Fire and Ice (Guardians) (20 page)

She took a leisurely shower, letting the spray of hot water soothe her aching limbs before switching to a blast of cold water to wake her up. She studied her reflection in the mirror: there was a slight bruise on her cheek but color had returned to her lips. Her body had a few scratches and bruising right around the ribs. Other than that, she should be in fighting shape in a few days.

It was almost 11 am before Maia decided to dress in sweat pants and head downstairs. Grace should be puttering around and she wondered what Jack was doing. She heard low voices in the kitchen, one was Jack's and the other sounded very familiar.

"Derek!" Maia exclaimed as she flew down the rest of the steps and flung herself into her friend's open arms, almost knocking him over.

"There she is," Derek replied warmly. "You don't look any the worse for wear."

"What are you doing here?"

"Well, I needed to see for myself how you had come back from the dead yet another time."

"That's not why you're really here," Jack interjected brusquely. "So why don't you cut the bullshit and tell us the real reason, Derek."

"Really, Jack, no need to be so hostile."

"Well, I've been trying for the last half-hour to get something out of you."

"What time did you arrive?"

"About an hour ago, Jack whisked me straight to his study to interrogate me."

"That was business."

"Bullshit. Half of the questions were about Viktor and Baltimore."

"Jack, I told you to lay off that," Maia said in exasperation.
 

"Sorry, sweetheart, that's not me."

Jack never called her sweetheart unless he was pissed or being sarcastic.

"So back to my question: what are you doing here?" Maia asked.

Derek sighed, reached into his pocket and handed her a smartphone. "Viktor wanted me to give you this."

 
Jack turned livid with anger. "She's not yet fully recovered," he said furiously. "It's barely been 48 hours."

"See, I hate getting caught in the middle of this," Derek said. "It's almost like a messed-up love triangle."

Jack's face grew darker. Maia was controlling a grin.

"Viktor is worried that he has no way of contacting you," Derek continued. "Oh, stop scowling, Jack! You're with Maia, Viktor comes with the package."

"Like fucking hell!"

Maia started laughing.

"This is not funny!" Derek and Jack said at the same time, Derek in a mocking tone, Jack in a pissed-off one.

"Oh, Jack, you're playing straight into Viktor's twisted sense of humor. He likes messing with my men."

"Your
men
?"

The air turned frosty.

"How many did you have?"

Maia paused, an expression of concentration on her face.
 

"What, can't keep track of them?" Jack sneered, his voice rising.

"Stop being a damn hypocrite. How many girlfriends did you have?"

"Twenty-one excluding the one-night-stands."

"Jeez, how do you keep up without a deli ticketing machine?"

"You can't fucking answer a simple question?"

"All right, I had two relationships and uh... seven hookups."

"So what am I?"

"You're my seventh hookup."

Jack looked thunderous. His glare could have speared Maia to the wall. He regarded her for a few seconds and then turned around, stalked away and slammed the door to his study behind him.

"I don't trust his retreats," Maia murmured to Derek.

"I don't either," Derek replied. "I think he's a little pissed that he'd been relegated to hookup status."

"Well, he's hardly a relationship. We've been together barely a week."

"So, you are together?"

"I don't know, it's darn confusing. Jack keeps changing the rules."

Derek looked thoughtful for a moment. "I think you've gotten under his skin and he doesn't know what to do about it. Jack hates feeling vulnerable. Never seen him out of sorts like this. Interesting."

"Well, I don't want to get under his skin. I need to be out of here by Friday and if he tranquilizes me again or cuffs me to the bed, there will be hell to pay."

"Cuff you to the bed?"

"He has threatened to."

"Good God, what have you done to him. The man has lost his mind!" Derek actually guffawed.

"It's not funny. May I remind you about the last time you let him get away with tranquing me?"

Derek had the decency to look contrite.

"How long are you staying?" Maia changed the subject.

"Not sure. As long as you are here, I think. Jack conscripted me to provide additional security," Derek said. "Now, I'm not sure I want to. I hate to be caught in the crossfire."

"We're usually sweet together."

"That might be worse," Derek answered dryly. "So, does Lee count as one or three?"

"Oh, shut up, Derek."

CHAPTER TEN

A black Toyota 4Runner pulled up behind a blue late-model Bentley sedan in an alley off West Read Street in Mount Vernon, Baltimore.

A man dressed in a leather jacket, dark jeans and combat boots got out of the SUV and rapped at the heavily tinted windows of the sedan.

The door opened to reveal a blond man in his mid-forties. He was attired in an expensive Armani suit that set off his handsome but cruel face. Sergei Reznikov.

"Any news on Boris?" he asked his associate Peter Coltrane after he climbed into the car and closed the door.

"No, we have to assume Pierce eliminated him."

"I have no time for all these fuck-ups," the Russian flared angrily. "What does it take to get rid of one little woman?"

She was quickly becoming the bane of his existence. Maia Pierce, as he knew her, had infiltrated his compound located south of Moscow and taken off with Alexsey Volynsky, the lever he had on Mikhail Gavlik. Now Reznikov was exiled from Russia and from his bratva. Those loyal to him were few but they were the best boyeviks—warriors. They have followed him into the United States in the past few weeks but Pierce had already killed seven of them, and it was beginning to piss him off. Now he had to augment his group with mercenaries like Boris.

"She appears to be under the protection of Jack McCord."

"What? The brother of the one Vergara asked us to whack?"

"Yes, the one who owns the defense company."

Reznikov appeared very displeased.

"This brother is very unlike his tree-hugging sibling," Peter continued. "He is an ex-Navy SEAL. His company deals in high-technology weapons. The MD-Bandit drones that took over most of the Predator drones of the military are made by his company. I don't think we want to be on his radar. After that boat incident, I think we've pissed him off."

"You're advising us to back-off from Pierce?"

"For now. Until we establish what their relationship is."

The Russian sighed. "I agree. We need to concentrate on moving the Rave-IX from the container. Have you contacted our dealers?"

"Yes. Some of them are flying in for the International Medical Conference and are under various covers like doctors and pharmaceutical representatives. It's the perfect setup."

"Do you know if there are any representatives from GAV-VOL pharmaceuticals?"

GAV-VOL pharmaceuticals was the company owned by the Gavlik and Volynski families who were distant cousins. Mikhail Gavlik was the pakhan of the bratva in which Reznikov had been a former lieutenant. Gavlik's cousin Volynski discovered that Gavlik was using their company to produce the Rave-IX drug, so the former had Reznikov kidnap him. Gavlik double-crossed Reznikov and hired an outside incursion team to rescue Volynksi. Gavlik was setting Reznikov up to take the fall and was going to murder Volinski himself but his cousin got smart and went into hiding. Gavlik wanted all the profits from the Rave-IX for himself and was reneging on the 50-50 deal he had struck with Reznikov. But perhaps his pakhan had heard the rumors of his lieutenant wanting to overthrow him. Such are the hazards of life in a bratva. Trust no one.

"I checked the conference attendees; there are none. I think Gavlik is keeping a low profile. His company is under investigation by the AGS and the FBI. But we must be careful too. He may be sending some assassins for you."

"I'll be well-guarded. I'm sick of laying low. Let him come for me. He does not have the formula for the Rave-IX, I do. This medical conference is indeed very timely. I have another job for you."

Reznikov handed Peter a brown envelope.

"That's the minimum equipment and raw material requirements for what we need to manufacture Rave-IX. Find out where we can procure them. We shall start producing Rave-IX soon so we can assure our buyers of a steady supply."

"You are confident we can reproduce this?"

"Yes, my chemist is flying in today. Gavlik can go to hell!" Reznikov declared.

***

Derek Lockwood stared at his friend, who was at the moment, looking very pissed and unhappy.

"I just broke the good news to you that MDI is on track to make two billion dollars next year from DoD contracts alone and you look like someone has just crashed your precious Camaro."

Jack glanced at his friend briefly and smiled faintly, "That's great, Derek."

"A little more enthusiasm, maybe?" Derek prodded.

Jack raked his hand impatiently through his hair and growled, "She drives me crazy. I don't fucking know what to do with her."

Derek released a breath of defeat. There was no way out of this. He was going to get caught up between his two bull-headed friends. This was not going to end well for either of them if Jack didn't let go or Maia didn't give in. And it didn't look to end well for him either.

"Jack, you do know the definition of temporary?"

His friend didn't answer but merely shot him a baleful look.

"Okay, that was uncalled for."

"Did she say anything to you about me, about us?"

Good Lord, Derek thought, his friend really had it bad. If it was any other woman he would be thrilled for Jack. But Maia was a walking relationship disaster.

"She mentioned that you kept changing the rules."

"Because she holds back too much! It's as if I'm trying to chisel through a damn concrete wall," Jack said in frustration. "I see her, Derek, when I make love to her, I see her and all the promise that could be between us. But afterwards, she shuts down on me."

Derek sighed. This was beyond bad, maudlin sentiments from Jack McCord were unheard of. That was why Derek had never slept with Maia. He knew he would fall in love with her and, whether his friend admitted to it or not, he was clearly on his way.

"I don't know what to say, Jack. I've warned you about this. Maybe you just need more time with her? You know, to work her out of your system."

"How?"

"You know I'm on vacation next week. But it's because Viktor needed someone to do active surveillance in Baltimore. If you agree to provide some of the equipment from our advance surveillance line, I may be able to get you in as a tag-along. Viktor owes you for keeping Maia safe, I don't think he'll deny this request. Besides, he could use men of your calibre on this operation."

"Do it."

"Maia won't be pleased."

"I don't fucking care. I'm not letting her out of my sight."

Derek decided to play devil's advocate. His friend had to face a few facts, Viktor would not appreciate a repeat of the Mike Callahan debacle.

"For how long do you think you can keep an eye on her?"

Jack scowled.

"I'm just being practical here," Derek continued. "Are you going to ask her to quit the AGS? Are you going to be another Mike Callahan? Remember him? Didn't I tell you how spectacularly that ended?"

Instead of answering, Jack pulled out a folder and tossed it at him.

"Did you know she has nightmares. She speaks Russian in her sleep," Jack said.

Derek opened the folder and frowned.

"Her real name is Katerina Luski. Did you know that?"

"No. How did you get this?"

"I called in some favors at the CIA. Most of them are under black marker. But it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that Viktor's Special Forces team was going to extract the Luskis but something went terribly wrong."

Derek filtered through some photographs, appalled at what he was seeing.

"They slashed her, Derek. She was twelve years old. They were going to rape her, turn her into a prostitute," Jack said fiercely. "Viktor and his team saved her. Then for saving a young girl and defying directive they got discharged from the military. Fucking CIA."

Derek shut the folder and thoughtfully assessed the rabbit hole Jack was digging himself into. Pulling in a favor from the CIA to find out more about the woman he was sleeping with seemed overkill.

"This somehow tells me that Maia is more than just a passing relationship. Are you in love with her, Jack? Is this what you felt for Claire?"

Jack started shaking his head as he took the file back from Derek. "I don't know, man. Claire was simple, I loved her. What I'm feeling right now, 'love' is too tame a word. It's almost an obsession. I wouldn't be satisfied with anything less than outright possession. And it's unsettling."

"Uh, Jack, slavery ended in the 1800s."

Jack's lips curled in a half-grin. "She's like a drug, an addiction. The more I taste her, the more I can't get enough."

"Maybe the answer is not spending more time with her. Maybe you need to distance yourself from her right now," Derek said helpfully.

"I've thought about that. Not happening."

Just then the elevator dinged. Maia was back from the control room. The two men started shuffling through some files pretending to be talking about MDI business.

When the bookcases slid shut behind her, Maia walked up to the big office desk. Her eyes darted between the men, who were pointedly ignoring her and talking about MD-Bandit drones and advance carbine weapons.

"You guys can stop pretending. You were talking about me." Looking at Jack, she asked,"Are you done being mad at me?"

"I could be over it. How are you going to make it up to me?"

"Do I need to be here for this discussion?" Derek asked and made a move to leave the study.