Ultimate Vengeance (Wanted Men Book 4) (51 page)

Those amazing words had him dropping his head into her lap. He couldn’t get a word out as his heart expanded until his love for her filled him completely. She stroked his hair and gave him the time he needed.

“I love you. Passionately and obsessively. I have from the moment we met. From your mind-blowing beauty to your soft, generous heart and brilliant mind I’m ashamed to say I attempted to stifle because of jealousy. You’re my greatest weakness and my greatest strength.” He squeezed his eyes shut and hurled himself off the cliff.

Slipping his hand into his pocket, he took out the small box and flipped it open with his thumb. Lifting his head right along with his arm, he locked onto her gold eyes and begged for his life.

“I’m giving you the power to break me with one word. Don’t.” He gave her a pointed look before going on, ever the spoiled brat issuing orders. “I would prefer its counterpart. The one that will build me up in the way you’ve done since the beginning of us. Please, honor me by voluntarily giving yourself to me. Be with me because you want to be with me. Be with me because you trust that I will die to protect you and Lekzi from this life I cannot walk away from. Stay with me because you feel what I feel, and it’s powerful enough to prevent you from doing anything but. Say you’ll be my wife, Sacha. Holy hell, that sounds good,” he murmured under his breath.

“Alekzander…?”

He presumptuously took her left hand. “Yes?”

“This means you forgive me for what I did with Lekzi?”

“Yes, of course. I would forgive you anything. You must know that. Except this waiting. You’re fucking killing me here—”

She slid down the front of his body until she was kneeling before him. Neither of them paid attention to the chair falling behind her. She took his face between her shaking hands and tipped her head, kissing him with that hunger he would forever respond to. He participated with a low growl, and, yes, he dropped the ring next to his leg and got a solid grip on her ass to pull her hard into the erection that began growing the moment she touched him.

“Yes? Is this a yes?” he questioned as she nuzzled their mouths together.

“This is all the yeses ever spoken in the world,” she whispered. “This is the yes that I give you along with my very soul because I cannot live without you either.”

She ducked down and came up flashing the most dazzling smile he’d ever seen on her face. She held up the Tiffany box. “May I wear it now?”

He took it from her and reopened it. Tossing the box, he motioned her to stand and grinned when she rolled her eyes and jumped up. He didn’t draw it out but took her hand and kissed her finger before sliding his ball and chain into place. “You are mine; my woman, my partner. You’re the mother of my daughter, the love of my life, and I will cherish you forever.”

Her eyes overflowed as she looked at the brilliant white diamond set in a platinum band that now glittered on her finger. “The weekend we moved in here,” she said, still staring at the ring. “Do you remember what I told you as we folded our laundry on that Sunday night?”

He remembered swiping the pile of whites to the floor and using the counter for something other than folding. He also remembered what she said.

He nodded and sent his hand up under her dress to be sure he’d felt what he was sure he’d felt a second ago…yes, she’d come prepared. She was wearing stockings.
Love. Her.
“No matter what our future brought, the love you felt for me would last forever.”

She smiled, looking happy that he hadn’t forgotten. “It will, and I will never again attempt to deny it because it is too much a part of who I am. It is all-consuming, and I’ve finally admitted to myself how much I like that.” She pulled him to his feet, and as peace settled between them, his angel kissed his cheeks, one at a time.

“Thank you for your forgiveness, Alekzander. Thank you for our precious child—I would like two more, please,” she added with a flirty wink. “And, most important, thank you for giving me the chance to prove to you that if given the choice, I will forever choose my Russian.”

As his angel smothered him with kisses, the smile that settled on Alek’s face felt smug as fuck. But, he supposed, as with any spoiled brat, that’s what came with getting his way.

“Now that we’ve arrived, you’re going to stop sulking. If I had wanted to be accompanied by a dragging chin, I’d have asked Maksim to bring me.”

Vasily opened the car door and swung his legs out. He did what he could to hide how his face contorted as pain resonated throughout his entire body. Christ Almighty. He should have listened to the two pains-in-his-ass he’d left at Alek’s house. Yuri and Tegan had stood off to the side in the foyer as he’d walked out, both of them wearing identical expressions of if-I-wasn’t-worried-about-losing-my-head-I’d-have-sedated-you-again. He’d ignored them, just as he was ignoring Dmitri’s miserable look of concern.

“Because I know it’s eating at you…” He held up his arm.

Dmitri shot forward and carefully helped him from the car. Thank fuck, too. Pride was such an idiotic thing. He needed the help. Why was it so difficult to admit it?

Bracing himself, he turned to look at the house they now stood in front of. Pain that had nothing to do with his physical injury burst in his chest, but sick of feeling it, he shoved it off and attempted to look relaxed.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen you like this.

Vasily held still and welcomed the memory, loving it when she came to him like this. That evening, he’d smiled and reached out to brush a few strands of blonde aside so he could see her green eyes more clearly. She’d been straddling his hips as he’d lounged on a lawn chair on their small balcony. They were both wearing jeans and heavy sweaters to ward off the chill.

Like what, kitten?

I don’t know. So relaxed. You’re just laying here. You’re not on the phone, not swearing at your pager, not pacing with that knot that settles right here.

She’d leaned forward to kiss his brow, and he’d held her there when she tried to straighten.

I am free for two entire weeks. Free to do nothing more than listen through the door as you and the baby do your thing. That is what I miss the most after I go back to my father. Hearing you. And now her.

And that had been the truth. He’d loved nothing more than closing his eyes as he lay in their mussed up bed, hearing their sheltered, uncomplicated life go on around him.

I cannot believe she is four weeks old already and has changed so much since I saw her ten days ago. You were right when you said she looks like me. I see it now.

Kathryn’s hair had shimmered in the moonlight as she’d turned to glance into the apartment. Evangeline had been asleep in her crib.

She is beautiful, isn’t she? But I don’t see the changes as much because I’m with her every day. The doctor said she’s grown more than two inches and gained almost three pounds since she was born.

Reminded of that incredible day, he’d slid his hand down her thigh, traveling the length of her calf until he reached her ankle. Going beneath the cuff of her jeans, holding her eyes the entire time, he ran the tips of his fingers over the fine gold chain he could feel.

You are still wearing it?

I’ll always wear it
, she’d promised in a whisper.

But she hadn’t, he thought now as a chill swept over him despite the sun shining overhead. She hadn’t been wearing the gift when she’d been killed. Their daughter wore it now and had ever since her wedding day when Vasily had presented it for the second time, to the second most important female ever to enter his life.

He gently pushed his memories back into the gilded cage he kept them in before the most painful one could surface; the three black days he’d spent alone, going through Kathryn and Eva’s house the day after Eva had left Seattle to return to school after the funeral. That’s when he’d found the anklet, hanging off a small hook Kathryn had screwed into the bedpost of her double bed.

The same bed they’d conceived Eva in.

He reached up and swiped at the light sheen of perspiration he could feel breaking out on his forehead.

“Let me take you home,” Dmitri requested in that careful tone he’d been using since Vasily had woken in the infirmary. “We can come back in a couple of days when you’re better able to move around.”

He put a hand out and squeezed his boy’s forearm before slowly making his way up the walk. “I’ll be fine.” A crude Russian curse followed him, and Vasily couldn’t help but appreciate the sentiment.

He wasn’t sure why he’d come to the house Sergei had shared with his family except to say he couldn’t get the place out of his head. He’d even dreamed of it. Had a nightmare, actually, where he’d careened off the walls, running from room to room as he’d bled to death, searching for something he knew he would not survive without.

A breath stealing panic had jarred him awake this morning. He’d opened his eyes to see what was essentially his life across the way; Alek sitting in a chair with his daughter in his arms, and Eva, her hand absently stroking through the baby’s hair, her belly protruding in a beautiful swell as she stood next to her cousin talking in quiet tones. The four remaining Tarasovs.

He looked on ahead and dragged his ass a few more feet.

Reaching the front door, he ground his teeth together as his injuries protested his move to withdraw a single key from the inside pocket of his suit jacket. What had he been searching for in the dream? Probably Eva. Maybe one of his boys. Or maybe even his grandson who couldn’t get here soon enough.

He closed down that avenue of thought, too. Couldn’t go there. He couldn’t think of what he’d almost missed out on. If not for Yuri, Micha, and Tegan, he’d be dead, and his family would have had to suffer the agony of burying him only days after saying goodbye to Markus. A lump rose in his throat as he remembered the brilliant glow of love he’d seen in all those devastated stares surrounding him as he’d laid there bleeding out. He might have sacrificed himself for Alek because deep down he’d been ready to pack it in. But they hadn’t been ready to let him.

He coughed, then cursed at the paralyzing shock that blasted through his chest. And continuing to curse his newfound weakness, he unlocked and allowed Dmitri to open the door and enter the house first. When he received a nod, he followed. Despite not having been here in months, the smell of the place was familiar. It was closed up but not musty because Sergei had killed here less than two weeks ago. It was loneliness and misery. This house reeked of it.

They slowly made their way through the familiar rooms on the main floor, and the not so familiar ones on the second level. In the master bedroom, he sat on the neatly made bed. Dmitri most likely thought he was reliving some memory or other, but really, he just needed the rest.

When they got back to the hallway that would lead them out, his breathing was labored, and he was damp with sweat. This had been a pointless exercise, he realized as he paused before the door that would bring them to the basement. He latched onto the handle and fought his need to lean on the wall.

“We’ll take a quick look down here, then go,” he said quietly because he couldn’t get enough breath to make his voice any louder than just-above-a-whisper.

“You brought the pills. Take one.”

He gave his gruff caretaker a glare, but it didn’t last when he saw a bottle of water materialize from the inside of Dmitri’s jacket. When Vasily raised a brow and fought a smile, Dmitri shrugged.

“What? Did you think I’d upgraded to a desert eagle?” He chuckled. “Now stop being who you are and take a painkiller. No one is going to judge you for being human.”

Taking the water, he went into his pants pocket…his shoulders slumped. The bottle was gone. He patted his other pocket.

“What?”

“The bottle must have fallen out in the car.”

“Don’t bullshit me. I heard the pills rattling as we climbed the stairs.”

Vasily looked back at what appeared to be a massive staircase, but in reality was only nine steps. Coming down was nothing. Climbing…he just couldn’t.

“Maybe they fell out when I sat on the bed.”

“I’ll go see.”

Grateful, Vasily nodded. “While you do, I’ll check out the basement. I’ll meet you back here in a minute.” The blank look he received had him growing impatient. “I don’t have the energy to fight with you, Dmitri.” The note of exhaustion in his voice confirmed it. “Now save me the trouble and go. The worst thing I’m going to come up against down there is a fucking spider.”

“Sorry.”

His boy threw the door open and disappeared
down
the stairs. Not sure whether to be flattered by the protective gesture, or fucking annoyed by it, he followed more slowly. A minute later, Dmitri was winking at him then taking the stairs two at a time to go up and do as planned.
After
having scoped out the basement rooms.

All but one.

Vasily wiped at the sweat trickling down his temple as he made his way to what was once supposed to be a wine cellar, but had ended up an empty room with piles of oak boards stacked against the wall. Going through, his shoe soles tapping on the tile he, Sergei, and Vincente had laid together, he wondered if he’d find anything more than the wine racks he’d purchased himself.