Enemy Mine (22 page)

“Cruz tells me you have the power to get into heads and extract information. Let’s make this easy. Get the location of the cask from Noslov and we bypass the auction.”

“And keep Los Cuatro out of the mix?”

“Yes.”

She shook her head. “No deal. Besides … Noslov doesn’t have the cask or knowledge of its whereabouts. He’s merely the agent.”

“And you believe that?” Nikko asked.

“It’s the truth.” She gazed toward the screen. “For the sake of argument, let’s say you know the location. You botched the job once—how do you expect me or Los Cuatro to trust you’ll succeed a second time?”

Nikko cringed. Damn her, that was a smack in Godfather’s face as well as Nikko’s.

Unbelievably, Godfather chuckled. “I can see why Cruz fell for you. A woman who stands firmly on her principle and is loyal to the marrow. Come to work for me, and there will be no reason to feel as if you’ve betrayed your cause.”

Nikko’s head snapped back in shock. What the—?

“
Lo siento
, Señor Negro, I already have a job.”

“Then keep what you have, but forgo the info sharing with Balderama.”

“I’ll consider it,” Selena said.

Selena was dug in. The only way to get her to cross the line was to compromise.

“A small compromise then, Miss de la Roja.”

“I’m listening.”

“Take a meeting with Señor Balderama with Cruz in attendance”—Selena opened her mouth to protest—“solely in the capacity of an ambassador of sorts, to vouch for the integrity and seriousness of the United States government’s interest in the cask.”

“What if he refuses to cooperate?”

“Then it will be up to you both to convince him we are on the same side and that it would be most detrimental to his organization should he refuse.”

“That, Mr. Black, sounds ominously like a threat.”

“It was meant to.”

Selena sat back and crossed her arms.

“She agrees,” Nikko said, looking at the screen.

“I can see that,” Godfather said drolly. “Check in when you hit the ground, Cruz, and coordinate with your team. We have a lot to go over.”

“Roger that,” Nikko said, then clicked the connection off. He touched Selena’s shoulder. “Thank you.”

“Señor is not going to like this one bit, and because I am the bearer of doom he will no longer trust me.”

“I don’t understand why it should be so difficult for him to understand we’re on the same side, and it’s in his best interest to let us do the heavy lifting. What does he have to lose?”

“Señor has worked tirelessly for the entire Latino world. I expect he will think the cask will be safest with him, since he knows his true motivations are noble. His elaborate security measures will ensure the cask stays out of the wrong hands. And he’s going to be furious that I broke the strict code of never allowing a stranger into our inner sanctum.” She sighed. “When he learns I have spoken about the cask to you, he’ll be enraged. Now I’ll have to come completely clean about Kyrgyzstan to prove to him I didn’t just trust you because I’m a reckless woman.”

“What weren’t you honest about?”

“I omitted information. You specifically. Because I got hung up staying with you after I injected you, the cask got away from me. Had I gone right after it, I would not be sitting here talking to you right now.”

The realization that Selena had not only risked her life to save his but put her mission aside to make sure he survived the Rev rattled his resolve a little bit more. “Does he know about your father?”

Selena closed her eyes. “No. He thinks I don’t know who my father is.”

“Does he know about Marisol?”

“No.”

A monumental wave of relief washed through Nikko. He did not know why he felt that way, but he was damn glad Selena had the wherewithal to keep her paternal parentage and their daughter secret from the world.

“Will you tell him?”

“I have no reason to. Even if I did, I wouldn’t. The fewer possessable minds with that knowledge, the safer Marisol stays.”

Good.

“I want to hook you up with a camera Saturday night, Selena. For obvious reasons, we’re going to want images of each participant to run facial scans and ID them.”

“I can do that. I had planned on getting DNA and fingerprint samples, too.”

“Those guys won’t touch a thing. Hell, they’ll probably come disguised.”

“The cloth on all the seats in the room where we’ll be conducting the auction are specially treated to absorb the slightest traces of moisture. I’m going to turn the heat up in there. When their asses begin to sweat, we’ll get all the DNA we need.”

“Well played, Selena,” he said, impressed. “Sounds like you’ve done this before.”

She smiled wickedly. “I have. It’s how I’ve stayed in business all these years.”

Nikko contemplated her last comment and wondered how much of that business included the vampire in her bedroom. Nikko wrestled with his ego, but it lost to his jealous bone, and he blurted the question that he had been burning to ask. “Who was the vampire in your bedroom, and what does he mean to you?” Nikko almost bit his tongue for the last part of the question. He sounded like a jealous boyfriend.

Selena’s smile faded. But her eyes sparkled mischievously. That jealous bone of his was about to snap. “Joran Cadiz. Undisputed lord of the Miami underworld.”

“Are the two of you—” His pride kept him from making a complete fool of himself.

“Romantically involved?” Selena finished for him.

His cheeks flushed, and he was glad she could not see him.

She turned her face up to him, her expression open and sincere. “Have you not heard anything I’ve said to you since you barged back into my life?”

“You’ve said a lot, my brain is on overload.”

She leaned forward but did not touch him. “I’m going to spell it out for you, Nikko Cruz. I was a virgin when you and I met. You were the first, and though I look like a sleek, high-priced call girl, it’s an act. You are the only man I have been intimate with.”

“That’s not true,” he said, biting his tongue.

Selena sat back and crossed her arms over her chest. “You mean that little show with Vegas at the club?”

“Yeah,” Nikko roughly said, not liking the way his rage simmered as he replayed the scene in his mind’s eye.

Selena shrugged. “It was nothing.” She crossed her legs and gazed out the window.

“He had his hands all over you! That was not
nothing
. ” Nikko checked his rage.

She turned toward him and demanded, “How many women have
you
slept with in the last eight years?”

“That’s different!” he blurted, realizing he sounded like a monumental dick. “I didn’t mean it like that.”

“How many?”

“I don’t know.”

“You don’t know because you lost count, or you don’t know because you forgot?”

Nikko sat back in his seat. “I get your point, Selena.” Didn’t mean he liked it.

Selena shook her head. “Does it really matter? We’ve made our choices, Nikko, now let’s stop acting like jealous teenagers and act like the adults we are and accept the consequences.”

With no comeback worthy of the truth, Nikko sat angrily staring at her. He was torn up inside. Torn between self-preservation and the woman he loved. Between confronting Paymon right now and his duty to his country and the millions of lives he was sworn to protect. Between L.O.S.T. and a normal life as a normal family man. He wanted it all. But that was impossible.

Selena set her jaw, silently cursing Lamia for blinding her, her father for existing, and her weak-ass heart when it came to Nikko Cruz. She had yet to recover from the trauma of thinking she had lost him to Lamia’s fatal fangs. The split second she realized he was alive, she’d known she could not live through that trauma again. She had jumped off the emotional roller coaster that had become her life. Nikko had been frank when he told her there was no room in his life for her, and she’d set out to prove that
she
was his life! But after Lamia, the fear of losing him shook her to her foundation.

She’d rather have no contact than live through his death. She’d nearly lost it on that mountainside in Kyrgyzstan when she’d seen him blown to hell, and this morning, after knowing him again, being with him, seeing him with Marisol? She had died a torturous death in her heart and soul, thinking Lamia had him and he would be lost to her forever. She had lived the last eight years without him, knowing he thought the worst of her; she could live out her life alone knowing he’d lived to know the truth.

Because once she extracted her father’s heart, she would be all-powerful, and no one, not even Rurik, would dare challenge her. Selena vowed her life would be so simple and uncomplicated then, she’d be able to bore paint off a wall. She was done hiding behind lies. Always looking over her shoulder, sleeping with one eye open. Pretending to be someone she was not.

She wanted normal, and, damn it, she would have it, even if it meant living without the one and only man she would ever love. Selena sighed, finding solace in her future. Marisol would know her father on his schedule, which Selena would never stand in the way of. And the little girl would blossom, and Selena could watch her embrace the world without worry she’d be snatched away by Paymon.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

A
s they disembarked from the jet, Nikko took Selena’s hand to guide her down the jetway. She tolerated it only because she did not want to face-plant into the tarmac.

“Last step,” he said.

When she touched solid ground, Selena let out a long breath. She was just beginning to see shadowy outlines. What she needed was a shot of Rev to boost her immune system. As soon as she got home, she would telepathically call Joran and hope he’d wake and come to her. She should have thought of it sooner.

“I’ll take you home,” Nikko said.

She didn’t argue. Once there, though, she’d insist he leave.

As they drove to the marina where her motorboat was docked, Nikko asked, “Do you really think Father Ken and Sister Agnes believed us this morning when we told them about the daemons?”

“I told you, Father Ken has done numerous exorcisms. Sister Agnes has been with Marisol from the beginning; she’d die for that little girl. They understand and thankfully don’t judge.”

“How do we find the last Hellkeeper?”

Annoyance swept through her. “I told you, I’m going to conjure him.”

“How do you go about that?”

This time she hesitated. He already thought she was a freak. She might as well embrace it. “The usual way, blood sacrifice.”

“What?”

She shook her head, smiling tiredly. “I’m pulling your leg. I’ll dangle the necklace in front of Vetis.”

“Vetis?”

“Yep, tempter of the holy. I would have expected Daddy dearest to send Vetis, not Lamia, to the island.”

“What do you mean, ‘tempter of the holy’? Doesn’t that mean the priest and nun will be susceptible to its possession?”

As if she hadn’t already thought of that. “Not likely. That said, Vetis is the only daemon who can tolerate standing on consecrated ground for a prolonged period of time, as well as possessing the ability to tempt those of the cloth with less than stellar faith to open their weak minds to him. If I thought for one minute Vetis knew of Marisol’s existence, I might have taken you up on your offer, but she’s safe. Father Ken and Sister Agnes are faithful and strong. She’s in good hands.”

“So when do you plan on dangling the necklace? And what the hell does that mean anyway? What’s going to make Vetis come for it when you call?”

“Nikko, c’mon. You know the power it holds. No one knows I possess it, but the entire underworld is abuzz with the news of the Hellkeepers’ deaths and the disappearance of their hearts.”

“The sooner the better, Selena. I want Paymon dead.”

“Right after the auction.”

“Right after the auction, we’re going after the cask.”

“
You’re
going, I’m not.”

“You’re not going hunting without me!”

She shrugged and turned toward him. “Then I guess you’re going to have to make a choice.” Would he choose her?

“Damn it. What about your sight, Selena? You can’t go daemon hunting blind.”

His words sank her heart. He was going after the cask, not hunting with her as he had originally vowed. Her spine stiffened, as did her resolve.

“I’ll have my sight back by then.”

“How can you be sure?”

She shrugged again. “I just know. Now, would you stop asking me all these questions? You’re giving me a headache.”

The rest of the drive to the dock was silent, as was the motorboat ride to her house. Nikko helped her out of the small craft and into the house. Juju buzzed anxiously around Selena like a bee on a fresh bloom. Selena swatted her away after introducing Nikko as a friend who’d helped her home. “He’s leaving. I’m getting a shower.”

“Selena,” Nikko called.

She just waved her hand over her head in a dismissive gesture and slowly felt her way toward her bedroom. Once there, she sank onto her bed and expelled a long, tenuous breath.

Holy Hell, when had her life become a three-ring circus? She felt like the plate juggler. Only her plates were lives! Two lives that were critical to her survival.

She rubbed the heels of her palms into her eyes, cursing Lamia for the hundredth time. The bitch! Selena had a hundred things to do, things that required her vision. She turned toward the window, knowing it was too early for the vampire to be awake but desperate to rouse him. “Joran, if you can hear me, I need you now!”

Selena flung off her clothes and carefully walked naked into the large bathroom. She felt around the smooth, cool marble for the fixtures, then started the shower. Not bothering to wait for the water to warm, she stepped in.

“I thought you said you and Cadiz weren’t lovers?” Nikko sneered from the doorway.

“I asked you to leave!” she snapped, tired of his ignoring her wishes. How the Hell had he sneaked up on her? Even without her vision—ah, yes. Of course. She had not detected his scent because it was all over her.

“I heard you call to him,” Nikko said, so close to her she felt his passion hard against her belly.

While she was exhausted and supremely pissed off at Nikko at the moment, the lusty daemon in her warmed to his arousal. “So?” she challenged.

Like a funnel cloud, she could feel his passion swirl around her. “
So?
That’s your defense?” His voice was low, controlled, furious.

Nikko’s jealousy was heady. Part of her didn’t know what to make of it. The other part couldn’t help the spark of hope that ignited inside her. Foolish, that. “Nikko, get out of my shower.”

His warm breath caressed her cheek when he defiantly said, “Not until you tell me why you called for him and not me.”

She stiffened at that. She wasn’t an emotional yo-yo he could play with at his whim. He said one thing and his actions said another. But he’d made it crystal clear there was no room in his life for her, and, damn it, she wasn’t going to force the issue. Not after this morning. Not
ever
.

“Did you really just ask me that?” She flung him away from her and unleashed her version of Hell on him. “You come into
my
club and practically rape me, threaten me in order to get information, steal my necklace, and follow me to my yacht, then to Paris, then to St. Michael’s, all the while telling me how much you hate me. Then when you see our daughter, you think it’s okay to make love to me and
then tell me there is no room in your life for me
?” She shoved him hard against the shower wall. “And
now
you barge in here, with a hard-on no less, and ask me why I called out to another man? Are you fucking kidding me? I don’t owe you any explanations. Maybe I did once but not now!”

She pointed to what she hoped was the shower entrance. “Get out of here, Nikko, before I really unleash on you.”

Her entire body shook with rage. With one hand still pressed against his chest, she felt him exhale. Then she felt the rush of air his body disturbed as he exited the shower. For long minutes, she stood in the middle of the enclosure, shaking violently as angry tears streamed down her cheeks. “Damn you, Nikko Cruz! Damn you for coming into my life and screwing it up!”

Twenty minutes later, Selena had calmed enough to clean up, dry off, and slip into a cotton baby-doll romper. “Juju!” she called.

“I’m here,” the woman said from close by.

“Is he gone?”

“Yes. I don’t know what you said to him, but I have never seen a man so furious as that one.”

“He deserves it.” Selena felt for the edge of her bed and sat down. “How’s our Russian guest?”

“First tell me, what happened to you?”

Too tired to play a game of verbal cat and mouse with her friend, Selena said, “I was attacked and my attacker threw some kind of liquid at me. I can’t see. It’s only temporary.” She hoped.

She heard Juju pull down the linens and fluff the pillows. “
El patrón
was looking for you last night. He seemed irritated when I told him you had left without word of when you would return.”

El patrón
. Mr. Black’s arrogant words came back to her. As well as her agreement to take Nikko along for clarification. That part she would sidestep.
El patrón
was the last person she wanted to see right now. Though she dreaded the conversation with him, it needed to transpire. He was a reasonable man, and should he agree, an enormous weight would be lifted from her shoulders, not the least part of which would be feeling as if she had somehow betrayed her mentor. Selena nodded. “I’ll call him.”

“Our guest is fine. I stitched him up and gave him the sedatives. I also measured him as you requested for a suit. The tailor promised to have it delivered first thing in the morning.”

“Did he have anything to say?” If Noslov knew what was good for him, he would have kept his mouth shut.

“Only that you were an abomination of a female.” Juju smirked.

“Yeah, and he’s the cat’s meow.” Selena slipped between the cool, smooth sheets and yawned. “Amy took care of everything at the club?”

“Yep, she said it was as dead as a graveyard last night.”

“Good.” Selena yawned again, the fatigue drugging. “I’m just going to take a nap before I get ready for work.” If Juju responded, Selena didn’t hear her because she was already asleep.

She dreamed of daemons, arrogant vampires, and dead babies. Of flying priests and fanged nuns. She tossed and turned, flinging the sheets from her feverish body. Nikko called to her from the end of a long tunnel. She called back to him until her throat was raw, but he did not hear her. He turned and walked away.

“I’m here! Don’t leave me!” she screamed, running down the tunnel after him.

Flames lashed out around her, scorching her limbs, melting them into wax puddles, stopping her progress as her father’s demonic laughter reverberated around her. “Where is your lover now, Daughter?”

A firm hand stroked her limbs in a slow, soothing rhythm. A deep voice calmed her racing heart. Her arms rested at her sides, her legs quieted.

Joran?

“You called, I came.”

“Thank you,” she whispered.

He leaned over her, his warm breath brushing across her chest, singeing her sultry skin. “I brought you something, Selena,” he purred, his lips hovering just above hers.

Fog shrouded her mind. Warm breath fanned her lips. Her nipples tightened and she moaned. “Nikko?” He’d come back for her? Just as her hope flared, her reality came crashing down around her. No, Nikko had turned his back on her. Just when she needed him most, he’d walked away. He could go to Hell.

“Ah,
coqueta
, I am not your lover, though I would happily take his place.”

Joran
.

Yes, it is me
. He dragged his fangs across her lower lip, across her chin, then down her throat. Selena gasped and arched, wanting it to be Nikko. Instead, she felt the sharp prick of a needle in her thigh.

The rush was instantaneous. Her blood shimmered like perfectly cut diamonds beneath the sun, infusing her with healing properties and strength from the marrow out. Every part of her body tingled. From her fingers to her toes and everything in between. Selena arched, gasping as the rush of the Rev hit her between the thighs.
Jesus
. Her eyes flashed open. She could see!

An arrogant smile twisted Joran’s handsome lips. He cocked a dark brow, daring her to follow through on her body’s sudden, intense need for a man.

“Jesus, Joran, that’s some potent stuff.”

“My personal supply.”

Her body thrummed with sexual energy. Selena closed her eyes and exhaled as she wrestled with the intense throb along her aching breasts and womb. Keeping it under control was going to be a distraction she could ill afford. Until her body processed the Rev, the potent urges would persist, strumming her nerve endings, a constant stimulation. She opened her eyes and stared at the tricky vampire. God help her, it was going to be an interesting night.

“Why didn’t you take advantage of my daemon lust while I slept?”

He had the aplomb to look wounded. “I am not a knave, Selena. I will gladly share your bed, but not when you are incoherent and think I’m another man.”

“Shut up.”

“It’s true,” he sniffed.

Selena grinned, enjoying this side of the deadly prince of the underworld she would never have guessed existed. “Why, Joran, I’m impressed. Who knew you even knew the meaning of the word
honor
.”

He moved to the edge of the bed, straightening his tailored Versace jacket. “Hardly a notion I entertain on a regular basis.”

Selena laughed, her affection for the vampire growing by the minute. “One day, Joran, you just might make someone a good husband.”

“Never!”

And she would never be wife to Nikko. They were a sorry pair, she and Joran. Selena sat up and looked out the big window, her mood having turned with thoughts of Nikko. Dusk had settled into night. She slid off the bed. “I need to go to the club.”

His vampire eyes burned brightly. “Would you like some company?”

“Yes, as a matter of fact, I would.” She strode toward her dressing room and said over her shoulder, “But be warned, the way I’m feeling, I might get us into trouble.”

“I live for trouble,” he roughly said.