There’s a strange charge in the air as we stare at each other silently. There are so many unsettled emotions and words between us. But this isn’t the time to hash out the past. I peer past her and into the vehicle, searching for Rod’s guy.
“You come to see us off?” I ask, still focused on the car.
“Not exactly.”
“What does that mean?” She has my full attention now.
“It means it’s just me.”
I digest her statement, jaw ticking as she slings a bag over her shoulder and closes the car door.
“Wait. What do you mean, it’s just you? You for what?”
“I’m your guy—your girl. Rodrigo sent me—”
“Stop,” I say, blinking furiously and wholly taken back. “You’re not implying what I think you are, are you? That you are running this shipment with me?”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying.”
No. Fuck, no. This has to be a joke. Rodrigo wouldn’t screw me over like this, sending his baby sister to an arms deal across the country.
“No, absolutely not.”
Leah’s face tightens, and she narrows her eyes. “What, you think because I’m a woman, I can’t possibly know what the fuck I’m doing? That I’m not good enough?”
“Since when do you run shipments, Leah?”
She gasps and storms up to me, craning her neck to look me in the eye as a perfectly manicured finger points at my face. “Since four years ago when someone screwed me over, so I decided to be spontaneous and join the family business.”
“No, the answer is no.”
A grin tilts the side of her mouth.
“Well, suit yourself. We’re on schedule for the drop, so you either get on the plane or I leave without you. Don’t fuck with my money, Mikki.”
She claps my chest as she walks past me, then waves over her driver, who’s waiting with a black suitcase in hand. A growl rattles in my chest.
She’s crazy if she thinks this drop is happening. “Leah, wait.”
But she purposely ignores me and disappears into the cabin. I’ll kill him. Rodrigo is dead. “Shall I load your bag, Mr. Petrov?”
I grab the handle of my suitcase and nod at William before making my way up the stairs and onto the private jet. My breath catches in my throat when I find Leah, arms above her head, pulling off her sweater, a delicious sliver of skin on display for me. I’ve spent the better half of four years trying but failing to forget her, and here she is, making me realize that nothing has changed. The embers she left smoldering in my heart have reignited.
“Leah,” I sigh, clearing my head, “this can’t happen. You— This is life or death.”
“Doesn’t that sound familiar?”
She sits on one of the beige leather seats, crossing her legs slowly, capturing my attention. A jolt to the dick makes me shift my weight.
“You know what I mean.” Aggravation replaces the nostalgia of her presence.
“Oh, you think my brother just sent his poor, defenseless baby sis to an arms deal for shits and giggles. Did it ever occur to you that this is what I do?”
My forehead creases with intrigue and confusion. “No, last I heard, you moved to Spain.” Hurt flashes in her eyes.
“You think I’ve just been gallivanting across the globe, spending Daddy’s money and looking pretty?”
“I could think of one hundred things you’ve been doing besides this.”
“You’re impossible,” she groans and gets to her feet. As much as I try to ignore that sweet sound, I instantly crave to hear it again, to hear her break with my name on her lips like she did when she was mine.
“Mikhail, I know what I’m doing.”
Leah is standing about a foot in front of me, and the urge to reach for her is damn near overwhelming. But this is business. I can’t let our past get in the way of the job.
“Do you?”
She smirks, peering at me through thick lashes, hands crawling up my chest. “Maybe you can be the judge of that?”
I swallow hard and catch her wrists. “That’s not what I was referring to.”
When she bites her lip, it takes everything in me not to haul her to my waist. “I know what you meant.” Freeing herself from my grasp, she struts back to her seat. My eyes stray to her plump little ass beneath a tight grey skirt.
Leah is sin incarnate. I want nothing more than to bend her over the seat, push that goddamn skirt over her ass, and take back what’s mine.
CHAPTER 8
LEAH
