Ultimate Vengeance (Wanted Men Book 4) (29 page)

“Tell him I’m downloading footage from the last few days right now.”

Sacha saw Sergei look over sharply, pause, and then rush out with Reynard. That was when Maksim’s gaze clashed with hers. He threw up his hands, obviously just realizing she’d understood every word they’d said.

“Told you. One of ours,” Micha muttered by the window as he hung up from a call only to place another one.

“She won’t repeat anything she hears,” Alek said with a pointed look that made her stomach flutter because it landed on her mouth. “Not when I tell her Maks is only keeping this type of thing quiet because Sydney has recently been through a tough time and she doesn’t need any more stress in her life.”

“I have no intention of interfering in anyone’s relationship,” Sacha reassured them, finding it ridiculous that she had to.

Sydney settled on her back leg and crossed her arms over her chest, her white faux-fur coat making her look like a snow princess. She glared at them all as they continued in Russian.

“What happened?” Sacha asked, giving her new friend an apologetic look for shutting her out.

“Our warehouse in Brighton Beach just blew sky high,” Alekzander surprisingly shared in a controlled tone. His focus was on Maksim, who had his hands stuffed in his pockets and his furious eyes on the door.

Sacha was impressed by Alekzander’s calm. “Was anyone hurt? Do you have to go there?”

“No. Definitely not. The property was purchased under a dummy company the authorities can’t trace, so one of us showing would be foolish. Our people will take care of it.”

It was all Sacha could do not to slip her arms around his neck and plant the warmest of kisses on that information offering mouth. It touched her deeply that he trusted her enough to tell her these things. Especially now.

Rather than give their audience a show, she went with socially acceptable and just gave his wrist a squeeze. She hoped the smile she gave him conveyed her appreciation.

“Wooow,” Sydney said as she went to stand toe to toe with her fiancé. “He didn’t give her a lot, but enough to put her mind at ease. You know, I could understand if you’d been there and you didn’t want to tell me about the explosion because you could have been severely injured or killed. I get that. I do. Because you’d be right. I’d lose a week’s sleep over what I would have been left with. But to keep me in the dark because you think I’m too sensitive to handle some bad news? Really, Russia?”

Maksim stared down at the little blonde for a moment, and then laughed, the sound more impressed than anything. “How
the fuck
do you know what we’re talking about?”

Sydney looked exasperated. “Because I was born with a brain that quickly picks up languages and Vasily arranged for me to see a tutor behind your back. Now you’ve ruined my surprise.” She looked at Sacha. “When the time came, I wanted to be able to recite my wedding vows in Russian. Wouldn’t that have been romantic? So much for that idea. Why would a romantic woman like me even marry a secretive, closed-lipped—”

Maksim scooped her up around the waist and carried her toward the bathroom. Sydney clung to his arm like a little doll. “I swear to God I’m going to gain a hundred pounds so he can’t do this to me anymore,” she muttered as she went by.

The door closed, and Sacha waited for a moment before turning to Alekzander. “They are a funny couple.”

“Yeah.” He was looking at the bathroom with a small smile. “Even though she kept it from him, her making that gesture got him. Did you see his face?”

Sacha hadn’t noticed. But it said a lot that Alekzander had.

Alek looked out the window of the limo as they passed a gas station and then some average-sized family homes before the forest on either side of them became denser. The driveway they eventually turned into was wide, the gate in front of them tall, daunting, and marked with an ornate T that split when the sensor Micha obviously had in his possession gave it the all-clear to part ways.

They drove down the long lane and pulled up in front of a beautiful gray brick mansion. It was large but not Lucian-Fane-ostentatious. About the only extravagance that might have made someone roll their eyes would be the fully functional infirmary taking up a large chunk of square footage at the back of the house.

Only three people resided here full-time since Alek had moved out; Vasily, Dmitri, and Yuri. The MD had the run of the basement here the way Maks did at their place. Only difference was, Yuri’s lab consisted of test-tubes and beakers where Maks’s was made up of computer equipment.

When everyone got out of the truck, Alek’s gaze once more went to the car seat Sacha was unclipping. He’d barely taken his eyes from it the entire drive, which had been made listening to either the radio or Maks or Sydney talking to their respective staff members about issues that had cropped up at the clubs in their absence.

“Take the baby inside,” he said to the girls. “Maks, can I have a minute?”

Micha brought the girls up the stairs and were greeted by Aron, one of Vasily’s men who opened the door to them. Grigori and Lucas, who’d driven behind the limo, went with Anton to the den above the garage where the boys normally converged when they needed some downtime.

Alek and Maks pulled their collars tight against the cold and remained by the limo that would be sent back in the morning. There was no rush since the company the vehicle had come from was owned by Alek and Gabriel.

“Your kid is a pretty little thing,” Maks finally said after the silence between them stretched. “Still trying to wrap my head around it. Can’t wait to see her animated. When they’re asleep, they don’t seem real. If she doesn’t wake up before me and Syd leave, I’m poking her.”

“Do that. I want to see her eyes.”

“Listen, I’m sorry I blindsided you with the info back at the convention center. I guess I could have handled it better. But when that fucking piece of the puzzle finally fell into place, all I saw was her deception. Now I’m getting the bigger picture. Actually, my Aussie painted a fucking landscape while you were giving Sacha bristle burn.”

“If I promise not to be as preachy with you as I was with him, can I put in my two cents?”

They turned to see Sydney coming back across the drive. She was still bundled in her coat.

“Hear her out,” Maks said. “Just to get the perspective.”

Even though he didn’t think he needed it, Alek nodded.

“Some of this might come across as insensitive, but I don’t mean it that way. Okay?” Sydney waited for him to nod again before she began. “I can’t stop hearing Sacha ask Vasily not to take her baby away from her. You just met your daughter, Alek. Think about how you felt holding her for the first time.” She gave him a second to do that then reached up and gave him a hug. “That must have been so amazing. Congratulations.”

He looked at Maks’s over her head and got an eye roll.

“Women,” the idiot muttered out loud.

Alek hugged her back. “Thanks, Sydney. It was a life changer.”

“I’ll bet,” she said as she settled back. “Now think about a year from now, when that little girl is deep in your heart and owns your soul. Imagine someone coming in with the power to take her from you then.”

He shoved his hands in his pockets and started rattling some coins as the humor in the air dissipated. He wasn’t sure the idea of taking Lekzi away from Sacha was still a possibility—if it ever really was—but he let Sydney continue because the perspective couldn’t hurt.

“Sacha carried that baby for nine months. Alone. Every night she probably laid in bed, talking to the peanut, vowing to keep her safe, to do the best she could with what little she had. That, too, she did alone. She walked into that huge hospital, in excruciating pain, knowing it was time and her life was about to change. That she did alone. She laid in that bed and pushed her child from the protection of her body, all by herself. There would have been no one holding her hand but some stranger whose job it was to do so. There would have been no one there to support her. No one to tell her they would get through it together. She was alone, and she became that baby’s champion. She brought her home, alone. She laid awake at night, terrified of sleeping just in case she woke up to find her child had stopped breathing at some point and was gone. Yes, that’s what we do. And Sacha and I did that alone. I lived what she went through, Alek. She may have had her friend there for a chat, the one who was babysitting, just like I had Emily, but it’s still not the same as having a partner who is struggling with the same fears you are because they love your child as much as you do. Gabriel is the perfect example of what a woman’s dream partner is. He might be a little grouchy about it, but he’s invested, and that’s everything.”

She hugged Maks’s arm where he settled it around her waist.

“You came barreling back onto the scene, and within days threatened Sacha’s primary role in life. I can’t believe how amazing she’s being about all of this. I know I wouldn’t be. I’d be a right nightmare. But that’s not the point,” she said, waving it away. “How do you think she’s going to sleep when the lights go out? She won’t because she’ll be too afraid when she wakes up you or Vasily will have done what you easily have the means to do; take away the baby she’s been singularly responsible for since conception.” She reached over and touched his arm. “I can’t tell you how to deal with this because I don’t know the whole story, and it wouldn’t be my place to open my big mouth even if I did. But I’m standing here doing just that because I feel a kinship with Sacha, and I’ll happily admit I’m impressed by her. Slightly intimidated, if you want the truth. She’s so…compliant.” She frowned as if that wasn’t what she’d wanted to say. “And comfortable about it. She didn’t give up and allow you to drag her and her daughter away. She yielded to you, and I’ve recently learned that giving in sometimes takes more strength than fighting. A lot more strength.” Her gaze drifted to the house. “It seemed to come so naturally for her,” she mused. “As if she didn’t have to work at it. She just let it happen.”

After a few seconds, Maks tugged on a lock of her hair and she snapped to attention. The embarrassed little blonde cleared her throat and rubbed at her bright pink cheeks as she jerkily moved out of Maks’s embrace. She didn’t look at Alek again as she rushed through the rest of her speech. Good thing, too, because he couldn’t hide his grin.

“All I’m going to ask is that, if you haven’t already, please take separating her from her baby off the table. If someone had come along and taken Andrew from me when he was that age—because he was my entire life—I would have killed myself. I don’t think you want to do that to a woman you love the way you love Sacha.”

She flashed a tight smile, slapped at Maks’s hand when he reached for her, and hurried back into the house.

“Mmm. She is so fucking beautiful.” There was no embarrassment or awkwardness to Maks’s claim. The guy was proudly admiring his choice. “She’s flustered because this is the first time she’s recognized a fellow submissive.”

Alek chuckled. “Yeah, I got that. Though Sacha has never worn the label. I don’t think she’d even recognize many of the Dom/sub aspects between us.”

“Do you?” Maks asked, sounding curious.

He thought about that for a second. “There’d be a lot of boxes ticked off if I went through a checklist, but, again, I wouldn’t label us like that either. It’s just who we are together.”
Who we’ll be tonight
, he added silently.

“It used to burn my ass that someone so real in that respect just fell into your fucking lap. Now I don’t care because I have a little princess of my very own who’s allowing me to shape her into my ideal partner. She’s so willing to learn it brings a tear to my fucking eye. But that stubborn streak of hers still rears its bitchy little head to thrill the hell out of me every so often. And speaking of thrilled, Andy’s going to shit bricks when he hears his mother made another friend.”

“You freak me out with this normalcy,” Alek said, only half joking.

Maks laughed and leaned his back on the limo. “Yeah. I creep Micha out, too, so you’re not alone. Now, back to your drama. Just so we don’t have to revisit this at a later date and stir the shit up again, I’m going to freak you out a little more and add my piece. Ready?”

To refuse to listen would be pointless, so Alek figuratively bent over and hoped the spank didn’t hurt too bad. “Have at her.”

“You’re intelligent enough to understand why this is what it is; now you have to get over it.”

“Do I,” Alek said wryly.

“Yup. Does hearing me say that sound as funny to you as it does to me?” Maks blew out a hard breath. “Fuck. Anyway, you must see where she was coming from when she stashed the kid. You two were talking about buying a house before you got spooked, weren’t you?”

“Yeah.”

“Imagine this scenario took place, say, a couple of weeks before you two split. You searched for and found the place of her dreams—it’s not as important as a kid, but work with me here. You closed on the deal and stressed all afternoon about how to surprise her. You told her you were going to be home by six and that you’d bring dinner. You’re all fucking happy, grab a bottle of wine, maybe some flowers; the papers are in your pocket as you head up in the elevator and let yourself into your place…Sheppard has your princessa bent over the back of your sofa, fucking her good and hard. Yeah, that’s a nasty vision, huh?” he whispered, turning the knife. “Now picture her barely looking at you, hardly pausing, because she’s ‘enjoying it so much’. She doesn’t stop. Doesn’t even alter her position. Wasn’t that what Sacha saw that night? Now you tell me if you’d go running to her the next day and share your good news. Come on, brother. Don’t let this fester. Accept the loss and get past it before any more damage is done.”