Chapter 13
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
“Did you really do that?” Fergus prompted Thea, a frown lowering his brow.
She shrugged as if the subject was of little importance. “I’d rather not?—”
“I spoke to Jessica Morgan’s lawyer a short time ago.” Nikolai ignored Thea’s glare. “Once I had explained my interest, he very kindly told me exactly why Jessica Morgan backed off.”
Fergus guessed “explained my interest” meant something far more sinister. Lawyers didn’t just go around breaking their clients’ confidentiality arbitrarily. Especially at seven o’clock at night.
But the fact that Nikolai had done so successfully with Jessica Morgan’s lawyer was testament to the fear and awe in which all of London’s residents held the Russian Wolf.
“He remembered Jessica Morgan and her daughter very well,” Nikolai continued mildly. “He told me that Mrs. Morgan’s daughter had told him you couldn’t have been the father of her unborn child because Jessica Morgan was incapable of having any more children after she gave birth to Thea. He also told me that he had agreed to find someone to represent Thea if she chose to challenge her mother’s claims in a court of law.”
Thea continued to stare at him. “Those were private conversations…”
Nikolai nodded. “Indeed they were, but they are also ones that your mother’s lawyer felt he could confide in me.”
“No doubt threatening him helped,” Fergus muttered.
“No doubt,” the Russian drawled, unabashed. “But it is also the truth, is it not?” He looked at Thea.
Her throat moved as she swallowed. “I couldn’t allow her to continue blackmailing Fergus when I knew everything my mother said was a lie.”
“More so even than Thea realized, hm, Fergus?” Nikolai prompted.
“What does he mean…?” Thea turned to ask Fergus.
“Yes, Fergus, what do I mean?” the Russian taunted.
Fergus glared at the other man. “How the fuck do you know these things?”
“I have informants everywhere,” Nikolai revealed without apology.
“Not in my fucking bed, you don’t.”
“No,” the Russian conceded. “But I do have eyes and ears everywhere else.”
Fergus winced as he looked at Thea. “Your mother and I never had a physical relationship.”
“But…” She moved to perch on the side of one of the bar stools, as if she might sway and fall if she didn’t. “She said… Why didn’t you?”
“Because I realized on our first date that Jessica was nothing more than a self-centered gold-digger.”
“Tell her the rest,” Nikolai encouraged.
Fergus released a frustrated sigh before continuing, knowing that if he didn’t, Nikolai would do it for him. “At the time, I thought our second dinner together was a chance meeting. We were both eating alone at the same restaurant and decided to eat together instead. When it happened again a week later, I realized I was being played. I only agreed to sit with her that time so that I could tell her, in privacy, not to ‘accidentally’ bump into me again. The only reason I accompanied her when she received the call about you being rushed to hospital with suspected appendicitis was so that she could reach your side as quickly as possible. I had no idea until then that she even had a child, let alone how old you were.”
“I… She… She definitely told me the two of you were dating.” Thea’s cheeks were flushed.
With discomfort or embarrassment? Fergus wondered. Neither of which she should be feeling, when she had done nothing wrong. The opposite, from the sound of it.
“Not after that first time, no,” he told Thea gently.
“The two of you never slept—had sex together?”
“No.”
“So how did she think she could accuse you of— Never mind,” she dismissed in a heavy voice. “My mother was obviously more delusional than I thought she was.” She shook her head. “Until the day she died, she let me believe I was the reason you had walked away from her.”
“What!” Fergus stared at her.
She released a sigh before explaining. “I’m not sure my mother ever wanted children. But my father certainly did, and I was always closer to him than I was her. I don’t think my mother liked that either. Probably a jealousy thing, but I can’t be sure. I know she never seemed to particularly like me, but after my dad died, things became even more strained between my mother and me. She wasn’t exactly neglectful, but she only did the bare minimum to ensure social services were never called in.”
“Bitch,” Fergus muttered under his breath.
Thea shot him a rueful glance. “After a while, her disinterest didn’t bother me. Mainly because I realized you can’t miss something you’ve never had. But what she tried to do to you was… I couldn’t just sit back and allow her to blackmail you when I knew it was all a lie.” Thea huffed. “She never forgave me.”
Fergus could easily imagine how Thea’s bravery had infuriated her mother. Not for the first time, Fergus was glad Jessica Morgan was already dead.
Nikolai nodded. “It is my belief, and one shared by her lawyer, that your mother believed Fergus would pay her off rather than risk the scandal of the situation appearing in the newspapers.”
“And instead, Thea threatened to reveal the truth, and Jessica had to back off without receiving any financial payoff from me.” Fergus was still totally stunned by the fact it now seemed Thea’s threats to her mother were the reason Jessica had dropped her lawsuit against him. “The information from the lawyer I understand, but how the hell do you know those other, more personal, things?” he demanded of the Russian.
Nikolai shrugged. “London is my city. Nothing happens within its boundaries that I do not know about. Or I cannot access information on if I need to.”
Fergus scowled. “You really are one scary fucker.”
“Thank you.” Nikolai nodded as if he had just been paid the highest compliment. And maybe to him, he had. “I believe the coffee is now ready, Miss Morgan.” He smiled at her.
Thea didn’t look at Fergus again—deliberately so?—as she moved to pour Nikolai a coffee before placing the cup in front of him.
She then crossed the kitchen to take a jug of milk from the refrigerator before picking up the sugar bowl and bringing them over to the Russian too before returning to pour three more cups of coffee and placing them on the breakfast bar.
She did all that without saying a word.
Probably because she was as surprised by Nikolai’s information as Fergus was. Not for the same reason, obviously. After all, she had known what she’d done to stop Jessica, and because of it, she had been the brunt of her mother’s ire for the years that followed.
Fergus’s surprise at Thea’s courage in standing up to her mother was now fading. Enough so that he deeply regretted being the cause of Jessica’s further ire toward her daughter. Although it sounded as if the older woman had never been particularly warm toward Thea.
As for how easily Nikolai had learned about these things…
There was a reason, other than the deep and loyal friendship that existed between Nikolai and his pakhan , that Nikolai was sovietnik to the head of the Russian bratva in London. As Nikolai had just stated, nothing happened in his city that he didn’t know about.
“Did you ever regret what you did for me, Thea?” Fergus now prompted.
She shook her head. “My mother had set her sights on having you as her second husband, along with all your millions, and when that failed to come to fruition it became obvious she had decided to blackmail you instead.”
Which, Fergus realized, didn’t answer the question he had just asked her. “And?” he prompted.
“And so, no, I don’t regret exposing her for the liar she was. The thing about bullies, as I’ve had reinforced since I became a teacher, is that they back off if challenged. I tell my students they should ignore bullies and never resort to violence. That the bully will soon become bored if they do. But the truth is that challenging them works as a far quicker and more efficient deterrent, basically because, at heart, they’re all cowards.”
It still seemed incredible that fourteen-year-old Thea had challenged her own mother and forced Jessica to back off trying to blackmail Fergus. Even knowing what that betrayal would do to their already-strained relationship.
“We’ll talk about this again later, okay?” He touched her arm gently.
Her gaze lowered from meeting his. “Okay.”
“As you seem to know so much, perhaps you can tell us who Thea’s stalker is?” Fergus now challenged the Russian.
“This coffee is delicious, Miss Morgan,” Nikolai murmured appreciatively after taking a sip of the black, unsweetened brew.
She gave him a wry smile. “Please call me Thea.”
He nodded. “And you should call me Nikolai. I have a feeling we will see a lot more of each other in the coming years.” He aimed a mocking glance in Fergus’s direction.
Fucker , Fergus mentally accused for the second time in minutes, but to Nikolai this time rather than his brother.
“Will you just answer the damn question?” he snapped at the older man.
“I believe Linus has that particular piece of information.” Nikolai glanced at the younger man.
“Well?” Fergus demanded of his silently watching brother.
Linus gave Thea an apologetic smile before revealing, “Fergus asked me to look into a man named Martin Hayes. When I did, I discovered that he had taken a train to Paris four days ago. When he arrived, he booked into a small boutique hotel several streets away from George V, where Thea was staying?—”
“Very nice,” Nikolai approved.
Linus nodded acknowledgment before his smile faded. “He immediately began to stalk Thea.”
* * *
“ Martin is my stalker…?” Thea echoed hollowly.
So many things had been revealed in the past few minutes. Her own part in the dropping of her mother’s case against Fergus, for one.
That Fergus and her mother had never been intimate, for another.
Thea would be lying if she didn’t admit, to herself at least, that the thought of her mother and Fergus having sex had bothered her.
Learning that they hadn’t, felt as if a heavy weight had been lifted from her chest.
Having Linus tell her that Martin was her stalker had delivered that physical blow.
“I’m afraid so.” Linus Wynter was the one to answer her. “He arrived back in the UK today, again by train, an hour after you did. He then went to his apartment to drop off his bag before driving to your home. When you didn’t answer his knock on your door, your neighbor came out and told him you were still away on holiday. He returned to his car and went online looking for where Fergus lives when he’s in London. The electoral register is public record,” he defended when Fergus glowered at him.
“So he knows where I am now?” Thea asked softly. She felt slightly sick at the thought.
Linus nodded. “He also searched for why there’s police tape around the side of your apartment building and again across the road. Then he drove here and began to loiter outside the building. Security didn’t like him being there, so one of them approached him and asked him his reason for being here. The guy muttered some excuse about being lost before skuttling away like the cowardly rabbit that he is. He can’t be anything else when he’s been terrorizing and then hit a woman. For the past few minutes, Hayes has been sitting in the coffee shop just down the street, watched by two men from Wynter Security.”
“Not anymore,” Nikolai Volkov put in harshly. “Once I learned of that situation, I made a call and instructed some of my own men to pick Hayes up and take him to one of our safe houses for questioning.”
Linus nodded. “Security tried to call you earlier, but you weren’t picking up,” he told his brother.
Fergus scowled. “I was busy.”
Linus’s mouth quirked. “Not going to ask doing what,” he taunted.
Thea was still in shock at learning that it was Martin , of all people, who had been—still was—stalking her.
Who had also followed her to Paris and knocked her unconscious in her hotel room.
But she still didn’t understand why he had.
“I want to see him,” she stated flatly.
Fergus turned to looked at her. “See who— No!” he snapped when her meaning became clear to him.
“Yes. I want to know why he did those things.” Thea turned to Nikolai Volkov. “Can I do that?” She had no idea where or what a safe house was, but Nikolai’s expression told her it wasn’t a safe place for Martin.
Not that he deserved one if he really was responsible for stalking and then attacking her.