Justin looked back up at Nadia, his brow furrowed. “The apartment would have less security, right?”
“The apartment itself I believe has less than the house, but I’ve only been there a few times. The entire building is extremely secure. Plus it’s in the middle of the city. You may have an easy time getting in…”
“But it’d be a bear to escape alive,” Justin finished. He then looked over at Gabriel and nudged him with his elbow. “Get it? A Russian bear.”
“Don’t,” Gabriel warned, but he was struggling not to smile when faced with Justin’s goofy grin.
“Come on. Give Papa Bear a little Russian growl.”
“You know, I’ve been waiting for months for the Russian bear jokes.”
Justin grinned, bumping his nose against Gabriel’s. “I’ve been saving them for a special occasion.”
A little snort came from across the room, and they both looked up to see Nadia covering her mouth, but there was still laughter in her eyes. Gabriel cleared his throat and looked back at the book, but he could see Justin still smiling at his sister.
“I drive him crazy,” Justin said proudly.
“I believe you,” she said. Gabriel looked up at Nadia, but she was still watching Justin with a curious expression. “You’re not at all who I would have expected to catch my brother. I thought he would be with someone as serious as he is.”
“Thank goodness that didn’t happen. I’m only serious about keeping him happy—and safe.” Justin’s voice dropped and became cold on the final two words. It didn’t need to be said. It was all there in his look, in his voice. If she was fucking them over, if anything happened to Gabriel, Justin would spend the rest of his life hunting her down.
She nodded solemnly. “I’m glad he has you.”
“Back to the house, are all your notes about the cameras current?” Gabriel said, pulling the conversation to their planning. He didn’t want to soften toward his sister more than he already had.
“As of Christmas. I was at the house for Christmas and I double-checked. I also spoke with the head of Nicolai’s security team. Said I was worried about an increase in attacks on his life. The stupid man gave me full details of all that he’d upgraded and changed.”
“And you’re sure he was telling the truth?”
Nadia narrowed her eyes on him. “The man wants to fuck me. He was trying to prove that he’s doing a good job of keeping Nicolai alive so he can get in my panties.”
“Lovely,” Gabriel muttered while Justin snickered at his discomfort.
“I’ll give you my key to his house. The code to the security system is written in the book.” She took a deep, shaky breath and looked at her brother. “If you use this code, you must kill him. That code is specifically assigned to me. He will know I helped you.”
Gabriel understood. Both her life and Alexei’s were forfeit if he failed. He might not be sure how he felt about Nadia, but he didn’t want anyone to hurt Alexei.
“We will end Nicolai Krestyanov. I promise,” Gabriel said.
“I need you to promise me one more thing. I know I don’t have a right to ask anything of you, but I don’t care,” she quickly said before he could argue with her. “If anything happens to me after Nicolai’s death, old enemies trying to clean house, I don’t know…” She paused and took a deep breath. “I want you to promise me that you will take in Alexei.”
Gabriel looked over at Justin who looked equally panicked by the suggestion. He understood Nadia’s worry. There was no doubt that their father had made enough enemies during his time that some people might think it was a good idea to get rid of all his spawn so she couldn’t grab any power when the struggle began.
But to suddenly have a child. Especially an eleven-year-old boy who was heading into his teen years with an enthusiasm to take on the whole damn world. Gabriel had never considered having children. Never thought such as thing would be a part of his life. He wouldn’t even begin to know how to raise Alexei or give him what he needed.
“I…I don’t know. I don’t think it’s necessary.”
“Gabriel, you can’t say no,” she said forcefully. “He needs you. Needs you both. Especially if I’m not around.”
Justin surprised him by reaching over and threading his fingers through Gabriel’s. He lifted their joined hands together and kissed his fingers. “We’ve got this.” He then looked over at Nadia. “You’re going to be fine, but if something horrible should happen, we would be happy to have him in our home and our family.”
“Thank you,” she whispered brokenly. She got up and walked over to a side table that held a box of tissues.
While she wiped her eyes, Gabriel looked over at Justin. “Are you sure?” he whispered.
“Yep. No doubts.” He kissed him softly and then smiled. “Besides, you don’t wanna argue with a momma bear.”
Gabriel could only shake his head as he thumbed to the back of the book and tore out a blank page. Grabbing a pen that had been left on the coffee table, he quickly scratched out a phone number and handed the paper over to Nadia when she returned to her seat.
“This number is for emergencies only. We may be difficult to reach for a while, but Marilyn knows how to get a hold of Justin or me. When things become quiet and safe, I’ll reach out with our usual contact information.”
“Thank you,” she said as she accepted the number. “I’ve got plans in place to help us both escape, but I just want to know that he’s got somewhere safe if things go wrong.”
“You’re welcome. And thank you…for this,” Gabriel said awkwardly, holding up the journal. He wasn’t sure he could trust it all, but it gave him and Justin a critical starting point from which to make plans as they traveled to Moscow.
They sat quietly for a moment. Justin took the journal back and started thumbing through the pages. Gabriel wanted to smile, seeing that the Russian written language didn’t seem to be slowing his lover up one bit. He was looking for the day when life grew quiet enough that he could finally start pulling all the secrets out of the man beside him.
But for now, it would have to wait. There was something else nagging his thoughts.
“When we caught up to Uncle Sacha in Budapest,” Gabriel started slowly. “We found something he’d written on a piece of paper.”
“What was it?”
“Maryska.”
Nadia stiffened in her chair and her expression pinched. “Our mother’s name? That was all?”
“Yes. Do you know if anyone else in our family has had dealings with someone by that name?”
“No,” she said quickly and then again with a shake of her head. “I don’t know anyone else by that name. It’s a unique name. Why? Why would he write that?”
“I don’t know.”
Nadia pushed out of her chair and paced across the living room, her arms wrapped tightly around her middle as if she were suddenly cold. Gabriel understood the feeling all too well. The ghost of their dead mother left a chill that wouldn’t let them go.
“Nadia…is our mother still alive?”
“What? No!” she answered sharply, as if out of reflex. But then her face grew paler as she stared at Gabriel. He could guess the route her mind was taking, wondering if it was possible. They’d both been away at school at the time, not even allowed to return home for the funeral. Never saw a body. Just told she was gone.
She shook her head and then paced back to her chair. Slowly easing down into it with a trembling hand, she looked over Gabriel. “What are you thinking? That she faked her death to escape Father?”
“Look at how hard you both are trying to escape him?” Justin pointed out.
“But why didn’t she take us with her? He’s a monster. Or at least you? You both were always so close.”
Gabriel pressed his lips together for a moment, trying to organize his thoughts. It was the same question that kept coming back to him. “I don’t think he would have let her escape if she tried to take one or both of us. She would have known that.”
> “The other option is that he sent her away and told the world that she was dead,” Justin added.
“Or she truly is dead,” Gabriel said.
“I…I don’t know. The only thing that comes to mind is that Father asked if any of Mother’s family had contacted me recently. They hadn’t. I thought the question was a little odd since I hadn’t heard from any of her family in years, but he’d asked around Christmas, so I just thought it had something to do with the holidays.”
“Well, there’s likely only one person who truly knows, and we’re headed to see him,” Justin said. “I guess we’ll find out then.”
“And if not and she is alive, she may be more willing to contact us after Nicolai is dead,” Nadia added with a small, hopeful note in her voice.
Before they could discuss the possibility of Maryska still being alive, the front door opened, and Alexei jogged into the room, followed closely by the bodyguard. Any worries quickly evaporated at the sight of the wide smile across his face.
“Please Mother, tell me you and Uncle Gabriel and Uncle Justin”—he paused and gave Justin a wink—“have solved all the world’s problems so we can go to lunch.” He leaned over the back of the chair, wrapping his arms around his mother’s neck while placing his cheek to the top of her head. “I’m starving.”
“Lunch sounds fantastic,” Gabriel said.
Russia could wait. His mother could wait. And their father could wait. This might be his last chance to spend time with Alexei, and he wanted to enjoy it with the man he loved beside him.
Later that night, they would figure out how to take down the last of the Krestyanov empire.
Chapter 15
Justin rubbed his tired, burning eyes and tried to focus on their surroundings as Gabriel deftly drove through Moscow. It was fucking cold and gray. He was already missing Mykonos. The weather had been sunny and temperate. His bed partner had also been less grumpy and warmer.
But he wasn’t surprised by Gabriel’s growing uneasiness since they boarded the charter plane back to the Ukraine. From there, they “borrowed” a car and drove north to Belarus before crossing the border where he still had some contacts who were happy to forget their faces for a stack of cash.
The truth was that they were both exhausted and running on fumes from days on the road, poor sleep, and too many close calls they were still healing from.
Justin closed his eyes for a moment and ran through the calendar in his head. It had been exactly two weeks ago that he recovered Gabriel from that hellhole in Germany. Fuck…Patrick’s warning while they were in Vienna. How long ago had his three-day grace period ended? He inwardly cringed and nearly cursed out loud. That ended the same day they were attacked at Grunt’s. But those hadn’t been CIA men. He was sure of it. Every time they spoke, it had been in Russian. Patrick wouldn’t have gone to those lengths, right?
He scrubbed a hand through his hair in frustration. Would the CIA frame another nationality while trying to gun someone down? He snorted and he heard Gabriel shift in his seat next to him. Did a duck quack?
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
They needed to get this done. Everything had been quiet while they were on Mykonos, but then Justin had never been to the Greek islands before. There was relatively little chance of him being recognized.
But now they were back on the Continent, running wild through Russia. He was undoubtedly pissing off people they couldn’t afford to piss off.
“I went to an underground club there,” Gabriel announced. His voice barely reached above the rumble of the car engine. Justin opened his eyes and looked at where Gabriel pointed. They were sitting at an intersection, waiting for the light to change, and Gabriel had indicated what looked to be a narrow alley. “I was home from school. Sixteen, I think. My last year before joining the military. I ran with this group of guys who were from other powerful families. Drank and danced and caused damage wherever we went.” He frowned and gave a little shake of his head. “I fucked three different women in that alley.”
“Really?” Justin sat up a little more in his seat, stunned by Gabriel’s announcement. He’d always seemed to hint that he knew he was gay from a relatively young age. “Were you curious?”
Gabriel gave Justin a self-disgusted look. “Peer pressure. I knew they expected me to, so I did. If I didn’t, they would have asked too many questions. Rumors would have started.”
“Fuck…”
“Yeah,” Gabriel said with a sigh. A hint of a smile returned as he touched the gas and continued down the road. “The only reason I was able to stay hard was thanks to this one guy, Vlad. He would stand right next to me and fucking jerk off while I fucked the woman. He had a very nice looking dick, and I would imagine that it was him I was sliding into.”
“Still sucks.”
“Those last couple of years before getting shipped off, drinking and fighting were the only ways I stayed sane. Even at school. If I was conscious, I was very likely buzzed, if not drunk. I was drunk the night I beat one of my so-called friends to death. He made a joke about being a fag, so I bashed his head in. Nicolai had to cover it up, pay off the family.”
“What did your father say?”
Gabriel made a sound of disgust in the back of his throat. “Said I needed to clean up my own messes. He wasn’t pissed about the murder. When I explained what he said, he agreed with my reaction. Said the little shit deserved to die. In his own way, I think he was proud of me. Was sure I had the bloodthirsty instincts needed to take over his empire when he died.”
“And instead, you’re now taking apart his empire—one sick bastard at a time.”
Gabriel didn’t respond. He seemed to sink deeper into his own dark memories from his youth. Justin was sure they needed to get out of the damn country as quickly as possible. Not just because they had targets on their backs everywhere they went, but because the place was not good for Gabriel’s peace of mind. Justin’s wasn’t a whole lot better, but his memories of Russia were fewer, and at least they all took place when he was an adult.
“This isn’t your first trip to Moscow, correct?” Gabriel suddenly asked.
Justin swallowed hard and shifted in his seat. “No. I’ve been here before.”
Gabriel glanced over, his smile turning a little sly. “You were not here for a vacation…”
Justin smiled back at Gabriel. His accent was growing thicker with each passing day. It had started when he was talking to his sister. The increased use of Russian and the contact with his family seemed to be bringing out hints of the man he’d once been. It was interesting as well as incredibly unsettling. The little bits he’d learned about the Russian assassin he had been were of a cold, ruthless man. He knew that in watching Gabriel stalk and kill members of his own family, but now he was a sleek panther prowling his old territory, looking to take down the current alpha male.
“No, I had some missions that took me into Russia a couple of times.”
“For the CIA.”
“Yes. I mostly operated within Eastern Europe.”
“That would explain why you’re able to read and understand Russian so well. I wonder…”
“What?”
Gabriel kept his gaze on the road as the traffic grew thicker. It was midafternoon and people were hurrying about to jobs or run errands. They were all heavily bundled against the biting cold. No one seemed to look at or even acknowledge that there were other people around them. Just keeping their heads down and hurrying to their destinations.
“What?” Justin repeated.
“I wonder if you were ever a target that came up for me. When we met in Cincinnati, your face was not familiar, so I don’t think our paths crossed.”
“But I wonder how close we came,” Justin said as if finishing Gabriel’s thought. “Did you operate out of Moscow?”
“No, I was lucky to be sent out of Russia for most of my time with the SVR. Because of who my father was, they thought I could be trusted outside of the motherland. I mostly bounced between Lo
ndon and Prague.”
Justin grinned. “Budapest and Vienna.”
Gabriel returned his grin. “We were so close. Hours away from each other.”
“Lying and killing for our countries.”
Gabriel huffed a laugh and looked back at the road. “It is probably better that we never met. I would have killed you.”
Justin snorted. “You would have tried.”
“That building there on the left with the gold doors.”
Justin twisted in his seat to take in the massive gray stone building with the gaudy gold doors and elegant burgundy awning. “You mean the one with the small army.”
There were at least six security guards with uzis standing out front, and Justin was willing to bet that there were several more standing around the lobby.
“That’s the building where Nicolai keeps his mistress. I think Nadia’s notes said that he’s up on the twenty-first floor.”
Craning his neck so that he could look out the window toward the sky, Justin did a quick count of floors using the windows. “That would put him near the top. A rooftop entrance is a possibility, but it would be damn hard to get up there in the first place.”
“I’m inclined to believe Nadia’s suggestion that hitting this location would not be the smartest choice,” Gabriel said, and Justin wanted to laugh. He sounded as if he would rather give up his balls than admit that his sister had given them good information.
After lunch with Nadia and Alexei in Mykonos, they’d spent the rest of that day poring over the journal, discussing the notes she’d made and debating their options. Hitting Nicolai at work had never been an option as far as Justin knew. That was simply suicide. But Gabriel had been unwilling to take Nicolai’s apartment off the list until they drove by and actually saw it, confirming that Nadia had been telling them the truth.
“That leaves us with two other choices—hitting him while he’s in transit between home and the office or hitting him at home.”
A look of disgust crossed Gabriel’s face. “I don’t like either option. Why can’t he simply meet me at a warehouse or an empty field?”
The Exit Strategy Bundle Page 41