NIKOLAI (Her Russian Protector #4) (34 page)

"Consulting fees?" A suspicion formed. "What
was Jake's last name?"

"Peterson."

And suddenly everything became clear. "The
girls. My contact told me that a man who called himself J.P. made
the payments and arrangements."

Yuri made a gasping sound. "No. It's not
possible. Jake was a lot of things but he wasn’t cruel enough to
traffic young girls."

"He probably didn’t know. I'm sure Katya or
Grisha convinced him that he was paying freight for something less
sinister." Nikolai scratched the top of his head as his mind raced.
"My contact told me that the payment and the handling changed a few
months ago when J.P. was shot. That would have been around the time
Jake died."

Yuri swore nastily. "I can't believe this. I
can't." He exhaled roughly. "Grisha's level of obsession with us is
insane. These files are frightening. And my investigator made
notations of Grisha's increasing dependence on drugs. I'm very
concerned."

"You should be." As a Moscow captain, Grisha
wielded immense power. For some reason Nikolai didn't quite
understand, Grisha had decided that he wanted to put him six feet
underground. None of it made sense. Grisha was the heir apparent to
the family. There was nothing Nikolai had that Grisha could
possibly want badly enough to kill him and hurt his
friends.

Unless…

Nikolai thought of the birth
certificate the priest back in Russia had unearthed and sent to
Houston. Was
that
the reason for all of this?

"There's something else you should know," Yuri
said. "I called in some pretty big favors and had Grisha's travel
movements for the last year compiled. He was in the States when
Vivian was taken and you were attacked."

Nikolai's stomach churned. Was Grisha the man
who had held a gun to her temple and then set the building on fire
to burn her alive?

"And he's here now."

Nikolai went rigid as that piece of information
registered. He gripped the drapes and quickly pulled them closed.
The night of Vivian's rescue came to mind. Grisha had known Vivian
was in his bed. At the time, he'd assumed Kostya had let it slip
but now he wondered if he was under surveillance.

"You should take Lena and get out of town. Call
Ivan and Dimitri. Tell them to get out for a while or be very
careful. No one can be trusted."

"What are you going to do?" Fear edged into
Yuri's voice.

"I'm going to protect my family."

* * *

I'd already showered and slipped into a
nightgown by the time Nikolai finally made it upstairs. He wore an
intense expression and my belly trembled at the very sight of it. I
had a feeling he'd gotten some bad news. "Is everything
okay?"

He dragged me into his arms and kissed the top
of my head. "Let me shower. Then we'll talk."

"Okay." I reluctantly allowed him to slip from
my embrace. Once the bathroom door was closed, I glanced around the
room for something to do. My gaze settled on Nikolai's jacket and
shirt. A frosting stain on the elbow of his jacket made me smile.
No doubt he'd bumped into someone at the reception while talking or
taking a picture.

I grabbed one of the sturdy wooden hangers from
Nikolai's closet and draped his jacket and shirt over it. As I
brushed some lint from the front of the jacket, I heard crinkling
papers. Curious, I stuck my hand into the pocket hidden along the
front panel and retrieved a stack of folded documents. I quickly
recognized them as our church paperwork.

The sight of Nikolai's birth certificate
surprised me. We'd been certain it would be impossible to locate
but apparently that priest Ivan had kept in touch with had been
able to find it. I scanned the Russian document for the relevant
details. His mother's name had been Marina—and she was only sixteen
when he was born.

But it was the name of his father that made my
knees weak. I flopped down on the bed and stared at the name in
shock and disbelief. Maksim Nikolayevich Prokhorov—the boss of
Moscow—was Nikolai's father.

Before I could even finish processing my
discovery, Nikolai emerged from the bathroom with only a towel
wrapped around his waist. He froze the moment he spotted me reading
the birth certificate. I expected him to be upset but a look of
utter relief flashed across his face.

"How long have you known?"

Nikolai sighed and crossed the room to sit
beside me. "I found out right before the wedding."

I grabbed his hand. "That's terrible. Why would
Father Semyon blindside you like that?"

"It wasn't the priest. It was his
deacon."

I rolled my eyes. "Of course."

"I don't think Maksim knows that I
know."

"He's never said anything to you? Not
once?"

Nikolai shook his head. "It's not as if he
treated me any differently than the other men. Maybe he doesn't
even know."

"I doubt that very much." I gave the
papers a shake. "Do you think a man as powerful as Maksim would
allow a sixteen-year-old girl to put his name on a birth
certificate without his knowledge? Things might have been different
over there when you were born but they weren't
that
different. Besides, you have
your grandfather's name."

He ran his finger over the faded type. "I don't
think he knew about me when I was little. If he'd known, he
wouldn't have ever abandoned me to an orphanage. Even a mob boss'
illegitimate children are looked after properly."

I thought of all the things he'd suffered and
it made me sick. "I'm so sorry, Kolya."

He kissed my cheek. "It's done. I can't go back
and change anything. I can only move forward."

"Earlier, you said you thought Maksim was
trying to move against you. He's your father, Nikolai. Would he
really do that?"

"I was wrong," Nikolai admitted. "Yuri called
with some information that's changed everything. I don't think it's
Maksim. I think it's Grisha."

Grisha. Gregori Vostrikova, a notorious captain
of the Moscow syndicate. I'd heard his name whispered in hushed
tones. The tales of his violent outbursts were the stuff of
legends.

Bile rose in my throat as I remembered my time
in that dog cage. "Nikolai, does Grisha smell like
cloves?"

Nikolai went ramrod straight. He grasped my
shoulders and turned me to face him. Searching my face, he asked,
"Why? When did you smell cloves?"

"The man who would come into the room and poked
at my cage smelled like cloves. He was the one who shot the guards
and put that gun to my head." I rubbed my temple.

"You didn't say anything before this.
Why?"

"I didn't think it mattered. It was just a
smell."

Nikolai's eyes briefly closed. "He's smoked
clove cigarettes as long as I've known him. It's a scent that
follows him everywhere."

"I'm sorry. I should have mentioned
it."

"Don't," he whispered and pulled me into his
strong arms. "You were traumatized. It's normal to forget small
details."

"What does Grisha have against you,
Nikolai?"

"He was always jealous of me." Nikolai threaded
his fingers through my hair. "Ivan and I were sponsored in the
family by him. He always expected us to be his happy little
soldiers, but after a few years working directly under him, I knew
I couldn't handle it much longer. He was too violent, too grisly.
He was constantly dipping into the product he moved on the streets.
It made him erratic. Eventually, Maksim broke me out into my own
crew. I took Kostya and Ivan with me. We had a successful run in
Moscow."

"But?"

"But then the rumors started," he said with
some frustration. "People began to ask me if I was really intending
to make a go of my own organization. I couldn't believe it. I'd
never wanted to break away from the family. I was happy with my
small crew and our small but profitable jobs."

"Do you think it was Grisha?" It sounded like a
sneaky thing he would do.

"I never would have suspected him at the time.
He was always such a good friend." Nikolai laughed harshly. "Now, I
realize he was trying to keep me close so he could watch me
better."

"What happened after the rumors
started?"

"Maksim called me in for a private meeting. He
asked me not to go against him and I swore I had no intention of
doing that. Then he offered me Houston. He wanted to expand the
family, and he wanted me to come here and see if I could make any
inroads. Now I'm wondering if he wasn't trying to save my life by
getting me out of Grisha's crosshairs."

"But Grisha hired my dad to kill you." The
awful truth struck me finally. "And I went with him."

Nikolai's embrace tightened. "You didn’t know.
You were so young."

"Now my dad is out and I bet you he's rattling
Grisha's chain."

"I'm sure of it," Nikolai agreed. "Grisha is
trying to clean up loose ends before the old man finds out what
he's been up to around here, trafficking those girls and trying to
kill me and taking you."

"What are you going to do?" I had a bad feeling
that things were about to get very violent, very fast.

"What am I going to do?" The grim line of his
mouth curved to a devilishly sexy grin. He playfully walked his
finger up my thigh to the hem of my short nightgown. "I'm going to
make love to my gorgeous wife. How does that sound?"

He was trying to shield me from the ugly
details of what was probably going to happen. I shouldn't have
given in so easily but the ticklish sensation of his hand inching
along my inner thigh made it impossible for me to stand my
ground—and he knew it.

Giggling, I fell back to the bed. In an
instant, Nikolai was on top of me. He kissed away my worries,
stabbing his tongue between my lips and twirling it around mine.
His hand snaked under my night dress to cup my breast. I ran my
hands down his back and enjoyed his rippling, lean
physique.

The towel he wore fell open. Not breaking away
from my mouth, Nikolai gave it a jerk to free it from the spot
where it was trapped between our hips and threw it to the floor. My
nightgown quickly followed the towel.

Naked beneath him, I gazed up into his eyes.
The all-consuming love for me burning there made me tremble.
Desperate for him to know I felt the same way, I rose up to press
my mouth to his. "I love you so much. Whatever happens—"

"We'll figure it out…together." He sealed his
vow with a kiss. "You and me, Vee. Forever."

I swore then and there I'd do whatever it took
to make sure that happened. I wasn't as well-connected or street
smart at Nikolai but I wasn't going to let that stop me. Just as
he'd do anything for me, I would do anything for him.

Nikolai's hand swept down my belly and dragged
me from my troubled thoughts. He pushed my thighs open and petted
my pussy. He dotted my breasts with noisy kisses. "Are you
sore?"

The question made my face flame with
embarrassment but I answered honestly. "A little."

He lifted his head and smiled at me. "Let me
try something."

I expected him to slide out of bed and offer me
some ibuprofen but instead he nibbled and kissed his way down my
body and slid to the floor. When he dragged my bottom to the very
edge of the bed and shoved my thighs apart, I gasped and tried to
close them but his strong hands held me in place. "What are you
doing?"

He chuckled and shot me an amused smile. "I'm
going to kiss it and make it better."

"You're what? No, I don't
think—
Oh God!
" I
cried out with delighted shock as he placed a tender kiss right on
top of my clitoris. He gently parted my delicate folds and swiped
the pointed tip of his tongue along both sides of me.
"Oh!"

"Hold still," he urged with a laugh. "You're
about to wiggle right off the bed."

"I don’t think I can." I moaned loudly as his
tongue fluttered over the swollen kernel hidden there. "Oh,
Nikolai. Nikolai…wait…I can't…"

"You can." He ended my protests by suckling my
clit with long, slow tugs. My hips shot off the bed but his tight
grip on my thighs prevented me from getting very far. He licked and
lapped at my pussy like a starving man.

I clawed at the bed as his tongue
circled and fluttered and dipped inside me. I'd never
imagined
anything
could feel like this. When my friends had described the
techniques their men used, I'd always been uncertain whether I'd
want to have a man do this to me—but now? Oh God. I never wanted
Nikolai to stop.

"Please. Please…" I begged him without even
knowing what I really wanted. He seemed to understand. That skilled
tongue of his drove me straight to orgasm. I bucked wildly as he
suckled and flicked my clit and elicited the most wondrous
explosions in my lower belly. "Nikolai!"

He made an excited sound as he
continued to drive me crazy with that wicked mouth of his. It
seemed one climax wasn't enough for him—and I wasn’t about to ask
him to stop. It felt
so
good. I surrendered then, giving him total control
as he went wild between my thighs and made me come again and again
and again.