The Exit Strategy Bundle

by Jocelynn Drake

  Still smiling, Gabriel blinked back tears that glistened in his eyes. “You are my heart and soul.”

  “Then marry me. Be mine forever, and I promise to always be yours.”

  Gabriel pulled away slightly as if he were trying to get a better view of Justin. “Are you serious?”

  Justin huffed a little laugh and reached into his pocket with his right hand. When he presented his palm to Gabriel, there was an elegant silver ring there. “I figured out a month ago that I needed to marry you, but I was trying to think of the perfect romantic moment. Something like dancing under the stars on a warm summer night.” Gabriel shook his head, chuckling. “But then you got shot and I figured, fuck romance. I better marry you before one of us gets shot again.”

  “I have no intention of getting shot again.”

  “I don’t know what kind of life we’re going to have together. Whether we’re going to continue doing these jobs until we both end up dead.”

  “Or maybe we adopt a bunch of adorable kids like Jake,” Gabriel suggested softly.

  Justin nodded, swallowing hard against the lump that had formed in his throat. “Yeah, our own family with a bunch of kids would be pretty amazing,” he said, his voice becoming hoarse with emotion. “Or maybe we start a school to train other little assassins. I don’t fucking care. The only thing, the only person I need on this adventure is you.”

  “And all I need is you.”

  Justin cocked his head a little and narrowed his eyes on Gabriel. “Is that a yes to the world’s most unromantic proposal?”

  “Yes, my answer to your question is yes. Marry me, please.”

  With trembling fingers, Justin slid the ring onto Gabriel’s finger. He kissed him hard, his heart nearly pounding out of his chest. This. He never thought he’d have this. Sure, a proposal in a hospital wasn’t what anyone would dream of, but he was going to make sure Gabriel had the perfect honeymoon.

  Chapter 21

  Gabriel reached up and straightened the knot in his dark-red tie for the second time before smoothing his hands down the tie and white shirt. It felt strange not wearing black, but today was not a day for black. He leaned a little closer to the mirror, inspecting his shave. He’d scraped the whiskers from his jaw, leaving behind only a tight mustache and goatee that surrounded his mouth. Justin liked the new look, claiming it made him look like a wicked villain with a plot to take over the world. He might be right, but all Gabriel’s evil plots involved Justin and his sexy body.

  It had been two months since the shooting in Washington and for the most part, he was healed. He still got twinges of pain in his abdomen as he moved, but Gabriel was sure that would continue until he strengthened his core muscles again. They’d spent those months together at home. For a while, Justin had been determined to keep Gabriel in bed, but with some convincing, he finally allowed Gabriel to climb back into a normal routine. They even finished the guest bathroom and enjoyed breaking in the new, larger shower.

  “There’s my sexy man,” Justin purred. Gabriel looked up in the mirror to see Justin standing in the doorway with a smile. He was wearing dark slacks, a white shirt, and a beautiful blue tie that brought out the blue of his eyes.

  Gabriel turned, taking in the sight of the man as he crossed the room. Justin looked healthier, more at ease than he had in months. As Gabriel regained his strength, Justin was more at peace with life.

  “You’re looking pretty sharp as well.”

  Justin stopped a few inches away and brushed a sweet kiss across his lips. He quickly stepped back again as if he didn’t trust himself. Gabriel felt the same way. He wanted to plunge his hands into Justin’s perfectly styled blond hair and hold him still while he kissed him senseless. “I just popped by to tell you that our guests have arrived.”

  “Do you think they’re going to be upset we didn’t warn them ahead of time?”

  Justin paused and gave a shrug. “Don’t care. This is our day.”

  Gabriel rolled his eyes at his retreating back before following him out to the living room. The dogs were stretched out on their beds and everything remained quiet for another couple of seconds. And then Alexei burst through the door, full of his usual light and energy. Gabriel’s heart swelled to see that he was in his full glory. Beautifully styled makeup highlighted his soft features, and his clothes were awash in colors.

  He paused long enough to give Justin a quick hug before he ran to Gabriel, throwing his slender body against Gabriel’s in a tight hug. Gabriel adored his twelve-year-old nephew. The boy had been through so much already in his short life and showed amazing inner strength and resilience. He was going to grow up to do so many wonderful things, Gabriel just knew it.

  “Uncle Gabriel! I’ve missed you so much!” he exclaimed, gripping Gabriel like he meant to never let him go. “I wish you lived in Paris with me and Mom. You would love it there, and we could see each other all the time.”

  A lump grew in his throat at Alexei’s sweet words. Other than Justin, there had never been anyone in his life who missed him, who wished he was close at all times.

  “Justin and I will try to come to Paris more often. We’re just glad that you’re here now. We can have a nice long visit.”

  The plan was for Nadia and Alexei to stay with them through December so they could celebrate the Christmas holiday as a family for the first time. They were planning all the usual winter events like ice skating, sledding, snowball fights, and decorating for the holidays. All things that Gabriel couldn’t recall ever having as a child and things that Justin had far too infrequently growing up.

  Alexei released Gabriel and took a step back. The dogs had come alive with the newcomer. They were racing around Alexei and Gabriel, barking happily and sniffing the boy. Alexei laughed, finally taking a moment to look around the living room, the dogs, and then Gabriel.

  “You’re very fancy for vacation.” He turned and looked at Justin who was standing near the front door. “So are you.” When he twisted to Gabriel, he furrowed his brow. “What are you up to?”

  “Justin and I have a surprise for you and your mother.” Gabriel’s own brow furrowed as he glanced at the door. He would have thought his sister Nadia would be right behind her son. “Speaking of, where is she? How did you beat her here from the airport?”

  Alexei giggled. “No. I ran ahead from the car. She’s bringing a surprise with her.”

  Gabriel looked over at Justin, who was no longer able to meet his eye. “Did you know about this?”

  “She might have called me before they left Paris to give a warning,” Justin admitted.

  “Why didn’t I get a warning? She’s my sister.”

  Justin lifted his eyes to Gabriel and there was such tender warmth and love in his smile that it took Gabriel’s breath away. “Because the surprise is for you.”

  “Does she know about our surprise?”

  Justin shook his head.

  Gabriel wanted to admonish his lover that they were not supposed to be keeping secrets from each other anymore, but his sister walked through the door. She didn’t appear quite as vibrant and excited as her son. In fact, she looked like she could use a comfortable chair and a stiff drink. Of course, they’d spent the better part of two days traveling from Paris. They’d made a stopover the prior day in New York City, apparently for a little holiday shopping and a break, before flying today to Denver.

  “Nadia, should I ask what surprise…”

  Gabriel’s voice trailed off when an older woman followed Nadia into the house. She looked familiar. So familiar. Her dark hair was liberally sprinkled with gray, and lines stretched out from dark eyes and around her mouth. But her posture was so straight and perfect, like she was used to a life of being on display, like she was accustomed to bearing a great weight on her shoulders without ever showing it.

  “Mother,” he whispered when he could finally draw air into his lungs. He wanted to go to her, to grab her and pull her close, but he was sure that if he moved, his knees would simply g
ive out beneath him.

  “My handsome boy,” she said in a choked voice. The same voice he remembered from his childhood. His mother. Maryska Krestyanov was alive, and she was standing in his living room. She took one hesitant step toward him, and it finally broke through Gabriel’s own frozen stance. He crossed the room in three long strides and pulled her tightly against him with a broken sob.

  She was alive. Oh God, his mother truly was alive.

  When he’d found that one little note written by his uncle so many months ago, he’d been too afraid to hope. He’d been sure it was a trick or a trap to catch him and finally kill him. Losing her as a child had broken the last of the softness and love inside of him for the longest time. Ivan had briefly rekindled that fire, but he hadn’t truly loved again until he met Justin.

  But now he had her in his arms again. Gabriel pressed his face to her shoulder and cried. Tears washed away years of pain and anger and quickly became tears of relief and joy.

  When he could wrangle his ragged emotions together, he could hear her whispering to him in Russian. It took him a moment, but he realized the words were a lullaby she sang to him as a child whenever he was upset or hurting. She remembered.

  Slowly he lifted his face from her shoulder and looked at her. Her smile was tremulous as tears streaked her own soft face. She reached up and cupped his cheeks.

  “I knew you would be the most handsome boy when you grew up,” she said with pride. But the joy seemed to fade. “I’m so sorry, my love. So, so sorry.”

  “No.” Gabriel shook his head. “No. You don’t have anything to be sorry about. I-I just don’t understand. How? How are you here? Now?”

  Maryska turned her head and Gabriel followed her gaze to a silently crying Nadia, who was holding Alexei against her side.

  “I couldn’t let it go,” Nadia said. “Once you put the thought in my head that she might be alive, I simply couldn’t stop thinking about how she might have escaped and where she could have gone. Once Alexei and I were settled in Paris and safe, I started doing some research. A little digging. I had some help.” She looked over at Justin who was red-faced.

  “You helped her? And you didn’t tell me?” Gabriel demanded, his voice rising.

  Justin winced and lifted one hand, holding his index finger and thumb about an inch apart. “Just a little. A tiny bit of hacking. A couple of phone calls. That was all.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “This was when Devlin and Jake were here. I didn’t want to distract you, and Nadia really didn’t have much to go on yet. We didn’t want to get your hopes up.”

  “You should have told me!”

  “Gabriel!” Maryska said sharply. Gabriel instantly stiffened and looked back at his mother. Her stern look almost instantly softened, and she repeated his name as if tasting it again on her tongue. It was the first time she’d said his name. “Gabriel. I like that name. Much better than Viktor.” She paused and gave another little smile. “My strong boy. You don’t need to control everything. I am here now.”

  “Yes, but…how?”

  “G, how about you sit down with Nadia and your mother? I’ll get them something to drink. They’ve been traveling all day,” Justin suggested.

  Gabriel could only nod as he led his mother over to the closest sofa. He didn’t relinquish his grip on her thin arm. He couldn’t bring himself to not hold her, as if he were afraid she’d disappear in a puff of smoke.

  When the three of them were seated on the sofas and Alexei was standing by his mother, Maryska took both of his hands in hers. “I’m so sorry, my sweet boy. I faked my death so many years ago. I…I had begun to fear that your father meant to kill me. We disagreed on how to raise you and your sister. I didn’t like how he was treating you both. I think…I think he noticed you were different, and he blamed my influence on you.” She paused and placed her hand against his cheek. “I’m sorry. I wanted to take you with me. Wanted you both with me, but I knew your father would never allow it. I thought if I disappeared, he would simply let me go. There was no love between us. There never had been. But if I took you with me…”

  “He’d hunt you down for the rest of your life until he finally had us back. He would have killed you for taking us.”

  She nodded and quickly wiped at her eyes. “I thought you might be safer without me around. That life might be easier, but your sister told me that your father only grew worse. I’m sorry. I should have stayed.”

  “No!” Gabriel spoke sharply. “As you said, he would have killed you if you had stayed. You wouldn’t be sitting here right now with me.”

  “Wouldn’t have gotten the chance to meet your grandson,” Nadia quickly added.

  Maryska took a deep breath and slowly released it as she looked over at her daughter. “True. I would not want to have missed meeting your amazing child for anything.” She turned her gaze to Gabriel, her dark-brown eyes so sad. “But I never wanted to give you a moment of pain.”

  “I know,” Gabriel said. He leaned close and pressed a kiss to her soft cheek. Her perfume wafted across his nose, and the lump returned to his throat. The same light, flowery scent from his childhood.

  Clearing his throat, he looked over at his sister. “How did you find her? I thought we agreed to wait to see if she would contact us after father’s death.”

  Nadia gave a dismissive wave of her hand. “You know I hate to wait. That hasn’t changed just because I got older.”

  Gabriel could only nod. “That is true.” He glanced over Nadia’s shoulder to where Alexei was standing behind her spot on the other sofa. The boy mouthed, Very true, and gave an extravagant eye roll that had Gabriel struggling not to laugh.

  “I just started doing research, looking into where she could have easily gone based on where she was when she ‘died.’ I also looked at people I knew that she was close to and people that Father didn’t trust. Justin helped with a little of the digging when I ran into trouble.”

  As if on cue, Justin walked back into the room and placed glasses of ice water in front of Maryska and Nadia on the coffee table.

  “It seemed like a long shot, and I didn’t want to get your hopes up if it all turned out to be nothing. I didn’t see any reason in causing you more pain and heartache,” Justin said. “If we had anything that looked sound, I was going to tell you.”

  Gabriel waved at his mother. “This is pretty sound if you ask me,” he said but made sure that Justin could hear the teasing in his voice. He hated being left out of the loop, but he couldn’t say that he wasn’t overjoyed with the results.

  Justin threw his hands up. “She didn’t tell me!”

  “I didn’t. I got a lead. Alexei and I went on a little adventure.”

  “Where?”

  “They found me living in Greece. A cute little town just south of Athens.”

  Gabriel looked over at his sister and she shook her head in disgust. “All those years of vacationing in Mykonos,” she muttered. “Flying in and out of Athens. She was so close, and we didn’t even know it.”

  “When Nadia showed up on my doorstep this summer, I had no idea that your father was dead. I’d lost all contact with that world,” Maryska admitted.

  “Doesn’t matter,” Gabriel announced with a little laugh. “You’re here now. That’s what is most important to me.”

  Justin cleared his throat and Gabriel looked up at him to find his fiancé looking pointedly from him to his mother. Fuck!

  Gabriel leaped to his feet to stand next to Justin. He placed a shaking hand on Justin’s lower back and cleared his throat. She looked up at Gabriel and Justin with a wide, bright smile, like she knew exactly what he was going to say. Gabriel felt like his heart was going to explode in his chest in a mix of old fears and pride and love.

  “Mother, I would like to introduce you to Justin Mallory, my fiancé. Justin, this is my mother, Maryska Krestyanov.”

  Justin was reaching for Maryska’s hand when Nadia’s sharp squawk made them all jump.
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  “Fiancé! When did this happen?” she demanded.

  Gabriel glared at his sister for a second before watching Justin bend down as he gallantly took Maryska’s extended hand in both of his. “It is an honor to meet you, ma’am. Gabriel has told me so much about you.”

  “And I am looking forward to getting to know the man who apparently calls my son G Love,” Maryska replied.

  A loud bark of laughter escaped Justin, and then he placed a loud kiss on her cheek. “Yes, he is my G Love. Always.”

  “He proposed two months ago, and I wisely said yes,” Gabriel said.

  Alexei squealed and shouted, doing a little dance in the background. Both his mother and sister smiled, looking as if they were going to start crying.

  “When are you getting married? Is it going to be in a church? Or a fancy outdoor wedding? Can we come? Please say we can come!” Alexei asked in rapid fire.

  Justin looked over at Gabriel and flashed his most devilish grin. Gabriel gave a little laugh.

  “In reverse order, yes, you are invited. It’s going to be a small, private ceremony outside. And the wedding is in about fifteen minutes.”

  “What?” Nadia and Alexei demanded in unison.

  The dogs started barking and raced toward the door. Justin gave Gabriel a wink. “I think that’s Jess and the rest of our guests. You answer their questions, and I’ll go get the door.”

  “Coward!” Gabriel called after Justin as he darted for the front door.

  “Are you serious, Gabriel? Are you getting married now?” Maryska asked. She reached out a hand toward him and he quickly grabbed it. There was a part of his brain still struggling with the idea that his mother was sitting right in front of him after all these years.

  “Yes. Justin and I don’t want a big ceremony, and we don’t have many friends. When Nadia and Alexei settled on a date for a visit, we decided that we would get married here during their visit. We also discovered that our neighbor and dear friend Jess is licensed to perform marriages. She has agreed to marry us.”