Guard (The Underground Book 3) (4 page)

Haley followed him to the kitchen. “You knew exactly what to get…” she whispered, leaning over the back of a chair.

“Sit. What are you hungry for? I’ll make it.”

She pulled out the chair and lowered her sweet self onto it. “Whatever’s easiest and quickest. I’m starving.”

He held up a loaf of bread. Some sort of expensive, whole-grain, all-natural, brown shit. He’d never eaten anything like it before, but a moldy loaf of the same variety had been on her counter.

Next, he found shaved turkey and slices of Havarti. He’d gotten them from the deli.

As he went to work making her a sandwich, he heard a sob and lifted his head to find a tear running down her face.

She quickly wiped it away. “You…”

“It’s no big deal, woman. I just got some groceries. No need to cry.” His voice cracked. She got to him. The woman was going to bring him to his knees soon.

And that wasn’t his style. He usually liked his women on
their
knees. In front of him. Head bowed. Hands clasped behind their backs.

This woman? Haley Sullivan?

He shuddered.

She melted his heart.

Their fingers touched as he handed her the sandwich. Again it felt like electricity ran up his arm. She lit him on fire.

When she moaned around the first bite, he jerked upright. “Babe, don’t do that. Jeez…”

“Do what?” she asked as she swallowed.

“Make little noises when you eat. You’re so flippin’ cute, you’re killing me.”

She smiled. Broadly. “You think I’m cute?” She sat up straighter and took another bite.

He rolled his eyes. “You have no idea, do you?”

“About what?” She reached for the bottle of water he pushed across the table and opened the top.

He ignored her, forcing himself to finish making a second sandwich. After it was ready, he sat across from her and eyed it suspiciously. “Will I lose my man card if I eat this?”

She giggled.

The sound went straight to his cock.

“I won’t tell anyone. It’s good for you. Healthy. What do you normally eat?”

He shrugged. “Take out. Fast food. Cheap easy stuff.”

“And you’re able to maintain that sexy body eating shit every day?” She sucked in a breath as soon as the words tumbled out.

“You think I’m sexy?” he said, rewording her own question of moments ago. He stuffed the corner of the sandwich in his mouth and bit down. It wasn’t bad.

She shrugged. “In a rugged, living-on-the-edge, super-hero kind of way.”

He set the sandwich down to laugh hard. “Such interesting adjectives. I don’t know whether to be flattered or insulted.”

She grinned and continued eating.

When they finished, she helped him put the rest of the groceries away and then leaned against the counter. “I hate that someone put shit into my body. And I hate it even more that I don’t know what it was.”

He faced her, grabbed her biceps, and waited for her to tip her head back and meet his gaze. “I hate it too. Hopefully Katie or someone else can figure out what the hell was injected in you and if there’s anything we need to do about it.”

She lowered her head again and set her forehead against his chest.

His heart raced at the contact.

He was in so much trouble.

»»•««

Anton Yenin slammed the phone down on his desk and leaned back in his chair. “What the fuck is going on with my people?” he screamed.

The men sitting across from him both flinched.

“I send one man out with simple instructions, and he gets both himself and two of my employees killed in hours. And what the fuck were they doing?”

Dayton cleared his throat. “It would appear all three of them were attempting to steal the blood samples from Dr. Kathryn Schwan’s clinic. Apparently they didn’t consult each other. Dr. Ted Christianson actually stole the samples. Your men Boris and Erik got there after him. They never knew Ted stole the samples. So they took the doctor’s ex-boyfriend hostage in order to make a trade.”

“A trade for what? The blood? The blood I neither wanted nor needed? Are they all stupid?”

“It would seem that way, sir,” Millings stated.

“What the hell would I need those samples for? I have plenty of blood samples from all six fighters from the last twelve years. I don’t need more.”

“I guess they didn’t think it should remain in Dr. Schwan’s hands, either. Thought they were being helpful.”

Anton’s blood boiled. “And they didn’t think this would simply make matters worse by raising a red flag? I mean, the bitch is sleeping with one of them. Leo Gulin. All she’d have to do is take another vial if she wanted.”

“We realize this. Apparently it didn’t occur to Ted, Boris, or Erik.”

“And they’re all dead. Thank God.”

“Never understood why you kept those two idiots on your payroll anyway,” Millings commented.

Anton frowned. “Not for their intelligence. I can tell you that. They’ve been fucking up for years. I only kept them on my staff to create a distraction by following my fighters around. I knew they were too stupid to be undetected. Hopefully Mikhail and Leo noticed they were being followed and lost sight of the bigger picture.

“Those fighters are mine, and I don’t intend for them to forget it. That dick Abram Gromov might think he could bully me by taking over my men while I was in the slammer, but he’s mistaken. They’re mine. And I intend to get them back. If Boris’ and Erik’s stupidity planted even half of that seed, I’ve succeeded.”

Dayton lifted a brow, infuriating Anton.

Anton glared back. “What happened to the redhead?”

“She left with Mikhail Dudko,” Dayton added.

“Of course she did.” Anton pushed to standing, slamming his hands on the desk. “I want her found. I want her back in my lab. You hear me?”

“Finding her isn’t a problem, sir. We know where she is.” Millings lifted his face. “She’s at her apartment. With Mikhail. But getting her is another story.”

“Find a way. Find a hole. The damn feds can’t possibly be watching her every second of every hour of every day.”

Dayton stood next. He faced Anton head-on, which pissed him off even more. “We
are
the feds. Don’t forget that. We’re part of the detail in charge of ensuring she’s safe. From
you
, I might add. And if you want us to continue to feed you information, you’re going to have to find someone else to snatch her and some other way to make it happen, because if we compromise our position, we’re no longer any good to you at all.”

Anton leaned in, furious. “And I’m paying you twice what the fucking government pays you to make things happen. I can also make you both disappear in a fucking heartbeat.” He snapped his fingers between them. “Don’t
you
forget
that
.”

Dayton’s face turned a dark shade of red. “Fine. Let me also point out that if we’re caught, we lose our jobs and go to jail, and you lose your fount of information. So, it isn’t in your best interest to put us in a position that risks your operation.” He stepped back, his lips pursed.

Good. He needed to wipe some cocky off his face before Anton found a way to make him disappear. “Get a bug in that apartment.”

Millings cleared his throat. “That’s going to be difficult, sir.”

“Why? What’s so hard about it?”

“We’ve already met at the field office. There are men stationed to guard the building twenty-four seven. We haven’t been assigned that particular detail yet. We don’t have access.”

Anton straightened his spine, setting his hands on his hips. He couldn’t hold back the sarcastic retort. “When it’s your turn to watch, how about you walk into the apartment and plant one?”

Millings cocked his head to one side and narrowed his gaze. “Because we aren’t the only ones with access. Someone would just sweep the place on the next shift and destroy our bug.”

“Find a way. Figure something out. Get me more information,” Anton responded. He pointed at the door. “Go. Get out.”

Dayton nodded and left the office with Millings on his tail.

Good. Anton hoped he put a bit of the fear of God in the men. They worked for him. Not the other way around. And if they didn’t get the job done right, he would have them taken out of the picture in two seconds flat without getting his hands dirty.

If they even thought of double crossing him…

Haley paced the center of her apartment, running her hands through her hair. Frustration caused her to do it, but it felt so good having her hair washed properly and blow-dried for the first time in weeks, she couldn’t resist.

“I know you need the exercise, but you’re wearing a hole in the carpet.”

“I know I’m being a greedy bitch, but for some strange reason, I don’t trust my life to anyone else right now.”

Mikhail finished tying his shoe and stood. “I’m only going to the gym. I’d trust my own life in Ivan’s hands any day of the week. He’s like a brother to me. You’ll be safe with him. I’ll drop you off there.”

She stopped pacing and faced him. This was ridiculous. The man had a life to lead, and she was behaving like a child. “This gym. Could I go with you?”

He hesitated, his brows furrowed. And then he lifted both shoulders. “Sure. If you like to hang out in an enclosed space filled with sweaty men who cuss and grunt and groan while they lift weights, punch bags, and get their asses kicked in the ring.”

For the first time that day, she relaxed. “Sounds perfect.”

As he grabbed his duffle bag and hung it over his shoulder, his phone buzzed in his pocket. He pulled it out and read the message. “It’s Leo. He wants us to come by the clinic after the gym.”

“Okay. What for?”

“Katie has a few questions for you.” He shrugged.

She grabbed her small purse, hooked it over her shoulder, and followed him to the door. How many people would have questions for her and for how many weeks or months? She feared it would be a long time.

Not that she didn’t want her kidnappers caught. She wanted that more than anything. No one should have to go through what she’d been through for two weeks, especially if the outcome was often fatal.

How many homeless people were missing now? Those other rooms she passed at the strange lab must have had people in them. Probably homeless people. Perhaps even people she knew. And they were undoubtedly dead now.

She swallowed over the realization as she followed Mikhail down the short hall of her third-floor apartment toward the steps. The fight to keep from crying all over again was tough. She knew those people. They were human beings. Just because they were down on their luck didn’t mean they were more expendable. Who would do such a thing?

“You okay?” Mikhail asked. They’d reached the ground floor, and he turned to face her, his expression leery. “You don’t have to go with me, you know. Ivan can come here. Alena can too for that matter.”

“Who’s Alena?”

“My sister. She lives with me. Well, Ivan’s staying with her now. And two other friends of ours from Vegas are moving here next week. They’ll probably stay at my apartment too.”

“That’s a lot of people. Good thing you have someplace else to stay.” She forced a smile.

“Thank God,” he teased.

“One question.”

“Shoot.”

“Do you think there were other kidnapped people in that medical facility and they were the missing homeless?”

His set his hand on her shoulder. “Yes.”

“Do you think…?” She sucked in a hitched breath, unable to finish her question.

His voice lowered as he stepped closer, his thumb stroking her neck. “Many of them are dead.” He didn’t sugarcoat it.

She nodded, pursing her lips to fight back the tears.

His hand slid down her arm to grab hers, and he hauled her against his side as they stepped outside.

“We have to stop them,” she muttered as soon as she was situated in his black Jeep Wrangler. It was an older model, but well cared for. Mikhail took pride in his car.

He turned to face her after starting the engine. “We will. But it’s going to take time. The FBI has been working on this for years.”

She gasped, gripping the dashboard as she twisted to more fully face Mikhail. “That Russian Mafia guy has been killing homeless people for years?”

He shook his head. “No. As far as we know, that’s a new development. But whatever he’s been planning and cooking in his lab has been going on for a while.”

“You think he’s developed something he’s testing out on people?”

“That’s exactly what I think.” He pulled away from the curb, directing his attention to the road. His hands gripped the steering wheel so tightly his knuckles were white. He even folded and unfolded his fingers several times.

Haley stared out the windshield in silence as they drove to the gym.

When he pulled the car into a parking spot, he turned toward her again. “You’re going to be bored out of your mind in there.”

She smiled. “I have a few calls to make, and I can always go through email. I’m sure there are hundreds. And my parents…”

“Shit. Your parents. You haven’t contacted them, have you? Did they know you were missing?”

She shook her head, scrunching up her nose. She felt guilty about not calling them, but since they hadn’t known there was a problem in the first place, what difference did it make? Besides, until a few hours ago, Haley hadn’t been coherent enough to make a single call.

“Where are they?”

“They’re in Uganda. I’ll catch them on Skype and at least leave a message. I don’t want them to freak out and fly back here though, so I’m not going to tell them what happened. Just touch base so they know I’m safe. I’ll make some excuse for why I’ve been so busy. It happens sometimes. We don’t always talk every week.”

He stared at her, not moving.

“Where are your parents?”

“No idea. They left me and Alena at an orphanage when we were very young. Never saw them again. No idea who they are.”

“Oh God. I’m so sorry. In Russia?”

“Yes.

“I was in Russia at the same time.”

His eyes widened in shock. “Really? Why?”

“My parents are missionaries. We moved around a lot. I was born in the US, but then we moved when I was a baby to spend a few years in the USSR.”