Soldier's Redemption Read online

  Dasha handed Skylar her red coat. “I found that in the bedroom. I’m surprised you didn’t sell it, too. Put it over your uniform.”

  There was a quick knocking sound. As Dasha answered the door, Skylar put on her coat. Now she had a pocket. Ian Banderas slipped inside with a draft of cold air. This was what Skylar had been waiting for, but now that the moment to act was upon her, she couldn’t. What’s more, her head swam, and she looked longingly toward the bathroom that suddenly seemed a mile away.

  “Help me get her out to the van,” Dasha said.

  “What’s wrong with her?”

  “The pills. She’ll snap out of it.”

  “Where’s her suitcase?”

  “She sold it. We’ll check one of my bags as hers so it won’t look suspicious.”

  “Bathroom,” Skylar managed to mutter, but it sounded garbled to her own ears and they ignored her. Banderas clutched her arm. “I have good news for you,” he crooned into her ear. “Your friend Malina worked out so well the sponsoring family wants another helper. Won’t it be nice to see her again?” He soothed her hair. “You’re going to have a new life, sweetheart. You’re going to be an American!”

  Malina was alive!

  Ian turned back to Dasha. “The family is paying extra for you to deliver her to their estate.”

  “What do I do with the other girls while I’m driving around with her?”

  “Someone will meet you at the airport and take them to their next destination. Here,” he continued, producing a paper and pencil. “Write a note and leave it on the table for her landlady. Put a few euros with it. Hurry up.”

  All Skylar could think about was the fact Malina wasn’t dead. There was a chance to save her, a chance for Skylar to redeem herself, to make amends for getting the girl’s mother killed.

  “Did your men get Bennett?”

  “We’ll discuss that later,” Ian said.

  Get Bennett? Had they tried to hurt Cole? The elation of a moment before disappeared into the certainty of what they would do to Cole if they found him.

  “You’re getting careless, Ian,” Dasha said, switching to English, probably so the girl they thought was Katerina wouldn’t understand them. “Too many people know about you.”

  “I’ve cleaned up my share of dead ends,” he replied.

  “What do you mean by that?”

  “I mean you had one simple job to do in Slovo, and you botched it.”

  “The girl is Futura’s niece,” Dasha said.

  “Yes, and she is getting close to discovering I killed Aneta. That bitch actually threatened me. Anyway, because of Futura’s niece, we’re going to have to cut this venture short or figure out a way to eliminate her.” He looked at Skylar, who didn’t have to work too hard to appear spaced out. Hearing her uncle’s name on top of Malina’s and Cole’s left her reeling, let alone their plans for her.

  Dasha was undeterred. “When he finds out the messy way you went about taking care of this latest little problem and her friend, he’s going to come unglued.”

  “What’s he going to do? I own him, and he owns the police. Everything is fine. Are you done with that note yet?”

  “Yes.”

  “Come on, Katerina,” Ian said to Skylar. “Let’s get to the airport.” Dasha took the other arm, and they left the little house together, not bothering to turn off the lights or close the door. The walk through the garden seemed interminable. They approached a van, and the next thing she knew, Skylar was being helped into the back. The door slid shut, and the van took off.

  Under the cover of darkness, tears filled Skylar’s eyes as she thought of Svetlana and all the others—and most of all, Cole. She’d pushed him away when she should have found a way to work with him. And now she might never have the chance to feel his arms around her again.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Cole blended into the trees as three people left the house he’d trailed Katerina to a short while before.

  His idea had been to identify Katerina at Pushki’s then find out where she lived so he and Irina could approach her the next day. The addition of phony facial hair, knit cap and thick glasses gave him a sense of anonymity, and things had gone according to plan. Once he’d trailed her through the garden, however, he’d seen her lights go on and heard another woman’s voice so he’d crouched under a window and listened. Soon after that, Ian Banderas arrived. The walls were so thin the voices were clear, but he couldn’t understand a blasted word until they switched to English and argued about who was the more efficient thug.

  And then that flash of red he’d seen when the door had opened just now. If that coat wasn’t Skylar’s, it was its double. Katerina hadn’t been wearing it when she left the restaurant, so how did it end up on her back now?

  Maybe Skylar had come to talk to her and left it here or had it taken from her....

  “Skylar?” he murmured, ducking into the house, pausing at the bedroom doorway, half expecting to find her lifeless body, sighing with relief when he found nothing. He walked back into the living space that combined the kitchen and a couple of chairs at a small table, uncertain what to make of this. He noticed the note on the table but couldn’t read it.

  Maybe there were other coats like Skylar’s, but hadn’t she told him the first night they had dinner that she made hers and it was a one of a kind? Still, a red coat was a red coat, right?

  A very soft vibrating noise suddenly caught his attention, and he turned in a wide circle to see where it came from. The place looked all but abandoned. He opened a few drawers, but they were mostly empty. Eventually he found himself heading toward the bedroom where, upon a closer look, he found a few pieces of clothes he recognized as Skylar’s stacked on the top shelf of the closet. His heart sank.

  The noise started again, and this time it was closer and more distinct. He walked into the tiny bathroom and picked up the small garbage can, lifting old clothes and finding a cell phone set on vibrating mode. With the sweep of a finger, he turned on the screen. The ID showed the call was from Skylar’s aunt. Taking care not to answer the call, he checked the information screen. Yep, it was Skylar’s. If her phone and clothes had been abandoned in this shabby little hole in the wall, it meant something had happened to her. The girl wearing her coat was his one and only lead.

  He racked his brain, trying to remember if he’d understood anything of the conversation he’d overheard. He had recognized Skylar’s and Futura’s names and even his own. And he’d heard reference to the airport.

  Of course. The airport.

  The phone stopped vibrating. He slipped it in his pocket, then left, running up the path and back to the café area where he could hail a cab. His knee throbbed with the exertion, but he ignored the pain. He had to get to the airport—now.

  * * *

  IT WAS IMPOSSIBLE NOT TO notice the extra security, thanks, no doubt, to the dead body in the bathroom. Cole did his best to blend in, extra glad of the disguise.

  If Banderas and company were going to America and they weren’t taking a private jet, then they had to be on the flight Cole was already checked in to. He took a circuitous route to his terminal, ditched the beard and the glasses and kept the mustache.

  As casually as he could, he inspected the other passengers waiting in the enclosed area. He found no sign of Katerina and began to panic. Maybe he’d misunderstood the word for airport or maybe there was a private strip.

  Boarding for first-class passengers began but he held back, his patience eventually rewarded when he spied the striking brunette in an official-looking jacket coming toward him. She was surrounded by four girls, one of them Katerina. They all appeared to be a little scared, a little excited and a little drugged, and they, too, all wore the same jacket and even the same long black skirt as though part of a group. He had to find a way to separate Katerina from the rest and ask her about Skylar.

  Nearby, he noticed Banderas standing with arms crossed, surveying the area from a distance. It didn’t appear he was
boarding. While firearms weren’t allowed in the airport, there wasn’t a doubt in his mind Banderas could get around that rule easily, and Cole would be willing to bet his own face was at least known to the man.

  To make things worse, the guy from the incident in the bathroom was prowling the area. It was only a matter of time before they spotted him. Add all the airport security they could summon that he could not and the whole thing became daunting.

  What was he supposed to do? If he used his ticket, these two would be informed, and he’d be hauled off the plane and that would be the end of him. If he approached the woman holding Katerina, he’d be nabbed as well. He pulled his hat down and hunkered in a seat, staring at Katerina, making and discarding plans.

  And that’s when her gaze met his, and he felt a jolt of recognition that shook him to his soul. His pulse raced; his mouth went dry. How could he not have realized it was Skylar under all that makeup? Her nose, her lips, her alpine-blue eyes? His heart lodged in his throat.

  He expected her to break away and run to him or at least plead silently for help. His body tensed as he plotted a way to put himself between her and Banderas. But Skylar looked away at once. Was it because she hated him? No, that wasn’t it. He’d seen the same flash of longing on her face that he felt in his heart. For reasons of her own, she didn’t want him to interfere.

  She boarded the plane with the others, and Cole managed a shaky breath. Now all he had to do was figure out a way to board without Banderas and his crony getting wind of it, but amazingly enough, that problem seemed to melt away. The two men sauntered off as though it never occurred to them Cole would be at the airport.

  Last chance boarding was announced. Cole checked in at the desk and ran to make the plane. His goal was finally obvious to him, his mission defined with crystal clarity: save Skylar at any cost.

  * * *

  SKYLAR KEPT HER MOUTH SHUT as she’d been instructed. Her mind, however, was screaming at the top of its lungs: she’d seen Cole!

  He’d changed a little in the hours they’d spent apart. He’d acquired a hat and a plaid jacket and a mustache, but it was him, in the flesh. It had taken every ounce of self-control she possessed not to reach out to him.

  She wasn’t sure how involved her uncle was in this horrible ring Dasha and Ian were running. She wanted him to be an innocent victim, but she kept going over what Cole had told her of the past and the way her uncle had spoken when she questioned him. He’d been hiding something, she knew that; maybe she’d always known that.

  As much as she wanted to blame Ian Banderas for everything, Ian had been a small boy thirty years before. He couldn’t have been responsible for destroying Cole’s family.

  She wanted a chance to tell Cole she should have given him the opportunity to explain things better, she should have tried to keep an open mind and not been blinded by family loyalty and her own pride. Lovers worked things out and they helped each other. Despite the way he’d lied to her, she was finally able to admit that the depth of their feelings for each other was real. No man could fake what she’d seen in Cole’s eyes a few moments before, and no woman could deny what Skylar felt in her heart.

  But he mustn’t try to help her until she found Malina, and she had no way of telling him that. Her gut said he was on this plane, but she could hardly parade around and look for him. She’d been told to keep quiet, answer only to the name Susan, and stay in her seat. She had the uneasy feeling there would be additional drugs: it was a ten-hour flight. But this time, come hell or high water, she wouldn’t take them. She fell asleep with that thought.

  * * *

  THANKS TO TIME CHANGES, it was still the middle of the night when they landed. When going through customs, Cole strained to keep an eye out for Skylar. He cleared before her group and went into the waiting area where he took up a spot around a corner.

  For an instant, he toyed around with alerting the authorities but abandoned it. Who would believe him? Besides, he had to trust Skylar’s motives for advancing this charade. There must be something important at stake, and he didn’t know what it was.

  The group finally emerged from customs. Cole couldn’t take his gaze off Skylar. She looked pale and tired, but the sparkle was back in her eyes, and he could tell she was pretending to be as sleepy as everyone else. She kept with the group, but as she passed him, she glanced up, and Cole swore she mouthed the word, “Follow.”

  After they had gone on by, Cole did just that. They went through baggage claims together and moved in a group outside where the sun was just beginning to rise.

  The embassy woman began talking to the girls. Cole made a big deal out of looking like a perturbed commuter awaiting a ride. Eventually, a harried-looking man arrived. The embassy woman gave him a manila envelope bulging with papers and sent him back inside with the other girls as if to catch a new flight.

  The woman hailed a cab, and Cole saw Skylar and her get into the cab. He got in the one right behind it and tapped the driver on the shoulder. “Stay with the cab in front, but don’t be too obvious,” he said.

  The driver got into the spirit of the thing and stayed a good distance behind. The ground was covered with snow, the tree limbs bare and black as they drove into the countryside. The burgeoning light lay low and heavy in the leaden sky.

  It took well over two hours before the cab turned into the private estate of a huge house in a valley outside the city. The gates closed behind it. Cole got out of the cab and stood for a moment considering his options as his breath condensed around his face.

  Prudence said to guard the gate and wait for what comes next. A normal guy might enlist the aid of the cops. But Cole, in his heart of hearts, was still a soldier, and sometimes a soldier had to take calculated risks.

  He got back in the cab. “Drive me to the nearest town,” he said. “And hurry.”

  * * *

  THE WAY DONALD KESTER looked Skylar up and down gave her the creeps. His patrician face was cold, his gaze calculating. He looked like he ate kittens for breakfast.

  His wife, Esther, wasn’t much better. Prim, thin and with a beaked nose, she and her husband made a dandy pair. “This girl is a ragamuffin,” Esther said in clipped English.

  “Mrs. Kester, please. She will clean up very pretty,” Dasha responded.

  “Look at her hair. It appears to have been cut with a lawn mower.”

  The man blinked as he raked Skylar’s body with his eyes. “We’ll take her. You can have the other one back.”

  “Back?” Dasha said. “What do you mean, back? I thought you wanted two of them. I can’t take Malina back.”

  “We no longer wish to support her,” the man said. “She cries all the time.”

  “Is she good with your children?” Dasha asked.

  Esther tilted her long head. “Shall we just be blunt? Our children are away at a boarding school most of the time. The girl is here to do my bidding and provide...entertainment...for my husband. She is slow with the housework and uncooperative in the bedroom.” She looked at Skylar again and sighed. “At least this one seems to have a little fire in her eyes.”

  Dasha, assuming Skylar couldn’t understand a word of this, smiled as though to reassure her everything was fine. You unmitigated bitch were the words that sailed through Skylar’s mind as she returned the smile. “I’ll have to contact my partner,” Dasha continued. “I can’t possibly take her today. A new...situation...will have to be found. Tomorrow morning would be the soonest.”

  “That’s acceptable,” the man interrupted. “Now, tell the girl to come with me. I’ll be right back to complete this transaction.”

  Dasha switched languages and directed Skylar to follow the man. As he led her across the foyer, Skylar was afraid he’d try to grab her and she’d have to let him have it. She couldn’t let that happen; she had to find Malina. Then it was just a matter of applying a little Yankee ingenuity. Breaking a window, perhaps, appealing to the other servants, such as the guy who had ushered them in a short while ago. I
f Malina didn’t speak English, how could she plead her case with Americans? But Skylar was here now. Things would change—and soon, too.

  “You’re a pretty little thing,” Mr. Kester said, turning to leer at her. He had to know she supposedly couldn’t understand him, but he continued anyway. “You’ll have to share a room tonight with that wretch, but she’ll be gone tomorrow and then you and I can get acquainted.”

  Over my dead body, Skylar whispered in her head.

  He took her up a flight of stairs, then unlocked a door at the end of a hallway. With a none too gentle push, he sent her inside the room. “Welcome to your new home, Katerina,” he said as he shut the door and relocked it. Skylar listened to his retreating footsteps.

  “Katerina?”

  Skylar turned. A young version of Svetlana looked up at her from a chair across the room.

  “You’re not Katerina,” the girl said, her voice falling.

  “You must be Malina. I’ll explain everything.”

  “Did you bring help?” Malina asked.

  “I’m not positive,” Skylar said, “but either which way, I’ll get you out of here and soon, too.”

  “Are you nuts? Take a look around you. There are no windows, and the only door is locked. I’m never allowed around the others without supervision. You’ve just become a prisoner, like me.”

  * * *

  HE WASN’T POSITIVE SHE was still in the house, but he had to proceed under the assumption she was. The day had gone on forever, but three hours before a lone woman had driven away in an old car so he assumed some of the help had left. Then about an hour ago, he’d seen the upstairs lights flicker off. The family should be asleep by now. Time to go to work.

  “Are you sure you just want me to hang around out here?” Tyler asked.

  “Yeah,” Cole replied. He’d called both his brothers from town. John was caught in the Midwest’s worst snowstorm of the century, but Tyler had actually been in New York, with his wife, Juliet, where they’d been enjoying a small vacation before the upcoming birth of their first child. He’d dropped everything and driven up here, arriving a little while ago. He was as big as Cole, about two years older, a good-looking guy partial to vests and jeans and boots as befitted a cattle rancher. Cole had spent the past thirty minutes bringing him up to speed with what was going on here and in Kanistan.