Chapter 8 #3
The three of them pile through the doorway.
I look at the photos on the notice board one last time before walking outside.
I wish Tatiana wouldn’t be so hard-headed about using my money.
I know how badly she wanted to go to school.
Her father wouldn’t let her. He said she was bound to marry after her twenty-first birthday, and he didn’t see the point of her getting a diploma if she were going to become a mafia wife and have babies.
Now that dream is within her reach, and the fact that she’d rather clean houses than let me pay for her studies tells me just how much she loathes me.
Kent and Ulysses stand on the porch, keeping watch. I take my phone from my pocket and send a text message to Reino, instructing him to meet us out front.
While we wait for him, I study Kent. I haven’t spoken to him since the incident at the hotel. He’s loyal, but I need to be sure I can trust him around Tatiana.
He averts his gaze, not looking me straight in the eye, which is his way of showing respect.
Reino rounds the corner with his hands shoved in the back pockets of his jeans. “What’s up, boss?”
I check through the window. The lounge is still clear. “Someone sent men after Tatiana.”
Reino’s gaze sharpens. “They could’ve been bounty hunters.”
I lean on the balustrade, anger hardening my jaw. “They weren’t mine.”
“Gold diggers who were after the reward you put out?” Ulysses speculates.
I cross my arms. “My reward came with a condition. I wanted information. No one was supposed to lay a finger on her. These men didn’t care in what condition they had to deliver her.”
Reino watches me from under his eyebrows. “Do you have someone on the job?”
“As we speak.” My tone is cold and hard. “I want to know who was behind this.”
“Teszner?” Kent asks, his upper lip curling with distaste.
“Perhaps,” Ulysses says. “He’d inherit her shares if she died.”
“Could be,” Reino muses. “But she’s got a bigger value to him than her shares.
He could still marry her off to Stein and make an alliance for himself through the deal.
He knows you’re coming for him, that it’s only a matter of time.
Getting a powerful ally behind him is his only chance at protecting himself against you. ”
“Or he’s after the same thing we are.” Kent looks between us. “The necklace.”
Ulysses rubs a hand over his beard. “Money would definitely solve a lot of Teszner’s problems. He could pay off the debt collectors. But how would he know Tatiana has the necklace?”
“It’s not that hard to guess.” Kent shrugs. “It disappeared when she did.”
“Did word get out about the necklace?” I ask.
Reino shakes his head. “Unlikely. The only people who know about it are the four of us and Tatiana. You briefed the bounty hunters yourself, and you didn’t give them a reason why you wanted her back.
” His tone becomes cautious. “Could someone have found out about Noah? They could’ve planned on kidnapping him and asking you for ransom. ”
The possibility did cross my mind. “The men who managed to track her down didn’t know about Noah, not as far as I can tell.
She was four months pregnant when the first attack happened.
” The knowledge still makes me volatile.
“She wouldn’t have showed yet. She locked Noah in the bathroom when the second assault happened, so the assailant never saw him. ”
“Jesus,” Reino mumbles.
Exactly my thought. “I’m taking extra precautions with Tatiana and Noah’s safety, especially when we go back to New York.”
“When are you planning on telling Teszner you have her?” Reino asks.
Already deriving pleasure from that prospect, I smile. “The element of surprise is a powerful weapon. I’ll inform him when Tatiana has signed all the contracts.”
Kent looks at me, but he doesn’t ask the question he wants to, which is when I’m going to confront Tatiana about the necklace.
“First things first,” I say. “Once the shares are mine, Teszner won’t have a motivation to kill his sister when he finds out she’s alive. That’s the priority.”
Ulysses looks at a car that drives past. “Good decision.”
He follows the vehicle with his gaze until it turns into the neighbor’s driveway. An old lady gets out. She smiles and waves.
Only Ulysses waves back.
“I want the men who came after Tatiana found.” I don’t like going into a fight blindly. “If they’re Teszner’s men, I’ll deal with him. If someone else sent them, I want to know who and why. Am I clear?”
The men nod, their expressions serious. They know what I mean. I want those bastards alive so I can question them, and I’ll use any method necessary to get my answers.
I push off the balustrade and drop my arms to my sides. “Check in with the bounty hunters I briefed, see if anyone knows anything. I want a full report by morning.”
Reino salutes. “Yes, boss.”
Movement appears behind the window with its one half dirty and its other half sparkling clean. The men fall quiet when Tatiana enters the lounge from the hallway. They scatter when she walks through the front door onto the porch.
We face each other for a moment, neither of us saying anything.
Finally, she breaks the silence. “What was that about?”
“Nothing you need to worry yourself over.”
“Right.” Her laugh is condescending. “I don’t know why I still ask. You never told me anything. You’re not going to start now.”
Quoting her words from earlier, I ask, “Is there something you wanted?” Only, my question is genuine and not sarcastic.
Shaking her head, she says with a dismissive smile, “Noah is tired. He’s been running all day. I’d like to finish early if that’s all right with you.”
“Of course.” I take her in, how tired she looks. “Whenever you’re ready.”
She turns around without saying a word.
I watch her as she walks away. She’s still my Tatiana, yet she’s also different.
She was only nineteen when I last saw her in New York.
So young, innocent, and full of love. So bubbly and filled with dreams. She turned twenty a short month after she ran.
The thought of a twenty-year old inexperienced woman on her own in the city, a woman who was pregnant and grieving her mother, still turns my gut inside-out.
I wish I could change that, but it is what it is. Water under the bridge.
At twenty-four, she’s not that much older, but circumstances forced her to grow up quickly. Instead of optimistic and shy, she’s scared and bitter. Tough. Strong. She had to be to survive.
That’s what gives me hope.
If she survived everything she did, she may just have a chance of surviving me.