Russian Hitman's Innocent American (3 page)

Dmitri smiled sardonically. “I never claimed to be out of the game. But no, Ivan isn’t a contract. You can call him a mere personal interest of mine.” He pushed back his chair and stood.

Kazimir’s eyes never left his. “I was under the impression that Fedor was the only personal interest of yours. I heard a rumor that he killed your father.”

“It’s funny,” Dmitri said quietly. “I heard that same rumor myself.” Without another word, he turned and tried to leave.

“Stay away from Charley. She’s trying to distance herself from all of this. She even got herself a new roommate.”

A new roommate? Dmitri picked up the pace. The chances of Ivan moving that quickly seemed small, but there had been a strange undertone in Kazimir’s voice as he imparted that piece of information, as if he knew something Dmitri didn’t.

Reverse psychology bullshit.

An hour later, Dmitri parked his car a few blocks from Charley’s house. He recognized her car in the driveway. The sun was setting low over the horizon, and it was easy for him to cross the yard on foot and keep to the shadows. Only one light was burning.

Leaning against the brick, he eavesdropped in the open window. Charley was in the kitchen with a bowl of popcorn and a phone cradled between her ear and her shoulder.

“Hi. My name is Charley, and I’m Daphne’s roommate. Is there anyway I can get a message to her?”

He moved cautiously around the edge of the window and peered in. She was sitting at the table with her profile to him. Her dark hair fell in curls down to the small of her back, and she shoved her hands through it impatiently. He clenched his jaw. There was something about seeing her again that made him lose control over his body. He’d brushed off the first encounter as just an affect from a long dry spell, but he’d seen beautiful women before. Stunning. Exotic. Women with such perfect bodies that most men would gamble their lives away for one night with them. And yet he’d never had a reaction to them like he did with the American.

“I’m sorry? You must be mistaken. Her name is Daphne Reynolds. She just left her cellphone here, and I’m calling to see if she wants me to run it by the club.”

She got up from the chair and bent across the table to grab a piece of paper. Dmitri felt his breath hitch as he watched her shirt ride up as she stretched. Her skin looked smooth and inviting. He ached to reach out and touch her.

“Really? No one by the name Daphne works there? Are you sure? Maybe you just have a lot of employees and you’re bad with names. She’s quite beautiful. Blonde. American. She’s a student at the University.” She sat back down and scrunched up her nose. “No, I can’t call her. I have her cellphone. Is there anyone else I can speak to?”

Suddenly, her eyes widened, and she bit her lip. “I see. No, I’m so sorry. I didn’t expect the manager to be answering the phone, that’s all. I’m sure I’ll get this whole thing straightened out when I see her next. I’m sorry I wasted your time.” She hung up the phone and stared at it.

Dmitri watched, fascinated, as she shook her head. “You’re just being paranoid, Charley,” she muttered to herself. “I’m sure she has an explanation for it. You’ve got to stop being scared and seeing conspiracies everywhere.”

Scared? Charley was scared? He frowned and pushed back as he saw her head swing around to the window. For some odd reason, knowing that the woman was scared didn’t sit well with him.

What else had she discovered about her new roommate that made her so nervous? Mentally filing away the name Daphne Reynolds, Dmitri cast one last glance at the house before moving back to his car.

He told himself that it was just to keep Ivan from discovering the truth, and that it had nothing to do with his reaction to Charley or need to keep her safe.

Chapter Three

The little boy was no longer little. One the eve of his fourteenth birthday, he stood at the edge of the simple wooden fence and tried to pretend that the weight of the gun didn’t bother him.

“Keep both eyes on the target. Loosen your elbow. And never hesitate.” The boy listened to Ivan and took a deep breath. His finger tightened on the trigger, but even though the target was nothing more than a tin can, he failed the third rule.

He hesitated.

The gun recoiled sharply, and the boy, unprepared, shouted in fright.

“No hesitation. Again!” Ivan shouted.

Ashamed, tears streaked down the boy’s face. He dropped the gun and shook his head. In his memories, he heard the bullets slamming into the walls. Slamming into bodies.

“Do you want to avenge your father? Do you want Fedor Saiko dead?” Ivan shouted.

Of course he wanted to avenge his father. It was his duty to kill the man responsible for taking his father’s life. He should care for nothing else. This was his life’s mission.

With shaking arms, he bent down and picked up the gun. Slowly, he raised it and kept both eyes on the target.

He loosened his elbow.

And he squeezed the trigger.

***

Charley didn’t sleep that night. She couldn’t help but remember what the manager had told her that night.
We have no Americans working for us. We have not had an American working for us in years, and there is no one by the name of Daphne on staff. I should know. I handle all the hiring and firing.

Obviously, there was a mistake. Maybe there were two clubs by the same name, and Charley had just called the wrong one. Maybe Daphne went by a middle name or nickname at work.

Or maybe Daphne was lying to her.

“You’re paranoid,” she muttered to herself again as she yawned. Slipping on her robe, she shuffled downstairs to the kitchen. Why on earth would Daphne lie about anything? Charley was an American student studying history. She wasn’t rich, she wasn’t famous, and she knew absolutely nothing of value.

Unless they were trying to find more information about Veronika.

Again with the paranoia. Veronika wasn’t hiding. If anyone wanted to know anything about Veronika, all they had to do was ask her.

“You’ve got circles under your eyes,” Daphne commented from the kitchen table.

Charley nearly jumped out of her skin. “Jesus. You scared the crap out of me. What time did you get in last night?”

Daphne scrunched her nose. “I don’t even remember. We had a late party at the club, and I was bone tired.”

Charley slid into the chair at the table. “You left your phone here last night. I tried to call the club and see if you wanted me to drop it off.”

“Really? No one said anything to me. That would have been lovely. I felt naked all night without my phone,” Daphne muttered.

“I spoke to the manager. He said that you didn’t work there,” Charley said carefully. She didn’t want to accuse Daphne of anything. She didn’t even know what she wanted to accuse Daphne of.

A dark looked crossed Daphne’s face. “Idiot. Alexander and I had a thing last year. It was stupid, and I regret it, but he’s never let it go. I bet you could call and tell him that the house was on fire, and he would still find away to keep the message from me. I’m sorry, Charley. That must have confused the hell out of you.”

Charley waved her hand dismissively. “A little, but I figured there was some sort of explanation.” Privately, she was relieved. “So, did you do anything interesting yesterday? Maybe between that assistantship and your job?” she asked wickedly.

“Interesting? Not unless you count not smacking Dr. Nico,” she said with a shrug. “Although it would be more interesting if I did finally give in to that desire.”

Charley struggled to hold the surprise from her face. She thought Daphne would jump at the chance to talk about her midday tryst. “What about you? Anything interesting?”

“Nothing interesting happens to me,” Charley responded immediately.

“Charley, I’m not dumb. I know that Veronika Saiko was your previous roommate. The whole campus was talking about her father’s death last semester. I almost didn’t respond to the ad because of it. I wasn’t sure it was safe to be here.”

“Why wouldn’t it be safe? Veronika isn’t here anymore. No one would be interested in me.”

Daphne leaned across the table. “They say an infamous assassin died in that house with Fedor. Did you know him?”

Charley’s heart sped up. Was this idle gossip, or was Daphne really interested in Dmitri? “Look, Daphne, I know this could be all kinds of juicy, but the truth is pretty boring. I really wasn’t all that involved. I wasn’t even here when Kaz took Veronika to the safe house. I didn’t find out anything until after I got home that day, and the police were at my door. I don’t know anything about an assassin. I didn’t even know anything about Fedor.”

Daphne laughed. “It’s so strange. I thought Russia would be kind of boring, but in my first semester here, an infamous assassin gets gunned down and a mob boss kills himself only blocks away from the school. It’s exciting.”

“It’s my friend’s dad,” Charley said softly as she got up. “I really try not to talk about it much out of respect for her.”

She expected Daphne to apologize, but instead, she caught a cool and calculating gleam in her eye. It was gone so quickly Charley wasn’t even sure she’d actually seen it.

“Okay, I’ve got to start the day all over again. And this time, I will not forget my phone. Enjoy your day,” Daphne said as she gathered her things and put them in her bag. Charley watched her carefully as she walked out the door. As soon as Daphne exited the driveway, she grabbed her school directory and flipped it open. “Not paranoid. Just fact checking,” she muttered as she ran her finger along the page. Finding the number she was looking for, she pulled out her phone and dialed.

“Dr. Nico, my name is Charley Barns,” she said as the voicemail picked it up. “I’m sorry for getting you out of bed so early. I needed to get a message to your assistant, Daphne Reynolds, and my calls to her aren’t going through. Could you give me a call back when you get this? It’s important.”

She hung up the phone and stared at it. Great, now she would need to come up with a lie when Daphne, frantic with worry, called her back. “Way to go, Charley.” With a disgusted grunt, she started to make herself a cup of coffee.

The phone rang, and her heart leapt into her throat when she saw that it was Dr. Nico. “Shit.” A million excuses ran through her head as she answered it. “Hello?”

“Hello. Is this Ms. Barns?”

Relieved that it was Dr. Nico and not Daphne, Charley sagged against the counter. “Yes, this is Charley.”

“Charley, this is Dr. Nico. I wanted to call you back and let you know that there has been some kind of mistake. I have no students by the name of Daphne, and I’m not running an assistantship program this summer. I couldn’t get the grant approved for one.”

Daphne felt herself grow cold. “Thank you,” she whispered. He kept talking, but she slowly lowered the phone and hung up. Twice was not a coincidence. “Don’t panic. Don’t panic.”

Gripping her phone, she flew up the stairs and threw open the door to Daphne’s room. At first glance, nothing looked suspicious. And then she realized that there were things missing.

“Oh God.” Her breathing became erratic as she dialed Kaz’s number. His voicemail picked up. “Kaz. Kaz. I don’t know what’s going on, but I think my new roommate is bad news. There are no textbooks in her room. No textbooks. What graduate student doesn’t have textbooks? And she lied about her job. And her other job. I caught her having sex, and she was speaking in a Russian accent. Does any of this make sense because I am freaking out!”

Realizing that talking to Kaz’s voicemail wasn’t helpful, she hung up the phone and flung open the woman’s closet.

Clothes and shoes. Nothing abnormal.

“Maybe she just took her textbooks with her,” Charley muttered. “I have seriously got to stop talking to myself. Why am I defending her? She lied to me! Of course, we’re not friends. All I should care about is that she pays her rent on time and doesn’t piss me off. Lying pisses me off. Shit.”

Charley bit down on her knuckle as she tried to figure out what to do. She tried calling Veronika next, but that also went to voicemail. What the hell? Of course, it was still early in the morning, and Veronika did say that she was planning on doing nothing but have sex all summer.

“Her papers,” she said as inspiration struck. Careful to make sure that everything in the room was the way it was when she found it, she moved back to her bedroom and dug through her desk until she found the folder with Daphne’s application information. She pulled out the reference page and dialed the number.

The number was disconnected. “Shit. Can’t just one thing about this girl check out so that I feel better?”

“Charley?”

Frightened, Charley stood up and whirled around. Daphne stood in the door with her arms crossed. “Yes?” Charley squeaked.

“Why are my papers on the floor?”

“What are you doing back here?” Charley fired back. “I thought you were off to the University.”

“I was. I came back because I forgot a book,” Daphne said slowly.

“Really? A book? Why don’t I help you find it?” Charley put her hands on her hips and faced off with the woman. Sure, she was taller, and she looked like she worked out, but Charley was stronger than she looked.

“Is something wrong?”

“You tell me. I came home early yesterday, and I heard you having sex with a Russian accent. And it’s fine if you want to lie about it. Your personal life and your personal pleasures are your own. But then your manager doesn’t recognize you. And I called Dr. Nico. He has no idea who you are. There are no textbooks in your room. And your references are bogus. Who the hell are you?”

The truth came tumbling out, and Charley was helpless to stop it. At first, she expected Daphne to be shocked. Instead, a slow smile crossed her face. “You don’t need to know my real name,” she said in a thick Russian accent. “All you need to do is answer a few questions. Answer them honestly, and we’ll leave you alone.”

“Holy shit.” Charley stumbled back. “What the fuck do you want?”