Page 43 of Fergus

“You don’t?” Fergus looked surprised.

Thea thought she also saw relief in his eyes. “No. I’ve decided I don’t need to waste any more of my time on him than I already have.” After all, the evidence of Martin having followed her to Paris, where he had then attacked her, no doubt because by that time, he had realized she was there to ask Fergus for the helphewanted to offer her, was pretty overwhelming. Which meant he didn’t deserve either her concern or consideration.

“You really can ensure he won’t ever come near me again?” Thea was willing to ignore her aversion to violence if Nikolai could guarantee that was the case.

“I can,” Nikolai confirmed before checking the message that had just been delivered to his cell phone. “You should also know the man who shot Mr. Quinn this morning is now dead, after he resisted when my men tried to capture him. Lev Yegorov is now in the custody of more of my men and on his way to the same safe house as Hayes. I intend to question him myself. Perhaps being a witness to my questioning Yegorov will be enough of a deterrent to Hayes to stop him from bothering you again,” he added with satisfaction.

Thea swallowed, already shaken from the casual way in which Nikolai had said the man who shot Declan was now dead. “Question him…?”

“Yes.” Nikolai’s eyes narrowed. “I despise the greedy pigs who stole money from the ordinary people of Russia so that they could live in luxury in the West. And no, I am not one of them,” he assured. “I left Russia for England when I was sixteen, a penniless orphan who had lived and starved on the streets for all the years before that.”

Thea remembered Fergus had implied Nikolai’s background wasn’t one of wealth. “I’m sorry.”

Nikolai nodded. “I am wealthy now, and in a position of power. But I ensure that fifty percent of my wealth and my power is used for the good of the ordinary Russian people. Yegorov senior stole from them before escaping Russia with his son and his ill-gotten millions.”

There was no mistaking the vehemence in Nikolai’s voice or the cold glitter of intent in his eyes.

She nodded. “I would like you to take the fifty million pounds left to my mother and return that to the Russian people in whatever way you see fit.”

His eyes widened. “That money was left to you.”

She frowned. “It’s dirty money. Stolen from the people who need it. I don’t want it. I never did.”

Nikolai inclined his head. “Then I will gladly return it to my people. Thank you.”

“I still don’t understand why Lev changed his mind so drastically from wanting to marry me.” Thea quickly reached out to give Fergus’s arm a reassuring squeeze when he gave a low growl. “To him wanting to kill me,” she finished.

“Lev Yegorov no longer possesses the extensive wealth his father left him three years ago,” Nikolai told her. “He either gambled or snorted most of it away before leaving the US. In fact, debt was one of the reasons he left that country. He has gambled, snorted, or injected what was left of that money since moving to London.”

“He’s a drug addict?”

“Very much so.”

Thea’s eyes widened. “And he’s spent all those millions his father left him on drugs and gambling?” Unbelievable as that sounded, it would certainly explain why Lev was now so determined to marry her.

“I am afraid that Yegorov now has a serious addiction to heroin as well as to gambling.” Nikolai nodded. “He is also a terrible businessman, with one failed venture after another. An alliance between the two of you would have ensured he had access to the fifty million pounds your mother left you. No doubt so that he could gamble and shoot up and make bad business decisions with that too,” he added with distaste.

“But I offered togivethe money to him after my mother died,” Thea protested. “Several times.”

Nikolai’s chiseled lips quirked into a smile. “I did not say that was his only reason for wanting to marry you.”

“I don’t understand…”

“You are a beautiful woman, Thea.” Nikolai waved a dismissive hand in Fergus’s direction as he uttered another possessive growl. “You have met my Daisy and know that I love her and our children with my whole heart,” the Russian snapped. “I am merely making an obvious observation. I believe, because of his insistence that you marry him, that Yegorov junior must want you for himself. That he was even willing to wait to take possession of that fifty million pounds if you also became his once you were married.”

Thea shook her head. “I would never have married him.”

“Not willingly, perhaps, but I have a feeling Lev’s patience would have soon come to an end if Fergus was not now obviously standing between the two of you as your protector.”

“But how… Are you saying thatLevhad someone following me in Paris too?”

“I can answer that,” Linus cut in lightly. “Yes, he did. Those men arrived back in England on the same train as Martin Hayes.”

Thea swallowed down the nausea that had risen at the back of her throat. “I had men employed by a Russian oligarch following me around Paris, as well as a machinating ex-boyfriend, and I had absolutely no idea!”

Nikolai gave a humorless smile. “Do not be too hard on yourself. I am sure, once you had seen Fergus for the first time, you had eyes for no one else,” he taunted the other man.

“Bastard,” Fergus muttered.

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