Fire Bound (Sea Haven Sisters)(17)

He forced his mind away from Lissa and Belsky. Ivan Belsky was treacherous, but he could be handled. He was a weasel, always looking for easy money. He had made an art out of “selling” information and then killing the recipient. He had a partner he worked with, and unfortunately that man was by far the more dangerous. Borya Polzin specialized in murder. He enjoyed killing. Man, woman or child, it didn’t matter. What did matter was he had come out of the same school Casimir had.

They’d had very little contact. Casimir had excelled and had been pushed in every area of learning possible, from languages to the art of seduction. He had reason to excel. If he didn’t, one of his brothers would pay the price. Borya had little to offer other than a psychopath’s hunger to hurt others. Borya had certainly outshone his classmates in that regard. He failed to learn any languages other than English and his native Russian. He could barely read. His masters hadn’t killed him as they had so many others who failed far less classes than he had. He liked to hurt others and he learned how to torture, how to keep his victim alive as long as possible and how to kill in hundreds of ways, most very inelegant.



Some years earlier, he had killed his only sibling, his sister, the one his handlers held over his head to keep him in line. He’d slipped his leash and gone where there was money for his particular line of work – the Russian mob.

Casimir paused just to the right of the door, fumbling for car keys, dropping his book and bending to pick it up. The brief interval allowed him to scan the street and buildings across from the cappuccino bar. His car was parked just down from the front of the building, but he couldn’t see the vehicle Lissa had arrived in.



As Casimir straightened, book in hand, Arturo sauntered out. The bodyguard didn’t look in the least worried. He was nearing his sixties, was in good shape, working out all the time, and he’d been employed by Luigi.

Arturo had been employed by Luigi Abbracciabene nearly all of his life. He’d gone to work for Luigi at the age of seventeen. He’d been without a home and hungry for one. Luigi had been smart enough to see his potential and had taken him in. There was no one more loyal to the Abbracciabene family than Arturo. Casimir realized the moment Arturo came outside that Lissa had sent him ahead to get him out of the way of any potential violence. Lissa Piner was just as loyal to Arturo as he was to her – and she was determined to protect him.



Swearing under his breath, knowing he had only a few moments to pinpoint Borya’s location, Casimir tried to pull up all he could recall of the man. Borya would want to commit murder up close. The assassin couldn’t get satisfaction from killing at a distance. He would have to see the light go out of his victim’s eyes in order to get his release. The actual kill was very personal to him. He would be labeled a serial killer in any other country, but Sorbacov had made him a personal pet and protected him. Kostya Sorbacov was his own brand of killer, and it amused him to keep Borya as his personal hit man. In running the schools, Sorbacov had come across several of the type of men Borya was, and he kept all of them. He had to have been very upset when Borya slipped away.

Casimir glanced toward his left. The corner was stark and open. No cover. To his right there was another store. Tables and chairs were set up in front of both the cappuccino bar and the small bakery next door. Too much furniture in the way for a clean kill. So where would Borya make his try for Lissa?



Behind him, he felt her presence. Lissa. His heart jerked hard in his chest as he took in her scent. Not the fragrance that had surrounded him at her uncle’s estate, but a new, just as potent one. This one was jasmine and lavender, but very subtle, barely there. Her undercover signature scent then – when she played the part of Patrice Lungren. Behind Patrice was Belsky.

Lissa stepped up beside Casimir, her features expressionless. She gave him a vague smile, as if she wasn’t really seeing him, but he was very aware of her piercing intelligence as her gaze swept over him, in seconds rejecting the idea that he could be the second killer.



Belsky came up behind her fast, crowding her so that she was forced to step forward, out into the open, onto the cobblestone sidewalk, beneath the canopy. Beneath the canopy. Casimir dropped the book as he withdrew the knife he carried from its sheath just inside his ill-fitting coat. As he did, he took two steps and leapt into the air right beneath the sagging canopy. He aimed for the heart of the prone figure waiting so patiently to murder.

Simultaneously, Lissa turned to face Belsky, a smile on her face, as if she might say something to him. He was already in motion, the blade of his knife concealed against his wrist as he stepped toward her, his hand going up to slice across her throat. Lissa used the momentum of her forward motion to slam a block down on his arm, deflecting the blade from her ribs as she stepped to the side of Belsky. She stabbed the needle she had in her fist into his neck, depressing the plunger as she did so, and retracted the needle, all in one motion. She continued walking past him, back toward the door of the bar where she’d artfully dropped her clutch.