The Russian's Proposal (Friends Forever Book 3) Read online

  But Natalie had moved to Spain to be with her new husband. And Hayden…she was so madly in love with her husband, she spent most of her time in Washington, D.C. with him. Yes, she still worked here in Lisdeer at her thriving garden center during the days…but things weren’t the same anymore.

  Nothing was the same.

  Except for the threat to her life now that she had been found. The panic that hit her as she stared into the man’s strange, blue eyes was unlike anything she’d ever felt before. Not even during her mad rush from her father’s house that night so long ago had felt this…strange and horrible. Sensations she didn’t recognize and couldn’t define were coming at her from all sides and she wanted to hide.

  “What do you want?” she demanded, needing to get this conversation over with so she could figure out how to get away from him. Mentally, she was already packing her car, ready to run again. She’d done it so many times over the years, this would just be normal for her. Everything was ready, her computers were the main hindrance, but she couldn’t leave without them. If her father ever found her computer equipment, he’d know what she’d been doing and his fury would be even greater. So that would be her number one priority. Glancing at her watch, she calculated the hours until dark. She’d leave in the dead of night, pack up her small car, and simply drive out of town. She’d leave behind most of her clothes since her computer equipment would take up most of the space, but that was fine. She had money and a steady income now. She’d find a way.

  And this time, she’d figure out how to get her mother out of that monster’s house!

  “I need your help.”

  Katia shifted on the chair, looking into those blue eyes. “With what?”

  “Your father, Sosta Valissi, kidnapped my mother and forced her to be his mistress for several years.”

  Katia’s mental cataloging ceased with his words. The hardness in his eyes, the scar…all the pain was there, well-hidden but Katia knew the signs. “Your mother?”

  She noticed his fingers flex against the cup of his coffee, but not by a flicker of his eyes did the man betray any other emotion. “Yes. I was young when it happened and I didn’t completely understand. He killed my father when he tried to get her back.”

  The wound in her heart ached in pity. “I’m sorry,” she whispered, bowing her head. This man might be lying to her, but the story sounded like something her father would do. The man had no morals, no scruples. He was scum and hurt people for his own amusement. “How old was your mother?”

  “She was twenty-eight when your father saw her and kidnapped her. She was thirty when he killed her and tossed her into a shallow grave.”

  Katia closed her eyes. “That’s horrible.”

  “I grew up scavenging on the streets, hiding from the man, and I didn’t understand until I was older.”

  She opened her eyes, looking at him carefully. The warm coat was cashmere, and not the cheap stuff either. She could tell that this man had money. Lots of it! “You’ve come a long way from the gutters then.”

  He shook his head. “As soon as I figured out who killed my parents, my whole life became about revenge. I changed my name, taught myself to read and write, and learned how to build a business. Every monetary move that your father…”

  “Stop calling him that!” she snapped. When she realized how much emotion she’d just revealed, she took a deep breath and closed her eyes for a moment. “That man isn’t my father. He might have donated sperm to create me, but he’s simply a monster. He is not my father.”

  “Fair enough,” he replied and her words seemed to change him somehow. She wasn’t sure she understood, but she reacted to it by relaxing her shoulders slightly.

  “Sosta Valissi discarded my mother when she didn’t hold his interest any longer. He killed her so that there would be no one to accuse him of his crimes. But I grew up and have competed with him on every business deal he has ventured into, except for the illegal ones. I’ve won every battle and ruined his reputation. He has no more legitimate businesses and that’s making it hard for him to launder his money. There are only a few companies that he still has control off and he’s focusing more and more of his money on those, expanding in those arenas so that he has more power.”

  Katia felt an odd thrill at that news. Her father was losing power? How…wonderful!

  Trying to hide her exaltation, she looked out the window. “Why are you telling me this?” she asked. “I don’t care about my father’s businesses,” she lied. She cared. Very much. She cared since she had begun trying to undermine his business empire with her computer programs two years ago. It was a slow process, but she was finally finding weaknesses in his systems.

  “You should care,” he said softly.

  Katia shifted uncomfortably in her chair. “Why?”

  His smile was actually a bit lethal, she thought. “Because it is actually your company,” he told her.

  That news hit her hard. Her company? Was he crazy?

  With a disbelieving lift of her brows, she stared back at him. “Sosta Valissi’s company is actually my company?” She chuckled and leaned back in her chair, crossing her arms under her breasts. “That’s an interesting statement. How does that work exactly?”

  He chuckled and Katia shifted in her seat, not sure why the sound of his amusement made her feel…warm. This man was very strange. And big. And good looking. And…well, enough said. She wasn’t interested in him, just in what he was telling her about the man who’d sired her.

  “About four years ago, your father ran into a bit of a financial problem. In order to protect his assets, he gave all of his stocks and businesses to his wife, your mother. With that move, his enemies couldn’t gain possession of his companies and the threat passed. Sosta thought that he’d won. In the event of your mother’s death, you inherited all of the stocks and businesses, but because he is a cautious man, and definitely wasn’t going to allow you that kind of power over him or his financial assets, he took measures through a legal loophole to ensure that all of your stocks would revert to your husband upon your marriage.”

  Katia’s heart pounded in her chest. Her mother owned all of his companies? That meant…she was in even more danger than she’d thought! Fear pounded through her body, her heart stuttering as her mind worked through all of the repercussions. There was only one thing on her mind now, Katia had to get her mother out of her father’s house! Fast!

  “I have to go!” she gasped, feeling numb as she thought about all of the complications. She’d have to work quickly, use some of the favors she’d built up over the years. Reeling, she stood up, ignoring her chair, which tipped over. All she could think about was getting to her mother and saving her!

  “Where are you going?” he demanded, standing up and putting himself directly in her pathway. Again!

  Katia no longer cared who he was. She was in a panic now. Not good, but she couldn’t seem to slow down and think.

  “I have to get my mother out of Russia!” she blurted, trying to control the rush of panic. Her father would hurt her mother. Sosta Valissi would crush her delicate mother! Elaina had been a prisoner for so long! Katia’s mother had risked her life to get Katia out of Russia, accepting that she would stay and bear the wrath of Sosta on her own. Katia had fought her mother for months, but in the end, her mother had explained that getting Katia out of Russia was the only way to survive.

  “Katia, wait,” he cautioned softly, taking her hands. She tried to pull them away, but he held her firmly.

  She was having trouble breathing, mind racing to figure out how to save her mother. “I can’t wait! I have to get to my mother! I have to save her! If she owns all of that wealth, my father will kill her! He’ll hurt her first and then kill her! Let me go!” She could barely form words, her lips numb from the fear that was making her feet stumble.

  “Katia!” he yelled.

  Something in his voice broke through her panic and she looked up into his eyes. Then she saw it. Those eyes were no
longer blank, but glowing with…compassion. Pity!

  She froze, her mind trying to make sense of that look. She didn’t like it and couldn’t understand it. The only reason…!

  “No!” she whispered, through lips that had gone numb with the pain of what she saw in his eyes. Shaking her head, she backed up. “No!” But his eyes didn’t change. Didn’t waver. “She’s not!” she gasped, her hands clutching at her sweater right over her chest. The pain slashing through her with his silence…it knocked her down. But strong hands lifted her up. Warm arms carried her out into the cold as sobs wracked her body.

  There was a sudden warmth, but she couldn’t focus on anything beyond the pain as she realized what he was telling her.

  “I’m sorry,” his deep voice said as his large hand smoothed over her back, her shoulders, tangling in her hair as she buried her face against the warmth of his neck. “I thought you knew.”

  Katia cried for a long time, sobbing out her anger and confusion, her desolation at the loss of her mother. For so long, Katia had tried to find a way to defeat her father, thinking to weaken him enough that he would let his wife go. But now…all of her plans were gone. None of it mattered any longer.

  She cried until her voice was hoarse. Until she didn’t have anything left. And still, this stranger, this man held onto her. Protected her.

  They were driving, but she had no idea where. It didn’t matter anymore.

  When the sobs finally subsided and there was only a hollow place in her chest, she tried to pull back but he only tightened his arms around her. Katia was too exhausted to fight him now. And what did it matter? Her mother was gone. Everything she’d been fighting to put into place was pointless now.

  “How?” she demanded, her voice barely above a whisper and the question hurt her sore throat. She wasn’t sure she wanted to know.

  “Cancer. She died of cancer last year.”

  With that news, fresh tears poured out of her, her fingers gripping the lapels of his coat in her fists as she sobbed in pain of her mother’s passing. She hadn’t seen her mother in five years, but there had been no word from her mother for too long. Katia had known that something was wrong. The secret messages that they’d established before she’d left had stopped so many months before.

  It didn’t matter. Until this moment, she’d held out hope that her mother was okay, but that she hadn’t been able to get a message to her. The messages were always slow in coming, sometimes she didn’t hear anything for months. And then she’d get several messages all at once.

  No more. Her mother was gone and there would be no more messages. No more reassurance that they would one day be together. No more hope of just one more hug. One more song as her mother held her hand as she drifted off to sleep. Katia’s body shuddered with the pain as all of her hopes died. Her mother would never see her married. Would never hold Katia’s son or daughter, her grandchildren.

  Katia had failed. From the moment she’d left that prison of her father’s house, Katia had tried to find a way to sneak her mother out of Russia. The three attempts had failed and now there would be no more attempts. Her mother was gone.

  At least the gentle woman was free of her husband’s prison, his rage and beatings. At least Katia’s mother would no longer have to cower when the demented man came to her bedroom in a futile attempt to conceive a legitimate son. Katia shuddered, thinking about everything her mother had gone through over the years. The pain and humiliation her father had put her poor mother through had been horrific.

  Katia felt herself being carried somewhere, but she didn’t care where. She didn’t care if this man carried her back to her father’s house or if he dumped her in a ditch somewhere. Her mother was gone. All hope was gone. She didn’t care anymore.

  Chapter 3

  Katia woke up and looked around, her eyes flitting from one piece of unfamiliar furniture to another. Several thoughts hit her at once. Her eyes were swollen and felt raw, as did her throat. She was warm and more comfortable than she’d been in a long time.

  And this wasn’t her apartment.

  None of this was the furniture she’d pulled out of the dump or bought from yard sales and fixed up so that it was usable but still dispensable if she needed to run again.

  No, this furniture was beautiful and expensive. The polish on the wood was bright and smooth, the sunshine glowing off the angles and flat surfaces. Sunshine was coming in from the wrong side of the room. The bedroom in her apartment entered from the right side of her bed in the morning. This watery, winter sunshine was coming in from the left. And she always remembered to close her curtains at night so that no one would see her working on her computer programs.

  Jackknifing up, she looked around as she gasped in fear. Had she been kidnapped? Was her father in the next room, ready to beat her into submission?

  Then the events from the previous day came flooding back to her. Her mother was gone. Dead. Cancer.

  The stranger! He’d carried her in here last night. At least, she assumed he was the one who’d carried her. She wasn’t completely sure. Everything after he’d informed her of her mother’s passing was a blur of pain and fury.

  Looking around again, she spotted her jeans folded neatly on the chair and looked down at herself. Other than her lacy, red bra and panties, she was naked! How in the world had that happened?!

  Then a pair of strong hands and icy blue eyes came back to her. What was his name? Had he stripped her clothes off?

  She wasn’t sure, but she quickly slipped out of bed and grabbed her clothes, pulling them on before trying to orient herself.

  A sharp knock on the door startled her and she spun around, wary and ready to do battle. Last night, she’d let her defenses down, but today, she wasn’t going to let Sosta Valissi abuse her. No way!

  The door opened before her mind could process. The man from yesterday stood in the doorway, watching her carefully.

  “Are you feeling any better?” he asked.

  She saw the blank look in those blue eyes and cringed. He was back to emotionless. Not good, she thought.

  “I need to go,” she told him, waiting for him to move away from the door so she could leave. As she stared at him, Katia vowed that she would battle this man until she won. He might be stronger, but she was tough and, even better, she had nothing to lose now.

  “I need your help, Katia,” he said softly, but with his deep voice, nothing was truly “soft”.

  Katia girded her resistance against the voice and his words. “I can’t help you. I have my own priorities.”

  She watched as he moved away from the door, her muscles tensing as she prepared to battle her way out of the room.

  “You can leave at any time, but if you leave, we won’t be able to take down Sosta Valissi. And I’m warning you now, he already has your husband picked out for you. As soon as your mother passed away, the intensity of the search for your location increased. He wasn’t going to allow you to just turn up somewhere. The way he worked his wife’s death ensured that you had to be found and married to a man of his choosing.” He paused, letting that information sink in. “A man that your father can control,” he finally added.

  She blinked, starting to realize that he was right. “Who are you?”

  “I’m Sergei Anistrov. And I want revenge on your father just as much as you do.”

  “I doubt that,” she snapped.

  “Oh yes, my beauty,” he countered, coming closer, those blue eyes were hypnotic, “I know how you feel. My mother was killed simply because she no longer amused your father.”

  “I told you yesterday to stop calling him that.”

  “Fine. Sosta killed my father because he was trying to protect my mother.” He let his words sink in once again before he continued. “So yes, my dear. I want revenge. What’s more, I know how to get it.”

  “I want him dead!” she growled through gritted teeth.

  He picked up a beautiful crystal decanter and poured water into a crystal glass. “I
imagine that’s how you feel now, but wouldn’t it be better to give him a taste of his own evilness?”

  He handed her the glass and Katia realized that she had a headache. Probably from dehydration after crying so hard yesterday. So she took the glass, hoping that he hadn’t spiked it with something that would knock her out. For some reason, she wanted to trust him. It was the craziest thought, but she downed the water in about one swallow, then extended her hand back to him. “More please,” she whispered, waiting for something to make her pass out.

  Instead, he refilled the glass and waited until she’d drained half of it again. Nothing happened. No swaying. No muddled mind. In fact, she was able to focus a bit better now that her thirst had been partially quenched.

  “Okay, so what’s your plan?” she asked, simply to give herself time. Maybe he was right. Maybe he had a good plan to take down her father.

  Or maybe he was just a really good liar.

  “Come, my dear. You look famished. It is past noon and you haven’t eaten in about twenty-four hours.”

  She hesitated, but followed anyway, if only because she was curious. At least, that’s what she told herself. As she stepped out of the bedroom, she walked into a brightly lit area with windows that were two stories high, letting in the winter sunshine and instantly making her feel better. Lighter.

  Or maybe it was the enticing scent of delicious food sitting on the long, polished table that spurred her forward. Either way, she sank into one of the upholstered chairs gratefully and, with barely a glance in the stranger’s direction, took a large pancake off the stack sitting in the center. After gulping down one of them, she grabbed another, but the painful hunger was appeased enough that she nibbled slowly at this one.

  He sat down in the chair at the end and poured both of them steaming, fragrant coffee, looking as if he had all the time in the world. Meanwhile, she wanted to race out of…wherever they were…get on the first flight to Moscow and find some way to kill her father. Would she be able to pull the trigger?