Midnight Alpha (6 page)

If his reputation alone could deter the police from following up on her information regarding Angela’s death, then he could certainly prevent a newspaper from writing anything about him he didn’t approve of. Which was probably anything and everything.

It was almost a relief to realize that Gregori Markovic thought she was an undercover reporter looking for a story. Almost. Because he didn’t look any more convinced of her innocence than he had when they walked in here fifteen minutes ago.

“Infamous?” he repeated icily.

Gaia gave an inward sigh, wondering if she could do or say anything right where this man was concerned. “You’re Gregori Markovic!”

“And?”

“Is this a trick question? One of those ones with no right answer,” she explained as he arched a questioning brow. “I point out that you’re highly newsworthy, from two completely different angles—as the new patriarch of the powerful Markovic family and also as one of the most eligible bachelors in the world—and you give me a pair of concrete shoes for my impertinence?”

What the hell—

Gregori rose abruptly to his feet. “I do not kill people, Miss Miller!”

“Well maybe not personally,” she conceded dryly. “That’s the reason you have men like Mr. Volkov working for you.”

“Nikolai does not kill people either,” he bit out between gritted teeth. No one—no one had ever dared—

“I told you there was no right answer.” Gaia Miller sank back against the chair.

As if she was afraid of him? Of him! Yes, his father had been as old school as Ivan Orlov, and there had been deaths in the past ordered by his father, but Gregori was an educated man, a civilized man, and he ruled in a completely different manner than his father had. He may have people
persuaded
into doing as he wished, but he
didn’t kill people. The Markovic reputation alone was enough to put the fear of God into most people, and those that were foolish enough to ignore it—

Gregori breathed in deeply through his nose as he fought for control, his hands clenched at his sides as he glared down at this audaciously outspoken young woman. “There will be a car waiting outside to drive you home when you are ready to leave.” He could feel a nerve jumping in the tenseness of his jaw. “Goodnight, Miss Miller.” He turned his back on her abruptly before he said or did something further that he would regret.

He heard the rustle of her clothing as she stood up and hurried over to the door, and then the sound of her footsteps light outside in the carpeted hallway.

Because she wasn’t wearing any shoes, Gregori realized as he glanced down and saw them sitting beside the chair where she had left them.

Just like fucking Cinderella.

Except they had just established beyond a shadow of a doubt that Gaia Miller knew Gregori was no Prince Charming.

“Anything you want to tell me?”

Gregori glanced across the room to where an amused Nikolai leaned against the doorframe.

“They look a little small for you…”

Gregori frowned for a moment and then realized that he must have bent down at some point and picked up those high-heeled shoes, because he was now holding them in his hand. “Obviously they belong to Miss Miller. Could you see that they are returned to her when you drive her home?”

Nikolai sauntered into the room to take the shoes from him. “You want me to drive her home?” Pale brows rose. “Personally?”

He could understand the other man’s surprise. Nikolai was his personal bodyguard as well as his friend. The problems at Utopia had necessitated that Gregori take three of Nikolai’s men with him to Venice, while Nikolai remained here, but that status quo would revert back to normal now that Gregori had returned to England.

“That and only that, Nikolai,” there was an unmistakable warning in his tone.

The other man held up his hands in surrender. “I’ve already got the message that you consider Miss Miller exclusive.”

Gregori gave a humorless smile. He seemed to be doing that a lot lately. “She isn’t anything to me except an employee.” He gave a rueful shake of his head as his tension started to ease a little. “And I believe she may have watched too many old gangster movies, because she seems to have the idea I might want to fit her up with a pair of concrete shoes if she displeases me.” If she displeased him? Gregori was so angry at the moment he could have put his fist through a wall.

Yes, the name Markovic was a powerful one, but he had been trying for years now to ensure that everything within the Markovic business holdings was run in a legitimate manner. His father had claimed it was a weakness, but Gregori disagreed with him. As Gaia Miller had pointed out just minutes ago, the world
had
changed, dramatically, especially so since his father’s rise to power all those years ago. The true power now lay in technology rather than muscle, and over the past ten years Gregori had ensured that the Markovic family was very powerful indeed. He could make or break whole countries if he so wished.

Concrete fucking shoes!

Was that really how others perceived him? As nothing more than a thug, who had people killed because they gave him the wrong answer?

Nikolai winced. “Did she actually say that to your face?”

“She did.” Gregori grimaced.

Nikolai gave a wolfish grin. “I trust you told her that we have a much more sophisticated approach to dealing with our enemies nowadays?”

He gave a shake of his head. “I was far too angry at the time to continue the conversation.”

Nikolai stilled, eyebrows raised. “You don’t get angry.”

No, he didn’t. He couldn’t allow himself the luxury of feeling anger, not when so much could depend on the decisions he did or didn’t make. Gaia Miller had just succeeded in making him very angry. Very aroused. And a whole gamut of emotions in between.

He gave a weary sigh. “Just ensure that she returns home safely, Nikolai,” he instructed tautly. “I will deal with the outspoken Miss Miller in my own way in my own time.”

“I’m guessing that way might involve silk sheets rather than concrete shoes?” the other man drawled.

Gregori instantly had a return of that vision of Gaia Miller’s red hair spread out on black silk pillows, her naked skin creamy against the darkness, and revealing every single one of those freckles, which he was going to kiss—

“I’m going to leave you to your fantasy.” Nikolai chuckled as he turned to leave. “I’ll have Alexander drive you home.”

“In about ten minutes.” Gregori nodded distractedly. He wanted to read through Gaia Miller’s file once more before he left, to see if there was anything he’d missed earlier.

Her surprise—and relief—had been genuine earlier when she thought he had assumed she was here to do an expose story on him.

Gregori was determined to know the reason for that relief.

Gaia deliberated long and hard for all of the following day as to whether or not she should continue to work at Utopia, when not only had she brought herself to the attention of Gregori Markovic, but also The Wolf. And where Gregori had a veneer of urbane sophistication, Nikolai made no attempt to be anything other than what he was: cold and lethal.

It hadn’t been lost on her that it had to have been on Gregori’s instruction that the other man drove her home in the early hours of this morning.

Much to her surprise, Nikolai had been leaning against a limousine outside Utopia when she left the building after changing into her own clothes. He had instantly straightened to open the back door of the car with a flourish, as Gaia stood on the pavement looking for the taxi Gregori had told her would be waiting for her.

Gaia had refused to get in the car, insisting that a taxi was perfectly adequate.

Nikolai, like their mutual employer, wasn’t a man who accepted the word no.

Gaia had very soon given up arguing with him in the face of his implacability. But not without a show of defiance—for Gregori, if he should happen to be watching them on one of his security screens, and she had a feeling that he was—by ignoring the back door Nikolai held open for her and instead climbing into the passenger seat beside the driver.

Nikolai had given her an amused smile when he was the one to slide in behind the wheel next to her just seconds later. In fact, that smirk had continued to curve his lips for the whole of the drive back to her apartment.

Gaia had learned the reason for that once the car was parked outside her building, and Nikolai went to open the trunk of the car so that he could take out her shoes and hand them to her. Obviously Gregori had given them to him.

She had snatched the shoes and hurried across the pavement to her apartment building, refusing to look back even when she heard Nikolai’s amused chuckle.

That whole night had been one embarrassment after another.

Worse, she had drawn herself to the attention of these two powerful men.

Which still left her with the dilemma as to whether or not she should go back to work at Utopia tonight, and behave as if nothing untoward had happened. Or did she stay away, and give thanks she had made a lucky escape?

There was really only one choice Gaia could make: she had no option but to return to work tonight. To do anything else would look highly suspicious after she had been caught in that compromising position in Gregori’s office.

Besides which, two of the most dangerous men she’d ever met
knew where she lived
.

Not for the first time, Gaia questioned the sanity of what she was doing.

At the same time as she knew she owed it to Angela to try to find out the truth. She had to go back to Utopia for her sister’s sake.

Gaia ignored the mocking little voice inside her head that questioned whether the real reason she was going back was to take another look at Gregori.

To see if the arousal she had felt in his company last night had been real.

“Good evening, Miss Miller.”

Yep, both the arousal and desire had definitely been real.

Gaia’s hands shook so much from just hearing Gregori’s low and gravelly voice again that she spilled wine all over her fingers from the glass she had been about to place on her tray.

She also knew from the direction of that voice that he was either standing or sitting further down the casino bar, silent now, watching, as he waited for her to respond to his greeting.

Gaia’s cheeks felt hot, her breasts tingling, her nipples instantly going hard, and between her thighs—God, she could
smell
her own rush of arousal.

Instead of answering or turning to face him, she gave Rick an apologetic smile as she quickly picked up a cloth and studiously began to mop up the spilt wine. Delaying the moment when she would have to turn and look at Gregori.

But spilt wine could only take so long to deal with, and as she had to wait for Rick to pour a fresh glass, she also had no choice but to turn and glance over to where Gregori was sitting on one of the bar stools, watching her with those dark, all-seeing eyes.

It was Friday evening, and the casino was hopping, and yet somehow he had managed to find an empty barstool in the area of the bar where she happened to be working?

Coincidence?

Somehow Gaia didn’t think so. Which meant that Gregori had to have deliberately sought her out. After first watching her on those damned security monitors in his office?

The heat increased in Gaia’s body just thinking of him sitting up there watching her with those dark and enigmatic eyes.

He looked—he looked fucking gorgeous was how he looked!

Gaia didn’t usually use such graphic language, even in her head, but fucking was what this man made her feel, want, ache for.

That feeling was wrong for so many reasons, and yet she couldn’t seem to drag her gaze away once she had looked at him. His jaw was clean-shaven this early in the evening, and he was wearing a black dinner suit and a snowy white silk shirt, along with a perfectly tied black bowtie.

Because it had been his intention all along to come down onto the casino floor tonight, where all the members of the exclusive nightclub were also dressed in evening clothes?

To see her again?

That was probably allowing her imagination to go a little too far, Gaia allowed. Gregori owned this nightclub and casino, so why shouldn’t he come down and mingle if he wanted to. Except the gossip amongst the other waitresses said that he didn’t want to very often, that he preferred to leave the handshaking and charm to Claude le Coeur.

It was impossible to miss the covetous glances being sent his way by the other women in the casino, the members of the club and the other waitresses serving drinks. There was also absolutely no reason for Gaia to assume he had come down here especially to talk to her, rather than one of the beautiful women who patronized his nightclub.

Besides which, the two of them hadn’t exactly parted well in the early hours of this morning.

After which he had arranged to have his own head of security drive her home…

“Miss Miller?” There was an edge of impatience to Gregori’s voice now.

He also had that mesmerizing, dark-eyed thing going on, Gaia recognized as she continued to inwardly panic. Dracula eyes. Captivating, mesmerizing eyes, luring his female victim to her doom.