Yuri

The door to his office burst open and Ty strode into the room with that over-confident swagger that grated on Yuri's nerves. Impeccably dressed, he smoothed a hand over his hair. "We have to talk, Yuri."

  Mary scurried in after Ty. "I'm so sorry, Mr. Novakovsky. He got around me and your guards."

  Yuri leaned to the side and spotted Vasya panting in the open doorway. With a flick of his hand, he sent his staff retreating. "I'll deal with him."

  Once the door closed, Ty crossed the room and tossed a flash drive onto Yuri's desk. "That showed up with my morning paper."

  Dread chilled him. "Do I even want to ask what's on it?"

  "You're not going to be happy." Ty dropped into a chair near his desk. "I thought about taking it to Lena but she would be humiliated if she knew what was on it. I brought it to you because I assumed you have ways of dealing with this kind of blackmail."

  Stomach churning, Yuri plugged in the flash drive. The moment it loaded he spotted the video file. Though he had a sinking feeling what the file contained, he clicked it anyway. Twenty seconds into viewing the tryst he'd shared with Lena on the desk in his home office, he closed the window.

  Cold with shock and the surge of betrayal, he clicked through the photos on the drive. Someone had taken snapshots of him shaking hands with Lorenzo Guzman and making the exchange for Lena's father.

  Yuri cleared his throat. "Who else has seen this?"

  "A reporter at the paper received those same pictures of you in Mexico making whatever fucking deal that is with the cartel."

  Yuri's gaze snapped to Ty's face. "How do you know?"

  "Carson is an old boyfriend of mine. He was an embedded journalist in Iraq and Afghanistan but he's moved to the business beat here. Before he took the job here, he did some time following the cartel violence in Juarez and Sinaloa so he understands what those pictures mean."

  "Why didn't he call me first?"

  "He recognized Lena immediately. He's worked with her before and he knows that we're friends. He won't run the story because he's afraid it might get people killed. That's not the kind of journalist he is."

  "Thank God for that," Yuri murmured. He unplugged the drive. "Do you know who sent this?"

  Ty shook his head. "If I had to guess it's an assistant or one of those linebackers you hire to watch your back. The only people who get close enough to you to plant a camera and reveal all those dirty details are the people who work for you and have some level of trust."

  Yuri wiped a hand down his face. Mind racing, he asked, "What did they want you to do with them?"

  "Embarrass you. I read that you've got your pipeline deal nailed down. I've been following that saga for the last couple of weeks. It was pretty obvious that someone was trying to stall that deal or fuck you over completely. When that didn't succeed, they went for the old standby—personal humiliation."

  "I'm not embarrassed to be caught making love to Lena."

  "I'm sure you're not but do you think she wants a blown-up screencap of her orgasm-face all over the damn internet? There goes her credibility. Suddenly she's that jumped-up skank from the projects who earned her new business on her knees."

  Yuri cringed at the awful way Ty described the situation. He recognized that Ty didn't believe those things but the gossip columnist understood how others would perceive Lena's position. He shoved out of his chair and slammed both hands on this desk. "Fuck."

  "Hey," Ty said loudly. "Don't freak out. We'll keep a lid on this."

  "We?"

  "Me and you."

  Yuri narrowed his eyes. "What makes you think I trust you?"

  "You don't have to trust me," Ty replied matter-of-factly. "You need me. The first thing I learned in this business is that you always have to have the bigger, uglier secret. There isn't a gossip blog or business journalist who will touch these stories once I make it known that I'm working with you. They know I won't hesitate to take them out at the knees to protect a client."

  Yuri's estimation of Ty climbed a few notches. "We don’t have to do anything quite so drastic yet."

  "I agree but it's always good to be frank with people."

  Yuri couldn't argue with that. "I need to get home and sweep my office. It's apparent from this," he picked up the drive and pocketed it, "that I've been bugged."

  "I've got a private investigator on my payroll who knows his way around surveillance. I'd be happy to loan him to you."

  "I appreciate the offer but no. I'll handle this on my own."

  Yuri gathered up his things and headed for the door. Ty trailed him to the door. "Keep me in the loop."

  Yuri wasn't so sure he wanted to tie himself to a man who made his millions with an empire of gossip blogs but there wasn't much of a choice here. He needed Ty's help. "I will."

  Out in the lobby, he motioned for Derek and Vasya to follow. "We're going home. Now."

  Derek frowned with concern but didn't say anything. Yuri's jaw clenched and unclenched during the elevator ride down to the garage. Safe inside the backseat of the car, he made sure the partition was safely in place and then called Nikolai to quickly relay the situation.

  Nikolai cursed obscenely as the news of the attempted blackmail using Lena registered. "We have to find this man. Now."

  "I agree. Do you have any leads?"

  "I'm waiting to hear back from a friend I keep in contact with but it doesn't seem promising. Ivan swears that Pasha talked about a kid of his own but I don't remember it."

  "A boy?"

  "Ivan says it was a girl named Katya. He remembered seeing her once in the old man's office at the orphanage. She had dark hair."

  "A dark-haired Russian girl named Katya? That narrows it down," he grumbled.

  "Don't be an asshole, Yuri. It doesn't suit you."

  He grunted and picked at his jacket. "I don't know what to do anymore. I never feel lost or out of control like this."

  "That's the point. The person doing this wants us to feel helpless. It's part of the thrill."

  He ran his fingers through his hair and scratched at his head. "I can't live like this, Nikolai. I don't know how you do it. How you can stand the constant checking over your shoulder."

  "I don't check."

  Yuri heard the coldness edging into Nikolai's voice. "You're a braver man than me."

  "You have something to lose. I don't."

  Yuri understood what his friend meant. If he was the only one at risk, it would be easier to take all of this in stride but he wasn't. It was the thought of Lena being caught in the crosshairs, of Lena being hurt, that sickened him and filled him with dread and fear.

  Nikolai's decision to keep everyone at arm's length seemed smart now. The life Nikolai had chosen entailed a great deal of risk and collateral damage. Keeping the people he loved at a safe distance was the only way he could ensure that his choices wouldn't hurt others.

  But it had to be a lonely life.

  Yuri thought of the way Lena had brightened and filled his life. It was the same for Dimitri and Ivan—but Nikolai?

  Whether it was right or wrong, Nikolai had obviously fallen in love with sweet Vivian over the last few years. Yuri remembered that evening in his office when they'd scared the piss out of Jonah Krause and forced him to sell his retail development as punishment for trying to kill Benny and Dimitri. What had Nikolai said? That someday Vivian would make a very nice man a good wife.

  What must that feel like for Nikolai to stand back and watch the woman he cared for so deeply living a life he could never truly be a part of?

  "I'm coming to see you." He heard a chair squeak and then the noise of a kitchen. "I'll be there in twenty minutes."

  As usual, Nikolai abruptly ended the call. Yuri texted Lena to let her know he was on the way and to stay out of that damn office but she didn't immediately reply. He decided she was probably busy with her father.

  It wasn’t until he entered the front door of his home that he realized something was wrong. For the first time ever, Sasha didn't bark or run to th
e door. His heart raced as he took in the eerie silence. "Lena? Feodor? Sasha!"

  "Vasya, go check the staff quarters," Derek gave the order in hushed tones. "Find Jake and Kelly."

  With Derek hot on his heels, Yuri raced to the kitchen, the place where he expected to find Feodor at this time of day. The sight of the old man sprawled on his back and snoring deeply struck fear in his heart. Derek knelt down next to Feodor and rolled him onto his left side. The movement revealed a syringe sticking out of his arm and cuts on his hands. The bruising on his face proved the man had put up a fight.

  Yuri spotted the bloody streaks on the tile and followed them into the mud room. Lena's father had crawled that far before passing out. The knife lodged in his upper shoulder had slowed him down but he'd obviously tried to chase after his daughter. Very gently, Yuri rolled his future father-in-law onto his side. He found Joe's pulse and exhaled roughly. Despite the blood loss, he was breathing steadily and his heartbeat was strong.

  Yuri grabbed a towel from a nearby cabinet and placed it around the knife in an attempt to stabilize the weapon and help with the bleeding. "Call 9-1-1. Joe has been stabbed."

  "Already on it, Boss!" Derek shouted back. "Sasha's alive but barely. They hit him with a damn tranquilizer dart."

  Banging and cursing echoed loudly in the kitchen. Yuri glanced over his shoulder and watched Vasya carting Kelly's heavy body. The Marine was bloodied and snoring like Feodor. No doubt he'd also been drugged.

  "The staff rooms are destroyed. He was handcuffed to a sink and left for dead. I couldn't find Jake."

  Suddenly the pieces fit together. Jake had bugged his office. Jake had snapped those photos in Mexico. Jake had delivered the threatening letter to Lena.

  As he pressed on Joe's bleeding shoulder, he noticed the door leading to the garage was slightly ajar. A bloody streak on the edge caught his attention. Yuri shut the door and discovered the message Joe had left in his own blood.

  Jake. Anna. 916 Ord—

  He clearly hadn't been able to finish the message but it was enough. He'd started to scrawl the address of the hellhole where Lena had lived with her mother while her father was in prison.

  He didn't know the roles Jake and Anna played but there wasn't time to investigate. They had Lena—and he was going to get her back.

  There were several sets of keys in the wall box mounted by the door. He grabbed the set for his fastest sports car and quietly slipped into the garage. Where he was headed, he needed no bodyguards. This was something he had to face alone.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  The walk from the broken curb where he'd parked to the front door of the ramshackle, dilapidated home on the corner was the longest of Yuri's life. Unarmed and uncertain as to what he faced, he walked right up to the front door and shoved it open. As long as these two monsters held Lena, he would do whatever it took to keep her alive. Because the pair hadn't called or texted him with instructions, it was clear they expected him to come find them.

  He wrinkled his nose at the musty, moldy scent of the abandoned house. Like the others in this forgotten neighborhood, the house had been condemned and marked for demolition. He chose his steps carefully, uncertain whether the rotting floorboards would support his weight.

  The sound of irritated voices sniping at one another echoed at the rear of the house. He followed the sounds to the kitchen. Lena came into view as he drew near. She had her wrists bound together in front of her and her ankles roped too. Her bloody nose and busted lip infuriated him. She noticed him a heartbeat before her captors. The look of relief and love on her bruised face bolstered his courage.

  "Stop right there," Jake ordered. Holding a gun on Yuri, the bodyguard slid behind him. "Hands on your head."

  Yuri did as commanded. He stared at Anna as Jake frisked him for weapons. His long-time assistant had dyed her platinum blonde hair a dark walnut shade. Gone was the pretty smile he expected. Her features seemed twisted with rage, with revenge. "Katya?"

  Her pale-thin lips twitched with sad amusement. "Do you remember me now?"

  Yuri shook his head. "No, but Ivan did."

  She gritted her teeth. "All these years I've waited for you to recognize me, to remember what you animals did to my father."

  Yuri's gut clenched as Katya snatched Lena by her long, beautiful hair and dragged her to a standing position. She was quite a bit taller and manhandled Lena easily. He winced as Lena was jerked roughly. When Katya produced a sharp-edged knife from the counter behind her, his heart stuttered in his chest. The wicked piece of steel nicked Lena's throat as Katya held it in place. The sight of Lena's blood dripping onto Katya's hand enraged him.

  "Lena has nothing to do with this. Let her go."

  "This is your fault. You shouldn't have fallen in love with this one. I let you have the others. I let them live but this one? This one you loved and so now you have to pay."

  Lena's eyes squeezed shut as Katya jerked her back and pushed the knife against her throat.

  "No!" Yuri took a step forward but Jake caught the back of his shirt and held him back. He slammed his elbow into the guard's stomach but Jake's hold only loosened for a brief moment. The muzzle of the gun jammed into his side, warning him not to do anything stupid. He wouldn't be any use to Lena dead. "Tell me what you want. I'll give you anything."

  "Anything?" Katya laughed acidly. "Can you bring my father back from the dead?"

  Anger flared in his gut. "Bring him back? That disgusting pedophile and rapist?"

  Jake's grip lessened. "Pedophile? But Katya—"

  Yuri laughed harshly. "Let me guess, Jake. She didn't tell you that her father used to pick boys from the orphanage to sell to high-paying pedophile clients? She didn't tell you that her father used to rape little boys in that house of fucking horrors behind the orphanage?"

  The gun pressed into his side fell a few inches before being shoved roughly against his ribs. "Katya, is that true?"

  "He's lying," she spat angrily. "All those boys were lying little bastards who wanted to ruin my father. They wanted to take him away from me and make me orphans like them. Unwanted. Unloved. Forgotten. They were jealous of me because I had a real family." Katya slammed her knuckles into the side of Lena's head. "Until you took him from me!"

  Dazed, Lena blinked rapidly and tried to recover from the unexpected blow. Yuri desperately tried to draw Katya's attention. "I did take him from you. Me. I was the one who killed him."

  "Why?"

  "Because he was raping my best friend," Yuri shouted. "He was hurting my best friend."

  "LIAR!"

  "I wouldn't lie about that. Your father was a monster—and I'm glad he's dead." Yuri purposely taunted her in the hopes she'd fly at him and leave Lena alone. Something told him Jake wasn't onboard with Katya hurting an innocent woman.

  "You're the monster!"

  "Maybe you're right," he conceded. "I'm the one who picked up a pipe and bashed his fucking head in like a rotten apple. And I'd do it again in a heartbeat."

  Katya screamed with anger and pointed the knife at him. The mad gleam to her eyes chilled him to the very core. "Maybe that's how I should kill her. Jake, find me a pipe."

  "Now, wait, Katya," Jake said hurriedly. From the sound of his wavering voice, the bodyguard was quickly losing his will to carry out this brutal attack. "You never said anything about hurting Lena. You promised we were going to use her as bait to lure him here to make him pay for attacking and robbing and killing your father. You said they used the mob to cover it up, to get away with murder but—"

  "Don't be stupid! She was never going to leave this house alive."

  "She's innocent." Jake's composure faltered. "This isn’t about justice anymore. This is about something ugly—and I won't be part of it."

  The gun fell from Yuri's side but Jake kept his tight grip on Yuri. Katya raised her knife and pointed it at her partner in crime. Screaming like a Russian demon, she lost her fucking mind on Jake. The knife swung wildly in front of Lena's fac
e. If her hands and ankles hadn't been bound she might have had a chance to escape…

  Lena's tearful gaze met his. For a few heartbeats, the world slowed to a near standstill. Without saying a word, she telegraphed her intentions with a single look. Silently, she mouthed one simple, beautiful phrase. I love you.

  In the next instant, Lena chomped down on Katya's arm. The shock of witnessing his sweet Lena perpetrate such a barbaric act froze his limbs. Blood spilled around her lips as she bit down even harder. Katya shrieked with agony and ripped her arm free. The wild movement brought the knife dangerously close to Lena's neck but his brave woman threw up her bound wrists and blocked the knife's blade with that wide gold cuff he'd given her. The very tip of the knife bounced off the cuff and sliced her jaw.

  Lena's pained shout pulled him from his stupor. Throwing back his head, he slammed his skull into Jake's mouth and nose. A solid kick to the balls dropped the bodyguard. Scrambling forward, Yuri reached Lena in time to snatch her by the shoulders and toss her out of the way.

  Katya flew at him with the knife. There was nothing to do but block her slashes with his forearms. He hissed as the blade plunged into his arm again and again. The stab wounds hurt like hell but he refused to let this deranged woman anywhere near Lena again.

  As the knife slashed at his chest and ripped open his shirt and the flesh beneath, two gunshots startled Yuri. Like him, Katya jumped with surprise. Terrified Lena had been hurt, he glanced at her but her gaze was fixed on the doorway behind them all. Looking back, he found Nikolai standing there with his pistol still raised. Jake had fallen to the floor, a gun gripped in his hand and blood pooling around his chest and arms.

  "Aaarggh!" Yuri's guttural burst of pain exploded from his mouth as Katya jammed the knife into his right shoulder. The blade became stuck as he twisted away from her and fell forward. Before she could rip it free and stab him again, Nikolai fired two more times, hitting her square in the chest. The weight of her body dropped onto his back and drove him to his knees.

  In an instant, Nikolai had reached him. He pushed Katya onto the floor where she gasped and clawed at her bloody chest. Yuri reached back to touch the knife sticking out of his back but Nikolai gripped his hand. "Leave it alone. This is for the surgeons to handle."