Chapter 9 Dimitri
DIMITRI
"Entertaining?" Yuri's voice cuts through my thoughts as I watch Tatiana disappear into the elevator, feeling frustrated by the interruption when I had what I want right in the palm of my hands.
I turn to find my brother leaning against the side table with his arms crossed and an amused expression on his face.
His eyebrows are high and he's smirking at me.
"She's an employee." I straighten my shirt where Tatiana's hands pulled it loose. "That's all."
"Right." Yuri walks into the living room and closes the door as he loosens his tie a little.
"That's why you had her on your kitchen counter with your hand up her shirt?
Very professional." I hate the dark chuckle that comes out of his mouth.
The only reason he has a key to this place is because it's family property and he's part owner.
A small price I pay for being estranged from the family for so long.
"What do you want, Yuri?" I ask, turning to pour myself a drink from the bar, and I don't bother offering him one. Annoying fucker can get his own if he's going to mock me in my own home.
"I wanted to discuss the Volodin situation but clearly, you're occupied with other matters." He drops into one of the chairs facing my desk. "Though I have to question your judgment when it comes to getting involved with staff who work directly under you."
"She's not just staff." I down the whiskey and set the glass on the bar as I glower at him.
"She witnessed Volodin's execution." She hasn't said the words yet, but I know it's true.
I'm a good read, and there's no other reason Tatiana would go from angrily annoyed with me to terrified every second of the day.
That gets Yuri's attention. He sits up straighter and narrows his eyes as he asks, "She saw it happen?"
"I think so. When the boys were over a few nights ago and we talked about it, she clammed up and got white as a ghost. She's been shaking in her boots ever since.
" I walk over to my desk and pull out the file I've been keeping on the incident to thumb through it.
No cameras out back means no proof she was there but the pull on my gut.
"And you didn't think to mention this before now?" Yuri's upset now, and rightly so. I should've let him in on my suspicions, but I have no proof, and he can't go off half-cocked on her when he doesn't know for sure.
"I haven't confirmed it yet." I open the file and pull out the crime scene photos. "She's been terrified since she started working up here, but I wasn't sure why until I pushed her on it. Her reaction says it all. I just can't get her to tell me outright, and if I ask her—"
"And if you ask her, she'll lie or vanish…" he finishes for me, then stands and walks over to look at the photos spread across my desk. His jaw tightens and he sighs hard. "The Kozlovs are gonna figure out there was a witness eventually, if they haven't already."
"That's why I'm keeping her close." I gather the photos back into the file.
"If she's up here working for me directly, she's safer than she would be down on the casino floor where anyone could get to her.
" There's no point in telling him this plan was in motion weeks ago when I decided I want her. But it makes sense keeping her closer.
Normally, we'd just watch and take notes.
If another staffer saw something, I'd question them hard to get the facts out and then make them aware of whom they're fighting. We probably wouldn’t think twice about protecting them.
But Tatiana isn't just a staffer. I've marked her as mine, and I will have her.
And Malcom Kozlov can't get his hands on her.
"Or you're putting a target on both of you by making it obvious she's important to you." Yuri turns away from the desk and heads for the door. "Come on. We need to look at the security footage, and I want to see what we're actually dealing with here."
I grab my jacket and follow him out of the penthouse down the hall. We walk in silence and I can feel the tension radiating off him. We thought this shit was behind us when Vadim came home with justice for Dominik, but this is the never-ending saga. It's starting to piss everyone off.
The security office is unlocked when I open the door, and several of my guys are parked in chairs watching the monitors that cover the wall showing live feeds from cameras positioned throughout the casino.
Right now, everything is calm as can be, though I pick up a bit of movement on the staff entrance and notice Tatiana leaving.
"Boss." The older one nods at Yuri and then at me. "We weren't expecting you tonight."
"We need to review the footage from the night Volodin was killed." Yuri pulls out a chair and sits down in front of the center monitor, leaning forward on the edge of his seat tensely. "Pull up everything you have from ten p.m. to three a.m."
The younger guard moves to the computer and starts typing while the older one hovers behind him looking nervous. "We already went through all this with the police. They took copies of everything we had."
"Show me what you showed them." Yuri leans back in the chair and starts reviewing camera footage from angles all over the staff area, exteriors of the parking lots, front views and street entrances, and I meander away, lost in thought.
God, she's incredible, and the woman can kiss.
So fucking hot. I'd have made her mine right on that kitchen island if my brother hadn’t walked in.
But things have shifted now. She's not just some fascination or obsession.
I feel myself growing super protective over her, like any other thing I've set my eyes on and accepted some sort of ownership over, only worse.
When Yuri named me the man in charge around here, this casino became my baby. I eat, sleep, and breathe all things to do with this business and the side gigs that flow through it. And everyone who comes around for long knows it's my baby and I don't fuck around.
But lately, Tatiana has taken more of my attention than anything else, and I find myself feeling personally responsible for her.
Nothing about this situation with her being so scared sits right with me.
If Malcom's men learn that she's possibly a witness to their crime against Volodin, she won't escape their retribution.
"Dimitri," I hear, and I snap to attention to my brother's snarl.
"What?"
"You've started ID verification?" His eyebrows are high as I mumble my answer.
"Yeah…" Then I let my eyes gloss over as I watch the guys near the back door on the live monitor feeds, two of them with cigarettes tucked behind their ears walking toward the exit.
They know they're not supposed to be out there smoking while on the clock because guests don't like the stench of cigarette smoke in the non-smoking areas of the casino.
It sparks my memory and a faint hint of the sweet tobacco smoke I smelled on Tatiana's breath when I kissed her.
She didn't smoke in my penthouse, but if she's been smoking out back like these jokers, it makes sense that she had a reason to be out there and see the murder.
"So someone inside this casino has been tipping off the Kozlovs that we have a blind spot and they used it to their advantage…" Yuri stands, and the movement pulls me back to the present.
"Yeah, we know that much." I unbutton my suit jacket and stalk closer to him.
"Well if your girl has seen something, she'll be on those cameras going in or out around that time." He glowers at me. "Did you check them?" With one eyebrow quirked upward, his lips purse and he stares at me.
I've watched almost every bit of footage inside and out and backwards, but I never watched her around the time of her break. Why am I such a fool?
"I'm on it, Boss," I grumble, tasting the bitter flavor of calling my brother my boss as I force the words out.
"If we have an inside person, they're on those cameras too." Yuri turns to go. "Send me copies of everything. I'll watch it myself."
The frustration in his tone doesn't escape me. I've been so preoccupied with admiring Tatiana, both on the recordings and in my home, that I haven’t done my due diligence, and anger knots up in my chest.
Yuri stomps out, leaving me to lick my wounds in peace, and I stand there watching the back door camera now, knowing two men are outside breaking casino rules.
And my security guards probably watch them do it every single time and they say nothing.
I doubt any of them are my mole, but I can't be certain. I have to vet them all over again.
And when this is over, I need a new team. One who makes my staff toe the line like they should.