Vengeance (SSU Trilogy Book 1) (21 page)

She felt a flash of fear at being contained, but it quickly faded as Niko kept his touch gentle. He was treating her with such exquisite care, tears stung her eyes. When was the last time she’d been treated with gentleness like this?

Long before she was ready for it to end, Niko broke away. He stared at her like he’d never seen her before, his eyes wide and dark with confusion and a host of other emotions she couldn’t identify.

Then he blinked and his face hardened. “That was a mistake. I can’t—” He cleared his throat and licked his lips as his eyes went to her lips. When he realized he was staring, he swore in Greek.

He spun around and headed toward the door. “Our relationship has to stay professional,” Niko snarled.

Then he was gone, his anger lingering in the small room like a cloud of exhaust.

Jenna stared after him for too long, trying not to feel hurt by his words. Letting a tinge of anger creep through her. Professional? Was soothing her after her nightmares professional? Was holding her throughout the night so she’d sleep soundly professional?

With a sigh, she turned toward the sink. She glanced in the mirror and winced. She looked like Frankenstein’s monster’s disreputable sister.

Without the distraction of Niko, every ache and sting from the fight suddenly made themselves known. Weariness crashed into her.

Hands shaking, she grabbed a couple of ibuprofen and chased them down with a glass of water. She must have misunderstood Niko’s reaction. He’d responded to her on instinct, as a male holding a willing female.

Not as Niko wanting Jenna.

Which, she tried to convince herself, was okay. Niko was right. Theirs was a professional relationship, nothing more. It had been wrong of her to push the boundaries.

Only…he’d tasted like paradise. Of every pleasure she’d denied herself in her quest for vengeance. Seeing the Christmas presents under the tree on Christmas morning. Biting into a rich chocolate truffle. Laughing with her girlfriends.

Coming apart in her lover’s arms.

Stop it! Niko did you a favor by walking away. Vengeance, remember? That’s all that matters.

Unconvinced, she brushed her teeth and changed into her pajamas. As she pulled back the covers on the bed, she told herself that it was a good thing Niko had rejected her. She couldn’t afford to give in to his type of temptation.

Her mission had to come first.

Even if it meant crawling into bed alone.

And lonely.

#

Saturday, Night

Andes Mountains, Peru

“There is a man who has been inquiring about Mikhail Nevsky,” Doña Serafina said, her voice through the speakerphone sounding so close she might have been sitting next to Alvarez on the sofa.

Alvarez pulled his robe closer against his body and stood up. “What is this man’s name? What does he look like? Tell me everything you know about him.” But he knew who it was. Kai Paterson. Who else would be searching for Doña Serafina, Dr. Nevsky’s mistress?

“I have not yet met the man. I wished to speak with you first and get your instructions. He will not give me his name. The man only says that he has information for me regarding a bequest Mikhail left me, but that has been tied up in the American legal system since his death.”

Clever. Who wouldn’t want to learn more about an inheritance?

Alvarez paced from one end of the room to the other, his bare feet slapping against the polished wood floor. But why would Paterson need to talk to the woman? What was he missing that had prevented him from selling the microchip on the black market? Was there some code Paterson was after that would unlock the data?

Bah. It didn’t matter. This was the opportunity he’d been waiting for.

A chance to catch Kai Paterson.

The cool air swirled around his bare calves as he turned and walked back into range of the speakerphone. “This is what I want you to do…”

After Doña Serafina hung up, Alvarez stared at the now mute phone, running possibilities. Trapping Paterson alone was too easy. As long as the man was in Acapulco, Alvarez had him.

The one he truly wanted was Niko. Niko was supposed to return crawling on his knees, offering Paterson and the chip in exchange for his aunt. Since things were not going according to plan, it was time to make the game more challenging.

Alvarez activated the phone and called his personnel manager. “Who do we employ who could pass a piece of information on to the SSU?”

#

Saturday, Night

Rocky Mountains, Montana

Niko’s heavy breathing played harmony with the slap of the jump rope against the gym’s wood floor. He’d run for half an hour, lifted weights for forty-five minutes, and at minute eleven of jumping rope he
still
hadn’t settled down. All thanks to Jenna and that amazing kiss that never should have happened.

Stop thinking about—

A hard male body slammed Niko to the ground. Furious blows rained down on his head so fast Niko barely blocked them in time.

“You told us she was dead!” a familiar voice bellowed.

What the fuck? “Rafe? What are you doing here?”

“All these years we thought she was dead, you bastard!”

Niko caught his brother’s hands and flipped them both over. “Jenna?”

He pinned Rafe on his back, hands overhead.

“Who? No. Aunt Madalena, you bastard,” Rafe snarled. “You told us she died, but…” Rafe went limp, his eyes closed.

“Ah, shit. You saw the video. What the fuck were you doing in my office?” Niko sighed and sat back on his heels, releasing his grip on Rafe’s arms. “I’m sorry.”

Rafe hit Niko with a look molten with betrayal and fury. “Sorry for what, you bastard? Sorry I found out the truth?”

“Rafe…” Niko shook his head and climbed wearily to his feet. God, he’d tried so hard to keep Alvarez’s ugliness away from the rest of his family.

“You told us she was dead.” Rafe’s voice shook. “You said Alvarez killed her a year before he was arrested. Yet that—” He motioned in the direction of the house.

Niko glanced away, wishing there was some way he could erase the images from his brother’s mind. “Aunt Madalena was ashamed of the way she’d been used by Alvarez. She considered herself soiled. She made me promise not to tell the family the truth. After the raid I set her up in a little cottage in Spain with a contingent of guards I trusted.” Niko made himself meet Rafe’s angry glare. “Somehow Alvarez got to her anyway.”

Niko offered Rafe a hand up, but he slapped it away. So Niko crossed his arms over his chest as his brother surged to his feet and stalked over to the water cooler.

“She was a prisoner of Alvarez until the raid?” Rafe asked. “Being treated like she was in the video?”

“Yeah.” Niko forced the word out, trying to block out the memories.

Rafe gulped two cups of water before turning to nail Niko again with a hard look. “Why didn’t you get her the hell out of there?”

Niko grabbed a towel and started mopping up the sweat and new blood dripping down his face. “You don’t think I tried? We had an escape all planned. Someone betrayed us. She was caught and forced to sit by while Alvarez punished me.” Alvarez had nearly tortured Niko to death while his aunt watched. Alvarez had even forced Madalena to wield the whip against Niko’s already shredded back, under threat of turning Niko over to his dogs if she didn’t. But hell if Rafe needed to know that.

Rafe crushed the paper cup and shot it into the trash basket. He opened his mouth to speak, but Niko cut him off.

“She swore she’d never put me through that again and refused to let me try to arrange her escape, no matter how hard I begged.”

“Fuck that.” Rafe took a step forward until he was practically sharing breath with Niko. “You should have knocked her out and gotten her the hell out of there.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence, asshole. I did knock her out. We got as far as the gate. She woke up, somehow got the gag off, and started screaming.” Niko shoved Rafe away. “That was the last time I saw her in person until after the raid. But Alvarez made sure I was kept updated on his sessions with her by sending me home movies.” The content still starred in his nightmares.

“Niko—”

“Don’t you think it fucking killed me to see her with Alvarez? To know what sick, bloody games he played with her and be helpless to stop it? Dammit, I tried everything to get her out of there. But every time I got close, she did something to screw up my plans. She was terrified of what Alvarez would do to me.” He shook his head.

“As long as she was with Alvarez, he owned me. All he had to do was threaten to give Aunt Madalena to his men for a night, and I’d do anything he ordered. Anything, Rafe. I killed men for him.” He’d told himself the dead men weren’t law-abiding citizens and not to mourn their deaths, but Niko had grown to hate the man he saw staring back in the mirror every morning. “God, Rafe, every day ate away a piece of my soul!”

Rafe stared at him a long time. “You’ve never talked about…” He shook his head. “I remember how you were when you came home. Wild. Bleak. I was scared we were going to lose you.”

Niko turned and fired his damp towel at the laundry bin. “You almost did,” he admitted gruffly. “When they kept me in prison after Alvarez’s arrest…that came closer to breaking me than anything in the previous five years.” For five years he’d lived for the day Alvarez was arrested. Whenever he grew desperate to break free of Alvarez’s vicious world, Niko had reminded himself that the evidence was piling up to justify a raid.

And that any price was worth paying to put Alvarez behind bars for ordering the hit that had paralyzed Pop.

When the day of the raid finally came, he hadn’t minded being rounded up with the rest of Alvarez’s men and taken to jail. It fit with his cover. But he’d expected to be released within hours.

Instead, he’d been moved to a solitary cell. His DEA handler walked in and told him he was going to have to serve time for the crimes he’d committed under Alvarez.

Niko had stood frozen, barely understanding the man’s words. They were going to credit the twelve months he’d spent in jail five years ago establishing his cover. And his handler had petitioned for extra consideration, since Niko had been only eighteen when first approached by the DEA.

Given that Niko had never been an official DEA employee, but an independent contractor, he wasn’t going to be charged with breaking DEA rules. Still, the men in charge wanted Niko to serve a minimum of five years.

Niko’s desperation had stuck in his throat, choking off his air so he’d nearly missed the man’s addendum. If Niko agreed to work for the DEA upon release, doing the jobs no one else wanted for at least three years, then it was agreed he’d only have to spend twelve months inside.

Niko had panicked at the thought of spending another second in jail. He’d started to reach for the man, under some wild idea of taking him hostage and demanding to be set free.

Maybe the man had read Niko’s intent. Because he’d said the words that made the whole thing tolerable. “Weekly visits.”

Niko sensed Rafe stepping closer. He turned and met Rafe’s eyes, his throat tight as he said, “If I hadn’t been allowed visitors…If you and Mamá, Maria and Pop hadn’t visited and shown me your forgiveness and love, I wouldn’t have survived prison.”

“I never stopped believing in you, Niko. No matter what they told me.” Rafe’s eyes shone with everything good and strong that had kept Niko going in prison and the long years after as he sought to put himself back together. Unlike their father, Rafe hadn’t known the truth about Niko while he was with Alvarez. Based on the evidence, Rafe should have hated him.

“I know,” Niko said past the lump in his throat. “I didn’t deserve your belief in me, but
Dios
, some days that was all that kept me going.”

Rafe stepped in and slapped his arms around Niko in a fierce hug. Niko hugged him back, feeling like some weight had been lifted off his chest. Seconds later, they broke apart, both surreptitiously wiping their eyes.

Damn. Misty-eyed like two old women.

“So…uh…Rafe, what are you doing here?”

“Paterson is in Acapulco.”

“Huh.” Niko picked up the jump rope and tossed it into a bin. It just fucking had to be Acapulco. The one place on earth where simply landing at the airport meant triggering at least a dozen death threats. “That’s damn convenient. Right in Alvarez’s backyard.” Could someone say setup?

“Maybe Paterson’s been waiting all this time to sell the chip to Alvarez.” Rafe shrugged. “So what’s the plan? I –”

The sound of cloth scraping against wood floated from the doorway.

Rafe dove forward.

There was a whirl of activity, then Rafe fell back. Niko recognized Jenna an instant before they hit the floor. Jenna’s bottom landed directly on Rafe’s groin. She sat partly up and twisted, driving her sit bone deeper into his brother’s crotch.

Ouch. “Jenna! Ease up. That’s my brother you’re turning soprano.”

Jenna glanced over at Niko, eyebrows raised.

“Yeah, I know he grabbed you. He didn’t know I had company. He thought you were a threat.”

“Sorry,” she muttered and rolled away. As she stood up, she bit her lip and shot Rafe a worried glance.

“Rafe, man, don’t be a wuss. Get the hell up and say hello to Jenna.” Rafe was curled in a fetal position, hands covering the area Jenna had just mangled. Niko knew his brother was hamming it up a bit and was tempted to kick Rafe himself.

“Uh…are you sure he’s okay?” Jenna asked.

“Yeah. Trust me, it’s not the first time someone’s hit him where it counts. Rafe, you gonna lie there all night? Former Army Rangers are supposed to be tougher than this.”

Rafe responded with a string of curses in Greek and flipped Niko the bird. Niko just laughed.

But when he turned to Jenna, expecting to see some of his good humor reflected in her eyes, instead he saw eagerness.

“Is it true? Kai’s in Acapulco?”

Christ. She was all but bouncing up and down on her toes like a little girl waiting to open her birthday presents.

Niko stifled the urge to lock Jenna in a box and put her away someplace safe. If she could help draw her brother out of hiding, he had to use her.