Midnight Alpha (25 page)

“I guess your family is going to be mourning the death of a second daughter pretty soon, huh?” Sergei commented dismissively.

There was nothing Gaia could say to that, no words to express the loathing she felt for this man. He had no conscience, no emotions.

He was a psychopath.

“Why?” she managed to choke.

Sergei gave a shrug. “She knew too much. She found out about the drugs and who was selling them. She threatened to go to Markovic and tell him what was going on. I couldn’t have that. I wasn’t anywhere near finished playing with him at the time.” He gave another smile. “You were an unexpected bonus. I never thought that cold bastard would fall for a woman, but suddenly there you were. Beautiful and sensuous, and the perfect means of retribution.” He looked at her appreciatively. “You aren’t his usual type at all, you know.”

“I’ve heard that.” Gaia felt even more nauseous at hearing this man describe her as being ‘beautiful and sensuous’. Please God, don’t let him find her attractive. Just the thought of this man touching her was enough to make her feel ill.

“Don’t worry, you’ll be seeing Gregori again soon,” he assured her dryly. “And I will make the most of it when you do, because he will very quickly be joining my father. But first he’s going to watch me fuck and then kill you,” he spoke evenly, as if talking about the weather. “I would have preferred it to be Katya, of course, but she’s guarded too well by that bastard Grayson nowadays.” He scowled again. “I thought I was going to have trouble getting to you too, but the ghost thing helped with that. It’s really amazing how freeing it can be if everyone thinks you’re dead!”

Gaia drew in a slow breath. “How do you expect Gregori to come here when he doesn’t know where I am?”

He glanced down at his watch. “It’s been over three hours now since I took you—I wanted Markovic to suffer for as long as possible, though not long enough for me to get bored,” he added dismissively. “One of my men should be delivering a message telling Gregori exactly where we are right about now.”

And when Gregori received that note, Gaia knew that he would come here for her.

And after watching her being raped and killed he would then die, too.

Oh God…

“You shouldn’t have come here.” Gregori gave his brother-in-law a reproving frown over Katya’s shoulder as she launched herself into his arms the moment she entered his office.

The couple had arrived at Utopia just minutes ago, apparently having flown immediately from Venice after receiving Lijah’s call earlier.

Gregori had closed the nightclub an hour early, clearing the building of all but essential staff—apart from Rick and Claude, however, who were the last people to see Gaia. The two men were now locked in separate rooms
talking
to Nikolai. Gregori had questioned them himself for a while, but it soon became obvious he wasn’t detached enough to do the job the way it needed to be done. He knew Nikolai wouldn’t have the same problem.

Instead, Gregori had spent his time calling in every favor owed him, and Nikolai’s men were busy checking out private airports and train stations.

It wasn’t enough; it would never be enough until he had Gaia back. Safe. Alive.

Kat pulled back slightly. “You didn’t really think I would let Dair come here without me, did you?” she derided.

“I didn’t expect either of you to come here at all!” He scowled darkly.

She touched his cheek gently. “We’re a family, Gregori, and it’s what families to.”

That may be so, but he didn’t want his pregnant sister anywhere near Sergei Orlov, the man who had almost destroyed her just months ago.

Sergei fucking Orlov
.

How could he have known, how could any of them have known that the bastard was still alive?
 

“You sent Dair to rescue me, Gregori,” his sister reminded gently.

Yes, he had, but Dair should have known better than to bring Katya here now—

“She’s your sister through and through, Gregori,” Dair dryly answered the silent accusation. “Stubborn, strong-willed—”

“But you love me anyway!” Kat moved out of Gregori’s arms to walk over and stand beside her husband, smiling up at him. She wrapped her arm about his waist at the same time as he placed his about her shoulders.

“I do, yes.” Dair gave her an indulgent smile before his eyes narrowed and he turned back to Gregori. “And we’re both here because I care about you too, you arrogant bastard.”

“Thank you. I think,” Gregori added dryly. “But the situation has become even more complicated since Lijah spoke to you three hours ago—”

“We know about Sergei, Gregori,” Kat interrupted him softly. “Lijah called us on the plane.”

Gregori turned to glare at Lijah as he sat sprawled on the sofa in the corner of the room. “Just when the fuck did you take charge around here?”

Lijah gave an unconcerned shrug at his aggression. “I work for Dair, not you.”

Gregori drew in a sharp, controlling breath. He had never felt so damned helpless. He had absolutely no idea where Sergei Orlov could have taken Gaia—he still found it incredible that the other man was alive to begin with. But if Sergei was in London then Gregori would find him. If he had to knock on every door then that’s what he would do. He just had to hope to God that Gaia was still in the city…

And live.

She must be wondering what the hell was going on, when he had told her Sergei was dead. Also frightened and confused. But frightened and confused were probably preferable to angry, because an angry Gaia may just goad Sergei into doing something the other man would regret with his last breath.

“Lijah said Gaia was drugged?” Dair prompted briskly, as if he had somehow guessed at the despair and anger of Gregori’s thoughts.

He dragged his attention back to the here and now. “It was in that glass of wine.” He nodded towards the glass sitting on top of his desk.

“Put there by whom?”

Gregori grimaced. “One of two people.”

“Who are…?”

“Being questioned by Nikolai right now,” he assured grimly. “A very angry Nikolai.” He knew the other man held himself responsible for what had happened to Gaia. Gregori didn’t share that feeling, knew now how impossible it was that any of them would have realized the truth. But that didn’t stop Nikolai from blaming himself.

“Ah.” Dair gave a knowing nod: the other man’s methods were well known.

“You’ve never mentioned Gaia to us, Gregori…” Kat looked at him curiously.

“That’s probably because I only met her a week ago,” he sighed. It seemed much longer. And the last three hours seemed longer still.

His sister smiled. “Lijah said she’s very beautiful.”

“Did he?” He turned narrowed eyes on the other man.

“And fearless,” Dair put in mockingly.

“She needs to be to cope with him.” Lijah nodded in Gregori’s direction.

“Go fuck yourself—” Gregori broke off as one of Nikolai’s men appeared in the open doorway.

“Sorry to interrupt, but this was just delivered for you.” He crossed the room towards Gregori, an envelope in his hand.

“Did you detain whoever delivered it?” Dair prompted sharply.

“Nikolai has him downstairs,” Roman reported with satisfaction.

Gregori was only interested in the letter, his hands actually shaking as he ripped the envelope open and quickly read what was written on the single sheet of paper inside.

“Where are you going?” Dair grabbed hold of Gregori’s arm as he turned without saying a word and walked towards the door.

“To Gaia.” He didn’t even look at the other man as he shook off that hand.

“Not without back-up—”

The fierceness of Gregori’s glare silenced him. “He says he’ll kill her if I don’t go alone.”

His brother-in-law’s jaw tightened. “You do realize—”

“That she could be dead already?” Gregori grated fiercely. “Yes, of course I fucking know that!” He crumpled the letter in his fisted hand. “I have to go, anyway. You, more than anyone, know I have to go, Dair,” he muttered softly.

The other man looked at him for several long, searching moments before slowly nodding his head as he stepped back. “Okay.”

“Dair—”

“No, Kat.” Dair took a firm grasp of her arms as she would have run to Gregori. “No,” he repeated softly when she looked up at him with tears in her eyes. “Hug him and then let him go.”

Gregori was barely aware of his sister’s arms around him before he turned and strode from the room and down the stairs, his thoughts all on Gaia.

On whether or not she was still alive…

Chapter 17

“I know exactly what you’re thinking, you know,” Sergei eyed her mockingly.

Gaia sincerely hoped that wasn’t the case. For the past few minutes she’d been considering ways in which she might possibly rush across the room and knock him off balance. Then maybe she could somehow wrest the gun out of his hand as well as the second one hidden in the waistband at the back of his jeans.

Before Gregori got here.

Before Sergei could rape and kill her.

“It happens in all the bad movies,” Sergei continued in that conversational tone that was really starting to grate on Gaia’s already frayed nerves. “The baddie tells the heroine all that he’s done and how he did it, and then she somehow escapes and tells the cops and it’s all over for him.” He grinned. “Not going to happen this time, sweetheart. The police are the last people Gregori would call in.”

It was all so far off Gaia’s actual thoughts that for a moment she could only stare at him, her mind blank, before she gave herself a mental shake to clear the last of the effects of the drug from her head. “But I don’t know all that you’ve done yet,” she pointed out softly.

“What else do you want to know?” He gave one of those not-quite-sane smiles as he settled himself back down in the chair just feet in front of her.

She swallowed as the gun in his hand once again gleamed beneath the glare of the overhead light bulb. “Who was working with you inside Utopia?” she forced herself to concentrate, to keep this man talking. Even if it was only to hear him boasting how damned clever he thought he was.

Whoever his insider was at Utopia, they hadn’t just sold and supplied drugs, they also must have told him that Angela knew too much. They probably also reported on Gregori’s movements as well as her own, since there was no way that drive-by shooting had been a coincidence, or a question of her being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Someone had to have told this man and his men that Gregori had left Utopia that night to follow her, and without his usual bodyguards.

“You mean you haven’t guessed yet?” Sergei eyed her pityingly. “You’re even less bright than your sister was!”

Gaia felt her cheeks flush as a wave of anger washed over her, threatening to consume her. And it would have consumed her, if it weren’t for the fact that she knew this man was deliberately baiting her, and that he would welcome any excuse to hurt her. This may not be one of those ‘bad movies’, but before she died she still wanted to know who had betrayed her sister to this madman.

She gave a shrug. “I know it has to be either Rick or Claude, because they were the only two people in the room with me when I drank the drugged wine.”

“And what would be your guess as to which of them it was?”

Gaia had originally assumed Rick, because he had brought her the bottle of wine. But she was positive now that he had drunk some of the wine too, and he wouldn’t have drugged himself. Which only left… “Claude,” she challenged.

Sergei’s expression turned from taunting to nasty. “Not so stupid, after all, are you?” he snarled.

Claude.

The charming French manager of Utopia.

And Angela’s lover?

A man Gaia had
liked
, damn it.

He had sat with her earlier tonight and talked so excitedly of his plans to return to France and open a nightclub of his own.

She realized now that he’d probably intended on doing that with the money he earned by selling drugs and supplying information on Gregori to Sergei.

Blood money.

Money he continued to earn even after he betrayed Angela and then allowed this man to kill her.

In the same way he drugged Gaia, also in the knowledge that Sergei intended to kill her. And now Gregori was going to walk into a trap.

There was a distinct possibility that she may not come out of tonight alive, but she hoped to God Gregori realized the truth before he received Sergei’s note, and that Claude was made to suffer for what he’d done.

“Although you weren’t quite as clever as you thought you were,” Sergei taunted. “Because you obviously don’t have a clue as to how Claude realized who you were, do you?”

“He knows I’m Angela’s sister?”

“Oh yes.” Sergei grinned. “Because of the earrings you’re wearing.”

One of Gaia’s hands instinctively moved up to touch one of the pearl earrings. Angela’s earrings…

“Claude gave them to her,” Sergei revealed mockingly. “He recognized them instantly the first night you wore them because they belonged to his mother.”