Not that she’d admit that now to Ricky.

By the time they reached the front desk, Barinov had already gotten their rooms. His Russian was fluent and his accent almost as good as the twins’—although their accent was flawless after watching some Russian language movie on cable one afternoon. More than one person had asked Toni and her mother what Russian adoption agency they’d used.

Barinov handed Toni her electronic key and, without a word, headed toward the elevators. They went to the ninth floor and walked down the hall.

“This is your room,” he said, briefly stopping in front of it. “I’ll be in the room to your left. Reed in the room to your right. If you need either one of us—”

“Oh, please.” Toni used her keycard and went inside. She closed the door in the faces of the two males, not even in the mood to say good night. She stepped farther inside and took a good look around. She was as impressed with her room as she was with the hotel’s lobby. This would be a nice place to stay for the next few days.

Placing her bag on the dresser, Toni sat down on the bed. Her cell phone vibrated and she sighed. She’d gotten three texts at the same time. Oriana informing Toni that she could not “exist under this regime!” Kyle begging her to re-think her stance on his sketching a naked Novikov. And Bo Novikov imploring her to get her little brother to stop asking him about sketching him naked. “It’s beginning to make me uncomfortable.”

Unable to answer any of those texts, Toni tossed her phone on the bed and fell back against the mattress. She could do this. She would do this. All she needed was a little room service and a good night’s sleep.

Vic focused on Ricky.

“What?” Ricky asked him, annoyed although the hybrid hadn’t actually done anything yet.

“Are you going to admit the problem now?”

“She’s just tired,” he said again. “By tomorrow, she’ll be—”

“Even worse.” Vic briefly pursed his lips. “I always thought you weren’t as stubborn as your brothers. Guess I was wrong.”

“No call to get nasty.”

Shaking his head, Vic headed toward his own room. “See you in the morning.”

“Yeah.” Ricky waited until the door to Vic’s room closed, then stood in front of Toni’s door for several more minutes. He stared at it, debating with himself if he should stand out here all night or not.

When he didn’t hear anything hysterical coming from inside, he decided to go to his own bed. Room service would be shutting down soon and he really needed something to eat. A steak and fries would really hit the spot.

“All she needs is sleep,” he softly reminded himself. “A good night’s sleep and she’ll be just fine.”

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

The unfamiliarring of his in-room phone woke Ricky up the next morning. He’d managed to get a few hours’ sleep the previous night, but it hadn’t been easy. His body was still on New York time, but he had a job to do. So Ricky picked up the still-ringing phone off the receiver.

“Yep?”

“Ready to face the day?”

Ricky growled. “You are too damn cheery.”

Vic laughed. “See you in thirty?”

“Yeah. That’ll work.”

“We’ll go get breakfast down in the restaurant.”

Ricky grunted, sounding a little like his daddy at that moment, and hung up the phone. He took a shower and put on black jeans, black T-shirt, black boots, and secured a holstered .45 semi-auto to the back of his jeans that Vic had given him when he’d arrived in Russia. He pulled a denim jacket on to hide the weapon and left his room to go over to Toni’s. He knocked but there was no answer. He knocked again.

By now, Vic was standing next to him.

“Nothing?” he asked.

“Nope.” Ricky looked down one end of the hall, then the other. When he didn’t see anyone around, he leaned in, pressed his nose against the doorjamb, and sniffed.

Ricky stepped back. “She’s in there.”

Vic reached into the back pocket of his jeans and pulled out a keycard.

“Had an extra for her room made?”

“Yep.”

Vic was just reaching for the door when it opened from the inside. The two males instinctively reared back, but Toni only smiled.

“Sorry I took so long to get to the door. I just got out of the shower a few minutes ago.”

Dressed in blue jeans, sexy, knee-high brown boots with three-inch heels, and a plain white T-shirt, Toni motioned both men in. “I’m almost done,” she said.

“Okay.” Ricky closed the door. “Vic suggested we get breakfast downstairs in the dining room.”

“Sounds good,” she said from inside the bathroom, the door open. “The room service was good, too.”

She stepped back into the room with a towel. Her hair was dripping wet, thick curls reaching past her shoulders, bangs in front of her eyes. “Did you both sleep well?”

“Yep,” Ricky replied.

She smiled—appearing much more relaxed than she had been last night—bent at the waist, and flipped her hair over. While Toni proceeded to carefully squeeze the water out of her hair with the towel, Vic bumped Ricky’s shoulder with his own. When Ricky glanced over, Vic motioned to the bedroom door with a jerk of his head.

Ricky looked behind him, his eyes immediately widening at what he saw. And what he saw was paw marks on the back of the door. As if a wild animal had been locked in a room and unable to get out.