Chapter 14
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
“You can,” Nikolai answered her. “But I do not recommend doing so.”
“Why not?” Thea demanded.
“Because this man’s behavior brought fear into your life.” He shrugged broad shoulders. “A fear I believe it unnecessary for you to feel again because of him, however briefly.”
He was right, of course. In fact, Thea had a feeling that Nikolai Volkov was very rarely wrong.
She turned to look at Fergus. “How did you know to ask Linus to look into Martin specifically as possibly being my stalker?”
“The pillow.”
She frowned her confusion. “What?”
“The pillow,” he repeated. “You said it was the only thing that had been stolen when someone broke into your apartment. Which meant whoever took it had to know what that pillow meant to you. That led me to believe the thief had to be a close friend or an ex-lover. You had already told me you found it easier to have acquaintances rather than close friends, as a result of your connection to the Yegorovs. Martin Hayes became the most obvious candidate as your stalker.”
It made sense when Fergus explained it in those terms. The pillow was very special to her, and whoever had taken it had to have known that. She had just never thought of Martin behaving in this underhanded and violent way.
Fergus looked far from happy at his own explanation.
“Martin wasn’t my lover,” Thea told him. “We dated for a while but never really clicked in that way.” She shot Fergus a rueful glance. “Remember, I told you he said my arse was too scrawny?”
“Unappreciative fucker,” Fergus muttered.
“He said what ?” Nikolai Volkov prompted incredulously.
“Guy must need glasses!” Linus scoffed.
“Never mind.” Thea waved a dismissive hand when she saw how Fergus’s expression had darkened at the reaction of the other two men.
Her only intention had been to tease Fergus out of his annoyance, not involve the other two men in what was really a private conversation.
“Fergus, you’re missing the point,” she complained when he continued to glare at his brother and Nikolai for daring to comment on the subject of the bottom he coveted.
“Which is?”
“Martin was never my lover.”
It took a second or two, but then the scowl disappeared from Fergus’s brow and his shoulders relaxed. “Right. Good. Okay.” He nodded his satisfaction with that answer before turning to glare at Linus and Nikolai. “But I advise the two of you to stop looking at my woman’s backside!” He winced when Thea drew in a sharp breath. “I apologize for sounding like a Neanderthal, but that’s what you are to me now.”
“I still don’t understand, why would Martin do those things?” Thea quickly asked before either Linus or Nikolai could say something else to ignite Fergus’s temper. Something they were doing deliberately, Thea believed, from the wide grins she could see on their faces.
“I believe that is one of the questions you wish to ask him yourself,” Nikolai drawled before taking another sip of his coffee.
“I… Will your men…torture him to get those answers if I don’t talk to him?” It seemed a distinct possibility, considering she was living in a parallel universe where a high-ranking member of the Russian bratva was calmly sitting a few feet away, drinking the coffee she had just made.
Blond brows rose over Nikolai’s pale gray eyes. “I believe you have watched too many gangster movies, Miss Morgan.”
She glared. “That didn’t answer my question.”
“No, it did not.” He placed his empty coffee mug carefully down on the breakfast bar before those wolf’s eyes focused directly on her.
“Well?” she prompted again.
He shrugged. “If he does not give the answers you seek, then my men will use whatever methods they deem necessary to extract truthful information from the man who has been stalking you. The same man who also broke into your hotel suite in Paris and physically attacked you,” Nikolai reminded grimly.
Thea could hear the challenge in Nikolai’s voice, and while she didn’t approve of violence, she also couldn’t protest the way Nikolai protected the people he cared about. Apparently, because of her connection to Fergus, she was now included in that number.
She also couldn’t fault his logic. Martin had attacked her. Admittedly, she had only been knocked out for a few minutes, and the cut at the side of her head hadn’t needed stitches. But, as Martin had just left her lying unconscious on the floor, there was no way he could have known how serious that blow to the head was going to be.
Fergus was the one who had found her, protected her, and Nikolai wanted to do the same. Even if his methods were more…violent than Fergus’s.
Which meant she wasn’t about to challenge Nikolai on his methods of interrogation, or the retribution that followed.
“Although I believe I can already give you the answers you require and save you the trouble of ever seeing him again,” Nikolai continued evenly. “In my experience, a cowardly man like Martin Hayes would believe that scaring you before offering his shoulder to cry on was the surest and easiest way to persuade you to resume your relationship. No doubt with the intention of the two of you getting married, giving him full access to your finances as your husband.”
“Over my dead body!” Fergus growled.
Nikolai sent him an appreciative glance. “A commendable assertion, but I do not think that will be necessary.” He looked at Thea again. “You recently inherited fifty million pounds.”
It wasn’t a question but a statement, and Thea saw no reason to question how Nikolai knew that. Better to just accept that he did.
She nodded. “Martin only wanted to resume our relationship because he wanted access to the money my mother left me. So, you’re saying that when I refused, he started to stalk me because he thought I would turn to him for protection and he could achieve his end game that way?”
The Russian nodded. “A couple of hours with my men would confirm that explanation, but I believe so, yes.”
“What will happen if he admits to that being the case?”
“He will be issued a severe warning never to go near you again if, or when, he is released,” Nikolai corrected smoothly. “Hopefully, that will be a sufficient deterrent for him not to come anywhere near you ever again.”
“And if it isn’t?”
“Then he will suffer an even worse beating, followed by another, until the point has been driven home to him that he is not to be anywhere within your vicinity.”
Thea thought over what Nikolai had just said and knew, without talking to Martin, that this was exactly how events had unfolded.
“I don’t need to speak to him after all,” she told Nikolai.
“You don’t?” Fergus looked surprised.
Thea thought she also saw relief in his eyes. “No. I’ve decided I don’t need to waste any more of my time on him than I already have.” After all, the evidence of Martin having followed her to Paris, where he had then attacked her, no doubt because by that time, he had realized she was there to ask Fergus for the help he wanted to offer her, was pretty overwhelming. Which meant he didn’t deserve either her concern or consideration.
“You really can ensure he won’t ever come near me again?” Thea was willing to ignore her aversion to violence if Nikolai could guarantee that was the case.
“I can,” Nikolai confirmed before checking the message that had just been delivered to his cell phone. “You should also know the man who shot Mr. Quinn this morning is now dead, after he resisted when my men tried to capture him. Lev Yegorov is now in the custody of more of my men and on his way to the same safe house as Hayes. I intend to question him myself. Perhaps being a witness to my questioning Yegorov will be enough of a deterrent to Hayes to stop him from bothering you again,” he added with satisfaction.
Thea swallowed, already shaken from the casual way in which Nikolai had said the man who shot Declan was now dead. “Question him…?”
“Yes.” Nikolai’s eyes narrowed. “I despise the greedy pigs who stole money from the ordinary people of Russia so that they could live in luxury in the West. And no, I am not one of them,” he assured. “I left Russia for England when I was sixteen, a penniless orphan who had lived and starved on the streets for all the years before that.”
Thea remembered Fergus had implied Nikolai’s background wasn’t one of wealth. “I’m sorry.”
Nikolai nodded. “I am wealthy now, and in a position of power. But I ensure that fifty percent of my wealth and my power is used for the good of the ordinary Russian people. Yegorov senior stole from them before escaping Russia with his son and his ill-gotten millions.”
There was no mistaking the vehemence in Nikolai’s voice or the cold glitter of intent in his eyes.
She nodded. “I would like you to take the fifty million pounds left to my mother and return that to the Russian people in whatever way you see fit.”
His eyes widened. “That money was left to you.”
She frowned. “It’s dirty money. Stolen from the people who need it. I don’t want it. I never did.”
Nikolai inclined his head. “Then I will gladly return it to my people. Thank you.”
“I still don’t understand why Lev changed his mind so drastically from wanting to marry me.” Thea quickly reached out to give Fergus’s arm a reassuring squeeze when he gave a low growl. “To him wanting to kill me,” she finished.
“Lev Yegorov no longer possesses the extensive wealth his father left him three years ago,” Nikolai told her. “He either gambled or snorted most of it away before leaving the US. In fact, debt was one of the reasons he left that country. He has gambled, snorted, or injected what was left of that money since moving to London.”
“He’s a drug addict?”
“Very much so.”
Thea’s eyes widened. “And he’s spent all those millions his father left him on drugs and gambling?” Unbelievable as that sounded, it would certainly explain why Lev was now so determined to marry her.
“I am afraid that Yegorov now has a serious addiction to heroin as well as to gambling.” Nikolai nodded. “He is also a terrible businessman, with one failed venture after another. An alliance between the two of you would have ensured he had access to the fifty million pounds your mother left you. No doubt so that he could gamble and shoot up and make bad business decisions with that too,” he added with distaste.
“But I offered to give the money to him after my mother died,” Thea protested. “Several times.”
Nikolai’s chiseled lips quirked into a smile. “I did not say that was his only reason for wanting to marry you.”
“I don’t understand…”
“You are a beautiful woman, Thea.” Nikolai waved a dismissive hand in Fergus’s direction as he uttered another possessive growl. “You have met my Daisy and know that I love her and our children with my whole heart,” the Russian snapped. “I am merely making an obvious observation. I believe, because of his insistence that you marry him, that Yegorov junior must want you for himself. That he was even willing to wait to take possession of that fifty million pounds if you also became his once you were married.”
Thea shook her head. “I would never have married him.”
“Not willingly, perhaps, but I have a feeling Lev’s patience would have soon come to an end if Fergus was not now obviously standing between the two of you as your protector.”
“But how… Are you saying that Lev had someone following me in Paris too?”
“I can answer that,” Linus cut in lightly. “Yes, he did. Those men arrived back in England on the same train as Martin Hayes.”
Thea swallowed down the nausea that had risen at the back of her throat. “I had men employed by a Russian oligarch following me around Paris, as well as a machinating ex-boyfriend, and I had absolutely no idea!”
Nikolai gave a humorless smile. “Do not be too hard on yourself. I am sure, once you had seen Fergus for the first time, you had eyes for no one else,” he taunted the other man.
“Bastard,” Fergus muttered.
Nikolai openly grinned at him before sobering. “Now that I have also chosen to intercede, you may be assured, Thea, that you will not see Lev Yegorov again.”
One look into those icy-gray eyes and Thea knew Nikolai’s anger toward the other man wasn’t all about her. That Nikolai Volkov’s own reasons for wishing Lev to disappear were just as valid. Whether that was by returning Lev to Russia to face the wrath of the Russian people, or by ensuring that Lev “disappeared” by Nikolai’s own hand would be his decision.
It was a totally different world from the one in which Thea had been living for the past twenty-four years. But she couldn’t say she wouldn’t be relieved to have both Lev and Martin out of her life. Even if it was by, as Nikolai claimed, whatever method he deemed necessary.
She knew she should feel bad that she felt that way, but those two men had made her life unbearable since her mother died.
“Can I just add something here?” Linus cut in. “I didn’t only check on Martin Hayes earlier, I also looked into Lev Yegorov after Fergus told me he was trying to force you into marrying him. Amongst all the same distasteful things Nikolai learned about the man”—his mouth twisted with disgust—“I also discovered that several days ago, he had his lawyer draw up, and falsify the signature, on the Last Will and Testament of one Thea Jane Morgan, in which he was made the sole beneficiary. Like Nikolai, I believe he changed his plans after discovering, as Hayes had, that Thea had gone to Fergus to ask for his assistance.”
Thea could barely breathe, her chest tight as she tried to draw in more air.
If she hadn’t gone to Fergus and asked for his help, she had no doubt she would now be either dead or married to a man she despised.
* * *
“It’s okay.” Fergus quickly stepped forward to wrap his arms about Thea and cradle her gently against him. “Neither of them will ever hurt you again.” He gave Nikolai a look he hoped conveyed to the other man how much he wanted that to be true. Fergus didn’t want either of those two bastards coming anywhere near Thea ever again.
The only reason he wasn’t personally ensuring that happened was because he believed Thea needed his presence here with her more than Fergus needed to settle scores he knew Nikolai would deal with far more efficiently than he could.
The bastard.
“I believe it is now time for the two of us to leave,” Nikolai prompted Linus as he rose gracefully to his feet before refastening the button on his perfectly tailored jacket. “It has been a pleasure meeting you, Thea.” He took hold of her hand and lightly kissed the back of it when she turned to look at him, eliciting another disapproving snort from Fergus. Which the Russian again completely ignored. “I look forward to seeing you again soon,” the other man added, completely unperturbed by Fergus’s caveman attitude.
“Thank you for your assistance today,” she acknowledged huskily.
“Anytime.” He nodded before turning that sharp silver gaze on Fergus. “I will look forward to receiving yet another Wynter family wedding invitation soon.”
Fergus decided, then and there, that no matter what, Nikolai was not going to be the godfather to any of his and Thea’s children.
But first, he’d need to ask, possibly persuade, Thea into wanting to marry him.
Because he knew, without a single doubt, in the same way that his brother and cousin had known the moment they met their future wives, that Thea was the woman he loved and wanted to spend the rest of his life with.