Ruby fever epb, p.18
Ruby Fever EPB, page 18
Sanders was bad news. Of all the Primes in Arkan’s arsenal, he gave me the biggest dollop of anxiety.
Alessandro got up and kissed me. “I have to make a call.”
“I have to let a Russian prince know exactly where he stands.”
He held up his hand. We gave each other a quiet high five and headed out of the conference room, he to his office and I to the front door.
Konstantin sat on a stone bench outside our office building, exactly where I asked him to be after the meeting. A line of our guard dogs stretched from him. They approached one by one, led by their handlers, so they could memorize his scent. I wanted him properly tagged before he and Alessandro went out.
The sky couldn’t decide if it wanted to be overcast or flooded with sunshine, and the wind kept pushing the clouds back and forth. As I stepped outside, the clouds overhead slid aside and a ray of golden sunshine broke through and spilled onto Konstantin, setting his hair and skin aglow. He looked like an angel. Not one of those untouchable regal angels, but one suffused with warmth. It truly was a movie moment. I half expected him to turn to me in slow motion as a sappy soundtrack kicked in.
Konstantin held out his hand as Ranger, a huge German shepherd, sniffed him. “Kakoy horoshiy pios.”
“Do you like dogs?”
He nodded. “They are honest creatures. Unlike us.”
He would know.
The prince turned to me and smiled.
Wow.
“I didn’t realize you were good with a blade,” he said.
“There are many things about me you don’t realize.” And I would keep it that way.
“I am beginning to see that.”
The way he was looking at me . . . It was a little much.
“Why didn’t Arkan target Smirnov? He knew we had him. It was logical that he would be in the armory, and yet Buller walked right past it.”
Konstantin regarded me with his stunning aquamarine eyes. “Arkan lacks objectivity. He is sentimental, and he places value on friendships. Let’s take Xavier. He is undisciplined, volatile, and impulsive. Everything Arkan detests. But for reasons known only to him, he likes Xavier. He sees him as an apprentice of sorts. He lets him get away with things that would get most of his other agents terminated. In American terms, he plays favorites. Smirnov was the favorite. They met in basic training. They were both plucked out of it by Imperial Security, and they went through Miasorubka together. The Meat Grinder. Intense combat training. I suppose your SEAL program might be similar, except that SEAL candidates can quit and rarely die in training. People fed to Miasorubka die quite often.”
“What will happen when Arkan realizes you killed Smirnov?”
Konstantin grinned. “I imagine he will face the sky and howl like a wolf. I wish I could see it.”
He could call Arkan anytime and tell him that his best friend was dead. Yes, that would change the nature of the bait, but I was sure when Arkan found out that Konstantin murdered Smirnov, he would move heaven and earth to punish him. Konstantin was saving it for just the right moment.
The dog pack retreated, led away by their handlers.
“You are out of dogs.”
“Not quite.”
I clicked my tongue. The bushes to my left rustled, and Shadow emerged into the open. My dog did not like strangers. She was very good at not being seen when she didn’t want to be.
The prince blinked.
I scooped her up and pointed to Konstantin. “Bad.”
Shadow let out a quiet woof.
“Yes, we don’t like him. Bad, bad.”
“Is that a dachshund mixed with something? Scottish terrier, perhaps?”
“That’s not important,” I told him.
Shadow growled, picking up on the hostility in my voice. I set her down. She woofed one more time to let him know she meant business and wagged her tail. As I straightened, I saw two big shapes coming down the shaded path between the trees, a slender, short human between them. A fourth shadow trotted alongside, almost comically small in comparison. They moved silently, the shadows of the tree canopy sliding over their fur.
Amusement sparked in Konstantin’s eyes. “Now I have met everyone. Am I free to wander?”
“Not yet.”
“Is there more? Perhaps a miniature attack poodle or a valiant chihuahua?”
“Something like that.” I nodded in the direction of the path.
Konstantin turned to see and clicked his mouth shut.
Several years ago, the military attempted to apply magic and genetic engineering to make hyperintelligent bears. They planned to use them in combat, how or why I could never understand. The program had been discontinued but some of its animal combatants remained. Sgt. Teddy was one of them. An enormous Kodiak, he stood at five feet three inches tall on all fours and ten and a half feet tall when he reared. He weighed over fifteen hundred pounds. His paws were bigger than my head and could crack a human skull like a walnut with one swipe. His claws were almost six inches long and his teeth would give you nightmares.
Despite all of that, Sgt. Teddy was a pacifist. He preferred human company to living in the wild, and he liked kids. Next to him ten-year-old Matilda looked tiny, like a waifish toddler. The sixty-pound golden retriever trailing them was like a six-week-old puppy.
The creature strolling on the other side of Matilda was anything but a pacifist. The first thing you noticed was his color. His fur was a striking indigo blue, so vivid, it seemed unreal, a color that should have belonged to some exotic bird, not a massive feline predator. Two and a half feet tall at the shoulder, six and a half feet long, he strode forward on huge paws hiding sickle claws. His muscular body was reminiscent of a tiger, but the fringe of tentacles around his neck left no doubt that Zeus was not a creature born on Earth.
The two beasts approached. Zeus halted two feet from Konstantin, leaned forward, and sniffed, his eyes flashing turquoise.
The Russian prince held very still.
His face realigned itself very subtly. He was almost impossibly beautiful now.
“We haven’t been properly introduced,” he said to Matilda. “I am Prince Konstantin Berezin. Who do I have the honor of addressing?”
“I’m Matilda Harrison, of House Harrison.”
“It is a pleasure, Matilda.” He bowed his head. “I’m very sorry my actions led to your father being injured. It was not my intention to include him in this affair. I ask your forgiveness and hope you will allow me to make amends.”
Wow. He read Matilda in a split second. Most people wouldn’t talk to a ten-year-old that way, but somehow, he figured out that Matilda was an adult in a child’s body.
“Are you a real prince?”
“Yes. My uncle is the emperor, and he often tells me that I’m his favorite nephew.”
Matilda considered this. “Are you?”
“I suspect my uncle tells that to all of his nephews when he wants us to do something for him.”
She raised her chin. “I accept your apology. Sgt. Teddy thinks you smell like a bear.”
He nodded. “My House has a long affinity with bears. You might say we’re practically family.”
And what the hell did that mean?
Matilda squinted at him, then turned to me. “The scent has been acquired.”
“Thank you, Matilda.”
“Clearly, I’m in The Jungle Book,” Konstantin said. “I have met the wolves, the bear, and the panther.”
“Don’t worry, there’s no python.”
He gave me an odd look. “I already met her.”
“What?” I asked.
“Never mind. I was being frivolous.”
“Being frivolous is not a good idea,” Matilda said. “My father tells me that killing is an inevitable part of being a Prime. If you break the rules, I will kill you.”
“Consider me properly warned.” Konstantin nodded.
The golden retriever trotted forward and sat, staring at Konstantin with a happy canine grin.
“This is Rooster,” Matilda said. “She will be your watcher.”
“Of all the dogs available to you, you chose to assign me a golden retriever?” Konstantin’s eyebrows rose a fraction of an inch.
“Please change shape, Your Highness,” Matilda said.
Konstantin’s face blurred, and Alessandro sat in his place. It was a perfect impersonation, down to the narrow cut on Alessandro’s chin, which he got fighting Buller.
Rooster exploded into barks. She wasn’t just loud. She was deafening.
“Dear God,” Konstantin yelled over the noise, “it’s like being punched in the eardrums.”
“Change back, please,” Matilda ordered.
Konstantin reappeared. Rooster fell silent and panted at him.
“Rooster barks at 112 decibels,” Matilda informed him. “She can continue to bark for hours without straining herself. If you change shape, she will bark. If you attempt to escape, she will bark. If you try to separate from her in any way . . .”
“She will bark?” Konstantin asked.
“Yes. If she barks for longer than one minute, the electronic sensor in her collar will send an alert. Cutting the collar or removing it will also trigger an alert.” Matilda stared at him. “If anything happens to Rooster or her collar, I will know. I will come. I will bring friends. I hope we understand each other.”
“Crystal clear,” he told her.
“Please follow me now,” Matilda told him. “I’ve been asked to familiarize you with the layout of the Compound.”
“I’d be delighted,” he told her.
The two of them walked down the path, flanked by a bear and an arcane tentacled tiger. Rooster trotted after them, her gaze fixed on Konstantin.
Patricia came out of the office and stood beside me. “Is that wise?”
“We can’t contain him, and we can’t keep him locked up. Might as well let him wander, supervised.”
Patricia sighed. “We are being watched.”
“We knew that.”
“No, Arkan kept an eye on us. They’d buzz us with a drone once in a while or put some cameras on random trees just outside the property line, which we would find and take down. Now he has two active watch posts. One is on Orduna’s ranch, watching our front gate, and the other is on the Reading property, watching our driveway. They have us under 24-hour surveillance.”
“It can’t be helped. It can be an advantage in certain circumstances.”
Patricia nodded. “Also, I’ve been approached.”
“Stick or carrot?”
“The stick for now. They’re trying to blackmail me. Walk away or else.”
“Regina?”
Patricia nodded again. She was our knight in shining armor, who made sure our guard force acted as a unit. Without her, we would be dead in the water. Her wife was hiding a secret. Regina was Patricia’s weakness. Of course they would zero in on her.
“Have you told her?”
“Yes.”
“How do the two of you feel about that?”
Patricia smiled, her light British accent crisp. “We are not in the habit of rolling over.”
I let out an internal breath.
“We didn’t meet under the best of circumstances,” Patricia said.
“True.”
When Patricia had walked into our office two years ago, our defenses were in shambles and her reputation was in tatters. She was practically unhireable by most House standards, but we were desperate, and she came highly recommended by Sgt. Heart, one of Connor’s veteran operatives, a scary and competent man whom everyone held in a very high regard. Especially Mom. In the past year their romance had progressed from discreet meetings and Mom casually mentioning that “Benjiro called” to full on dinners in public and chilling together in the pool. They were on the cusp of making it official, and all of us were in favor of it. Patricia couldn’t have come with a better recommendation.
Patricia faced me. “This is home now. We like it here.”
“I’m glad.”
Patricia laughed softly.
“If we do survive this, you will be in high demand,” I said.
She raised her eyebrows at me.
“A security chief who held off Arkan. Whatever stains and blotches are on your record will be wiped clean. Houses will fall over their feet trying to hire you. You could write your own ticket.”
“You realize it’s not in your best interests to point this out?”
“Yes, but it is fair.”
“Then you better think of a way to keep me here, Prime Baylor.” Her tone suggested it wouldn’t be very hard.
“I’ll put it on my list,” I told her.
Chapter 10
I paced back and forth, trying to match the speed of my body to the speed of my brain. I had notified most of our allies and most of the probable high-risk targets that we were under attack and declined a dozen offers of assistance. Cornelius’ sister and brother were in DC on business, in the public eye and well protected. My disaster of an aunt had been pulled off the street in Mexico by a private security firm. They would sit on her until the danger passed.
I had tried Wahl’s cell, but the call went straight to voice mail, which likely meant the FBI agent was still recuperating.
I also had a long and grueling conversation regarding logistics and compensation with the man who would help us make sure Arkan went deaf and blind. It was like swimming in a very small pool with a very large shark. It was so bad, I texted Arabella two-thirds of the way through and let her take over the bargaining.
Alessandro and Konstantin had left an hour ago. They would neutralize Arkan’s mole in the DA’s office. I wasn’t sure what would happen next. Arkan could hit us as soon as he realized his agent had been compromised, or he could wait and gather all of his forces for one decisive assault. Alessandro promised to video call during the meeting. If an attack came, it would be soon.
I had a nagging feeling that I had overlooked something. What was it? What hole did I fail to plug?
“If you keep doing this, I’ll have to replace the rug,” Bern informed me.
He sat at a horseshoe-shaped desk, with an array of monitors arranged around him. When we lived in the warehouse, all of his equipment had been contained in the small room we called the Hut of Evil. Since we’d moved, he had upgraded to a full-blown Lair. The computer lab now occupied the entire first floor of a short tower we had built to Bern’s specifications. The horseshoe desk and the space around it took up most of the floor, with the gaming room featuring a row of computers and gaming chairs separated off to the side by a glass wall. A small fridge stuffed with drinks and a couch on which Runa right now napped completed the furnishings. Bern ruled over his kingdom like an ancient despot, and his tone suggested that he had judged my pacing to be a capital offense.
He’d asked me to come, but when I got there, I was presented with his back and some furious typing.
“What am I forgetting?” I asked him.
“Food. Sleep.”
“Haha. When was the last time you slept?”
“That’s not relevant. Okay. You may look.”
I came over and stood by his chair. A black screen greeted me with some indecipherable code.
“Honey?” Bern said.
Runa pulled herself off the couch and stumbled over to us.
Bern raised his right hand and very deliberately pressed the Enter key.
Code blossomed on the screen, scrolling at dizzying speed. The display went dark.
“I love it,” Runa said. She leaned over, hugged Bern, and kissed his cheek.
Bern smiled.
Runa turned around and went back to her couch.
“What am I looking at?” I asked him.
“I crashed Arkan’s network,” Bern said.
We looked at the dark screen.
“Do you think he’s screaming right now?” I asked.
Bern gave me another smile.
We looked at the screen some more.
My cousin typed a quick sequence. “I have something for you.”
A large monitor directly above us showed the inside of an armored car. Alessandro was in the driver’s seat. The dark-haired woman next to him wore the tactical uniform of our guards. I didn’t recognize her.
The woman said something in Russian in Konstantin’s voice.
“How am I seeing this?”
Bern paused the video. “A hidden dashboard cam. All of our vehicles have them.”
I wasn’t aware of that upgrade. “Since when?”
“Since two months ago.”
“Shouldn’t I have approved something like that?”
“I approved it,” Bern said. “As the Chief of Surveillance and Cyber Security.”
“Chief of what now?”
“Surveillance and Cyber Security. That’s how I’m written into our incorporation papers. This is a good security measure.”
“Can I disable the camera in my vehicle?”
“Yes.”
He left it at that. Fine, I would ask Grandma Frida. Ten to one she had installed them in the first place. Right now, I had bigger fish to fry.
“Are you spying on Alessandro?”
“No, I’m spying on the prince.”
“How old is this recording?” I asked.
“Half an hour.”
“I never took you for a man willing to play second fiddle,” Konstantin said in English. “You were raised to lead your House, the crumbling ruin that it is. You are a man who would rather captain a sinking ship that’s yours than be a sailor on a luxury liner.”
“You serve the throne. You will never sit on it.” Alessandro’s voice was flat and quiet.
“But I wasn’t raised with an expectation of leading. You were, Count Sagredo. She is the Head of her House, issuing orders, making decisions, and what does that make you? A loyal bodyguard? A pretty face in her bed?”
You asshole.
“It has to chafe a bit, trading your independence and your birthright for a seat at her table. You know they only listen to you because she’s there. They tolerate you as long as you make her happy. Not quite the loving family you always wanted.”
Alessandro didn’t answer. Did it actually bother him? Is that the way he saw it?
