The Moon That Night Page 17

  “This way.” His hand lightly directed her toward the stairs. “Mr. Belov would like to meet you.”

  She glanced toward the steps and found Belov watching her, his expression even less readable than the guard’s.

  Sasha smiled at her. “Go on, Kate. We’ll wait here for you.”

  “Why would he want to—”

  “Please. Come.” The man’s grip turned painful as he squeezed her side.

  All Kate could think about was Riley, and a burst of panic rushed through her body. Roman had made it very clear what Belov would do to them if he discovered their intentions. This was as real as it got.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  ALL WAS QUIET. SECURITY apparently felt they’d cleared this end of the mansion. Riley slung his pack holding the statues over his shoulder, stepped out of the closet and swiftly made his way to the balcony. As he opened the door to the outside, where he’d planned to climb a trellis down to the ground and go on to the car hidden in the woods, loud voices sounded behind him in the library.

  “Sit down. Now tell me. Where is the man who came with you tonight?”

  “I don’t know.”

  Kate! They had her. Riley crept quietly along the balcony to the library doors and peered through the glass. Vasili Belov stood in the middle of the room. Directly in front of him was Kate, her hands tied behind a chair. Riley ducked back out of sight. Then a slap sounded from the room. Belov had hit her. It was all Riley could do to hold himself back.

  Think. Think!

  “I’ll ask again,” Belov said. “Where is the man you were with?”

  “I told you,” she said. “I don’t know.”

  “Why are you here? What do you want?” He slapped her again. “Start talking, woman, or you will not walk away from this alive.”

  “Mr. Belov,” a guard said, coming into the room, “Sikorski has come around. He can talk now.”

  The guard Riley had knocked out and left outside.

  “I’ll be back in five minutes,” Belov said in Russian. “Get her ready to talk.”

  Riley glanced through the glass. Only one guard was in the room with Kate and he was moving toward her. This was the only chance Riley was going to get. He went back into the bedroom and charged into the library. The man was leaning over Kate. The instant he heard Riley, he straightened. Reached for his weapon. Riley tackled the man, grabbed his gun and smacked him on the side of the head with it, knocking him out.

  “Quick. Let’s go. Out the balcony.” He untied Kate. “When we get outside, not a sound, keep to the shadows. We’ll be out of this in two minutes.”

  They raced through the library’s French doors.

  “Down the trellis,” he whispered, going first. The moment he hit the snow-covered ground he looked up. Kate was moving, but not fast enough. “Jump, Kate. I’ll catch you.”

  She surprised him by doing exactly as he asked and falling into his arms. He set her down and she stumbled on the icy cobblestone path surrounding the house. Those damned high-heeled sandals. Holding her hand, he ran with her across the moonlit yard through the snow and into the woods. In seconds they’d made it to the line of birch, oak and evergreens, but there were guards already coming around the corner of the house.

  Riley grabbed Kate’s arm and held her back behind the cover of a large oak tree. “Shh.” He put his finger to his lips. “We need to move slowly, so they don’t hear us.”

  “Did you get the statues?”

  “Yes.” He showed her his pack.

  She shivered as snowflakes landed on her bare shoulders. “You should’ve left without me.”

  Less than a week ago that’s exactly what he would’ve done. But today? “Never,” he whispered. Her cheeks were red and swollen from Belov striking her. He smoothed his hand lightly over her bruising skin, trying to tell her with one look everything he was feeling and thinking. But now wasn’t the time or the place.

  He glanced back to see the guards crossing the yard. The only sound was the whoosh of Kate’s breath and Riley’s own heartbeat thundering in his ears. Until one of the guards stopped and said something Riley couldn’t hear to one of the other men. They both glanced toward the woods.

  Their footprints in the snow. Damn it. There wasn’t a chance they were both going to make it out of this alive, and he refused to let anything happen to Kate.

  “Kate, you need to go,” he whispered, handing her the keys. “Now. Head straight through the woods. About a hundred yards. Find the car where we left it not far from the road. If I’m not with you in five minutes, leave.”

  “No.”

  “Kate—”

  “I said no,” she whispered fiercely. “I’m not leaving you again.”

  He knew that stubborn set to her mouth. There was nothing he could say or do to get her to change her mind. The guards were getting closer.

  “Cover the grounds! And those woods!” a man called from near the house. “Find that man.”

  That voice. Riley knew that voice. His thoughts raced a mile a minute. This could be the best thing that had ever happened to him. Or his worst nightmare. “Kate, I have to go back.”

  “Are you out of your mind? For what?”

  “I don’t have time to explain.” He gripped her shoulders. “Please. Go to the car and wait.”

  “No.”

  No more time to argue. “Fine.” He led her to a spot behind a group of trees. Then he took off his jacket and wrapped it around her. “If things go badly for me, then you have to leave. Understand me?”

  “I can help—”

  “Kate, listen.” He gripped her shoulders. “I need you to do this for me.” He admitted it. Freely. To himself. To her. He needed her. “I don’t know if this is going to work, but if I’ve miscalculated I need you to take care of Ally. Please. If I don’t come back in ten minutes, forget about the statues. Get to the airport and get on the first plane to Athens.”

  He could see her wavering. Ally. Mentioning her was what did it.

  “Unless I give you an all clear, don’t come after me. No matter what you hear or see happening to me out there. Understand?”

  Tears puddled in her eyes and spilled down her cheeks. “You came after me.”

  He kissed her. Hard and fast. “Kate, you’re the strongest woman I’ve ever known. But you’re not trained for this, and the two guns I took from the guards are not enough firepower. If I don’t come back, go to the car. For Ally’s sake. And mine. Because I can’t stomach the thought of you getting hurt.”

  “For Ally.” She swallowed. “All right.” Still the tears kept coming.

  “Get down. In the middle of these evergreens. Stay here.”

  Riley turned and headed into the clearing. It was going to be a long time before he could wipe the image of Kate’s tear-streaked face from his memory. He walked out of the woods and toward the guards, hoping this wasn’t the biggest mistake of his life.

  “Stoi!” one of the guards called. “Stop!”

  The other security guards near the house spun around, their guns drawn.

  Riley put his hands in the air. “Grigori Kozmin? Where are you?”

  “Who wants to know?” answered the man nearest to Riley. It wasn’t Kozmin.

  “I have some information he’s going to want.”

  One of the other men came toward Riley, and Riley held his breath. What if it wasn’t Kozmin? What if he’d been wrong?

  “James Riley,” the man finally said.

  Riley released his breath. “Hello, Grigori.”

  Kozmin’s fist came out of nowhere, slamming into Riley’s gut like a sledgehammer and knocking the wind out of him. Riley’s every instinct had him wanting to fight back, to protect himself and Kate. But he couldn’t. Not yet.

  “Give me one reason why I shouldn’t kill you.” Kozmin stepped back and aimed his gun at Riley’s heart. “Right here. Right now.”

  “Because I was telling you the truth back in that bar in Georgia. I didn’t know it was March you were be
ating to a pulp.”

  “So you claim.”

  “If you kill me, then you wouldn’t hear what I have to say, and that would be a shame.”

  “Maybe. Maybe not.”

  “Trust me. This you’re going to want to hear.”

  “RILEY!” Kate placed her hand over her mouth to stifle a cry as one of the guards punched him. It was all she could do not to call out or run to him. But without a weapon she’d accomplish absolutely nothing.

  Ally. She had to think of Ally.

  She couldn’t hear a word they were saying as they pointed their weapons at Riley and directed him toward the house. That’s when she realized he still had the statues with him, in his pack. What was he up to? Quickly she glanced at her cell phone.

  Three minutes ticked by, every second passing as slowly as an hour. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. If anything happened to Riley, she didn’t know how she could deal with it. In these few short days he’d come to mean more to her than any man she’d ever known.

  Five minutes.

  Get your ass out here, Riley. I will leave. I swear to God I will.

  Eight. Her breath clouded in the cold air and she shivered.

  I’m walking toward the car.

  Nine.

  Now.

  Ten.

  I mean it.

  He didn’t come. No one did.

  She pulled his tux jacket more tightly around her and breathed in his scent clinging to the fabric. Riley. She had no weapon, nothing to take down any of the guards. Even if she did somehow manage to tackle one of the guards and snatch his gun, she’d take down another one, maybe two guards before they killed her.

  Ally. Oh, baby.

  Kate dropped back to the ground and put her face in her hands, trying to think of something. Anything. As several more long minutes passed, her feet and hands all but frozen from the cold, all the remaining hope she had of every seeing Riley alive again dimmed and then completely fizzled out.

  That’s when the truth settled inside her. James Riley didn’t walk away from responsibility. He did what he thought was best for the people he loved, even at great expense to himself. The way he’d let Jenny raise Ally. The way he’d do anything to save Jenny. The way he’d walked back to Belov’s mansion.

  Riley wasn’t her father. He wasn’t going to leave her when all this was over because he didn’t care. He was going to leave her because he thought it was the best thing for her.

  But he was wrong. Life was never going to be the same again. He’d given her a glimpse of what could be, put it within her grasp and then yanked it away.

  When a branch snapped in front of her, she glanced up. “Riley,” she whispered.

  He was standing there as big and strong and alive as ever. And all alone. “You were supposed to leave.”

  “You’re alive,” she whispered as relief and a new round of uncontrollable shivers surged through her. She pushed through the branches of the pine trees and ran to him, wrapped her arms around his waist and held on, never wanting to let go ever again. This time, with this man, there was no going back.

  He pulled away. “We have to go.” Grabbing her hand, he turned. His pack was gone.

  “Where are the statues?”

  “Kozmin has them.”

  “Grigori Kozmin?”

  “He’s Belov’s chief of security.”

  “But what? Why?”

  “It’ll be all right, Kate.” He drew her toward where they’d hidden the other car. “Let’s get out of here before Kozmin changes his mind.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  “COME ON. We’ve got to get you warm,” Riley said, drawing a still-shivering Kate out of the car.

  She was barefoot, those ridiculous stiletto heels long since ruined in their race to get away from Belov’s estate. Lifting her in his arms, he carried her across the icy parking lot. They’d driven straight from Rublevo to their hotel near the airport.

  The moment Riley opened the door a blast of hot air hit him in the face. It was a good thing they’d cranked up the heat before heading to Roman’s. The warmth would be exactly what she’d need after all that time in the woods.

  He set her down, replaced his tux jacket still draped over her bare shoulders with a warm blanket from the closet and drew it tight around her.

  “Why did you give him back the statues?” she asked, her teeth chattering.

  “Kozmin wants March,” Riley explained. “I suggested he come to Istanbul and settle his score.”

  “That’s a big risk.”

  “Yeah, I know. Is the clay dry yet?”

  “Not completely,” Kate said. Thank goodness she’d finally stopped shivering.

  He took off his tie, flung it onto the bed and undid several buttons on his shirt. “Will it be ready to fire by the time we get to Istanbul?”

  “It’s possible.”

  He glanced around the room. They had some time before they needed to be at the airport for their flight to Turkey. “We might as well get some rest.”

  Although, he had to admit that as wired as he was, the chances of him actually sleeping were zero to none. Not to mention this situation was danger times ten, given the room they’d rented, which had only one king-size bed. They could have gotten another room, but he didn’t trust Kozmin not to go back on his word and come after them, so there was no way he was letting Kate out of his sight until the meeting with March in Turkey.

  “I’m not sure I can sleep,” she whispered, her voice catching.

  He glanced back and froze at the sight of her. How could he have missed it? She was literally falling apart at the seams.

  The red dress she wore puckered on one side where it had ripped. The stretchy fabric that had once been as smooth as silk was now dotted with snags from sliding down the trellis at Belov’s estate or hiding in the pine trees in the woods. Her once smooth, creamy legs and arms were now marred with dirt and scratches. Her hair, matted and knotted, went every which way. Her lipstick had long since worn off and mascara smudged the under-sides of her eyes. A slight bruise had formed on the left side of her face, courtesy of Belov, and a trail of dried tears stained her cheeks. With the light of the full moon streaming through the window hitting her in profile, she looked—for the first time ever—fragile.

  “Back at Belov’s. In the woods,” she whispered. “I thought…you were dead.”

  “Shh, Kate.” Slowly he closed the distance between them and wrapped his arms around her. She was shaking, quite likely from shock, as it was too hot in this room for anyone to be cold. “It’s okay. We’re both okay.”

  He dropped into the chair with her in his lap and for a long while he held her, running his fingers through her hair and his hands along her arms. Finally her trembling subsided and her muscles relaxed.

  “Maybe a shower would do you some good,” he whispered, plucking the fragment of a dried leaf from her hair.

  “I don’t want to move.”

  “All right, then. Hold on. I’ll be right back.”

  He slipped out from under her, went into the bathroom and came back with several steamy washcloths and the hotel ice bucket filled with hot soapy water. Then he knelt before her, laid one warm and moist cloth on the scrape on her right knee and went about gently cleaning her legs and feet. Then he poured more clean, hot water, grabbed another fresh cloth and started in on her arms. He moved up her neck and on to her face. She surprised him by silently allowing him to pamper her. Gently he wiped away the mascara, the dirt smudges, the tearstains. By the time he reached her lips, she was a pool of jelly.

  “All better?” he whispered, sitting back.

  “That’s the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me.” Her eyes turned bright. “Riley—”

  He kissed her, slanted his mouth over hers and took her breath, her soul, into him, and a sense of contentedness, the likes of which he’d never felt before, suffused him.

  She pulled back, looked deeply into his eyes and asked, “What if Amy had lived?”

  �
��What do you mean?”

  “Would you have stayed in the military?”

  He’d never considered it. What was the point? She’d died and he’d made his decisions. That was that. “I don’t know.”

  “Do you think you would’ve done anything different with your life?”

  “Kate, I have no clue.”

  “Would you have gone back to D.C., gotten a regular Joe Schmo job and had a couple more kids?”

  “What difference does it make?”

  “I’m not sure. But there are some things about you that aren’t adding up.”

  He shouldn’t ask. He should let it go, but a part of him was curious. “Like what?”

  “Like you leaving Ally with Jenny. You say it was because you didn’t trust the kind of father you’d have been, but I’ve seen you with her. You’re a good dad. You didn’t abandon Ally the way my father abandoned me. You’re the kind of person who doesn’t take responsibility lightly. You do the right thing all the time. So how is it you’ve been able to sleep at night knowing someone else is raising your daughter?”

  “That’s none of your business.”

  “You know what I think?”

  “No. And I don’t want to know. But I’m going to guess that’s not going to stop you from telling me.”

  “I think you would’ve died ten times over if you could’ve saved Amy’s life.”

  He would have, too. How many times had he wished it had been him? As much as he’d put himself at risk through the years, it should’ve been.

  “I think her death broke your heart.”

  He stared at her. Don’t go there, Kate.

  “I think you’re scared of putting your heart on the line again. And you don’t even know it.”

  “That’s ridiculous—”

  “I never figured you for such a pansy.” She leaned forward and kissed him.

  “So now I’m a pansy?”

  “Yeah. A hulking. Muscle-bound. Wuss,” she whispered against his lips. “And now it’s my turn to pamper you.”

  “No,” he murmured, standing. “That wasn’t my intention.”

  “Well, it is mine.” Purposefully she stepped toward him. Then her fingers were at the buttons on his shirt, making short order of them. In seconds her hands were on his bare chest, then on his shoulders as she dragged off his shirt. She slipped behind him, pushed him face-down onto the bed, and began to deeply massage his back, his shoulders and his arms.