Loving the Lone Wolf
Dammit, hadn’t she learned anything?
“The meeting with Rand took longer than I expected.” She walked past the fireplace with its carved marble mantel and gilded screen to the table that held an ornate silver samovar, another item that had supposedly belonged in an imperial palace. Moving mechanically, she drew a cup of steaming water and fixed herself some tea. Not that she had ever developed a taste for Russian tea, but she needed something to keep her hands busy. “I just got in.”
“Tell me what happened.”
She added some sugar to her cup and stirred while she gave Stephan a summary of what she had learned from Nathan. “I think we should look for someone else,” she finished.
“Why?”
“Rand wants a percentage of our profits. He says it’s insurance so he can trust us.” She kept her gaze on her swirling tea. Stephan’s only weaknesses were his pride and his paranoia, so the best way to get him to agree to something was to suggest the opposite. For the same reason, she didn’t want him to know that giving Rand a percentage was her idea. It was insurance for her—without money up front, Rand would be less likely to bail on the deal.
“That would work in our favor,” Stephan said. “I can delay paying him his share. What percentage does he want?”
“After I saw his setup, we settled on thirty-five.”
Stephan pursed his lips as he considered that for a moment. Kelly guessed he was probably thinking of ways to cheat on the percentage. “We won’t look for anyone else,” he said finally. “We’ll go with Rand.”
She concentrated on keeping the spoon from rattling against the cup despite the sudden jump of her pulse. That had seemed too easy. Now for the next gambit. “I’m not sure we should trust him. He’s very…contained.”
“Are you losing your touch, Kelly?” Stephan lowered his voice slyly. “Or do Rand’s preferences lie in another direction?”
The implication that Nathan wasn’t heterosexual was so absurd, Kelly almost lost her concentration. The man put out pheromones that would be unmistakable to any female who possessed a pulse. She set the spoon down on the silver tray beneath the samovar. “Neither. He doesn’t seem to want supervision.”
“It’s not his call. We have too many customers depending on this shipment. If Rand says he doesn’t want supervision, he might have something to hide. We’ll have to keep a close eye on him until my merchandise is delivered. I’ve decided to bring it in next Friday.”
Kelly caught her breath. Friday? That was only a week away. In seven days, the nightmare would be over. And the seed of suspicion was planted. This was what she wanted. The pieces were falling into place better than she could have imagined.
Because while Stephan worried about trusting Nathan, and Nathan worried about trusting Stephan, Kelly planned to betray them both and disappear with Jamie.
The sheer daring of her plan terrified her. She knew how ruthless Stephan could be. If she failed to get away this time, she was certain she wouldn’t get another opportunity. He tolerated her presence in Jamie’s life because of their child’s age, but if he suspected for an instant that she was planning to double-cross him, he had the wealth and connections to move Jamie someplace where she would never find him.
Her hands trembled at the thought. Tea slopped down the front of her pants and onto the carpet. She put down the cup and grasped her pant leg to hold the scalding liquid away from her skin.
Stephan rounded his desk and walked to her side. “Is something wrong, Kelly?” There was no concern in his voice, only irritation. “You seem on edge.”
“It’s been a long day and it’s late.”
“Do not lie to me.” He narrowed his eyes. They were the same height when she wore flat heels, so his gaze bored into hers. His eyes were so much like Jamie’s, and yet so empty of warmth, the resemblance made her shudder. “I can see that something is troubling you,” he said.
Kelly felt a bubble of hysteria. She was about to cheat an egomaniacal heroin czar, put the blame on a drug smuggler who looked like an Indian warrior and she was facing the rest of her life on the run from both of them with her child.
What could possibly be troubling her?
“I know what it is.”
She pressed her tongue hard to the back of her front teeth, an old singer’s trick to stem the panic reaction and force her body to relax. God, he couldn’t know, could he? She’d been so careful.
“Gloria told me the boy got his hands on a gun.”
It took a second to change gears. With everything else going on, Kelly had pushed that particular nightmare to the back of her mind. At Stephan’s words, the image from this afternoon returned full force: Jamie in his playroom, his hair tousled as he backed out of the couch cushions, the sunlight gleaming from the pistol.
“You should have told me,” Stephan said. “Instead I heard it from the nanny.”
“You were busy,” Kelly said. “And I had to leave for the Starlight.”
“Simply because I do not spend as much time with our son as you do, don’t think his welfare doesn’t concern me. When he is old enough, he will be trained to take his place at my side.”
Trained? The prospect chilled her to her bones. She couldn’t let that happen. Whatever the cost, she had to get Jamie away before he fell under his father’s influence. “I spoke to the guards,” she said. She took a step back. “I told them not to bring their weapons into my and Jamie’s suite.”
“Pah!” He muttered a string of oaths in Russian. “That is not enough. I have dealt with it myself.”
“How?”
He returned to his desk and pressed a button on his phone. “Dimitri? Where’s Alex?”
A guttural, heavily accented voice came through the speaker. “In the basement, Mr. Volski.”
“Bring him to my office now.”
A few minutes later, the marble in the hall clattered with a set of heavy footsteps, along with a scuffing, thudding noise. The tall, blond Dimitri Petrovich, Stephan’s lieutenant, entered the room with a burly, middle-aged man in tow.
It was Alex Almari, a veteran guard who also served as one of Stephan’s enforcers. Kelly barely recognized him. His lower lip had been split open, the skin on his cheeks was raw from abrasions and his eyes were reduced to slits behind pulpy, purple swelling. He staggered a few steps sideways when Dimitri released his arm, then locked his knees and managed to stay on his feet.
Kelly pressed her fingers to her mouth. “Oh, my God. What happened to—”
“This is the imbecile who endangered the boy,” Stephan said.
Kelly swallowed hard. When she had seen the weapon in Jamie’s hands, she had been so shaken that if the person responsible for leaving the gun had been standing in front of her then, she probably would have struck him herself. She would do anything to protect her child.
But these injuries weren’t the result of a parent’s impulsive blow, they were from a methodical beating. Even though Alex Almari had probably inflicted far worse on others over the years, the sight of his face left Kelly sickened.
Stephan walked to the man and grabbed his chin to turn his face toward her. Fresh blood welled from Alex’s lip and trickled onto Stephan’s hand. “Do you not approve of my punishment, Kelly?”
“There shouldn’t be any guns allowed near Jamie,” she said. “That’s the only sure way to prevent it from happening again.”
“I prefer my way,” Stephan said. He stepped back, taking a handkerchief from the breast pocket of his suit to wipe the smears of blood from his fingers. “Dimitri?”
“Yes, sir?”
“Take Alex outside and shoot him. Use his own gun.”
“Stephan, no!” Kelly cried.
The gaze Stephan turned toward her froze her where she stood. “I value what’s mine, Kelly. Anyone who threatens my son deserves no mercy.”
“Please,” Alex said. The burly enforcer’s voice was distorted by his swollen face, his accent thick. Through the purpled slits over his eyes, his gaze was pleading. “It was…mistake. Didn’t mean…no harm.”
“He’s right, Stephan,” Kelly said. “Jamie’s fine. It was a mistake.”
Stephan glanced at Dimitri and held up his palm, then focused on Kelly once more. “If I spare Alex for you, what will you do for me, Kelly?”
Too late, she recognized the trap. Stephan knew her too well. Pride and paranoia might be his weaknesses, but sentiment was hers.
Damn! She was using her heart again instead of her head. She really hadn’t learned anything, had she? “What do you want, Stephan?”
“You think we shouldn’t trust Nathan Rand. To ensure we can, I want him here where we can keep track of his movements until the shipment is safely in our hands. And since you presented the deal, I believe it would be best if you continue to be my liaison with him.”
“I had only agreed to negotiate. That’s all I’ve ever done in the past. My part in this is over. I won’t participate in—”
“You have no reason to pretend squeamishness now.” Stephan’s gaze sharpened. “Or is there something you’re not telling me about this deal?”
Kelly jammed her tongue to her teeth hard enough to stop her breath. This complication was the last thing she needed.
“Kelly?”
“No,” she said. “I’ve told you everything.”
“Excellent, then we shall proceed.” Stephan flicked his hand toward Alex. “Take him back to the basement, Dimitri. Don’t shoot him. Cut off his trigger finger instead.”
Kelly gagged, fighting to keep her revulsion inside as the men moved away.
“I seldom give second chances, Kelly,” Stephan said. He folded his handkerchief, tucked it back in his pocket and returned to sit behind his desk. “You would be wise to remember that.”
Chapter 3
Kelly was good, Nathan thought, but tonight she wasn’t great. Tension stiffened her shoulders and clouded her face. It was as if a curtain had come down, or a light had dimmed inside her. Although her voice was on key and her timing was perfect, she was keeping her emotions under tight control. The passion that had suffused her performance the night before was missing.
Oh, she was still sexy as hell. She couldn’t help that. Just the sight of her standing in the spotlight, her eyes half-closed and her fingers wrapped around the shaft of the microphone was making Nathan’s palms sweat. The dress she wore tonight was black and covered her in front to the base of her throat, but in the back it plunged enticingly to the gentle rise of her buttocks.
It was all part of the act, he suspected. This was what Volski and the customers at his club would expect to see. Her appearance would please the crowd just as her voice would entertain them without making them uncomfortable. She packaged sex with class.
She sure had come a long way from singing in her church choir in Maple Ridge, Ohio.
He folded his arms over his chest, leaning one shoulder against the wall as he paused near the bar to watch her. He’d asked his personnel department to make some discreet inquiries into her background when he’d gone into the office this morning. What he’d learned had answered some questions, but had led to dozens more.
Kelly Elizabeth Jennings had been born twenty-six years ago, the only child of James and Cynthia Jennings. She had no criminal record and had never been arrested. How did a small-town girl, whose father ran a grocery store and whose mother gave piano lessons, get mixed up with Stephan Volski?
On the other hand, where a person started in life didn’t guarantee where they would end up. Nathan was a living example of that.
The set ended to a round of applause. Kelly flashed a smile to the audience and left the stage.
Nathan pushed away from the wall and followed her through a swinging door at the rear of the club. Before he had taken three steps into the corridor, a pair of men converged on either side of him and grasped his arms.
He tensed, automatically assessing his chances. The men were probably armed like the muscle who patrolled the main room of Volski’s club, but the narrow corridor would work in his favor. Their bulk was a disadvantage in close quarters. Too bad he’d given up his habit of carrying a switchblade in his boot. That would have been the easiest way to get out of this.
Had Kelly set him up? She had asked him to meet her here. If Volski hadn’t agreed to their deal, he might have ordered Nathan eliminated as a security precaution.
Damn, he had no logical reason to trust Kelly, and he probably shouldn’t have. After her performance the night before, both onstage and off, the only thing he was sure of was that she wasn’t what she seemed. Yes, she was an enigma, an intriguing woman, but she was Volski’s woman and Nathan should be cautious around her. The stakes were too high to allow room for sentiment.
Had living as Beliveau for ten years made him lose his edge?
It might be time to remind himself—and Volski’s people—where he’d come from. He hadn’t survived this long by being soft. Nathan flexed his arms and shifted his weight to the balls of his feet just as Kelly glanced behind her.
She stopped where she was and scowled at the men who held him. “Let him go,” she said. “That’s Rand. I’m expecting him.”
The men were too slow to respond for Nathan’s liking. He took a step forward and twisted to jerk his arms free, then gave each man a sharp nudge in the solar plexus with his elbows to discourage them from grabbing him again. He dusted off his sleeves while the men regained their breath. “You heard the lady,” he said. “This dance is already taken.”
The man on his left retreated fast, but his companion stood his ground, muttering something to the effect that Kelly wasn’t a lady.
Nathan turned to look at him and lifted one eyebrow. Without moving another muscle, he let the silence build from uncomfortable to threatening—a trick that he’d learned in his youth. He was only one-eighth Lakota Sioux, but he knew full well how to use his inscrutable Indian-brave look. “Sorry,” he said finally. “I missed that. What did you say?”
The man’s gaze wavered. “I didn’t say nothin’.”
Nathan decided he’d made his point. Without another word, he continued down the corridor.
The room Kelly led him to was long and narrow, with stark white walls and a clean, white tile floor. A rack of colorful dresses, each encased in a clear plastic dry-cleaner’s bag, was set along one wall. Across from it, a table cluttered with various bottles and tubes sat beneath a mirror ringed with lights. Even without those clues, Nathan would have known this was Kelly’s dressing room, because as soon as he followed her over the threshold, he was enveloped by her scent.
She closed the door and brushed past him. She wore her hair swept up in a rhinestone-studded clasp tonight, leaving nothing to detract from the graceful line of her bare back. Nathan had to shove his hands into the pockets of his pants so he wouldn’t reach out for her.
What was it about this woman? His senses were threatening to short-circuit his brain.
“I apologize for the less than friendly reception you got back there,” she said. “One of the guards at the estate had an…accident, so Stephan had to make some personnel changes. No one had a chance to tell those two who you are.”
“Then I take it he wants to go forward with our deal?”
“Yes, he certainly does.” She picked up the gold dress she had worn the night before from the back of a chair and gestured for him to sit. “Stephan wants to bring the shipment into O’Hare next week. Friday, to be exact. Can you have the transportation arranged and the necessary paperwork prepared by then?”
Nathan crossed one ankle over the other and leaned his shoulders against the door. Finally! “No problem. I’ll have my end ready.”
“And to make sure you do, Stephan has asked me to be your liaison.”
“My liaison? What does that entail?”
“I’ll be overseeing your end.”
“Why?”
“Because that’s the way Stephan wants it.”
“Why?” he repeated.
“To ensure our mutual interests.”
“In other words, your boyfriend expects you to stay chummy so you can spy on me, right?”
She draped the dress over her arm and brushed at the folds. “If I say yes, is that going to help our negotiations or hurt them?”
He smiled inwardly at her comeback. It was exactly what he had asked her the night before. He enjoyed the glimpses of Kelly’s intelligence even more than the glimpses of her body.
Still, having her around was a complication he didn’t need. He couldn’t afford to have anyone scrutinizing his actions, especially a woman he hadn’t yet figured out. Even under the best of circumstances, it wouldn’t be easy to set up the sting that would deliver the drugs and Volski’s gang to the feds. The clock was ticking on his debt.
Damn Tony and his bargain.
“And just how are you supposed to keep an eye on me, Kelly?” he asked. “I don’t have a Mrs. Rand who would object, but from what I’ve heard about your boyfriend, he wouldn’t look too kindly on either of us if you moved in with me. I’d prefer to keep all the body parts I was born with.”
Her fingers suddenly clenched, crumpling the fabric of the dress she held into a tight ball. “I’m not responsible for what Stephan does.”
Nathan straightened up from the door, surprised by the vehemence of her response.
“And from the way I saw you handle Stephan’s watchdogs just now,” she continued, “I believe you can take care of yourself, whatever happens.”
It almost sounded as if she were trying to warn him. “What does that mean?”
She flexed her fingers to release her hold on the dress and tossed it back on the chair where it had been. “Where did you learn to fight like that, Nathan?” As if it was an afterthought, she moved her lips into a smile, but it didn’t reach her eyes. “You moved so fast, I could hardly see it. I hope you’re not that fast with everything. There are some things that are best done…slowly.”
He regarded her curiously. She had gone into her sex-kitten mode in a bid to change the topic, but this time it wasn’t working. He was far more interested in what he’d seen before she’d put on that smile. He walked past the chair to stand in front of her. “I learned how to use the particular move you saw when I was eight.”
“You must have been very precocious.”
“No, just resourceful. My stepfather liked little boys. I didn’t let him like me.”
The smile disappeared like the illusion it had been. Her gaze clouded with horror. “My God,” she murmured. “Your stepfather?”
“Well, he wasn’t legally my stepfather. He never married my mother.”
She touched his arm. “Oh, Nathan. I’m sorry.”
“Hey, it’s like you said. I learned to take care of myself.”
Her hand shook against his sleeve. “Didn’t your mother…” She swallowed. “She must have tried to leave, didn’t she? For your sake?”
“No, she never left. I did.” He covered her hand with his. “Why did you, Kelly?”
“What?”
“Why did you leave home? What made you trade the church choir in Maple Ridge for Volski’s nightclub in Chicago?”
She stared at him, her lips parted in shock, then she pulled her hand away from his so fast she stumbled backward. She came up against the table beneath the mirror, knocking over several small bottles.
Nathan caught her by the shoulders to steady her, careful to keep his grip gentle. He’d wanted to take her off guard with the question—that’s why he’d led up to it by giving her a piece of his past—but he hadn’t anticipated this strong a reaction.
Could his gut be right? Was it possible that beneath the act she put on she was innocent?
He had to find out before she got swept up in the same net that would catch her boyfriend. He leaned down to bring his face level with hers. “Were you running from abuse the way I was, Kelly? Is that why you ended up with Volski?”
“No. My parents are wonderful. They—” She shook her head. A lock of hair slipped loose from the rhinestone clasp and uncoiled at the nape of her neck. “How did you know about me?”
“I have connections. I asked around.”
“My life is none of your business.”
“I disagree. If we’re going to work together, everything about you is my business.”
She was struggling to draw in her emotions, but she wasn’t succeeding. “You’ve got the wrong idea. Our relationship isn’t personal, Nathan. It doesn’t give you the right to ask questions like this. I realize it might have seemed as if I was leading you on last night, but—”
“No, Kelly, I knew what you were doing. It’s why you’re doing it that bothers me.” He felt her tremble under his palms. He stroked his thumbs along her shoulders. “What’s really going on? I could tell by your singing that something was troubling you tonight.”
She made an odd sound in her throat. “What could possibly be troubling me?”
“If it’s something to do with this heroin deal, I need to know before next week. I’m not going to work with you if you’re not a hundred percent on board. Tell me now, are you a willing participant?”
“Why would you ask me that?”
“Why won’t you answer?”
“Moving that heroin shipment is important to all of us, Nathan. Stephan knows he can count on me, and I intend to do everything I can to make sure it goes off precisely as planned.”
Had she answered his question? He wasn’t sure. “How did you get from a small town in Ohio to here?”
“I took a Greyhound.”
“Were you running?”
“Yes. From boredom. If you’d been to Maple Ridge you would understand.”
He touched the back of his hand to her cheek. She would have been easier to believe if he hadn’t heard the note of yearning in her voice. “How did you meet Volski?”
“It’s no secret.” She tipped her head away from his touch. “I waited tables by day to pay my rent and sang for tips at a piano bar by night until Stephan offered me a job at this club. I took it.”
“And you stay because…?”
“Because he pays me well and dresses me fabulously. It’s as simple as that.”
He was certain she was lying. There was far more to her story than this. He laced his fingers through the lock of hair that had come loose and cupped her nape. His gaze dropped to her mouth.
Never had he wanted to kiss a woman more than he did now. He couldn’t explain it. The urge was deeper than sex and too primitive for logic. He wanted to fit his lips to hers and taste whatever truth she kept hidden, and it had nothing to do with Volski or the drugs or the debt he had to pay.
His grip tightened. He lifted his gaze to hers and saw that her eyes had darkened, the pupils expanding against a rim of vibrant green. He saw confusion…and a reflection of his own desire.
The moment stretched. It was madness to think about giving in to this attraction. He knew it, and he was sure that she did, too. Yet he leaned closer, his gaze blurring, his senses filling with her nearness, until the soft exhalation of her breath warmed his lips.
“Don’t,” she whispered.
He felt the word more than he heard it. “Kelly…”
She slipped her hand between them, steepled her fingers on his chest and pushed him back.
He let her do it, knowing he should be thankful, hating the fact that he wasn’t.
“You still have the wrong idea,” she said. “All I’m interested in from you is business, that’s it. As I told you before, this isn’t personal.”
“If you’re going to spend the next week spying on me, it’s going to get damn personal.”
“It doesn’t have to.” She slipped sideways along the dressing table until she could step clear of him. “Stephan’s estate has eighty-seven acres. The main house has fifty-five rooms and there is enough guest accommodation on the property to house a small army. Unless we have business to do or you need to leave the estate, we probably won’t even see each other.”
“Whoa, what’s this about the estate?”
“I’m not going to be moving in with you, Nathan. It’s the other way around. Until the deal is done, Stephan wants you to stay with us.”
The rhythm of the words was soothing, as familiar and well-worn as the rabbit Jamie clutched. Kelly pitched her voice low, savoring the peaceful hush of the evening routine. She had chosen Robert Munsch’s Love You Forever tonight. She remembered her own mother reading it to her. They would snuggle together on the bed, just as she was doing with Jamie, only that bed had been crammed under the eaves of a bedroom a quarter the size of this one.