Turbulent Sea (29 page)

Joley slid to the floor beside him, slinging her arm around, uncaring that his sorrow and fear only compounded her own. "You know we're going to have to go to the police."

"That won't stop him, Joley. You should have seen him when I talked to him. And God help me, I still love him. I had no idea he was a monster. He was as lonely as I was and I think he really cared. I hope that he did. But he flew into a rage when I told him we had to end it."

"Is he here in Dallas?"

"Yes. And he wants me to go to his party tonight after the performance. He said we have to talk, to clear things up. If I don't go, I don't know what he'll do. Logan's got the baby traveling with him and Tish. Denny we can keep from the party, but Rick and Leo will go for sure. He could do anything to them."

"We're getting ahead of ourselves." She pressed a hand to her churning stomach.

Was it possible that they all had it wrong? Brian insisted that Nikitin feared Prakenskii. Could Nikitin be the front man and Prakenskii be the real boss? Everyone deferred to him—everyone. She'd watched it a million times. The moment he spoke. The moment he moved. Every one of Nikitin's men stopped what they were doing to pay attention. Could he be the real head of the Russian mob? All the violence she'd seen in his memories, all the darkness clouding his aura, even his dominating personality pointed to it. Did he control others through his sexual expertise? The thought sickened her. She rubbed her face against her knees.

"Let's not panic, Brian. No one else knows about this, right?"

He nodded.

"Well, let's do the show. Say you'll go to the party. We can have something go wrong at the performance. I can fall and hurt myself. We've got a couple of hours to think of something to buy us a little more time."

"We have to leave Dallas tonight for some reason."

She nodded. "We'll come up with an excuse and make it seem real. We're performers. Jonas is in law enforcement. I'll talk to him and a couple of my sisters about Nikitin. I'll do my best to cover what he's got on you."

He shook his head. "It's over for me. Once the fact that I'm gay is out, I've got to leave the band."

"No, you don't." She had to get away from him. His misery overwhelmed him. "And you can forget the suicide crap, it's not an option." Because she could feel him considering that as well. "Come on, Brian, we're in this together. We're smart. We'll figure it out." She stood up and brushed herself off. "My family's tangled with the mob before, and we always come out on top. You tell the sound crew I'll be there in a few minutes. I'm calling Jonas."

It had taken a lot of courage for Brian to come to her and tell her the truth. He had served himself up on a platter to her, and she was going to stand by him, by their long-standing friendship and the love she had for him. She loved him all the more for trusting her with his secret. Joley hugged him again hard.

Brian brushed a kiss against her temple. "I'm sorry I brought this to us."

She couldn't let him leave weighed down with so much guilt. "Brian." She caught his sleeve. "Don't do anything stupid. You didn't think Nikitin was anything but a businessman. I suspected Ilya was more than he appeared, so if we're really in trouble here, I'm far more to blame than you."

She had never understood why Denny couldn't just walk away from the groupies and the drugs. She was appalled at Logan for betraying Tish. He'd been so strong, night after night, but in the end, in spite of loving Tish, he'd succumbed to temptation. She hadn't understood how a person could be so weak that they would make the choice to do something they knew was so wrong—until now.

"You didn't do anything wrong, Brian. Of all of us, you're the only one who tried to do the right thing. None of this is your fault. And certainly Dean's death isn't. That's on whoever killed him, and we don't know that it was Nikitin."

"Thank you for that, Joley," Brian said.

He went out the door, leaving her standing alone in the silence. In emptiness. Because that was her life. Empty. Having spent hours of happiness with Ilya, the sheer loneliness was that much harder to take. Maybe that had been Logan's downfall. When Tish stopped traveling so much with them, he couldn't take being alone. Maybe that was the reason Denny couldn't resist the groupies and Rick and Leo partied so much. She could understand how Brian, after so many years of emptiness, had turned to someone he thought it was safe to love.

She flipped open her phone and called Jonas. When it came to her family, she knew they were rock-solid, could always be counted on, but he was going to go berserk on her. She told him the entire story. All of it. Including her downfall with Ilya. She skated over Brian, but she knew he got the gist of it, and one thing about Jonas was his absolute silence when she spoke to him in confidence—which she'd been smart enough to insist on before the conversation even got started.

She had to hold the phone away from her ear until he got done swearing and telling her to get her ass home now. Tonight. On a plane. She stood for what seemed like forever before his rant stopped and she could speak again.

"Jonas, I cannot cancel the rest of my tour. We're sold out at every single venue. In any case, if we did cancel, that would certainly tip off Nikitin that Brian told us everything."

"I don't give a damn. You get home to the house that eats people and I know you'll be safe. Bring the band if you need to, but get where we can protect you."

"It's not like I'm going to be poking around asking questions. I'm not stupid." She made a face. "Okay. I take that back, I'm stupid where men are concerned, but not about safety."

"Nothing can happen to you, Joley. I'll fly to Dallas with Aleksandr and Jackson and we'll help provide protection. Aleksandr knows a great deal about the mob, and once Jackson puts the crosshairs on someone, they're dead."

She sucked in her breath. "You can't do that. I mean it, Jonas. First of all, I absolutely am not risking my family. You promised you'd be reasonable. Don't fly off the handle. If you all come down here, my sisters will come."

"Over my dead body."

"You know they will. Come on. Think with me. If you come to Dallas right now, my sisters will follow, and that would have the same effect as if I canceled the tour. Nikitin would know Brian gave him up and he'd have him killed. Tell me I'm wrong."

There was more swearing on the other end. Jonas finally sighed. "Listen to me, Joley. Really, for once in your life, listen to me. Hannah, your sisters, your parents, and me, Joley, we wouldn't survive it if anything happened to you. You're like the sunshine in this family. Nothing would ever be the same. I'll gather as much information as possible here. Aleksandr will be able to tell us more about Prakenskii, but you stay the hell away from him. My gut says he's some kind of cop, but I've been wrong before. He's sided with our family numerous times, and between you and me, I know he's the one who took out the mobster threatening Hannah. He did it to make certain the feds didn't keep him alive where he could direct reprisals from a cell."

"That hit benefited Nikitin, though, didn't it? I heard you talking to Jackson about it." Joley began pacing up and down the narrow corridor of the bus.

"You shouldn't have been listening." There was an edge now to Jonas's voice, something that happened a lot with Joley.

"Sorry, I find your whispered conversations so intriguing."

"That's not funny, Joley."

Her fingers tightened around the phone. "If I don't laugh, I'm going to cry. I'm counting on you to figure something out. I'm doing the concert tonight, and I'm going to have Jerry announce that we have to leave right after so no one will have a chance to go to that party."

She could feel Ilya's presence now. He was close—very close—and her heart began to beat faster in anticipation of seeing him.

"You just remember there's already been one murder, Joley. If it's about Brian, Nikitin won't hesitate to teach him another lesson."

"I'm scared enough, thank you very much. I've got to do the sound check. My poor sound crew is probably having fits. I've got to go, Jonas, but I'm counting on you to save us."

"That's my specialty, honey. And I'll find out everything I can on Prakenskii, but if he's undercover, I don't want to blow it for him or raise any red flags. Stay away from him."

She closed her eyes for a moment, wishing she had, wishing it wasn't already too late. "Please don't tell Hannah how stupid I've been."

"No one thinks you're stupid, Joley. Please be careful. I'll call back with information and a plan."

"I knew you would. Thanks, Jonas."

Joley slipped the phone into her pocket and went to the door of her bus. Taking a deep breath, she opened it, knowing Ilya would be waiting to escort her to the sound check. She was right, and the sight of him took her breath away. He was so handsome, so mesmerizing, his deep blue eyes hypnotic. She inhaled his scent, and went dizzy with wanting him, weak with need. She forced a small smile and glanced at her watch.

"Sorry. I'm so late. We're going to have to hurry." Deliberately, before Ilya could respond, she looked beyond him to spot Logan stepping out of the other bus. She waved and beckoned him over, trying to hide her relief.

"Joley, stop it." Ilya hissed. "What's this going to prove?"

She flicked him a quick look from under her lashes and then shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know what you're talking about other than I'm hours late with my sound check and my crew's had to wait on me."

She kept walking toward Logan as fast as she could, and, thankfully, Logan hurried toward her. Before Ilya could say anything else Logan was there. Deliberately she stepped to the other side of him, putting him between Ilya and her. She should have known it wouldn't work. Ilya simply dropped a pace back smoothly, looking as stone-cold and as professional as ever.

"Baby all right?" she asked quickly.

"Lissa's great. I think everyone holds her too much. We get her down, and one of the guys will come in and pick her up right out of her little carry crib. Tish deals with it, but I think it makes it hard to keep to a schedule."

"And you and Tish? How's that coming?" Joley prompted. She was so aware of Ilya. So aware of the rise and fall of his chest, his every breath, even his heartbeat. Her palm itched and tingled no matter how much she rubbed it against her thigh seeking relief.

"Not bad. I'm going to have to do a lot more groveling."

She flashed him a look. "And I hope you know you deserve to grovel. She shouldn't take you back."

"I know that. But I'm not stupid enough to ever lose her again. I love Tish, Joley. It was a dumb mistake. I was drunk and she wasn't there and I was lonely, and if I could take it back, believe me, a million times I've thought of that moment, that one moment when I walked out of that room with that woman. I can't remember what she looks like. I don't even remember her name. I only remember Tish standing there with that look on her face, so happy to see me, and then seeing—knowing—and her smile fading. The light just died out of her eyes. Believe me, Joley, I know exactly what I lost. If I get it back, I'm not going to ever lose it again."

She put her hand on his sleeve. "Then I wish with all my heart that she takes you back." They were only steps away from the door, and she wanted to run. She could barely breathe through the pain in her heart. It felt like a knife through her chest. She swore under her breath, counting the steps to safety.

Without warning, Ilya moved fast, a huge graceful tiger inserting his body with fluid grace between her and someone she couldn't see. He actually shoved her to the side and away from him. A woman screamed.

"
Bastard
! You bastard, Logan. I'm going to kill you. I'm going to destroy you." Lucy Brady, the woman who had given birth to Lissa, lunged at Logan, swinging her fist. In her fingers, she clutched a broken bottle.

Ilya restrained her, taking her to the ground. "Keep moving," he ordered. "Both of you. Get inside."

Logan hesitated. Joley grabbed his hand and yanked him with her, running now, into the building and toward the safety of her crew. Glancing back, she saw more security guards converging on the snarling, spitting woman on the ground, and Ilya calm and cool holding her, uncaring of her threats.

Chapter 12