Chapter 19
a heightened state of readiness
NICOLAI
Lexi fluttered ahead of me through the living room of our suite at Billionaire Sanctuary, bobbling on her high heels in the thick carpeting. The air conditioning caught the liquid silk of her dress and flicked it into the air like she was flying on copper butterfly wings.
Or angel wings.
I stalked her past the coffee table with its glass bowl of fresh apples, avoided detouring into the long dining room with its candelabra lit and flickering on the table, and didn’t stop at the wet bar with its glasses sparkling in the overhead lights.
She reached the door to the bedroom, flitting inside.
I’d seen the ecstasy in her eyes. Her body had writhed with just my touch.
Every cell in every tissue in every muscle of my body strained to chase, to catch, to have every delicious inch of her skin in my hands, under my mouth, and around my—
“Nicolai, did you not hear me?”
Ueli’s gruff voice was a harsh spotlight when my thoughts wanted the dark.
I turned slowly, composed. “I beg your pardon?”
His hands were balled into fists, bulging his muscular forearms under his suit. “We need to talk about tonight’s incident.”
The last thing I needed was Ueli to demand a three-hour debrief of the situation that hadn’t even happened. “Can we do it in the morning?”
“The garage incident was tense.”
That stopped me. “Go on.”
“When you texted that you were T-minus-one hour from leaving, we began preparations for the walk out. Evidently, our activity drew attention. Dush and the beta team entered the kitchen to secure the elevator for your exit, and as soon as they were inside the building, three SUVs cornered alpha and gamma teams in the cars. The objective appeared to be to block alpha and gamma, and then to intercept you with beta team as you exited from the elevator. We had a standoff with hands on guns about whether they were going to move their fucking cars or not. No one drew. Weapons stayed in holsters. But it was close. If there hadn’t been five different CCTV feeds in there that we pointed out to those fucking idiots, things might’ve gone differently. ”
As Ueli was talking, I mentally counted my security team operators I’d seen on the way out and checked off the roster in my head, relieved that everyone was accounted for. “You defused the situation?”
“Beta team came roaring back out of the kitchens and flanked them. We coordinated a retreat, but only two of the vehicles were able to leave. One of our vehicles is still in that parking garage. We’ll go in with the police in the morning to retrieve it.”
“So, no injuries?”
“No shots fired, no punches thrown. Just a lot of posturing and mouthing off. Who’s the girl, really, Nicolai?”
The question about Lexi seemed incongruous. “I beg your pardon?”
“That girl you’ve got in there, your so-called wife. Who is she really, and why did her presence draw an attack by two dozen trained professionals like that?”
“Lexi is exactly who she says she is, and nothing more. I’ve never met someone so honest in my life.”
“Nothing else has changed, only that this woman is suddenly in the bubble. We haven’t had a situation like that in years.”
“Accounting for situations like that is your job.”
Ueli’s eyes narrowed. “Not having all the information makes my job harder. When my job gets harder, principals die.”
At least he hadn’t actually named my parents. When security operators threw their names at me like a bad example, it made my skin crawl. “Tomorrow, we will be on a reduced schedule.”
“I am moving us to readiness level four.”
Readiness level five was our standard operating level. We changed our readiness to “DEFCON Four” probably ten percent of the time, usually for a week or less, before dropping back to five. Level four wasn’t unusual and didn’t even cause my blood pressure to spike.
In theory, when I’d been away at boarding school as a young child, we’d been at level six, but level six had been struck from our operating protocols after my mother had been killed.
The last time we’d been at readiness level one was fifteen years ago. That most-vigilant state was reserved for if I was already dead, and top-level protection was being transferred to the next heir in line.
Kostya.
My brother’s first indication that something had happened to me would be his own smaller security team kidnapping him to a safer location, telling him nothing along the way. Then a much larger team would arrive and call him “sir” and solemnly inform him of the news and his status.
He would probably figure out within minutes that something had happened to me from the way his team wouldn’t look him in the eye, by the way they would lean with more deference in a bow. Perhaps he wouldn’t believe it for hours, until it became obvious that the bubble was his life now.
And that I was gone.
The way first our mother and then our father had been—gone.
I should tell him not to look for online footage of my assassination, after it happened. That was a mistake.
“Very good, Ueli. We’ll stay at readiness level four unless we obtain additional information. Also, vacate the suite for the night. The active team can monitor from the conference room, reserve team at liberty.”
Ueli’s gaze shifted to the wide tinted windows overlooking the galactic center of Las Vegas. “Level four mandates keeping someone in the suite overnight.”
“Absolutely not. Billionaire Sanctuary has its own security. Essex’s security team has the next ring, then ours. There’s no use wearing ourselves thin in a secure locale. You can station two personnel outside the door if you must do, but that’s as far as I’m willing to concede.”
“Will we be leaving for Paris in the morning? Or anywhere else?”
“No,” I told him.
His jaw sharpened like he was grinding his teeth. “Very good, sir. I’ll see you in the morning.”
The door clicked shut behind Ueli.
I flipped the locks, testing each one to make sure it was secured.
My saunter toward the bedroom where Lexi had disappeared through the doorway seemed quite different now.
I wouldn’t wish my life on anyone, especially not someone who hadn’t been raised in a security bubble, like Lexi.
Within a year, she would be champing at the bit to get away from me.
I must restrain myself from taking her virginity because once Lexi truly understood what it meant to live my life, she would leave.
And I would need that annulment from the church.
The imperative echoed in my head.
If Lexi wasn’t the woman with whom I would have children, then I needed an annulment so I could marry someone who would be.
No reasons, just driving insistence filled every damned cell of my being.
And again, Lexi would not be able to tolerate the security bubble in the long run.
My situation was one of the reasons Hannalore had listed when she’d broken things off with me. Hanna could live with servants and staff, but not with ongoing restrictive security protocols.
That, and I didn’t seem capable of love, a fact that neither of us had mentioned over the quiet lunch, but we’d both acknowledged it in the prior months.