Evangeline waved him away. “Get to it. Meiling, later I might be able to find some of the books that inspired me.”
“I’d love that. Thank you.”
Gedeon went straight for a table where he had a good view of the door and anyone coming through it. He put the coffee mugs and pastry dishes down and indicated for Meiling to sit to his right. She slid onto the comfortable chair and placed the stack of books on top of the table along with the tablet and photographs Atwater had given them. The photographs were placed picture-side down.
“Do you have notebooks and pens?” he asked.
“Yes, although I should be asking you that question.” She flicked him a quick glance. The bakery was beginning to fill up with customers. The bodyguards weren’t watching them so closely. She placed one hand over her mouth, her eyes going wide as if astonished at how good the pastry she’d barely taken a bite of was.
“Three cameras. Four o’clock. Six o’clock and twelve o’clock. Glass is thick, looks bulletproof to me. The two men sitting just to the right of the window are leopard and are clearly guarding Evangeline. They mean business too. They’re armed to the teeth.” She reached inside her coat and pulled out two notebooks and a package of pens, placing them on the table between them.
“Anyone coming in look suspicious to you? As if they might have followed us?” Gedeon leaned in to her on the pretense of picking up one of the pens and a notebook. It would be impossible for the cameras to pick up his lips moving.
Meiling shook her head. “We weren’t followed. I really like the atmosphere here, Gedeon, although why they let you in, I have no idea.” Deliberately, she allowed the bodyguards to read her lips. “I would think you might be considered trouble.”
One coughed behind his hand. The other snickered and turned it into a cough. Gedeon flicked his ice-cold gaze in their direction.
“Do you know them?” Meiling asked. Her coffee cup was up to her lips, hiding anything she said.
He nodded, not liking that she was curious. Was that interest in her eyes? He realized he was becoming more possessive of her the longer he spent time with her. That wasn’t a good sign. She seemed able to detach her emotions from him. The physical attraction that had been there when they first were together had slipped away, at least onher side. Now she didn’t flirt with him. She might tease him, but she wasn’t flirtatious. He didn’t want her flirting with the guards. He didn’t want her flirting with anyone but him. He also couldn’t afford to fuck up their professional relationship or their friendship with irrational jealousy.
He had come to Evangeline’s bakery on purpose. Fyodor Amurov was not a man you fucked with. The other men holding territories all had close ties to him. The moment the plane had touched down and Gedeon Volkov had walked off it, Fyodor would have been informed. Gedeon was bad news. He had a reputation for leaving behind dead bodies. Fyodor, like all the other heads of the families, would want to know why he was in town. It was smart to be proactive and pay his respects to Amurov first.
“Yes, the man on the right is named Kyanite Boston. The other is Rodion Galerkin. Leopards out of Russia. They work for Fyodor and are watching out for his wife.” He might not like it, but he gave them their due. “They wouldn’t be given that assignment if they weren’t considered extremely fast, the best he has.”
“That’s nice,” Meiling said, taking another drink of coffee. “That he would care enough to put his best men on his wife.”
Gedeon knew she was thinking about the fact that Fredrick Atwater hadn’t put bodyguards on his daughter and she’d been kidnapped.
“Yeah, Lotus, Fyodor puts Evangeline first always.”
“Says a lot about him. And you were so right, this coffee is good. If it wasn’t for the beignets at the Café Du Monde, we would have to move here.” She took a bite of an apricot scone. “Seriously, Gedeon, think about it, I could learn to fly a plane.”
“I have a pilot’s license,” he admitted.
Her head jerked up and she narrowed her eyes at him. Those dark eyes that looked like two liquid pools of waterhe could drown in. She had a beautiful face. He often stared at the oval delicacy of it. The way her bones appeared so fragile, the high cheekbones and aristocratic nose and that chin that drew his attention like a magnet. He wanted to shape her face with his hands, run his fingers over her petal-soft skin, trace her full lips and commit every detail to memory over and over. He was tactile with her—not with anyone else, just Meiling.
“That is withholding important information. Do you own a plane?”
“I do. It’s a small plane. Nothing fancy. I bought it for fun, not for going from one country to another.”
“In the grand scheme of things, Mr. Volkov, having a plane and a pilot’s license would come in very handy if I were in desperate need of an apricot scone and great coffee one morning after putting up with your annoying two a.m. calls so you can get decent sleep because Mr. Sinister is acting up.”
He struggled not to laugh. She was hilarious. “Mr. Sinister?”
“Well, he’s not Mr. Bojangles, and you shot down Mr. Sparkles, which was a perfectly good name. I could have shortened it to Sparky.” She took another bite of the apricot scone and closed her eyes as if savoring the pastry.
Her long black lashes feathered in a crescent against her skin. He found it sexy. His body stirred again, and he had to force himself to look away from her. God help him if she moaned. He wasn’t the only one looking at her. Kyanite and Rodion were looking too. For one terrible moment, that murderous part of him he always kept contained rose up, threatening to take over. That didn’t happen on a job. Never out in public, especially when he knew he was being observed.
Behind the counter, where Evangeline helped a customer, the double doors leading to the kitchen opened and a tall man with wide shoulders, scars on his face and cold,flat eyes emerged. Almost at the same time, Meiling rose. “I’m heading to the ladies’ room and then getting more coffee before we start work. Do you want anything?”
“Order me another as well,” Gedeon said. He’d chosen the right woman. She was astute. Smooth. So natural, no one could fault her. He watched her walk to the room marked for women, her hips swaying gently. Rodion and Kyanite didn’t take their gazes off her either until the door closed, cutting off their view.
7
GEDEONrose as Timur Amurov came to the table. Timur was Fyodor’s brother and his number-one security man. Extending his hand, he gripped Timur’s and gave him a shark’s smile. “Good to see you again. How are things going?”
Timur waved him to a seat and sank into the one opposite him. “That depends on what you have to say, Gedeon.”
