I cringed, just thinking about what Jac was doing.

About what she’d been doing.

Maya moaned. “Make love to me again.”

“Okay,” I whispered against her lips. “Okay.” I prayed she’d never find out the other half, why I agreed to Petrov in the first place, why I still allowed myself to be controlled.

It isn’t money that makes the world go round.

It’s knowledge.

And when it came to me?

He had all he needed to know.

Not just half of it.

All of it.

So near and yet so far. –Russian Proverb

I ACHED IN ALL THE RIGHT places. Did he have the same delicious afterglow I was experiencing? I reached across for his warm body, but my hands met the cool sheets. With a yawn I sat up, blinking against the light floating in from the hall.

He was gone.

I should have left with him, but I’d been so tired when he’d mentioned something about working at the clinic that he’d kissed me on the head and told me to go back to sleep, this time promising to allow me to do it the right way, the natural way, no finger snapping or trigger words. Was that hours ago? Minutes?

My feet touched the cold slate floor just as a throat cleared.

“I sure hope you have clothes on.”

With a scream I jerked back against the headboard, pulling the sheets up around my naked body.

One of the Italians, the scary one, the one with the bird name, peered at me over a ceramic mug, his face a mask of cool indifference.

My eyes darted to the door, already planning my escape, if I needed to escape that is.

He sighed. “If I was going to kill you, you’d already be dead.” He took a long sip out of his mug.

“How reassuring,” I grumbled.

“That’s me,” he said in a low voice. “Reassuring.”

My ass. “Why are you here? Standing in my room?”

“Guard duty.” He looked away. “Nikolai called me in hours ago. I hopped on a private jet, and here I am.”

My eyebrows shot up in surprise. “To protect me while I sleep?”

His lips pressed together in what looked like a hint of a smile. “Sort of.” He ran a hand over his semi buzzed hair. “I’m Phoenix De Lange, you probably don’t remember much about meeting me since it was such a… traumatic—” He seemed to choke over the word. “—week, but I’m the boss to the Nicolasi family and…” His eyes shifted from me to the floor like he was uncomfortable. “You know what, why don’t you get dressed first, I’ll make you coffee, and we can chat…”

“Chat?” I repeated. “Why do we need to chat? Aren’t you just here to guard or whatever?”

He smirked. “Sure, I can do that, and while I’m at it, I’ll be sure to fill you in on who your father is, I mean, unless you don’t want to know?”

“What?” I clenched the sheet harder. “What are you talking about?”

“I’m good,” Phoenix whispered a veiled threat. “At killing. At making it look like an accident. I’m the best at hiding when I need to… but my specialty, at least the specialty that’s been passed on to me is that of secrets… it’s how I make deals, how I trade. It isn’t money that makes this world go around, Maya, it’s information. If you own someone’s past, you own their future.”

I swallowed the nausea building up in my chest. “Are you telling me you know more about my past?”

“I’m telling you, I know everything… and so does Nikolai. Look, my wife wouldn’t appreciate me talking to you while you have nothing but a damn sheet covering you, and I actually like staying alive. Wouldn’t put it past Nikolai to get crazy and shoot me or inject me with whatever the hell new medical invention he has and make me talk like a chicken for the rest of my life, either. Get dressed, then we talk, sis.”

“Sis?” I blurted out.

He nodded slowly. “Coffee’s getting cold.” And walked out.

Falling in love is like a mouse falling into a box, there is no way out. –Russian Proverb

TWO BLACK ESCALADES WAITED BY THE Pier, how irritatingly cliché. I kept the engine running and slowly stepped out of the car, my pace unhurried as I slammed the door behind me and leisurely made my way toward the two SUVs. Gravel crunched beneath my shoes with each step.

When I was around four feet away, the door opened, and Petrov stepped out. His stomach protruded beneath a long leather coat, the inside was lined with fur. Amazing that he still needed warmth, one would assume the fat choking his organs would be more than enough to do the trick.

His Sovietnik approached from the other SUV, along with a handful of his muscle or Byki.

I smiled and nodded my head toward the five men, each of them had their hands placed in front of their bodies as if to show me they had no weapons when we all knew they had enough ammo to take out the entire street. “Were they really necessary, Petrov?”

“You tell me.” His cold eyes never left mine.

I didn’t answer and refused to allow my brain to register that I was actually afraid, not for me, but for her, for what he would do to her if he knew the truth.

If I was dead I couldn’t save her.

Then again, if I was dead, Phoenix would know what to do. That had been part of the conversation we’d had right before his plane landed. I wouldn’t be able to welcome him to Seattle, but gave him strict instructions of who would pick him up from the airport and that he was supposed to guard Maya at all costs.

“How much does she know?” he asked in a calm voice that I knew took much control on his end.

“She knows about the girls, remembers me hurting her, but beyond that, I haven’t told her anything. I thought it best not to dump everything on her all at once.”

Phoenix sighed heavily on the other end. “So she doesn’t know about… .me?”

I cursed. “Those are not my secrets to tell. They are yours and only yours.”

“Damn it.” The sound of something breaking cut into our conversation and then Phoenix began talking again. “I wanted this behind me, it is my past. Talking about it is nearly as bad as re-living it, you know this.”

Yes, I did. Merely talking about a traumatic event was like experiencing it all over again, the human mind was incapable of logically telling the individual that it was just a memory being pulled. “Phoenix, I know. I wouldn’t ask you to do this, if I wasn’t desperate.”

“Right.” He hissed through his teeth, making the simple agreement sound menacing. “Anything else you need from me? You know other than helping you save the world?”

At that I laughed. “Screw the world. I’d kill every last person on this planet to save her, you know that, because you would do the same thing, to protect the woman you love.”

Phoenix was silent and then. “You love her?”

“I do.”

“Well.” He chuckled. “I guess that does change things…. people go to war over less…”

“There is no greater reason to stop someone’s heart.” I closed my eyes then opened them and glanced back at the bedroom door. “So that another may beat without interruption.” I loved her. The thought was the only thing bringing my chilled body warmth. “Protect her above all costs, while you are here. I need you to protect her like she is blood.”

I knew what I asked.

Italians cared for blood.

Anything outside of that was a gamble depending on their mood.