The Life of Anna, Part 5: Emerged (49 page)

I tried to decide what to do. Part of me
thought I should find a way through that door to make sure you were
okay, but my gut told me that Max was a good guy and there was
nothing to worry about.

The question became, then, where would
you emerge? The building is huge and who knew if you would even
come back up to this floor. The only sure thing was that you had to
leave through the main door, so I headed downstairs to stake out
the door.

About an hour and a half later, I saw Max
come through a side door and walk towards the information desk.
Maybe I could learn something from him. I meandered towards the
information desk and gave him a friendly smile.

“Hello,” Max said with an equally
friendly smile. “How may I help you?”

How best to approach this? “I noticed you
speaking with a woman upstairs a while ago....” I hesitated. “You
seem to know her quite well.”

“Yes,” Max said cautiously. “You might
say that.”

“What can you tell me about
her?”

Max’s brow furrowed and his eyes
narrowed. He was protective of you. Good. “Why do you
ask?”

I grinned. “She’s a beautiful woman.” I
gave a little shrug. “I’d like to know more about her.”

The older man studied me for a while.
“She’s engaged.”

“I see.” I paused. “Whoever he is must be
a very lucky man.”

Max frowned. “I don’t know if he realizes
how lucky he is.”

“Why do you say that?”

He sighed. “It’s not my place to spread
rumors, but he doesn’t seem to appreciate her the way she should be
appreciated. Let’s just put it that way.”

“She’s a special girl?”

Max nodded with a fond smile. “Not too
many young women spend their days off in the library. But she comes
every week, either on Sundays or Mondays. Well, up until a few
weeks ago. I thought maybe she’d gone off and gotten married, but
she came back.” He smiled. “She’s the sweetest thing I’ve ever
seen, and a spectacular dancer.”

“Dancer?” Of course, I knew this
already.

“She’s a ballerina with the City Ballet.
Made quite a stir in the Arts world during the Spring Season. But
the company’s on tour now. Not sure why she’s not with them, unless
it was her illness that kept her here.”

We’d only arrived in the city yesterday
and hadn’t had time to learn much about what you had been up to, so
I was quick to ask more questions.

“What kinds of books does she look
at?”

Max smiled. “All sorts, though she stays
away from the popular modern fiction. She always looks at the
ballet books. Sometimes she’ll go to the classics. Sometimes she’ll
stay in non-fiction. I saw her in the German language section a
little bit ago.”

“German language?” That was
promising.

“Apparently her fiancé is
German.”

“Ah.” Back to Kurt. “And she doesn’t seem
happy to be engaged?”

“No, not really. When she told me she was
engaged I pointed her in the direction of the wedding books and she
just shrugged and asked about something else. That’s not
normal.”

“Well, Germans don’t get very romantic
about their weddings.”

“That’s a shame. She’d make a beautiful
bride.”

I nodded thoughtfully. You were radiant
the day you married Alex.

Max eyed me carefully. “She’s got a very
pretty rock on her finger. He must be pretty wealthy. Although she
doesn’t seem the type to marry for money. Maybe someone could steal
her heart away from him.” He gave me a pointed look.

“Maybe.” I shook my head. “Please don’t
tell her I was asking about her.”

“Why not?”

“Because....” I hesitated. “It’s my
employer who is interested in her and he’s...shy.”

“Employer, eh? You seem pretty interested
yourself.”

Max was a smart man. “Who could resist
someone like her?” I smiled. “Thank you for your time.” I turned to
leave.

“Is your employer a good man?” Max
asked.

I turned around with a serious face. “The
best man I’ve ever met.”

The older man smiled. “If there’s
anything I can do...I’d love to see her happy.”

“Thanks, Max.”

“So that’s why Max was okay with the roses in
the library,” Anna said thoughtfully. She gave Seth an affectionate
smile. “I should have said something to you.”

Seth shook his head. “It was better if you
didn’t know, Anna.”

Anna sighed. “I guess so.”

Seth laughed suddenly. “Did you tell her
about the first time we saw her at the club?”

Alex’s face turned red and he shook his
head.

Anna giggled. “Tell me?” she pleaded,
intrigued by the embarrassed look on her husband’s face.

Alex sighed. “All right.”

I had been in my condo for a week. I’d
been cooped up on my family estate for the prior four months.
Before that, I’d been imprisoned for four years. I needed to get
out. Get out and be around people. Being in the city, watching the
hustle and bustle made me restless, not to mention having to wait a
few more weeks for the start of my mission to destroy
Devin.

I’d been officially “called out” but this
was a mission I was looking forward to fulfilling. As a Brotherhood
assassin, I couldn’t just go out and start shooting people. I’d be
killed. Me and my team. But, if given an assignment by Vlad, Tom
and my father to take out some Elders and Sons, then I was simply
acting as a proper Assassin. It didn’t matter that I had helped in
the planning of the assignment. It didn’t matter that I was itching
to see these men through the scope of my rifle. All that mattered
was that I’d been given an assignment and I would gladly fulfill
it.

My assignment: Take out the Elders and
their Sons from Boston, Philadelphia and Chicago. One city at a
time, each month. Take the Son on Monday and the Elder the
following Friday. By the time I got to the third Elder, Devin would
be freaking out and wondering who was next. No, I couldn’t kill
Devin, but I could kill his son. And then, at Tyler’s funeral, I
would show myself and he would be condemned by the world Elders who
would, of course, be there. Then I would gladly take him off to
live the rest of his life in the same prison where I’d spent the
last several years. Russians know how to run prisons, even private
ones.

The idea of simply killing Devin wasn’t
satisfying. No, I want Devin to feel the pain and humiliation of
defeat. That would be far more satisfying than simply a bullet to
the head. If I hadn’t been able to get out of Vitaly and Vlad’s
prison on my own, there was no way Devin would be able to.

Three weeks. Three weeks until the Summer
Gathering and then I’d be able to begin my mission. Once Devin was
safely in prison, I would go find you and we’d live happily ever
after. I had argued to take them all out at once at the Gathering.
But doing it slowly would break Devin. His perfect plans would be
falling apart around him and he wouldn’t be able to stop it. It
might even drive him insane. I liked that idea.

But I was restless. Very restless. I
paced up and down on my rooftop terrace. I felt like a caged lion.
I needed to do something. Something other than cleaning my rifle
and working out.

Tony came up and sat in one of the
chairs. “I need a drink and a fuck.” Tony grinned. “And by fuck, I
mean a woman.”

I chuckled. “I can appreciate that.” I
only wanted you, but I could understand the needs of my men. We’d
been very busy the last few months and had been restricted on going
out in public. We hadn’t been out to a bar or club since before we
were captured.

I thought for a minute. “Call Simon.
Maybe he can offer a suggestion.”

“You’re willing to go out?” Tony asked
with a brow raised.

I shrugged. “I need to get out of here.
I’m going stir crazy. Maybe there’s a place we can go and remain
unseen?”

Tony rolled his eyes. “Doubt it.” But he
stood and made the call anyway.

My new personal assistant, Simon, was the
one person in New York who knew who I was and why I was here. Simon
was my “face” whenever I needed to transact business. He was the
youngest son of Vati’s friend, Edwin, who was another German Elder.
Devin wouldn’t know him. He spoke excellent English and was
completely trustworthy. And he’d lived in New York for several
years.

Simon knew the perfect place. This
particular club was classy and very discreet. There were several
private seating areas off the main floor where we could see without
being seen. Seth, Tony and Greg could hopefully find some girl to
fuck anonymously and get some relief.

I thought it was a good course of action,
but as Seth, Greg and Tony and I walked in through the back door
and took our seats in the room to watch the activities of the
night, I groaned. Before Irina, it had been a really long time
since I’d been with a woman, and the mostly naked women gyrating on
the dance floor were not helpful. But I didn’t desire anyone but
you, and had no intention of sleeping with anyone else. Especially
after seeing you earlier in the week.

Of course, I wouldn’t expect the same
level of control from the others, though I did tell them to keep it
anonymous. They also couldn’t go out on the dance floor in case
someone recognized them. It was a small chance, but I couldn’t risk
it. I was thankful for the loyalty of my men.

“Holy shit,” Tony said, choking on his
beer.

I was talking to Simon and had just taken
a swig of my beer when I looked in the direction Tony was staring.
The mouthful of beer I’d just taken sprayed across the
table.

It was you. Half-naked and extremely
sexy. Hell, sexy was an understatement. My pants became very
uncomfortable very quickly.

You were wearing a scrap of white over
your ass and a sheer pink top that I could almost see your
delicious nipples through. I became indignant as I thought of the
other men in the room seeing my wife’s breasts like that, and
nearly stormed across the room to shield you from the stares that
followed your every move.

In fact, when I looked down, both Tony
and Seth’s hands were on my arms holding me back.

“What the fuck is she doing, dressed like
that?” I growled, shifting in my seat.

“That’s Anna?” Simon said, letting out a
wolf whistle, and I turned to glare at him. “Sorry.”

My only comfort was that you seemed
oblivious to most of the stares, and even shy when you caught a
man’s eye. “Who is she with?” I muttered. The man you stood next to
took your hand and led you across the room to a table. I was
thankful I could still see you.

The man you were with winked at you and
sashayed across the room, making me relax slightly. He was
obviously gay, but could he protect you from these...savages who
were ogling you like you were a piece of meat? They’d be drooling
if they knew how good you tasted....

“Fuck,” I muttered and ran my hands
through my hair. Why did Simon have to pick the one club you were
at? If I stayed, I would likely wind up killing someone for
touching you. If I left, my mind would be filled with all sorts of
horrible scenarios, most of which ended up with some guy’s cock in
your pussy. I growled again.

“Alex, relax,” Simon said, resting a firm
hand on my shoulder. “This is a very safe, discreet club. Nothing
will happen to her.”

“Except she looks like she wants
something to happen. Why the fuck is she dressed like
that?”

“She’s dressed like all the other women
in the club,” Seth pointed out. “She has more clothes on than at
least half of them.”

“That’s not much comfort.”

The other men chuckled, making me growl
again.

A man approached you and spoke to you. I
was pleased when your cheeks turned pink and you shook your head.
He said something else, to which he was given a head shake; he
walked away dejected, and I grinned. “She’s learned to say
no.”

The gay man returned with several drinks
in hand. Two shots and two martinis. You clinked your shot glasses
together and drank. You giggled and wiped your perfect pink
mouth.

“I need an ice bath,” Greg
mumbled.

The man spoke excitedly and you looked
around. When he pointed in my direction, you turned around and my
heart skipped a beat.

“She knows you’re here,” Seth
commented.

“She probably found out that the rich
mystery guy is here,” I grumbled.

“Oh, Alex, you know she’s not the money
chasing type,” Tony pointed out. “God, she’s got your family’s
fortune. What does she need to chase rich guys for?”

I shrugged. Tony had a point. You weren’t
the type, as Seth had found out this afternoon. That pleased me
immensely.

We watched you like starving men watch a
chef preparing a juicy steak.

“I can see about arranging some
companionship for you if you’d like,” Simon offered.

I shrugged again. Simon knew I wasn’t in
the market for a cheap fuck. Oh, how I just wanted to walk over
there, pick you up and bring you back here. I would fuck you hard
until you screamed so loud the entire club heard you over the
music. A grin spread across my face at the thought.

“Shall I see if there’s any gossip about
her?” Simon suggested after a few minutes.