Russian Mafia Billionaire’s Secretary (18 page)

Wait. Did he say brother?

Taking a deep breath, she reminded herself why she was there. “Business,” she blurted out as he glared at her with suspicion.

“What kind of business?”

Tanya flashed him the clear bag with the white substance in it. Reaching his hand out to take it, she pulled it back. “N’uh uh. I want to speak with your brother.”

The man looked her slowly up and down, and Tanya fought to maintain eye contact. She was not going to be intimidated by him – not when she was this close to seeing her best friend again.

The guards laughed when he said something in Russian. Shrugging his shoulders, he turned and began walking toward the house. Pausing, he turned to look at her.

“Are you coming?” Not bothering to see if she was, he continued walking to the house as Tanya struggled to follow.

Her suitcase kept twisting when she dragged it behind her through the small patches of snow. Planting her feet, she caught her breath when her foot twisted and she almost slipped on the slippery walkway.

“No, really, I don’t need any help,” she muttered under her breath as she followed along.

“You are the one who showed up on my doorstep brandishing drugs, why would you think I would help you?” he called over his shoulder.

“Oh, I don’t know, politeness? Male chivalry?”

His bark of laughter caught her by surprise. Stopping at the bottom of the steps, he snatched her suitcase and mounted the steps two at a time, while Tanya jogged to keep up. When she got to the top, she stared up at the imposing house as she caught her breath.

He dropped her bag next to her. “Never let it be said that a Markov does not know how to be chivalrous,” he declared before he continued toward the house. When he got to the entrance, he opened the door and waited for her to follow.

Staring at the open door, Tanya wondered at her madness. It had been more than a year since she’d seen her best friend Olivia Lockheart. As the victim of a political ploy, she had been kidnapped by the Russian mob in order to secure the release of the mob leader’s younger brother. Looking up in surprise, his comment about his brother finally sunk in.

“You’re Nikolai Markov?” she asked, surprised.

He laughed sarcastically. “Dah. Now, if you would hurry up, you are letting the cold in,” he reprimanded as she covered the distance between them and followed him inside.

When Olivia had disappeared the second time, Tanya had learned that she had run off with her abductor, Sergei Markov. Even worse, when his replacement decided to stay in Washington DC, Liv’s cousin Daisy supposedly fell head over heels for him.

What was it with the Lockheart women?
she had mused more than once. Well, make that fumed. If all this were true, why didn’t her best friend keep in contact with her? Clearly, something was amiss and Tanya was determined to find out what was going on.

As she followed Nikolai down a long hallway, she couldn’t help admiring his body. Dressed casually in dark jeans that fit him like a second skin and a wool sweater that did nothing to hide his physique, Tanya was oblivious to where they were going until it was too late.

Opening a door, he gestured for her to enter first. Thinking he was still bristling at the chivalry comment, she quickly stepped inside. After she looked up, she realized that she was in a rather austere bedroom. She turned around and was about to ask what was going on when she caught his malicious smile before he pulled the door shut and locked it from the outside.

“Hey!” she shouted, as she ran to the door. Pulling on the handle, she tugged ineffectively at the door, shouting for help. Tanya didn’t know how long she called out before she eventually stopped. She sagged against the door.

“What the hell am I going to do now?” she said aloud as she looked around at the almost empty room. “Dammit!” Giving the door one last smack with the palm of her hand, she pushed away from it and walked farther into the room.

Quickly surveying the room, she looked at the meager furnishings. “Hopefully, this isn’t a guest room,” she mused. “Although, I guess it would be effective at keeping guests away. Except for the locked door.”

She flung her suitcase onto the bed and opened it. Rifling through the small carry-on bag, she pulled out her cell phone and turned it on, hoping she could get a signal. She did not intend to stay locked up any longer than necessary. When her phone had fully booted up, she stared at the lack of bars. Dialing her carrier’s customer service number, she listened to the automated recording.

“What do you mean, I don’t have service?” she demanded as she stared at her phone. “I did everything I was supposed to,” she stated through gritted teeth as she pulled up the text message with the instructions. “Except boot the phone before I left the US. Dammit!” she swore, louder this time as she resisted the urge to fling her phone across the room. “What the hell am I going to do now? And, why am I still talking to an empty room?”

She rubbed at her face in irritation as she sagged against the bed. Stifling a yawn, she couldn’t fight off the second one. Fourteen hours flight time, plus all the time she spent going through customs and another four hours to get out to this frozen block of nothing, exhaustion had suddenly tipped the scale for her as what little adrenalin she had left had been depleted.

Deciding to close her eyes for only a moment, sleep quickly overtook her.

Chapter 2

Nikolai paced the floor as he waited for his brother to answer his call. When the video call was finally accepted, he sat down in the chair.

“She’s getting so big,” he burst out when he saw his brother, Sergei, holding his niece.

“Every day,” was Sergei’s proud reply as he smiled down at his daughter before looking up at the camera. “I don’t think you called to see how your niece is doing, so what is it, Nicky?”

“I have a visitor,” he began.

“And, that would be?”

“An American female,” he laughed.

Giving his brother an odd look, Sergei adjusted the baby in his arms. “Look, we’re all adults. That’s your house now. What you do there is none of my business…”

“It’s not like that,” Nikolai interrupted. “She showed up brandishing some sort of package that she was pretending was drugs.”

“What? I don’t understand. Who is this woman?”

Lifting the luggage tag off the desk, he read the name, “Tanya Nichols.”

“Did you say Tanya?” The female voice came from off the screen before Nikolai watched Olivia join his brother. “What on earth is she doing out there?” she questioned as she took the baby.

Shrugging his shoulders, he questioned, “If I were to guess, looking for you. Have you not been in touch with her?” Olivia kissed her daughter, who tangled her little hand in her hair.

She shook her head. “No, we had decided that the least number of people who knew what was going on the better. My father still hasn’t given up on finding Sergei. According to my cousin, it’s gotten ever worse since the judge threw your case out of court. When some of the reporters suggested that all this was a witch hunt, he ended up losing his chair position on two committees, and he’s been seeing red ever since. Oh Lord, if Tanya has come all that way, she must be frantic. What are you going to do?”

Nikolai smiled. “Leave that to me.” At that moment, the baby began to cry, so Olivia kissed her husband and moved away from the camera. Sergei leaned in and gave him a stern look.

“Don’t do anything stupid, brother.”

Continuing to smile, he replied, “I wasn’t the one foolish enough to pretend to have drugs.”

“If Olivia finds out that you’ve hurt a hair on her friend’s head-”

He held his hand up and interrupted, “I intend to have a bit of fun with her, but I assure you that no harm will come to her.”

After disconnecting the call, Nikolai sat back in the chair and steepled his fingers together. Looking at the monitor, he spied on a sleeping Tanya. She was quite pretty when she wasn’t yelling or banging on the door. He was glad she had finally calmed down enough to sleep. Adjusting the camera, he zoomed in on her. She had fallen asleep while still sitting on the bed. When he had gone in to search for her identification, he took pity on her and shifted her into a more comfortable position before covering her up.

He stood up and stretched. Looking at the monitor one last time, he turned out the lights before heading upstairs. Tomorrow would be a new day and he intended to enjoy pushing Miss Nichols’ buttons.

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