Moving Target (Target #3)(31)

“And what does the middleman think of Dmitry having your prize?”

“You said the little bitch was fucking him. I could only assume he was involved in her procurement.”

“Ah. You are a smart man. Very quick.”

A shaking Chloe hands him a glass. He takes it, but this time, he makes no move to touch her.

“Kitten,” I call out to her. Patting the fur coat, I point to it. “Lay down.”

Gratefully, she obeys. It’s written all over her face. I wrap the coat around her, so that her chest is no longer on display. “Sleep, little one. I will wake you for more adventurous times.”

She rubs her face against my hand, and I brush the tips of my fingers over her eyes. They close, and I concentrate on Leonid again.

“My apologies. Please continue.”

His eyelids droop. “I had a buyer. Dmitry didn’t deliver, so the buyer came for his pound of flesh. Tried to kill them both. So I killed him.”

“Dmitry?”

“No. The buyer. He sent one of his men after the two of them, and that didn’t work. So he sent his men, and that still didn’t work. Then I learned…” He drifts off.

I reach over and lightly slap his face, grinning like we’re old friends. “Finish your story!”

“Learned that they escaped. Again. I cannot allow Dmitry to deliver her to Konstantin. I’d rather she be killed.” I barely restrain myself from strangling him. However, it’s not my right. It’s only her father’s at this point. “I’ve stayed. Didn’t retire—who the hell retires? I’ve earned the right to be the successor.”

“Because you are Konstantin’s true son?” I press. I have to know. “Unlike that upstart, Dmitry.”

“If I were Konstantin’s true son, then he would have made me his successor, not a fucking Romanov. He would have given me his name.”

“His daughter doesn’t have his name.” Is he truly pissed at only me?

“But she has his American one.”

“Do you want revenge?”

“On the daughter?”

“Yes.”

“No. She’s not to blame, even if she’s killed in the crossfire. But Dima… he’s a snake in the grass.” Finally, his eyes slide shut.

I pull out my mobile and call Benjamin. “I’m finished, but the last part needs an extra hand.”

“On my way.”

“You know where I am?”

He snickers, an odd sound, but from him, it’s natural. “I know where everyone is.”



With Benjamin’s help, we manage to get Leonid into the car. Unfortunately, Chloe is stuck holding her coat closed and cannot help. And she’s dying to know what we said, but it’s not safe to speak to her in English yet.

Once we’re on the plane, Chloe races for the bedroom to change. By the time she comes back, wearing a long-sleeved pink shirt and a pair of black leggings, minus the wig and gaudy makeup, she looks like my woman again.

“When will you take that stuff off your face?”

“Soon as I’m done.” I handcuff Leonid to a captain’s chair and then step back to inspect my handiwork. “Done.”

But I don’t leave. “First, I’ll share what we’ve learned.”

Benjamin closes the exit door and starts up the engine. “We will leave in ten minutes. I can listen over the com.”

It takes me less than two to summarize what Leonid revealed. “We have to go to Konstantin. Take Leonid and you there, Chloe.”

“Switching flight plans. Hold please.”

While Benjamin works his magic by hacking into their central computer and replacing his old flight plan, I take Chloe by the hand and lead her to the bedroom in the back. She sits on the edge while I use the private bathroom to remove my disguise.

“I don’t want to go to him, but I guess this is how it works, huh?”

Nodding, I unbutton my shirt and take it off, then do the same with my shoes, socks, and pants before changing into a loose pair of dark jeans. “It is your father’s right to exact revenge.”

“What about my right?”

“Do you want to kill him?”

She shakes her head. “I can’t.”

“Do you want me to kill him?” I would, even if it’s not my right, if she asked it of me.

“No.” She stands, moving to me and resting her head on my chest. “Is this what it’s truly like? Sex clubs and selling people. Drugs and secrecy?”

“Would you rather it be our island?”

Tears spill onto my chest. “Absolutely.”

There’s nothing I can say to that, nothing I can do at this point except ask her father for the right to be with his daughter. If she weren’t known to him, if we weren’t in this country, and he wasn’t looking for her, I wouldn’t give a damn about tradition and rules.

But she is known, we are in Russia, and he is looking for her. Besides, Leonid will get what’s coming to him.

“Shall I return the favor, love?” I back her up to the bed.

The plane picks up speed, and she falls backward. I follow her down as the jet begins to fly.

Pulling her leggings down, I discover she’s not wearing any panties and that she’s soaking wet. “My love, you’ve been so very good. It was all I could do not to have you in the club.”