family has been a powerful family within Russia for centuries. When the royal family was overthrown, my ancestors were there with the proletariat, demanding justice for the people. We claimed to be protectors of the people, but we were murderers and thieves. My father is Nicolai Krestyanov.”

  Justin’s brow furrowed. He knew that name. He’d heard it somewhere, but he wasn’t sure… “Holy fuck! Your dad is the head of the KGB!” Justin said on a gasp as soon as the information clicked together in his brain. Behind the president, Nicolai was the most powerful man in Russia.

  “Was the KGB. Now the SVR,” Gabriel corrected, but Justin made a scoffing noise and waved him off. The KGB was supposedly dismantled when the USSR fell, while the SVR rose in its place with the birth of the “new” Russia. To Justin, it was the same intelligence group with a different set of letters.

  “We’re all raised to one day assume a position of power within the government,” Gabriel continued when it was clear that the letters didn’t matter. “We all serve my father. All my cousins and my uncles. As soon as we’re old enough, we enter the military. From there, we are recruited for a variety of jobs. I was turned into a spy for my country.” Gabriel stopped and frowned at his coffee again. “I didn’t care for my family, mostly because I knew they’d never accept me. But I didn’t mind my job so much. It got me away from them. Gave me a purpose whether I believed in it or not.”

  “And it introduced you to Ivan.”

  Gabriel nodded, a small smile flitting across his face for a brief moment. Justin hated the little shaft of jealousy that pierced his heart. Gabriel had needed Ivan, needed someone to care for him, to know the true him. Justin hated that it hadn’t been him.

  “I was assigned to be Ivan’s partner, and it was his job to mentor me for a few years. Teach me all his tricks and techniques. We traveled all around Eastern Europe, doing little jobs. Mostly information gathering. We were away from Russia and the eyes that watched you so closely there. He…he was my first sexual experience.” Gabriel looked up at Justin, meeting his gaze. “I don’t think he loved me. Not like what has grown between us. We never spoke of future plans. Of escaping Russia and the life we were tied to. During the last several months, he only said that he was tired of it all.”

  Justin reached across and wrapped his fingers around Gabriel’s wrist. “I think he did love you in his own way. He protected you. Sent you away when he knew those bastards were going to attack.”

  “Anatolii and Vanya. My cousins. I saw them clearly on the video. They tortured and killed Ivan. So, I hunted them down and tortured them much the same way about a month after it happened.”

  “It’s not technically the government hunting you down? It’s your family?” Justin sat back on the couch and stared at Gabriel. He didn’t know if this information made the situation better or worse. Probably worse. The Krestyanov family had access to government supplies to fuel their hunt. And if it was personal, they were less likely to observe any kind of restrictions that the government might attempt to follow. Fuck.

  “Somehow my family discovered that I’m gay. They think it brings shame on the long history and honor of the Krestyanov name. They can’t allow anyone to discover the truth, particularly other influential players within the government and party. It could unseat my father and destroy the power he’s accumulated.”

  “So, they tried to kill you and Ivan?”

  “I think they blamed him at first. Like he infected me. But they had to kill me as well to hide what I was.” Gabriel shook his head. “After I got rid of Anatolii and Vanya, I staged my own death and disappeared. Everything went quiet for a few years. I kept my distance from where I knew I might see my family or anyone associated with my family. But a few years ago, the threats started again. I would not be surprised if my father had plans on becoming president if Putin ever decides he’s bored with playing dictator.”

  “But your father can’t become the new dictator with you running around,” Justin muttered.

  “We also can’t be together. I don’t want to make a life with you that includes looking over my shoulder, waiting for my family to kill us both. If they haven’t already, once they discover you are important to me, you become a target.”

  Justin nodded. He definitely didn’t want that either. “I’m afraid to ask…exactly how big is your family?”

  Gabriel shot Justin a smirk. “Quite large, honestly. But we don’t need to wipe all Krestyanovs off the face of the Earth. Just some select people, and everything should topple down. The remaining members of my family will not pursue me.”

  “Are you sure?”

  Gabriel’s smirk turned into a glare. “I’ve spent the past few years researching this and narrowing down the list.
I might bear no love for my family, but I don’t see the point in slaughtering every man, woman, and child just for the fun of it.”

  Justin held up his hands. “I’m not saying that either.” Justin did not kill children, and he wasn’t about to start now. But he wanted to make sure Gabriel’s list was complete if they were going down this road. They deserved a shot at a life together. Gabriel deserved to be free. “How many?”

  Gabriel paused and finally reached for his coffee. He took a long drink as if to wash the taste of their conversation from his mouth. “Did you kill everyone in the house when you came for me?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then there’s a good chance that you got my cousin Leonide.”

  “Looks a lot like you?”

  Gabriel’s smirk returned. “I like to think that I’m more handsome, but yes, we look similar.”

  “Yes, he’s dead.”

  Gabriel grunted and set his mug on the table. “Good. The man following us in London this past fall was my cousin Dmitri. I also killed my uncle, Filip, a couple of months ago in Donetsk.” He flopped in his chair and made a sound of disgust. “That was how I ended up with Leonide on my tail. Filip was his father. I had expected him to come after me, but he proved to be smarter than I estimated. Caught me in Berlin. I had been making my way to London to plan for my next strike.”

  “Geez…how many more cousins you got?”

  “That would come after me? None.”

  Justin frowned. “Why doesn’t that make me feel any better?”

  “Because the remaining three targets are my most difficult to get close to.”

  “Who?”

  “My uncle, Sacha. He is my father’s last remaining brother. He travels frequently for my father so I think we will be able to catch him in Hungary.” Justin held up one finger as he started to count. Gabriel paused and licked his lips. “My sister Nadia. She will likely be in Saint Petersburg, unless we can catch her wintering in Varna or Trieste.”

  Justin raised a second finger but couldn’t remove the look of surprise that dropped his mouth open. “Your sister?”

  Gabriel flashed him a weak smile. “My father believes in providing equal opportunity for both genders. My sister went through similar training and is just as cruel as he is. If I leave her alive, I know she will use whatever resources are at her disposal to hunt me down for the rest of our lives.”

  “Okay, Uncle Sacha and Nadia. I’m guessing your father is lucky number three.”

  “Yes.”

  “And where are we going to find him?” Justin asked and Gabriel stared at him. Oh yeah, he knew the answer, but he definitely didn’t like it. “Fuck. Into the lion’s den.”

  “My father does not like to be away from Moscow. Nicolai is very controlling, and he fears that someone will try to seize his power if he is away for too long.”

  Justin nodded. He wasn’t surprised, considering what Gabriel had already said about the man. It wasn’t going to be easy. “What about your mother? Is she like your father?”

  “My mother died when I was young, and my father never remarried. I…I have no idea if my mother was anything like my father.”

  Justin scrubbed a hand over his face, trying to clear his thoughts, put some order to the information that Gabriel had given him. He kept wondering how Gabriel managed to escape that family alive and with a heart that could still love him. There was no answer to be found, but he was just grateful that he had.

  Dropping his hand back down to his side, Justin heaved a heavy sigh. “G, I hate to say this…but your family is seriously fucked up.”

  “They’ve spent a lifetime, several lifetimes, building and consolidating their power. They’ve tormented and destroyed countless people in the process. I will admit that my reasons for taking them down are purely selfish, but we are not going to be the only ones who benefit. I truly believe the world will be a better place with them gone.”

  Justin was inclined to agree. While he wasn’t ready to admit it to Gabriel, his brief time in the CIA had been spent in Eastern Europe with a heavy focus on watching or taking out Russian operatives. He was well acquainted with the workings of the infamous Krestyanov family, but he’d not managed to take any of them out…until now. God knew, he’d never expected to be romantically involved with one of them.

  He clapped his hands loudly together and rubbed them as if he were some evil supervillain about to launch his latest diabolical plan on the world. “Where do we start? Dear old Uncle Sacha?”

  Gabriel grunted. “He’s expected to be in Hungary in two days. He’s got an important meeting with an influential businessman, and I would very much like to be there waiting for him when it concludes.”

  “Not that I don’t completely trust your information,” Justin started.

  Gabriel looked over at him, disbelief clear in his eyes. “I was not captured by Leonide because I had bad information,” he snarled.

  “Did I say that?” Justin asked, pressing a hand to his chest. “I didn’t say that at all.”

  “Get to the point.”

  “I was just wondering how you know that your information on your uncle or even any information on your family is good.” There. That didn’t sound too horrible. It was a smart question to ask. If they were going to be risking their lives hunting down this trio of pricks, Justin wanted to be sure that the information they were working from was reliable.

  “Marilyn.”

  Justin’s mouth opened and closed a couple of times before he could finally find words to speak. “Your source is Marilyn. She’s in on this? How is she profiting from this? Marilyn doesn’t do shit for free.”

  Gabriel chuckled. “You don’t think she’s doing this out of the kindness of her heart?”

  “What heart?”

  Gabriel smiled at him. It wasn’t a kind assessment of Marilyn, but it was realistic. The woman was a handler to make money. Not make the world a better place.

  “She has several sources within the Communist party and government that would very much like to see the Krestyanov family taken down. These people are afraid to put a contract out on my family for fear of them discovering it and retaliating. However, some of them have an understanding with Marilyn. They provide key pieces of information that create opportunities for select mercenaries, such as myself, to get close to Krestyanov family members. And when certain key people show up dead, charitable donations suddenly appear in bank accounts.”

  Justin laughed. It was all so neat and tidy and under the table. No one talked about it or made specific demands. But rewards were issued when miracles just sort of happened. That wasn’t a horrible way to work.

  And if the information was coming through Marilyn, Justin felt more comfortable trusting it.

  “Okay…then we’re off to Hungary.”

  Gabriel stared at Justin for several seconds. The amusement that had lightened his features only moments ago disappeared completely. It looked as if he wanted to tell Justin not to come with him or to warn him away. Justin braced himself for the words, readying the fight he could feel coming.

  But the words never came. Instead, Gabriel simply said, “I love you.”

  And for the first time, it felt like they were truly partners in this. They were building something together. They were going to be free at last.

  Chapter 4

  Snow covered the ground in Budapest, gilding the city to make it look like something out of a magical Christmas story. Gabriel had always loved the old town. He loved the different architectural influences and the castles. He especially loved the Turkish baths spread about the area. It was a shame that this wasn’t a vacation where he could steal away with Justin for some quality time lounging in the hot baths before even better naked time spent in their hotel room. Even though the ultraconservative sentiment raging through the country at that time required them to get separate rooms just to be on the safe side.

  It was probably for the best. As it was, his body was still a knot of aches and pains. His i
njuries from his encounter with his cousin and his fucking lackeys in Berlin seemed to be healing too damn slowly. After killing his uncle Filip and quickly retreating to Germany, Gabriel had thought that he was in the clear—and safe. He’d been too damn lazy and overconfident. He couldn’t take that risk now with Justin at his side. Getting rid of his family might be his priority, but he would not take unnecessary risks that put Justin’s life in danger.

  They’d opted for a hotel in a more liberal neighborhood, in the flatter Pest side of Budapest but were walking around the hilly districts of Buda for a little sightseeing while waiting to hear back from Marilyn. Somehow her contact had gotten a look at his uncle’s schedule, and he was supposed to be meeting with Jozsef Dkany, a businessman who’d built his fortune through tight relations with those in power in the government. He was currently head of the recently formed Duna Media, which oversaw the state-run television, radio, and newspapers. Gabriel dreaded to think what his uncle might be up to if Dkany was meeting with someone who was tightly connected to the Russian government. Nothing good, he was sure.

  “You’re scowling,” Justin observed, sitting across from him at the same table in the coffee house. “I’m going to guess that it has nothing to do with your coffee since you haven’t taken a drink yet.”

  Gabriel sighed. He hadn’t even noticed that the server had dropped off their coffee and pastries. Ruszwurm was his favorite coffee house in the castle district. The baroque coffee house was one of the oldest in Budapest and had some of the best pastries in the city. It was small, making it nearly impossible to get into during the summer when it was overrun with tourists. But the place was pleasantly empty for a late winter morning.

  “I’m worried about what my uncle and father are plotting. It cannot be good for the Hungarian people, or I’m guessing, for the rest of the EU.”

  Justin made a tsking sound as he reached for his cup of rich, dark coffee. He took a sip and happily sighed, which helped to distract Gabriel from his worries for a second. He’d begun to wonder if Justin was something of a foodie considering his unique expertise in cooking and now the coffee. Hungarian coffee was heavily influenced by the Turks, thanks to the long occupation, and the dark, rich coffee wasn’t to the taste of most people. Seeing Justin basking in a moment of food-induced pleasure was enough to make Gabriel temporarily forget about his scheming father.