Alexandr's Cherished Submissive (50 page)

As Gwen scanned the documents and websites, Jessica pulled up a couple different screens on her computer. “See, I’ve researched them and everything. They’re legit. And they want me. I need to get them to sign me before the word gets out that I’ve been let go for suspected theft.”

“Gossip travels fast,” Gwen muttered before looking back up at Jessica. “Well, you best pack your bags, beautiful. You’re on your way to Spain, and if you get this job, you know I’m coming with you. I loooove European men, and I can take some sculpting classes while I’m over there, maybe look into some gallery showings if I can get them. I’ll book you on the next flight out.”

Springing into motion, Jessica couldn’t help the excitement filling her. A new place, somewhere she’d never been, someplace she could explore with her daughter. For a moment, a bit of apprehension bit at her stomach at the possibility of being closer to he-who-shall-not–be-named, but she dismissed her fear. It had been almost five years. He-of-no-name had moved on, repeatedly, and she’d seen it all on the Internet. She’d managed not to do a search on him for ten months now, and it was slowly getting easier to push back the clawing urge to make sure he was still all right, that he was still alive.

Maybe someday she would finally be ready to move on from the memory of the woman she used to be.

Gathering four of her suits and stuffing them into a travel bag, she then quickly filled two suitcases with everything she’d need. Gwen would call for a car service both to and from the airport, so all Jessica would have to do was get on and off the plane. When she was in her bathroom chucking her makeup and perfume into a bag, Gwen came in holding up a piece of paper with kittens printed on it.

“Your itinerary, and a car is on the way to take you to the airport.”

Snatching up the decorative note, she scanned it quickly before sighing. “You are a miracle worker.”

“You know it!” She took Jessica’s hands in her own and met her friend’s gaze. “Deep breath, you can do this. I have faith in you, and I just know your luck is changing.”

Wishing with all her might that was true, Jessica lifted her shoulders and nodded. “Right. You have my number. Let Tatiana know I’ll Skype with her as soon as I get settled in.”

“I will.” She gave Jessica a big hug. “Bigger and better things, my friend.”

Closing her eyes, Jessica prayed that was true.

Madrid, Spain

Alex stared off into the distance, a storm rolling over the Mediterranean Sea far enough away that it was nothing more than dark clouds and flashes of lighting on the horizon. He gripped the warm wrought iron railing of his balcony facing water and wished he could enjoy the sunset. It was getting harder and harder for him to give a shit about things lately. Seeing his brother’s love with Rya, witnessing their joy first hand, made him ache for someone to love him like that, but no woman he’d met could compare to his Jessica.

In a way, her death had cursed him to never love again.

He was snapped out of his trance by a man clearing his throat then speaking with a thick Irish brogue. “Been a long time, Alex.”

Disbelief filled Alex as he turned and stared at a man he’d threatened to kill if he ever came near him again. At the sight of an older Peter standing there with more white in his hair than he’d had at Jessica’s funeral, something in Alex slipped, some delicate grip he’d had on his rage snapped, and he snarled with anger before launching himself at Jessica’s Uncle Peter. The bastard had delivered Rya to his father, even knowing what kind of monster he was. That was unforgivable.

Before he could get a grip on the other man who’d failed to protect Jessica, who’d endangered Alex’s beloved sister-in-law, he was grabbed by his own damn bodyguards. Glaring at Krom and Oleg, he was shocked to see tears, god-be-damned tears in their eyes. His men never cried, ever. What the hell was going on?

Taking a firm step forward, Peter thrust a manila envelope to Alex. “Take this and sit down.”

“Fuck you. I should shoot you in the face right now.”

“Alex, be calm.” Krom growled into Alex’s ear. “You need to see this. Is most important thing that will ever happen to you.”

Puzzled more than anything else by now, Alex snatched the envelope from Peter then, and in a useless act of defiance, stood instead of sitting on the long, brown couch that took up a wall in the master bedroom of his vacation home in Madrid.

After pulling out the contents of the envelope, he wished he’d listened to Krom, because with just the briefest glimpse at the pictures inside, he found himself falling like an invalid and landing hard on the soft cushions, almost sliding off the couch. He’d lost the ability to feel anything beyond overwhelming confusion and a shock so profound he found himself unable to think. It couldn’t be…there was no way. He held up the photograph and stared at it, hard, examining a woman who almost looked like his Jessica with deep brown hair and a little girl that had the Novikov gray ringed with black eyes and auburn hair that matched Peter’s. Except her eyes had a feline tilt to them that matched her mother’s now brown eyes.

With his hands shaking, hell, his whole body trembling, he looked at the next picture, this one causing black spots to dance around the edges of his vision. Her feline blue eyes, a little older now, smiled at him as she posed for a picture with the little girl. This one, he assumed, had been taken a few years ago. She must have forgotten to put her fake contacts in and the sight of her brilliant blue eyes made black dots dance around the edges of his vision before he gasped in a strangled breath.

He saw his eye color and her shape blended perfectly in their daughter’s round little face.

Something lurched in his chest, and he pulled in another tortured gasp of air. It couldn’t be. They were dead. And yet the females in this picture glowed with life and happiness. Then again, he could see differences in Jessica now that he studied her image closer. Small lines around her eyes and the baby fat all gone from her face now, revealing the stunning beauty he’d seen from the moment their gaze met across a busy pub in Dublin all those years ago.

The memory assaulted him, his recollection of that moment perfect down to the scent of the pub mixing with his damp wool jacket.

Jessica.

Alive?

He didn’t realize he’d spoken those words aloud until Peter said in an urgent voice. “I know this is a lot to take in, but time is of the essence. She’ll be here in an hour. Thinks she’s gettin’ a job over here, and the house comes with it as a perk. There are some things you need to know before she arrives. Things that you’ll hate, but must be said in order for you to understand why she left. And I need you to keep it together. If you can’t handle yourself, Krom’ll sit on ya.”

Utterly dazed, he looked up to Krom. The scarred, stern man didn’t remember that night because of his head injury and blamed himself for Jessica’s death. He’d never gotten over it.

“It is Jessica. She is alive,” Krom confirmed, then closed his eyes, “I made Peter show me the evidence before it was revealed to you. If he was wrong, I did not want to have you endure the pain of false hope. She is alive. Somehow, I did not fail her.”

“You did not fail her,” Alex replied on a whisper. He felt a mighty load began to lift from his soul. “I need to know what happened.”

“Your father.” Peter held up his hand when Alex began to growl. “Control yourself. Your father convinced Jessica that if she stayed, her baby would die…or you would. Though I don’t know exactly what was said, he easily manipulated Jessica into going into hiding. New name, new life, new everything back in the United States. Under strict orders from Jorg to never contact you again.”

The need to rage, to destroy, to roar with anger tore at him, but he did not have the luxury of indulging his anger if Jessica was indeed truly on her way here. Yet the thought that his father did this to him, that somehow that vile old monster had taken Jessica away, sank inside of his heart like poison. Jorg knew how much Alex had suffered and had never said anything.

He couldn’t die soon enough to pay for his sins.

“Relax, Alex,” Krom murmured. “Do not meet her again with murder in your heart. God takes away blessings from those who do not appreciate it. Yes?”

Forcing himself to calm down, to appreciate the miracle that was really happening and wasn’t some twisted dream he liked to torture himself with, Alex stared at the pictures, lovingly setting each one on the brass and glass table before the couch with a shaking hand. The third image was of an exhausted and melancholy looking Jessica smiling at the camera with a newborn Tatiana in her arms. His daughter had been born with a patch of peach-colored fuzz on her tiny head. The next one was of Jessica sleeping with the baby curled up on her chest. Jessica had her hand on the baby’s little rump, holding their daughter close even in her sleep. A kind looking, young woman with long, dark hair held back in a braid with a pink ribbon through it was captured in the photo pulling the blanket up around them, no doubt tucking his exhausted woman in for a well-deserved nap.

He wished with all his heart he had been there.

The enormity of what he’d been missing in his life stared back him in the last picture. It was more recent, and he knew his daughter should be a over four years old right now. Mother and daughter were curled up together in a hammock. The nicely rounded woman with light brown skin and black hair held back in a single braid who had been in the hospital picture now blew bubbles at them in the new picture. Jessica was laughing, her fingertips reached out as though to touch a bubble, and he could see more of his Jessica in this photo. Despite her artificially dark hair, which looked good on her, she couldn’t get rid of her freckles and his fingers trembled as he touched the image of her face.

The thought that soon he’d be able to touch her in the flesh almost destroyed him.

Sucking in a hard breath through his nose, he said in a low, furious voice, “My father was behind this?”

“Easy,” Peter warned. “Your father thought, in his own psychotic way, he was protecting her from your enemies. When he was lucid enough to realize what he’d done, he decided it was better for her to be out of your life, and his, forever. Out of the reach of those who would kill Tatiana, so he set them up with new identities, money, and forbid her to ever see you again.”

Giving a cry of pure rage, Alex exploded off the couch then began to throw anything he could get his hands on, needing some outlet for the emotions rampaging through him. His frenzy went on for a while until he stood there, sweating and panting, his right hand bleeding where he’d cut it on something. The room was utterly destroyed, but he’d calmed enough to think.

Peter said in a dry voice, “You now have half an hour until she’s here.”

Glaring at the other man, Alex strode past Peter and into his bathroom, stripping down and washing up as best he could in less than five minutes. He didn’t give a fuck as his hand bled or that the water pouring off his face was more from tears than shower spray. Once he got out, Krom was there with a change of clothes and a med kit while Maks and Peter were cleaning up the room behind him. The scarred man silently bandaged Alex’s hand then left so Alex could get dressed. He shrugged on his shirt and froze while looking in the mirror.

There, inked into his flesh, was the memorial to his wife and daughter…who were not dead.

Two perfect roses that lived on, taken from him by his father.

If his father wasn’t dead by the time he returned home, Alex was going to personally kill him and smile while he did it.

He buttoned his shirt as best he could with his shaking, injured hand, which had begun to throb, before finishing getting ready in less than seven minutes.

Krom held up a black suit coat for Alex, which he shrugged on. Sudden elation filled him at the thought that he was getting ready to see Jessica again. His most fervent prayers had been answered. On the heels of that came crushing disbelief, and he wondered if he was losing his mind like his father had. These intense emotions were coming out of nowhere, hammering at his self-control, making him feel for the first time in years.

“Alex,” Peter said in a low voice, “Listen to me. I believe she is going to try to run away from you. She probably still believes that, if she returns, Jorg will kill her and take Tatiana away. No one has approached her yet. You will be the first, but this will be a great shock to her. You must control yourself.”

“Control myself?
Control
myself?” He trembled with the need for violence, the anger coming hard and fast that this man would dare imply Alex would ever hurt her. “If I did not control myself, you would have been dead the moment I laid eyes on you, and I would
never
abuse my wife.”

Peter shifted uncomfortably. “I’m not sayin’ ya would. Just go easy on her.”

“I do not care if I have to chain her to our bed for the next twenty years, she will never escape from me again.” He pulled out his phone and began to dial his brother’s number. “We do not have much time. Peter, is she bringing our daughter with her?”

“No. She’s back in the States with her nanny.”

“I want my daughter brought to me in Moscow. We will leave here tomorrow so that should give them time to pack whatever they want to bring with them. Only a few clothes, I will provide everything they need so only personal items and mementos. And they bring the nanny as well. Persuade her.”

“Maybe we should wait for Jessica—”

“I have lived with the belief that my daughter was
dead
. You will bring her to me, now!”

“It will be done,” Krom said in a low voice.

Peter threw up his hands. “You’re just gonna piss her off.”

Something occurred to Alex, and he paused as he left a text for his brother to call him as soon as possible. “Peter, why aren’t you with her? Where’s Mary?”

“Mary is back home with April. She’s got pneumonia, and we didn’t want to leave her without a parent.” He ran a hand through his thinning hair. “Jessica doesn’t know she’s been found yet, and if she sees me, she’ll know you aren’t far behind. I know how you’ve suffered without her and wished I could do something to help you. Now I can. You need to talk to her before I do, but rest assured, I’ll be having words with my niece about not coming to me for help. You have an uphill battle, Alex. I hope you realize this. From what I’ve seen, Jessica is a different woman now, not the one you used to know.”