Hadderwell sighed. Tall and balding, he was leaning against the wall, one eye on the stock trading app on his phone. “Brooks, you have no chance of taking this guy down.”
His buddy Fitch—short, squat, and with a thick, ginger mustache—put his feet up on a desk and grunted in agreement. “The guy’sserious.”
I crossed my arms and lifted my chin. “So am I.”
Early the next morning, I pulled up outside Gennadiy’s house, ready to start surveillance. I leaned forward, arms on the steering wheel, and just stared.
The place was massive, a beautiful three-story mansion at least a hundred years old, built from gray stone. What must a place like that cost, especially here, within easy driving distance of the city? Tens of millions, easily. And all of it from guns, drugs, and gambling. I felt the anger bloom in my chest, tensing my shoulders and then rolling down my spine. He’d got where he was by trampling the little people, by not caring who he hurt. Well,enough.My fingers squeezed the steering wheel.I’m taking you down.
One thing I had to grudgingly admit: the mansion was far moretasteful than the showy, tacky palaces most criminals spent their money on. He was a ruthless bastard…but he had class.
Then I got my second shock of the day. Gennadiy emerged from the mansion in a thunderstorm-gray suit and marched over to his BMW.He’s leaving already?!It wasn’t even seven a.m. yet! I’d gotten there what I thought was crazy early to make sure I caught him, but I hadn’t imagined him leaving for at least another hour or so. Apparently, he was an early riser, like me.
Gennadiy ran a hand lovingly over his car’s roof, then climbed in and drove off. I quickly started up my unmarked car and followed.
Usually, when we’re tailing a suspect, we’ll stay three cars behind them and keep passing them off between different agents so they don’t notice they’re being followed. But right now, I was staying close: IwantedGennadiy to see me. I wanted him to know he was under surveillance.
He was sharp. Within just a few minutes, he was checking his mirrors. Then he made a couple of unnecessary turns, just to see if I’d follow, and I did.
At the next red light, our cars stopped close enough that I could see him glaring at me in his rear-view mirror, his gray eyes absolutely furious. I smiled sweetly, feeling a little thrill of victory. I wanted him pissed off and shaken, I wanted himpressured.Pressured criminals make mistakes, and mistakes are how I catch them.
At first, I thought it wasn’t working. He drove with mechanical precision to the gleaming skyscraper that housed Aristov Incorporated, the massive property company run by his brother. I waited for him outside, then followed him to the casino. Then to the docks. Aside from the scowls he gave me each time he climbed out of his car, it was like he was pretending I wasn’t there.
But no criminal can be calm with a cop breathing down their neck. As the day went on, I saw his shoulders start to hunch with tension and his driving becoming jerky. I was getting to him.
And then, just as the sun was setting, it happened.
He turned suddenly down an alley, and I missed the turn and hadto reverse. For a second, I thought I’d lost him. Then I saw his car, down at the end. I accelerated...and then had to pull up fast when I realized his car was stopped. Too late, I saw that there was no one inside.
I saw movement in my peripheral vision, twisted around...and saw Gennadiy standing next to my car. He stared at me through the glass, his gray eyes breathtakingly cold. I swallowed. He was much,muchtaller than me, even when I was standing. Sitting down, it was like having a giant towering over me.
He put his hands on my car’s roof, like he was planning to rip it off. His fingers began a slow, deliberate drumbeat on the metal. His expression said,What are we going to do with you?
An iron band tightened around my chest. We were all alone in the alley. No one would see. Suddenly, following him on my own didn’t seem like such a great idea.
Gennadiy’s eyes flicked down to the window controls, then back up to mine. I debated, my heart hammering. If he wanted to, he could punch straight through the window anyway, and wrap those tattooed fingers around my throat again.
I thumbed the switch. The window hummed down, intrusively loud in the silence. A breeze swept down the alley, toying with his hair, and I caught a hint of his cologne. It was smooth and subtle, but it had a deep, rich finish of sandalwood and vanilla that was the most primally sexual thing I’d ever smelled. It was like being wrapped in strips of silk and then hauled in and smooshed against hard male muscle. My face heated, and a thread of energy corkscrewed down to my groin.Damn,he smelled good.
His eyes raked over me. They seemed to linger on my chest, even though there isn’t exactly much to see there, then carried on down over my gray suit pants. That magnificent, full lower lip curled. “So this is what you look like when you’re not all dressed in leather.” Maybe it was just his accent, butleathersounded teasing. He leaned in a little closer. “Why are you following me?”
“Why do you think?” I felt the anger rising: everything he was, everything he’d done, everythingpeople like himhad done. “Consideryourself put on notice, Mr. Aristov. The FBI is watching you very,veryclosely.”
He shook his head slowly, his eyes locked on mine. “Don’t try to take me on, Agent Brooks. You have no idea what I’m capable of.”
My stomach flipped, fear pushing aside the anger, and I fought to keep my voice level. “That sounds like a threat.”
“Threats are for people who are afraid to take action.”
He glowered down at me, willing me to back off, and I was scared enough that I almost did. He’d tensed in anger, and as his shoulders pulled back, his tailored shirt had pulled tight across the broad curves of his pecs. The physical presence of him was intimidating as hell, and coupled with that legendary rage... He couldend me without a second thought.
But that stubborn part of me right down at the center of my soul wouldn’t give in. I owed it to my parents. “Better tell that private chef of yours to start cooking you some prison food,” I managed. “Ease the transition.”
He blinked exactly once. Then his jaw set and?—
I felt something. Like after years of drifting through space, I’d suddenly collided with my perfect opposite, and we’d just locked together with a firm, magnetic seal, a human yin-yang symbol.
He’s my nemesis.That’s what it was. And as we stared at each other, I saw something change in his eyes.He feels it, too.
