Midnight Alpha (10 page)

She gave a careful shake of her head. “I don’t need anyone going to my apartment to collect my things because I’m not staying here.” She frowned as she saw the look that passed between the two men. “Do I have no say in the matter?” She frowned her frustration as the two men now looked at her.

“None,” Nikolai stated flatly.

“No,” Gregori’s negative response was accompanied by him striding across the room to stand beside the sofa where she was sitting. “I’m not taking any chances on someone trying to repeat what happened tonight, perhaps with more dire consequences.”

“What could be more dire than being shot— Oh.” Gaia sank back against the sofa as she realized what could be worse than being
injured
by a bullet wound.

“I’m trying to protect you, Gaia,” Gregori obviously tried, and half succeeded in gentling his voice, although his expression remained as grim.

Gaia glanced across the room to where Nikolai watched the two of them between narrowed lids. The coldness of his expression and the iciness of those pale eyes told her that he wouldn’t even waste his time trying to placate her, that as far as he was concerned she would damn well do as she was told, or else.

She gave an inward shiver as she wondered exactly what that ‘or else’ might entail.

Gregori was every bit as arrogant as the other man, but at least he gave the appearance of listening to her before telling her no.

She looked up at him accusingly. “You’re the reason I need protecting in the first place.”

He tensed. “What makes you say that?”

“Maybe because no one shot at me before I met you?” She didn’t think now was the time to admit she had overheard some of the conversation between the two men as she came out of her faint. Or to ask him about the man who seemed to have some sort of grudge against him. After tonight, the less she knew about Gregori’s business, private or otherwise, the better.

If nothing else, this had also shown her that she really wasn’t equipped to deal with Gregori’s world. She spoke to him as she would any other man, but he wasn’t just any man, he was Gregori Markovic, and violence was a part of his life. Something he had grown up with and accepted.

She would have to find some other way of finding the truth behind Angela’s death—

“I find that very surprising,” Nikolai answered her mockingly. “She’s everything you said she was Gregori, and more,” he added dryly as Gaia frowned.

She wondered exactly what Gregori had told the other man about her. But maybe, under the circumstances, it was better if she didn’t know?

She blushed, and the warmth in her cheeks only made her graze throb more. She tentatively touched the gauze on her cheek. “Thank you, whichever one of you dressed this and wiped the blood off my hands.”

“That would be me,” Gregori bit out grimly. “It bled a lot, but it isn’t deep enough to need stitches, and it shouldn’t leave a scar.”

“Thank goodness for that, otherwise it might have ruined my modeling career! I’m joking, Gregori,” Gaia drawled wryly as he frowned. “Do I really look like model material to you?” she added derisively.

Only Gaia would joke at a time like this, Gregori acknowledged impatiently. When he felt more like strangling someone with his bare hands.

“Did you call the police— No, of course you didn’t,” Gaia answered her own question. “No doubt you normally settle…disagreements like this amongst yourselves.”

Gregori wished he could assure her that wasn’t true, but unfortunately he couldn’t. He had no proof as yet, but he had no doubts that tonight’s shooter belonged to Ivan Orlov. For which there would have to be consequences. Even in their world, there were rules, and one of those rules was no family made a hit on another’s territory without informing them of it first. Obviously, as Gregori had been the intended target, directly or indirectly, that hadn’t happened.

He was also convinced that Gaia had simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time: after all, Gregori hadn’t been seen in public with her until tonight.

Until tonight his sister Katya had been perceived as being his only weakness. Tonight Gaia may have only been a random target, chosen because she was with Gregori, but he knew that wouldn’t be true in future. Gaia was now in danger.

Until this situation with Ivan was resolved, Gregori would do all in his power to protect her.

A woman who had made it clear she didn’t want his protection. Despite the fact that she was currently sitting in front of him with a face almost as white as the gauze he had applied to her wound after cleaning it earlier.

Gregori straightened, knowing he looked every inch the Markovic patriarch as he looked down the length of his nose at her. “There will be no further discussion on the subject, Miss Miller. You will either give Nikolai the keys to your apartment or I will instruct him to break in. He will also need a list from you as to what clothes you would like brought here,” he continued firmly as she looked about to argue again.

He was rapidly coming to appreciate his brother-in-law’s method of subduing Katya, if she seemed set on endangering herself. As Gaia now seemed set on doing.

Gaia knew by the uncompromising expression on Gregori’s face, and the knowing smirk on Nikolai’s, that there was no point in her arguing further. She was going to be staying here as Gregori’s guest whether she liked it or not.

All she could hope for was that Nikolai didn’t find any of those damning photographs in her apartment…

Chapter 7

“This is all so unnecessary.”

Gaia stood uncomfortably in the opulent and beautiful bedroom suite Gregori had told her would be hers for the duration of her stay here.

“Did you hear me?” She watched him as he crossed the room to place a stack of cream bath towels down on top of the maroon silk duvet covering the huge double bed.

“I did, yes,” he answered distractedly.

And he chose to ignore her, Gaia recognized wearily.

She pushed the weight of her hair back from her face to glance about the room. The bedroom alone had to be as big as the whole of the floor space in her apartment, bigger when you added the terra cotta tiled bathroom she could see through that open doorway.

Gaia was feeling totally disorientated. Trapped in a world where her sister had been killed by a drug overdose, even though she had never taken drugs until the night of her death. A world where Gaia herself had now been shot at.

Just thinking of that bullet whizzing by, so close to her face, was enough to send another cold shiver down the length of her spine.

Being forced to stay in this elegant mansion with the even more elegant—and lethally attractive—Gregori Markovic, a man of raw power and domination, was somehow even more frightening.

“Sit down before you fall down!” Gregori swiftly crossed the distance to Gaia’s side to lightly grasp the tops of her arms as she swayed precariously on her feet. “Come.” He kept a firm hold of her as she stumbled slightly, and he helped her sit on the side of the bed before going down on his knees to unfasten and remove her left boot.

Delayed shock?

Probably, Gregori acknowledged grimly. The wound was shallow, but Gaia had bled a lot, and the fact that she had been shot at all was probably enough to send her into shock. Gregori may have grown up in a world ruled by violence, but this had to be Gaia’s first experience of it.

It shouldn’t have happened now either. Nikolai had his instructions. It was time he contacted Ivan Orlov and arranged a meeting. This situation had to end. Once and for all.

In the meantime, Gregori had a dazed and shocked Gaia to deal with. Once she came out of that shock he had no doubts he would hear a lot more from her on the subject of the shooting and being forced to stay here.

“You will feel better if you lie down and try to get some sleep,” he assured her.

Having Gregori down on his knees in front of her, removing her boots, just made this whole situation seem more surreal to Gaia. Embarrassing too, when she recalled the last time he had been down on his knees in front of her.

“The color is returning to your cheeks,” he murmured in satisfaction as he stood up.

Gaia could only be grateful he had mistaken her embarrassment for recovery, rather than the memories of their lovemaking earlier. There had been none of this formality to Gregori then, just a primal urgency to possess and claim.

“Did Nikolai find and return your jacket to you?” Gaia had a vague recollection of seeing a black evening jacket draped over the back of one of the chairs in the elegant drawing room downstairs.

“He did, yes,” Gregori confirmed grimly. “And for the record, I never for a moment believed you stole my wallet, I merely feared losing the photograph inside it.”

“Of your sister.”

Gregori rose to his feet before placing his fingers beneath her chin, lifting her face up so that she had no choice but to look at him. “Do you doubt my word?”

Gaia had doubted her own sanity several times tonight!

But no, she had no doubt that Gregori was telling her the truth about the photograph. She realized now that the woman bore a physical resemblance to him: the dark hair and eyes, the strong facial structures. Besides, what possible reason could he have for lying to her? She meant nothing to him, except for that brief physical interlude earlier tonight. The fact that he was now stuck with her staying here for the night didn’t mean he had to like it, or her.

His sister didn’t look cold and sarcastic either, as she’d thought earlier. In fact, Katya looked like a warm and beautiful woman.

“No,” she answered him quietly. “Not at all,” she gave a shake of her head. “Just curious as to why you carry a photograph of your sister around in your wallet.”

A nerve pulsed in his jaw. “Maybe because I almost lost her five months ago, and she and her husband Dair are all the family I have left.”

Gaia looked up at him searchingly, able to see the pain in the depths of his eyes. Making her wonder exactly what had happened five months ago, and if it could possibly have anything to do with this man Orlov, who Gregori believed had shot at her tonight.

It was strange, when she had believed she and Gregori had nothing in common, to now realize that they both felt deep love for their respective sisters. And Gregori had almost lost his sister too? Gaia found that unsettling.

Almost as unsettling as the fact that the two of them were in this situation together at all.

She raised her brows. “The same sister whose husband you allow to spank her?”

“I really regret having told you that.” He frowned.

Gaia shrugged. “But now that you have, it’s unfair not to answer me.”

“You would have to meet Katya and Dair to understand the dynamics of their relationship. I have never seen two people more in love with each other,” he added affectionately.

Wistfully? Was it possible that the remote Gregori Markovic envied his sister her happy marriage?

Somehow Gaia couldn’t see that as being true: the man had everything—looks, money and power—so why would he ever want to tie himself down to marriage? An heir, perhaps. But he had plenty of time for that.

And the chances of Gaia ever meeting his beloved sister Katya were nonexistent.

Gaia realized she was still staring up into those dark, unfathomable eyes. A woman could find herself becoming lost, drowning in those dark depths if she wasn’t careful. And where this man was concerned, Gaia intended on being very careful in future.

She broke away from that hypnotic gaze at the same time as she turned away from the fingers beneath her chin, and immediately found herself looking at the bloodstains on Gregori’s white shirt. Her blood. The same blood that had been on her fingers earlier, and still stained the front of her sweater.

Her hands seemed to move of their own volition, fingers touching the biggest bloodstain on his shirt, which also happened to be directly over his heart. She instantly became aware of the slight increase in his heartbeat, and the heat of his body beneath the soft silk material.

She moistened her lips before speaking. “Will the blood come out, do you think?”

“Probably not,” he dismissed, unconcerned.

“Would you like me to replace it?” The silk of his shirt felt wonderful—almost as wonderful as the hard and muscled body beneath it—and had probably cost as much as she earned in a week, but she still had to ask.

“That will not be necessary, no,” he assured dryly.

She nodded. “I think I’ll do as you suggest and lie down now and try to rest.”

“Of course.” Gregori instantly straightened, aware of a feeling of—of what? Disappointment? Because Gaia had chosen to dismiss him? After the events of this evening, he should think himself lucky she wasn’t screaming with hysteria, as most women of his acquaintance would have been.

“What are you doing?” She gave him a startled look as he reached for the bottom of her sweater.

“Helping you undress—”

“I have a graze on my cheek, Gregori, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with my hands. Nor am I six years old.”

Gregori had absolutely no idea why it was that this woman made him smile, often at inappropriate moments. Like now.