And to think that he had been the one to make her laugh. He felt nine feet tall at that thought. He felt like he had a sort of lien on her laughter. He made up his mind then to make her laugh even more, regardless of how much her laughter affected him. It was too beautiful a sight to keep bottled up.
When they finished eating, they got up to leave and his mother appeared. She must have been watching for them.
“I hope you enjoyed your meal?” she said to Tamika.
Then to his surprise, Tamika reached for his mother and gave her a hug. “Everything was delicious. Thank you very much.”
He saw the light in his mother’s eyes and in that instant, he fell a little in love with Tamika.
“It was my pleasure, honey,” she said, returning the hug. Next she turned to Nico and pulled him into a hug then said in Russian, “I don’t care what you say, she is The One.”
He sighed, “The One, Mama?”
“Yes. She will make me babushka.”
He shook his head and stepped back. “Goodbye, Mama,” he said in English.
“Bring her for dinner at the house tomorrow,” she called after them.
Nico didn’t bother to reply. It was not like she’d been asking a question anyway. He knew an order when he heard one.
“What was she saying?” Tamika asked once they were climbing down the stairs.
“That you’re in love with me,” he replied without thinking.
“What? She didn’t say that!” she said, hitting him on the arm.
Nico laughed. They got to the foot of the stairs, which was deserted. He drew her close and kissed her soundly. “Thank you for a lovely afternoon,” he murmured against her lips.
She looked at him with eyes that were filled with different conflicting emotions. He read caring in them, but he also read fear and confusion. They were all emotions he could relate with. He knew he was beginning to develop feelings for her, but he was not sure if he could trust what he was feeling. So as he usually did, he hid his thoughts behind a joke.
“What? Why the silence? Oh I know, you’ve been struck with awe for me. It’s alright. I understand.” Then he patted her head.
As he expected, her expression changed instantly. She looked extremely irritated. “If you value your life, don’t pat my head like that again,” she said.
He kept an innocent expression on his face. “You mean like this?” And he patted her head once more.
She growled.
He couldn’t help it, he laughed and quickly stepped away from within her range. “So aggressive, mi reina.” he teased, walking into the main hall of the restaurant.
She rolled her eyes and followed him, a smile teasing her lips.
Katerina watched them leave, her heart light and filled with joy. These two did not realize it yet, but they were already half way to being in love with each other. Tamika was good for her Kolya. He was always a solemn one, taking things too much to heart. She loved how lighthearted he was with the girl. Now she just had to make sure they did not mess things up. Very soon, they would give her grandkids and make her a Babushka, a grandmother.
With a spring to her step, she began to sing, “Tonight, tonight, tonight, I’m walking on air.”
Chapter Twenty-four
Soho, New York City. The next day.
Ryan stared at the woman curled up on the couch, staring blankly at the TV set. He glanced at the screen, it was blank. It had not been turned on, yet she stared with such rapt attention like she was watching her favorite TV show.
They had arrived in New York City that morning and were in one of the Silver Shield safe houses, which was really an apartment in a high security building in Soho. Rusty was locked up in his room fiddling with his computers, as usual. Drew would be arriving the next day and Emily had gone off for a meeting.
He had just taken a walk through the building, to be sure that there were no suspicious characters lurking around. Standing just inside the door, she had not seen him yet. As he watched, she wrapped her arms around her and a lone tear fell from her eye and rolled down the creamy smoothness of her cheek.
He started to retreat, not wanting to intrude on her privacy. Then he paused. He could not turn his back on a woman in distress, even if she looked so much like the woman that had made his life miserable since he’d joined Silver Shield Security. Particularly not when she looked so broken. He debated what to do and when he saw several more tears fall from her eyes, he knew that he did not have much of a choice. With a sigh, he walked into the living room and sat beside her on the sofa.
Her upper arm, where she’d been shot was bandaged up. He wanted to ask her if it hurt so much, but felt it would be considered presumptuous considering they were more or less strangers.
As soon as she noticed him, she brushed away the tears from her face but did not acknowledge him. Aside from when they were introduced, they had not spoken to each other. He racked his brain for what to say, then decided to treat this the same way he did with his sister whenever she was distressed about something.
“We will get your kid back,” he said gruffly, taking a guess that it was the source of her distress.
She turned to face him then and he was taken aback by how striking she was. Her skin was so smooth and looked like it would feel silky to touch. She lifted tear drenched doe eyes to him and he almost drowned in their depths.
“How can you know that?” she asked in a soft voice. “Cruz, my ex…he’s going to hurt my daughter just to get to me.” A few more tears rolled down her cheeks and she brushed them away impatiently.
He got the impression that she was not a woman who liked to cry. He gazed intently at her, willing her to understand what he was trying to say.
“I can’t know what Cruz will do,” he said gently, “but I do know what the folks here are capable of doing. If they say they are going to get your kid out, then you’d better believe them.”
He thought about how they’d pulled out his sister right from that den of hell where she’d been sold. Sold! In the United States of America. A citizen had been sold for sex sport. If it had not happened to his sister, he would have had a hard time believing it.
“How are you so sure?”
He thought about how they had saved Sierra from a corrupt US Senator who had already murdered her family. Sierra was the younger sister of his best friend. They had been inseparable as kids and had joined the navy together. They had also begun SEAL training on the same day and had been on the same mission that had taken his life and left Ryan with PTSD.
He thought about all the other missions they’d been on, like the one where they’d had to rescue a teenage popstar from kidnappers or the one where they had protected their client from a murderous spouse. There were so many cases he could have shared with her, but in the end, he decided to tell her about his sister, mostly because those other cases were classified, but more because this one was personal to him.
He narrated what had happened to his sister doing his best to let her know the lengths the guys would go to complete a mission. They never accepted defeat. When he was done, he was rewarded by the hope shining from her large brown eyes.
“Then they can get my Mira,” she said with a slow nod.
“Mira. Is that your daughter’s name?”
She smiled then and he could swear that his heart missed a beat. “Yes. It’s really Miranda, but we just call her Mira.”
“Do you have any pictures?” He knew that parents loved sharing pictures of their kids and it would take her mind off other things. More than that though, he really did want to see what the little one looked like.
She brought out her phone. “I’m so lucky Cruz’s goon didn’t get the phone when they snatched my bag,” she said, scrolling through her phone.
She held it out to him and he saw the picture of a little girl with a thick head of jet black curly hair and large brown eyes filled with mischief. She was smiling at the camera and it was clear that she adored whoever was taking the photo, mos
t likely her mother.
“She’s beautiful,” he said sincerely.
He stared at the picture and there was a dull ache somewhere in the region of his chest. He rubbed at it absently, wondering why the picture of an adorable little girl would get to him so much. It occurred to him then that he would be turning thirty-six that year. He had never been in love, had never even been in a meaningful relationship. He had no idea if he would ever settle down and have a sweet little kid like the one whose picture he was currently staring at.
“She’s my life,” the woman said simply.
“We’ll get her back, Keisha,” he said, and this time he was making a personal promise.
She gazed into his eyes for several moments and something passed between them. Then she looked away and nodded slowly.
“Why did you call me that?”
“It is your name, isn’t it?”
She nodded. “Yeah. But, nobody calls me that anymore. Not since my mother died.”
“Do you want me to call you Chicha?”
She glanced at him and a small smile played on her lips. She shook her head. “Keisha is fine. Just as long as you don’t call me Takeisha. I would have to crush your nuts then.”
He laughed. Yeah, she would get along perfectly with Tamika White.
“Well, Keisha, you don’t need to worry so much. We will deliver your baby to you.”
“I believe you,” she said. “No more crying. Now, I’ll help you take down that bastard.” Her smile was mean and he could swear he was staring at the exact same image of Tamika White. She noticed the way he was looking at her and frowned. “What’s the matter?”
Ryan shook his head. “I know you’ve heard this a lot in the past few days, but you really could pass for Tamika’s identical twin.”
She shrugged. “Yeah, well that’s probably because I am.”
It took a moment for her words to sink in and when they did, he could not say he was all that surprised.
“Is she aware of this?”
“Yeah. Did she not tell you all?”
He did not reply, but he did not need to. She could see from his expression that he was hearing about it for the first time. She smiled, a little sadly this time.
“I don’t blame her much. It was quite a shock to her and she needs to process this.”
Yes, he understood as much. But Tamika knew better than to keep that information from them especially when they were on a mission and this woman was somehow in the middle of everything. They needed full disclosure. He needed to cut her some slack, but she’d made his life so miserable, he could not resist a little payback.
He pulled out his phone and clicked on the Silver Shield app, going straight to their internal instant messaging.
“What are you doing?”
“Payback,” he said with a smile. Then tapped out a message.
Tamika, when were you going to inform us that Chicha is your twin sister?
**
Tamika was sitting on the bed, curled up against Nico. He had his arms wrapped around her and they watched the news while he answered his messages at regular intervals. They had returned to the apartment to work off another heavy lunch in the bedroom. Well, they had made it into the bedroom eventually.
Now they were just hanging out and it felt wonderful. Tamika had a lot on her mind though. Several things about the plans did not add up. There was still a missing piece and after the time she’d spent at his office, she believed strongly that they would find the missing piece there. Thinking about the plans brought Chicha to mind. She had a twin sister. She was slowly coming to terms with that, but it also raised some questions she was not sure she wanted the answer to.
“Nico?”
“Hmmm?” He dropped a kiss on her temple and went back to fiddling with his phone.
“Why does Ivan hate you so much?”
She felt him go still then he half shrugged. “It’s really nothing.”
Nothing? What did he mean by nothing? “How can you say that? The man virtually spits venom whenever you’re close by.”
“Just leave it, Tamika. It’s not important.”
It was important. But he did not want to tell her whatever it was that his uncle had against him. She could see that it was eating him up, yet he wouldn’t talk to her. She put aside her hurt and resolved to talk to him about it later.
“How many times did you sleep with Chicha?” Tamika went still in horror as she heard the question that popped out from her mouth.
Why, oh why had she asked that dumbass question? She wanted the ground to open up and swallow her.
Even though she had not planned on asking the question, the answer really mattered to her. She did not know why it mattered to her, but it did. She really liked Nico. Hell, who was she deceiving? She was beginning to develop feelings for him and she was not sure how she felt about being with someone who had slept with her twin sister. It just felt off to her.
Still, that was a stupid question. “You know what? Forget I asked it,” she said feeling so uncomfortable.
“I never slept with her,” he said.
She pulled away from him with a frown. She did not expect this. Why would he lie to her? “Okay, how many times did you have sex then?”
“What is this, Tamika?” he asked with a frown on his face.
She did not understand why he was frowning. She was not the one who was telling a bald-faced lie here.
“I just want to know.”
“About Chicha in particular or do you want to know my sexual history in general?” His eyes had cooled off and he was looking really pissed.
Tamika realized how silly she was sounding, but she could not back down now. She lifted her chin and met his gaze square on. “I want to know about Chicha.”
He nodded. “Fine. I’ll tell you, but first, is there something you’re not telling me?”
She paused a heartbeat. She had not told him about her relationship with Chicha. She hadn’t told anyone. She shifted her gaze away from his then met his gaze again. “Nothing that concerns you,” she answered shortly.
She saw the flare of hurt in his eyes before it was quickly masked by anger. He got off the bed and stood there, gloriously naked and uncaring.
“I see. In that case, no, I did not have sex with Chicha. She gave me a blow job and I sent her on her way the very next day.”
Tamika’s stomach dropped. While she was relieved that she had not been inadvertently sharing a penis with her twin sister, although she had no idea why that should matter considering she had not even known about the woman’s existence, she saw clearly that she should not have pushed the matter with Nico. Not the way she’d gone about it, in any case.
“Nico…”
“Forget it, Tamika,” he said angrily and walked away from her into the bathroom.
She felt bad. Knowing about Chicha had been important to her. It did not make sense, but there you had it. However, she did not have to alienate him in the process.
She got up to go after him when her phone began to beep. She knew from the sounds that the messages were from Silver Shield and they were pouring in rapidly. She reached for the phone on the bedside stand, not even considering not checking the messages. There could be an emergency for all she knew.
She read the first message and let out a string of swear words. She was going to kill that asshole. By the time she’d read through all the messages, she knew she was in deep shit.
“What’s up?”
She looked up in shock to find Nico standing by the bathroom door, a towel handing loosely from his waist. She felt her heart thudding in her ribcage.
“There’s something I need to tell you.” She should have told him much sooner. Why had she held on to the information?
Seeing the look on her face, he came towards her and took her hand in his, then gently led her to sit on the edge of the bed.
“I’m sorry I got so mad at you,” he said.
She blinked. Okay, she had not seen that co
ming. “Why are you apologizing? I’m the one that acted like such an ass.”
He smiled. “Yeah, but I walked into the bathroom and realized that you wouldn’t be that way if you didn’t care just a little bit. Was I wrong?”
She bit her lip and looked away. She did care. More than she should.
“I also realized something else,” he went on. “If I met one of your exes, it would drive me crazy.”
She met his eyes and saw everything she was feeling mirrored back at her. Just then her phone beeped again. She glanced at where it was beside her on the bed, but didn’t bother to pick it up. She had only a few minutes before all hell broke loose on them.
“I really need to tell you something,” she said anxiously.
He looked at her questioningly, but nodded. “What’s the matter?”
“Chicha is my twin sister.”
There was silence.
She had not meant to blurt it out that way. She glanced at him and to her consternation, did not see any surprise in his face.
“Why are you telling me this?” he asked finally.
“We are about to have company. My teammates just found out and they’re coming here in a few minutes.”
He nodded again. She could not read the expression in his eyes and it bothered her. “Then I guess we’d better get dressed,” he said calmly.
“Nico…?”
“Get dressed, Tamika,” he said gently before going back into the bathroom. This time, she heard the lock click shut.
Chapter Twenty-five
After the Silver Shield people left, Nico packed up his laptop and grabbed his keys. He’d been surprised to hear that they were in New York. It was almost as though they’d arrived the very next day after he and Tamika had arrived the city.
He turned to look at Tamika where she was seated on the dining table. The meeting had been brutal, but during the meeting he’d seen clearly that they loved her fiercely and would each of them die for her. They had been upset with her but had also been comforting her at the same time. It had been touching to watch. He’d tried to excuse himself, but they’d dragged him in, accepting him as Tamika’s partner. He had that much to be grateful for at least.
Silver Shield Security Box Set Page 68