Chapter 13
Chapter Thirteen
She’s right. He was good at lying, but there was so much more to it than she would ever know.
Every undercover operative who’d lived to retell the story had to be good at deception. He’d had to become someone else and present that persona—a virtual mask—every minute of every day he’d lived, worked, and breathed around Yuri Petrov and anyone else in Yuri’s orbit.
Kyle did his best not to inhale her pretty scent into his lungs and failed.
He actually had considered finding her, many times over the years, but each time he’d decided against it, knowing she was better off making a brand-new life for herself.
Without him in it. Because again, he always wound up hurting those he cared for most.
He couldn’t blame her for the harsh words. He’d never meant to cause her pain. Now or then. “Lying to you was never my goal or my intention. Yuri, Nikolai, Semyon…they were the targets. Lying to you was unavoidable.”
“Unavoidable.” She straightened and took a step back.
“You could have done that. Avoided me. Then you never would have had to lie to me. Moving forward, we can fix that little problem. After I’m done helping Alyona Kolbyev at the courthouse on Monday, you’ll never have to lie to me or see me again. Problem solved.”
Kyle winced inwardly at that thought, feeling a pain in his chest and finding it disturbingly familiar to what he’d experienced the last time he’d seen her. The night he’d left her in a Chicago hospital.
“Well, aren’t you going to say something?
” Color rose to her high cheekbones, and he remembered how smooth her skin was beneath his rough, callused fingers.
She tucked a wayward strand of coppery hair behind her ear.
That seemingly innocent movement made him want to touch her again, to sift his fingers through her silky hair one more time.
He cleared his throat and reminded himself the only reasons he’d come here were to tell her she wasn’t coming to the courthouse on Monday and to assuage his own feelings of guilt for not doing more for her.
“You’re right. After our business association is concluded, you won’t have to see me again.
” It would be better for her. Better for both of them in the long run.
Unfortunately for him, seeing her again slammed home a reality he couldn’t deny: deep down, she was as important to him today as she had been then.
“That moment is now. You won’t be in the courtroom on Monday or any other day of the trial. ”
Her eyes widened. “What do you mean? Of course, I’ll be there.”
“No. You won’t.”
“That’s ridiculous.” She shook her head. “You were there in that meeting today. You heard what the prosecutor said. Greg Washington wants me in the courtroom to help Aly get through her testimony. Even your boss agreed it was a good idea.”
How could she not see the inherent risk to her life? “You know these people as well as I do. If word got back to Yuri that you’re here—in New York City—he’ll come for you.”
And they both knew what that meant.
She pressed her lips together but only for a moment, and he prayed he’d gotten through to her.
Surprisingly, she uttered a laugh. “What about you? Aren’t you afraid of being seen by Yuri’s or Semyon’s colleagues?
Or anyone in the Bratva, for that matter?
They have to know at this point it was you who put them all in jail. ”
He appreciated that she was standing on her own two feet, but she was wrong about how the Bratva operated.
Dead wrong. “For me it’s different. The FBI doesn’t take kindly to one of their agents being targeted.
Killing me would rain hell down on them and every business they operate.
It would undermine their very existence, and they know it. ”
Which was exactly what had happened when the Mafia killed his brother Jack’s undercover operative.
Jack obliterated an entire Mafia family, wiping them off the face of the earth for good.
The Bratva and every other organized crime family in the country knew it had been in direct retribution for killing Jack’s UC.
Victoria returned to her desk and sat. There was a fiery glint in her eyes that worried him.
She clasped her hands on top of the desk, tilting her head slightly to one side.
“What reason would you give AUSA Washington for me not being in the courtroom with Aly on Monday? He’s expecting me there to pacify your star witness.
It’s a contractual obligation, and you assured me my boss’s contracts with the FBI were safe.
If I’m not there, the contract is broken. ”
Shit. He’d been hoping her common sense would take hold, and that she’d find a way to gracefully extricate herself from the case. Now, however, he had a bad feeling where this conversation was going.
Even if he could convince Greg to kick Victoria off the case, which he probably couldn’t, because the man wanted her there, and AUSAs generally got what they wanted, Kyle would indeed be going back on his word to her.
The only way Greg would disallow her presence in the courtroom was if Kyle told him the truth about who she was. Who she’d been.
But he owed her—bigtime. Like Mike said, she’d done something amazing with her life that most people never had to. She’d started over. No matter what, he couldn’t take that from her. There were also his job obligations to consider.
Victoria was right about Alyona Kolbayev.
To say the woman was jittery was an understatement.
If having Victoria there to lend moral support was what it took to get her to testify against her husband, he had to support that.
If he couldn’t take down Lebedev, he’d take down his right-hand man.
Bottom line, Victoria had his nuts in a vise grip, and she knew it.
“You give me no choice,” he admitted finally. This new version of Victoria was not only empowered but vibrant, stubborn, and wasn’t about to back down. “But we do it my way.”
Her brows rose. “Meaning?”
“Meaning that I’m in charge of security and protection of my witness.
If you insist on being in the courthouse, by extension that puts you under my protection as well.
If I tell you to do something, you do it.
If I tell you to duck, you duck. If I tell you to run, you run.
Deal?” He stood and extended his hand across the desk.
Her nostrils flared at his words. He didn’t doubt Yuri had given her orders every day of her life while they were together, and it probably bugged the crap out of her to take his now. He wouldn’t accept her presence in the courthouse under any other circumstances.
“Deal.” She slipped her hand in his.
The moment their fingers touched he felt it again.
Whatever it was. A warmth, a tingling, or maybe just the conscious realization she could still get under his skin.
“I’ll pick you up at five a.m. Monday to get Alyona into the courthouse early.
” Suddenly needing to make a hasty exit before his body overheated, he headed for the door.
“Wait, I’ll give you my address and phone number.”
He turned to see her scribbling on a pad.
“Don’t bother. I have them.” Her contact number was on her background check forms. For her home, she’d provided a post office box address.
It had taken him all of three minutes to log into one of many databases that housed her physical address.
Another reason he worried for her safety.
If he could find it that easily, so could Yuri.
Again, he turned to leave. Again, he stopped, giving her one last lingering look. “I lied to you, but I don’t regret meeting you for a second.”
Eyes he’d once gotten so lost in one night long ago softened, churning up emotions he hadn’t felt in a long time and didn’t want to face now.
Ten years ago, duty and his past had made him run from her.
Today, his mind was torn between duty and something else he’d been refusing to acknowledge all this time.
His feelings for her—the real reasons he hadn’t tried to find her. Because those feelings scared the shit out of him.
The pain he’d felt when his wife died was unbearable. Maybe he was just as afraid of getting hurt again as he was about doing the hurting.
Finally, he turned, continuing down the hall and past the reception desk where the woman who’d offered to throw him out on his ass scowled so hard he could feel her annoyance drilling through his back. In the hallway, he punched the button for the elevator.
Whether Victoria realized it or not, he now had two protectees—Alyona Kolbayev and her. His gut told him unquestionably her presence at the courthouse was a bad, bad idea.
There were two threats to her life—physical and emotional. In truth, he didn’t know who was more of a danger: her ex-husband, or him.