The Lion in Russia (17 page)

“This is crazy. You can’t go up against him,
he is absolutely ruthless.”

“So am I. Don’t you understand? You are
everything to me and he almost killed you. There is no question
that I will do what I can to destroy him.”

Vries took several deep calming breaths.
There was only a slight hitch in her breathing now. The doctors
said eventually even that would fade. It was taking the muscles in
her chest a while to recover from the insult presented by the large
caliber bullet tearing through her chest. Even so, she doubted
she’d ever be able to return to the field and had already told
Lelia that she would take the position as operations manager in
Europe. She was already looking forward to working with other
operatives.

Leo was right. Putilin had overplayed his
hand. He had awakened a sleeping lion. She stared at Leo, horrified
at the thought of him returning to Russia to imprisonment if not
certain death. Even so having a fit of hysterics probably wouldn’t
help the situation.

“What do you plan to do?” she said. For the
first time she wished Lelia had assigned her to assassinate
Putilin, though she doubted she could have pulled it off there
would have been a certain satisfaction in taking a shot at the
bastard.

“For right now I will maintain a low profile.
Meanwhile I am gathering information. Information that at some
point I will use against him. I will also be amenable to working
with your State Department, but all that is a long way in the
future.”

She calmed down. Maybe there would be a way
to talk him out of this. “So you will make me a widow before I’m
even a bride,” she said with a melodramatic sigh.

“Oh you can be a bride tomorrow if you
like.”

“A girl likes to be asked.”

“Does she? I thought it was understood. Is
this another of those cultural issues we seem to have trouble
with?” he asked, both brows raised.

“No, Lyova, everyone else gets it. It’s an
issue
you
have trouble with,” she said with a sigh.

“Vries St. John, love of my life, center of
my universe, will you do me the honor of being my lovely
bride?”

“Yes, but it’s conditional.”

“Conditional?”

“As I recall, you promised to tie me down.
And you haven’t kept that promise. If this is an example of how you
plan to fulfill your husbandly duties...”

Leo laughed, then pulled her down beside him
on the bed. “I believe I can rectify that little matter right now,”
he said against her lips.

And he did.

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