Kissing Sin (37 page)

“Then the one I fought came from a dodgy mix, because I’m no trained fighter and I brought him down. What is that thing in the corridor?”

“Things,” he corrected, amusement touching his thin lips. “And they’re my security system.”

“I’m certainly glad it’s not those two men down at the front door. They wouldn’t have a hope of keeping a determined gnat from entering.”

“And that is precisely what you are supposed to think.” He looked at me for a moment, his expression still that odd mix of amusement and wariness. “The creatures in the corridor are not lab-created, if that is what you’re thinking. They are a species known as Fravardin, which means guardian spirits in Persian. I met them a while ago when I was touring the Middle East.”

I wondered exactly what he’d been touring the Middle East for. In the time I’d known Misha, he’d shown very little inclination to go beyond Australian shores. If he’d been to the Middle East, it was because he’d been ordered to go. “And were these creatures”—I waved a hand to the door—“what you’d been sent to find?”

He gave a smile. “No.”

Meaning, obviously, that what he’d been sent to find was something I didn’t need to know. Which was fine—all I really needed was the name of the man behind all this madness.

“Were these things here when Jack and Rhoan raided your office a few months ago?”

“Yes.”

“So you’d expected them to investigate, and had allowed them entry?” Meaning he might also have removed vital evidence before the raid.

“It’s all part of a bigger plan, Riley.”

I raised my eyebrow. “And what might that master plan be? To step into your so-called brother’s much hated shoes? To take over control of the freak empire?”

He snorted softly. “And here I was thinking you knew me better than that.”

“I know you well enough to know that you can be ruthless when you choose to be.”

His mouth twitched in amusement. “I don’t want control of anyone’s empire but my own. I told you the truth when I said all I want is survival—and I think Nasia’s demise proves I was right to worry.”

If he was at all worried, he certainly had a strange way of showing it. At the very least, he wouldn’t be sitting so casually behind his desk, in full view of the windows. “Why would he kill his own sister?”

“Blood is
not
thicker than water when you are raised like we were. Hell, he’d kill his mother, too, if it meant his own survival.”

And so would Misha—only right now he was using the Directorate to do his dirty work. “That being the case, why state that you can keep me safe when it’s obvious you can’t keep yourself safe?”

He rose and walked toward me, a strange gleam in his silvery eyes. It was the look of a predator on the hunt, a predator who had his prey in sight and no intentions of letting it escape. When
that
look had been evident in Kellen’s eyes, my pulse had skipped with excitement, but in Misha’s eyes it only succeeded in raising hackles. Quinn was right—Misha didn’t want love, he wanted possession. Wanted to own me, rather than just love me.

But then, given what he was, how he was raised, maybe possession was the only thing he knew and understood. Could someone who has never known love, tenderness, or caring ever really return it in kind?

Watching Misha stalk toward me with that look in his eyes, I doubted it very much.

He braced his hands against the wall on either side of me, and leaned close. I pressed a hand against his chest, not forcefully, but enough to stop him kissing me. Even so, his breath washed warmth across my lips, and his aura wrapped me in heat and desire.

“He knows about the Fravardin. He knows that they are loyal to me, and only to me.” He pressed his weight against my hand, testing my strength, my will. “I have warned him that if anything else happens to you, they will hunt him down and they will kill him.”

Surprise rippled through me. My gaze searched his, but I could see no lie in his eyes, nor sense it in his words. “Why would you do that? Why not use them to protect yourself in the same manner?”

He moved a hand, and brushed his fingers down my cheek. His touch was icy compared to the fiery lust flaying my skin. “What’s the point? I will be dead in five or six years anyway.”

“But if you don’t use them to protect yourself, you might be dead in five or six days.” Or five or six hours.

“While I am alive, the Fravardin will do their utmost to protect me. When I am dead, they will keep watch over you.”

The thought of having a couple of ghostly creatures hanging about trying to protect me was enough to make me shiver. “Why would they bother when you’re dead and the payments stop?”

His aura went on high, bathing me with a fervor as strong as the sun itself. Sweat began to trickle down my spine. Even though I had my shields up high, it was hard to ignore the assault on my senses.

“Because it is written in my will that they will continue to get a retainer as well as the estate in Gisborne, where the tribe currently lives, provided certain conditions are met.”

Spirits being paid? How weird was that? “Can they be killed?”

“All things living can be killed. It’s just harder to kill what cannot be seen.”

“If your boss knows about them, then he probably knows what can kill them.”

“Undoubtedly. Problem is, unlike vampires, they don’t show up on infrared, and you’re the first person I know who has actually sensed them.”

First person besides him, obviously. “That’s because I’m special—and why crazy men want a piece of me.” I thrust him away from me. The cool air eddied around my skin, as pleasurable as water on a hot day. “You need to tell me about your boss.”

Annoyance flared in his eyes. “And give you an excuse to walk away? I think not.”

“Then tell me about Roberta Whitby—she’s the Helki alpha, isn’t she?”

He nodded, and crossed his arms. “The pack has gotten fat off the pickings of crime.”

“And Roberta has inserted her son into Government ranks?”

He smiled. “No. The true power of a country often lies not in the reins of officialdom, but rather, in the strength of the crime syndicates.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Meaning?”

“Is it not often said that the Yakuza is the true power in Japan?”

“They’re not a power here, though.”

“No, but there are crime syndicates nonetheless, and some of them are extremely powerful, even to the extent of having ‘relationships’ with certain Government departments.”

Was the Directorate one of those departments? Was that how Gautier had become a guardian? Given that Alan Brown, the recruitment officer, was being blackmailed, it didn’t take a genius to guess that maybe he was the connection between the Directorate and the man behind the mutants. But how was that happening if Jack and Rhoan could find no sign of messages being passed?

“I’m little more than a glorified secretary,” I said blandly. “I wouldn’t know about such things.”

“Then learn, because the man you seek is now in charge of one of them—and he plans to be the only one that matters.”

I studied him for a moment, then said, “I gather he’s replaced rather than overthrown?”

Misha nodded. “Far easier to step into successful shoes rather than work your way up the ranks.”

“But how? If this man is as powerful as you say, he’d be too wary to let strangers near him.”

His smile was cold. Amused. “But not wary enough when it comes to longtime lovers.”

“Roberta?”

He nodded. “The Helki pack has long done his dirty work. When Roberta came back onto the scene after her years in Roscoe’s labs, she used her aura to enrapture the man. They were lovers for three years before the replacement happened.”

Long enough for Roberta to become a trusted lover. Long enough for her to learn his ways and secrets. “So these labs where the crossbreeding is happening—they’re not the recent innovation you’ve led me to believe, but ones that the syndicate have had for a while.”

He nodded again. “Talon and I were the only ones who actually set up our own laboratories—though in Talon’s case, it was merely to continue our lab father’s work.”

Because he’d kept what remained of the research notes. “And not very successfully.”

Amusement touched his eyes. “He’d be hurt to hear you say that.”

“Like I care. How long have these other labs been in existence?”

“They’ve long been used for drug development. Gene experiments, with all its potential rewards, was the next logical step, and one they took some fifty years ago.”

I rubbed my arms, trying to ward off a sudden chill. Trying to ignore the premonition that sometime in the future I was going to see a whole lot more of those labs than I ever wanted. Only this time from the right side, not the wrong side.

“Meaning the man in charge is in his seventies?”

“No. Meaning the previous head of the syndicate began the work, and the current head continues it.”

“So how old is he? The man your boss became, I mean.”

“Early forties.” Something glimmered in his eyes. Amusement. Or perhaps anticipation. “He holds on to power through bloody force. Be wary when you go up against him.”

Going up against him wasn’t something I intended. I wasn’t a fool—and when that man got his comeuppance, it would be via Directorate hands, not mine. Though I would most
certainly
be there. “When I was reading the spirit lizard’s mind, I saw a house with lots of mixed-heritage creatures. Is he building up an army, like you once mentioned?”

“Not an army, but definitely a force of creatures most will fear. You destroyed some of his winged weapons a few months ago, and there is nothing ready yet to replace them. He has about forty other creatures at his disposal, though.” He paused. “He also intends to hire them out—at great cost, of course.”

I nodded. Misha had already mentioned that little sideline. “So he intends using his creatures to help his quest in becoming the only syndicate that matters in Australia?”

“Yes.”

Meaning we might be faced with an underworld war? Wonderful. “And that house? Was it his?”

He nodded. “It’s one of many retreats he owns.”

“Care to share the location?”

He stepped forward, and the wash of his desire had my skin burning again. “Care to share a little sex?”

“If you share this villain’s name.”

I raised a hand to prevent him coming any closer. He caught it, raising it to his lips, kissing my fingertips almost tenderly. If not for the cold determination in his eyes, it would almost have been easy to believe he cared. Though maybe, in some weird way, he did. Maybe he just equated caring with owning.

“I cannot tell you his name,” he said, switching his grip and attempting to tug me forward into his arms.

I resisted, digging my heels in, glad I’d worn sensible shoes rather than stilettos, which would have me tipping A over T into his arms. “You’ve told me just about everything else about him, so why not a name?”

“Because, as I’ve said before, I’m not able to
say
his name. He has placed a restraint on me that forbids it.”

“It makes no sense to place a restriction on his name when you can blab about everything else.”

“Ah, but he does not realize I can blab about everything else. I was strong enough to shield certain areas of my mind without him being aware of it. He thinks the compulsion is all-encompassing.”

The look in his eyes suggested there was something he wasn’t telling me—something very important. I frowned, considering his words, remembering everything else he’d said. Then it hit me.

“You can’t say his name,” I said slowly, “but can you write it?”

“Not only pretty, but clever as well.” He tugged my hand again, harder this time. I shifted several inches before my runners found purchase.

“So write down the name, Misha. We need to stop this man.”

“You need to stop him. I want you in my life.”

But I didn’t want him. “I thought you wanted a kid to carry on the family name?”

“I do, and I will have that, but we both know that it may never be accomplished with you.”

“I don’t love you, Misha.”

“Love has never been something I’ve desired. You, on the other hand, I’ve wanted from the moment I first saw you stripping oh-so-sexily in front of your bedroom window.”

I was going to have be a little more circumspect when it came to stripping off my clothes after a hard day at the office, obviously. “I will not enter into a permanent relationship with you.”

“I’m not asking for permanent, just ongoing.”

How could I promise something like that? Who knew what the future had in store for me—and for him? What if tomorrow I met the man who was my soul mate? I’d be stuck with an agreement—and a wolf—I didn’t want.

“We have a deal, Misha. I’ll stick to that, nothing more.”

He smiled, and tugged me forward with enough force to cannon me into him. His arms went around me, holding me close. “Then I will not give you the name.”

I could have broken his hold anytime I wanted, and we both knew it. Which made actually breaking free pretty pointless. “You’ve given me enough for the Directorate to find him.”