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“That’ll be a credit card,” said Yulia, fishing the shiny card out of her purse. She gave Annika a withering look. “A brand-newcredit card, since my lovely daughter decided to steal my old one and take off to California.”
Amanda looked very uncomfortable, her eyes shifting between the mother and daughter as Annika sighed heavily. “Thanks, Mom.”
“Don’t mention it,” she replied sharply.
She turned on her heel and headed up to the register with Amanda trailing behind. Annika rolled her eyes and wandered away, looking out the front shop window at the sunny parking lot of the shopping plaza. There were throngs of people shopping, chatting, taking selfies, laughing, hanging out together. Annika watched them, wondering if she would ever have that easy back and forth with someone. Clearly, her mother and father never understood her. Even her so-called friends in ballet class had been selected carefully by her parents and then ripped away the second Annika was engaged to Mikhail. It seemed foolish to hope for that kind of closeness with her future husband. He wasn’t exactly the soft and cuddly type.
As she was thinking about him, Annika was surprised to see him outside, obvious personal security around him. At first, she thought her eyes were playing tricks on her. Why would he be here? What purpose did a rough, callous man like Mikhail have for being in an upscale shopping center in a rich neighborhood?
But the closer he approached, the more distinct his features were. Annika’s heart pounded as she clocked his brooding gaze and powerful gait. He was striding straight toward her. He was the one who’d allowed her to go on this bridal boutique outing with her mother, so Annika thought perhaps he’d come to collect her. Surely, he would toss her back into that damn locked room with the security camera again.
Checking to make sure her mother wasn’t watching, Annika quietly stepped outside under the boutique’s awning. Mikhail walked right up to her, and somehow he seemed even taller and broader than she recalled. He loomed over her as he asked, “How did it go?”
“Wedding dress acquired,” she answered, looking up at him.
He nodded slowly. “Good. Because I have another mission for you.”
CHAPTER9
MIKHAIL
Mikhail glancedover at the young woman in his passenger seat. It was unusual, having a woman sit up front with him. It wasn’t that Mikhail ascribed to sexist tradition, but that he quite simply never had a woman next to him like this. Most of the time, Mikhail worked alone. He was self-sufficient and confident in his lone wolf status. He rarely needed—much less wanted—a partner working with him. His father had taught him from a very young age that, at the end of the day, Mikhail had only himself to count on. Even when he did work with another guy on a mission, they almost never rode in the same car. Apart from simply preferring to operate in secrecy and silence on his own, it was often more strategic to split up. Putting everyone in one vehicle made them an easy target. More birds, one stone. And so he drove alone.
Not today, though. Annika was sitting quietly, gazing out the window at the desert landscape rolling by. The last time they were in a car together, she was in the backseat. More like cargo than a passenger. Mikhail remembered vividly the imploding anger between them the last time they had ridden together. He had been so pissed off, so annoyed that he’d to abandon his usual endeavors to go far out of his way and pick up his runaway bride. She had been an errand to him. Another responsibility he had to shoulder by himself. She was a chink in his armor and a thorn in his side. It had felt so beneath him to go pick her up. Despite her beauty, which was undeniable, Mikhail had immediately assumed she was useless to him.
Now, he was starting to reconsider his original conclusions about her. Perhaps her time in captivity at the penthouse was working; maybe she was warming up to her new fiancé and new lifestyle. He treated her outing to the bridal boutique with her mother as an experiment. Sure, she did need to pick out a wedding dress, but it was even more important to Mikhail that she didn’t even attempt to bolt. He had watched her all morning from a distance, his security detail spreading out in an ever-widening net around him, letting her think she had some privacy away from him for once. He wanted to see what she would do without him holding her hostage. The appointment had dragged on for hours, with plenty of tiny windows of opportunity for her to go running out of the shopping plaza and pull some ridiculous escape scenario. The Desert Rose was centrally located. The door wasn’t locked. There were plenty of security guards, policemen, and passersby she could’ve run to for help.
Instead, she stayed put, obediently trying on dresses for hours without fleeing. Mikhail was pleased. Day by day, Annika seemed less like a feral cat he was trying to keep indoors, and more like an authentic, strong, smart companion to him in his dark world.
He still had his doubts, of course, as he looked over at her in the fading afternoon sunlight. She wasn’t trained to fight or even defend herself. That made her a liability. But Annika seemed eager to learn in the bedroom, and now it was time to teach her some lessons out in the field, too. He didn’t expect today’s mission to be particularly difficult, though it did require about an hour of driving to get there. His bodyguards and security followed discreetly in two jeeps.
Mikhail gazed straight ahead at the barren, dusty highway before them. On either side of the car, the desert seemed to stretch out endlessly. They hadn’t passed another vehicle in probably half an hour. It was easy to imagine oneself totally alone in the world. The golden sand, ochre hills, and gray mountains were their only friends out here. It was a no-man’s-land, or so it appeared. But on the horizon, a tiny oasis was starting to emerge like a mirage.
“Remind me again where we’re going?” Annika asked, turning to him.
“Katja’s Cathouse,” Mikhail answered. “Another business under the Sokolov name.”
“Cathouse? What is it, like, a pet store or something?” she perked up.
Mikhail couldn’t help but chuckle as he shook his head. Annika was so innocent.
“There’s definitely some petting going on there, but no,” he said.
Annika frowned. “Well, what is it, then?”
He looked over at her, smirking. “A brothel.”
Her eyes went huge. “Isn’t that illegal?”
“Not in every county,” he said. “Besides, the law doesn’t always apply to men like me.”
Annika scoffed. “Oh, because you’re so special?”
“Yes, actually. I’m the fucking shit,” Mikhail asserted. “Now, you have to remember that all these women you’ll see are on the organization’s payroll. Don’t get jealous of how they act when I walk in.”
“God, you’re so full of yourself,” she groaned.
“Don’t say I didn’t warn you,” he remarked, holding back laughter.
