Found (9 page)

"I won't use you for bait, Brat." He stroked her hair back from her neck. "I promised to protect you."

He promised, not that he wanted to, but that he promised. Their time together was limited.

She wouldn't waste any of it. Tatyana unzipped his pants. "Then make sure you get him before anything happens to me." She flicked the snap on his boxers open, freeing him.

"No." He echoed his grandfather's obstinate tone.

"No?" She stroked him. "He's coming for me." So would Nikky. Soon. He was soft yet hard, tenderness yet strength. "That you can't control. But this way, you can control everything else." His forehead was furrowed, deep in thought. She couldn't have that. She slid down his legs under the table.

"I won't do it." He jerked as she took him in her mouth, his fingers combing through her hair.

"You control everything, Nikky." She looked up at him, watching his handsome face as she licked him. "You decide where..." Lick. "When..." Lick. "How many men there are..." Lick.

"Everything."

Done with talking, she left him with that thought and applied herself to the task in hand.

Boris, the brat's good-looking, single bodyguard, had his arms around her, helping her aim the gun. Nik didn't like it. He didn't like it at all. Then, as he approached and realized what she was wearing, he liked it even less.

She was wearing a black tailored suit, matching the uniform of all his staff, except that under that slim fitting jacket, she wore nothing, the curves of her breasts clearly visible.

The bodyguard, over a foot taller, would be able to see her navel.

She smiled when she saw him approaching, turning toward him, Boris taking the loaded gun out of her hands. She slid off the ear muffs, pulled up her safety glasses. "Did you see that, Nikky?" she yelled too loudly.

He pulled an earplug out of her pointy ear so he could curse her out properly. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"Boris is teaching me how to shoot a gun and he says I'm pretty damn good at it."

"Language, Brat." She cussed more than his men. He raised an eyebrow in question to the bodyguard.

"She is, Boss," Boris confirmed, beaming as though, after one lesson, he was directly responsible for her natural ability. "Her aim is dead on."

Dead was the right word. Nik took the gun from him. "A .22? That won't stop shit." If she was going to be learning to shoot, which she wasn't, she should be practicing with a real gun.

"The higher calibers had too much kick. She needs bracing with the .22."

"Knocked me back on my ass." She rubbed that nicely rounded body part.

"Language, Brat." So, that's what Boris was doing. Some tension eased from Nik. "We'll need to work her up to at least a .32."

"Are we responsible for her training?"

Nik grinned. When the brat started talking about herself in the third person, he knew a fight was brewing. "If she is going to train half naked, we will be."

She frowned down at her outfit. "All your bodyguards wear these suits."

So, she was one of his bodyguards now. "All my bodyguards wear shirts under their suits."

Though, like Boris, some of them wore t-shirts instead of dress shirts. "Casual dress translates to casual pay."

"Boss." Boris straightened.

"It is not casual." She patted the bodyguard's chest. "It is modern, hip, trendy."

"Exactly what I'm looking for in a bodyguard," Nik grumbled, tightening his tie. What did that make him? Old and outdated? "Get me some earplugs, Boris." He'd see how good she was for himself.

"Are you going to shoot?" Tatyana's eyes widened. "Boris says you're the best."

Nik straightened under her admiration. "I'm sure there must be someone better," he replied, his attempt at modesty. He was good. One of the reasons he was still alive. "I'll shoot." He couldn't resist. "After you." Boris handed Tatyana the gun and him the safety equipment. He didn't put it on yet, wanting to be able to hear her.

"Don't pull the trigger. Show me your stance, first."

She carefully positioned herself, placing her feet just so, and lifted the gun. She looked so strong, so sexy. Nik fought to control his own body. "Hold there." He slipped behind her.

"The best place to aim for is his head." He guided her gun. "But it is also the smallest target.

Difficult to hit, especially while your target's moving. This is his heart. If he's wearing a bulletproof vest, you won't kill him, not with your girlie gun." He grinned at her frown. "But you might stop him long enough to get away."

"Getting away won't help. This won't end unless I kill him," she said, breathless.

"I'll take care of him, Tatyana." He'd kill the bastard. Nik looked down. Damn it. He could see her navel. And her breasts, her nipples dusky points begging to be touched. "You concentrate on staying alive." He took the gun from her, reloaded. "Earplugs in."

"You're a bossy man, you know that." She put the safety equipment on.

He stood behind her again. She aimed. Boris was right. She had a great eye. Nik was impressed. She fired. The kickback knocked her right off her feet. If not for his arms around her, she would have fallen. The smell of gunfire and woman, the feel of her pressed back against him, her frizzy hair swirling around him, was intoxicating.

'Again,' he motioned to her. She nodded, beaming, straightened, aimed, fired, his arm and shoulder absorbing the recoil; his strength, her softness. He took the gun from her, removing his ear protection. She did the same. "You're only to practice with me," he told her.

Her bottom lip curled. "ButȄ"

"Only with me or not at all." No way would some other man hold her like that.

"You're very bossy," she told him for the millionth time.

"I'm the best." He softened his orders. "If you're going to learn, you should learn from the best."

"I keep hearing you're the best." Her eyebrow arched. "I haven't seen any evidence of it."

He grinned. She was about to. "Put your ear plugs back in, Brat." He did the same and drew his own gun, a custom 1911, emptying a clip into the target. Perfect.

'Again,' she mimicked his previous hand signals, and she stood behind him, her hands creeping inside his jacket, her head pressing into his back.

He reloaded and shot without thinking, all of his concentration on her hands locked over his stomach. His chest felt tight, his body hard.

He looked down at her. 'I want you,' she mouthed, those muddy green eyes reflecting his own need. He replaced his gun in the holster, removed his earplugs. "Leave us," he barked.

He didn't wait for the staff-only shooting range to empty before kissing her and caressing those barely concealed breasts.

The morning brought the first Kaerta casualty. A security guard was found shot dead in the parking lot. No one told Tatyana directly. She overheard another bodyguard tell Boris.

The death was her fault. Tatyana had met the quiet father of three and she knew the rules.

If she didn't relocate after each death, more people would die. They all could die.

But she had promised Nikky she'd stay with him. Until death was stopped or death got Nikky, whichever came first. As the second option, losing Nikky, was unthinkable, that left stopping death. To do that, she needed Nikky's help.

Knowing exactly where he was, she stormed downstairs, wearing one of his freshly laundered shirts over her tank top. It smelled like Nikky, giving her strength, like she had him wrapped all around her.

"You're to stay in the room, Boss." Boris followed behind her. "Those were the orders."

"Funny, Boris. I'm your boss and I don't remember giving those orders." Like hell would she stay in her room while that ass got himself killed.

"Boss, it is for your own safety." Boris moved in front of her.

"For your own safety, I suggest you get out of my way." She dodged him.

"I say we grab her and take her back to the room forcefully." That was Ivan's brilliant suggestion.

"You try that, Ivan, and I'll tell Duscha you manhandled me." Nikky assigning a married bodyguard wasn't one of his brightest moves. One mention of Ivan's wife and the big man caved. "She won't like that, I can assure you."

The two men looked at each other, undecided.

Tatyana didn't wait for their next move. She marched right up to the restaurant where Nikky's grandfather held court. The entrance was crowded and noisy. The cousins and uncles hovered like vultures.

"Do you know who did this?" One of the cousins gripped her elbow. Everyone looked at her expectantly, like she had all the answers.

"No. I'm sorry. Not yet." Death had no name, no face. "Nikky and Grandfather willȄ"

"He's not your grandfather." Stepan, Mr. Slimeball, blocked her. "And this isn't your family.

Where is your family?"

Dead, all dead. "Let me pass, cousin."

"Who are you?" He didn't move. "I asked around. No one knows your last name. Does Nikolay even know who you are?" The whispers around them grew louder.

"I am his fiancee." She glared at Stepan. "He knows exactly who I am. He would never bring a stranger into the family." He hadn't. It had been his grandfather's decision. "I'll say it again. Let me pass."

"He wouldn't normally, but Nikky," he mimicked her voice, "hasn't been thinking clearly lately, has he?"

"You dare to question his leadership?" Tatyana placed her hands on her hips. Backstabbing bastard, he was organizing a coup.

"People are dying." Stepan didn't have the balls to say he was. "Grandfather needs more than his opinion."

"He needs our counsel." Another cousin stepped forward. "The family's. He shouldn't be listening to outsiders like Chan."

So, that was why they were all in a tizzy. Chan was in there. "And why would Joey Chan be here?" Tatyana grasped onto that lifeline. "For a Kaerta security guard? For a threat only to our family?"

"His people are dead, too. Nine of them," a cousin yelled from the back. A rumble of unease flowed through the men.

Nine. Although Tatyana felt faint, she managed to maintain her pissed off expression. "Joey Chan has come here to meet with our family. For advice. Nine of his people are dead compared to our one. And you have the balls to whine about this family's counsel." Her voice rose. "What the hell?"

There was silence. Stepan flapped his jowls but no sound came out.

"Exactly." She shook her head in disbelief. "Now, I have a message to relay." She did have a message to relay, for Nikky to stop being a stubborn ass and let her draw out the killer.

"Are you going to let me pass? Or should I wait until another person dies?"

"I didn't meanȄ"

"I don't care what you meant," she yelled at Stepan. "I care about this family. For the last time, I'm telling you. Let me pass."

"CousinȄ"

"Boris." Tatyana twitched her head in Stepan's direction.

The cousin swallowed hard and moved out of the way.

She advanced to the private room. Pavel stood in front of the door, his massive arms crossed. "He said no one is to pass."

Damn it. Not again. "That doesn't include me, Pavel." She smiled sweetly up at him. "I'm his fiancee."

The big man winced. "Your name was specifically mentioned, Miss."

That hurt. They were a team, her and Nikky. He shouldn't block her. "Pavel, you know I have to talk to him." She tapped her foot, growing angrier by the second. "And you know why." He was the only one, other than Nikky and Grandfather, who knew the full situation.

Pavel shifted uneasily. "The boss doesn't tolerate insubordination, Miss."

"This is the exception." Tatyana would suggest Pavel look the other way, except Nikky had an even lower tolerance for ineptitude. "He can't do this without me."

Although Nikky's number one man didn't say anything, his stubborn expression seemed a little less certain.

"You saw the files." She touched Pavel's arm. "You know the only solution. If he tries anything else, he'll die. I don't want him to die, Pavel. I've seen enough death."

A heavy sigh. Pavel stepped aside.

Seven

"Protect the strong so they may protect the weak."ȄSergei Kaerta

"We can do this without her. Have him believe she's there and stow her safely elsewhere."

Even as Nik proposed the idea, he knew it wouldn't work, but he wouldn't use his fiancee as bait, he wouldn't.

"If he's truly after her, which I don't think he is." Chan, that paranoid bastard, was convinced he was the true target. "Would you storm my home without visual proof your prize was inside?"

Tatyana was not a prize, Nik wanted to yell. She was a living, breathing, amazing woman. "If he can see her, he can shoot her." And no way would he allow that to happen.

"According to her information, he's been tracking her for years." Grandfather's bored expression was a sure sign he was concerned. "He would have had the opportunity to do that before now."

The idea of this killer watching the brat pierced Nik's gut. "So, what does he want? And why her?" What was special about Tatyana? Nothing in her history stuck out.

"Those are questions for another day, Nikolay." Grandfather shrugged, telling Nik he had his suspicions but no concrete answers. "Today, we focus on the plan and the plan is we set you and Tatyana up in Chan's home." Chan nodded. "Under the guise of negotiating a business deal. We put our best security teams in place. We wait."

"No." The man had killed nine of Chan's men. He was a professional. He could get past them and Tatyana would die.

"Yes." She stood in the doorway, her tiny frame braced, ready for a fight. "Let's trap this asshole."

"Language, Brat." What the hell was she doing here? He told Pavel no one was to enter. "Go back to our..." He narrowed his eyes at Grandfather. Fuck Igroek, they were staying together. "... room. This isn't your discussion."

"No." Flat refusal. "This is more my discussion than yours. I'm staying and I say we do this."

"You don't know what you're agreeing to." It was his job to protect her. His, not hers. "You could die." A world without Tatyana in it, it was unthinkable.