Chapter 14 #2
“I know. Now I’m just annoyed that I didn’t charge him more.”
“Is that the contract that you signed? What did you promise?” She narrowed her eyes. “If he took advantage of you—”
“I mean, I’m not going to make much money for a couple of years off of his business, but I was the one to suggest it.” Grimace shrugged. “So it’s my fault. I just was so worried about you—”
“I’m sorry.” She truly was. Grimace had been a lifeline when she was running from Oleg, and she’d basically dropped out of his life. “I thought it would be easier if I disappeared.”
“I tracked your mother, so I was hopeful you were out there and safe, just in hiding. But you?” He shook his head. “It was like you never existed. You don’t even have a birth certificate on record anymore.”
Tatyana had never realized how thoroughly Oleg had wiped her existence from the human world. “It’s safer that way. I have documents now, but they’re all under different names.”
“No, I get it. Now.” He shook his head. “So you’re like… the Russian vampire queen or something?”
Sándor snorted in the corner.
Tatyana glared at her security chief. “It’s a political marriage. I’m one of the leaders of the Poshani clan now, but for the next hundred years, I’m married to Oleg too. It solidified an alliance.”
“So fucking medieval.” Grimace’s voice was awestruck. “That’s so cool. I mean, as long as you weren’t forced into it or anything. That would suck.”
“I wasn’t forced. I volunteered. Sokolov is not my favorite person, but I’ve worked with him in the past and we both survived” —sort of— “so that’s probably as good a foundation for vampire marriage as anything else.”
“Yeah, I heard about the big wedding next month.” He smiled. “Think I could negotiate an invitation to the event into my shitty contract with Oleg?”
“Do you really want to come?” It was nice to think she might have another friend there since her first wedding was a secret and her second was all for show.
“It sounds pretty badass, Pidge. You’re getting married in a big ceremony and are gonna live in a palace in Saint Petersburg. Even all of Wallace’s people are talking about it.”
Tatyana sighed. “I suppose it’s become the social event of the year.” She spread her hands. “So… why not?”
An hour after she left the banquet with Sándor, she was talking with Kezia via video on a secure connection. “There was something off about him tonight.”
“If you’re talking about Ivan, there’s good reason,” Kezia said. “My informant in Moscow says someone tried to assassinate him before his big party.”
That was news to Tatyana. “What?”
Why hadn’t Oleg told her? Of course they were keeping their distance, but he could at least have slipped her a note.
“It’s true. Bullet went straight through his right ear. Pity. Brain injuries don’t always kill us, but they take decades to recover from, and most vampires are taken out during recovery unless a loved one protects them. And no one loves Ivan.”
Tatyana was still trying to imagine nearly dying and then going out and downing caviar and vodka with the boys the same night. “I could tell he was off, but I had no idea.”
Kezia grinned. “But of course not! Ivan had to play the big man, didn’t he? The buffoon couldn’t appear weak, especially not with Oleg in town.”
“Who was it?”
Her sister shrugged. “They grabbed some human with a rifle, but the rumors are that it was Oleg’s sniper, Ludmila, who took the shot. Possibly at Oleg’s command, though not necessarily. Apparently Oleg stuck her in Moscow and she hates it.”
“Huh.” Tatyana knew that rumor was bullshit. If Ludmila was aiming at Ivan, Ivan would be dead. “What’s going to happen to the human?”
“Mika Arakis took over the interrogation since Oleg is in town. I have a feeling he’ll disappear.” Kezia shrugged again. “It’s one human, but I love the idea of Ivan going to a banquet with a pierced ear.”
“If he was still injured, I couldn’t tell.” Tatyana plucked at a thread on the seam of her dress. “No bandages. No blood.”
“Pity. I suppose ears heal quicker than brains do.”
Tatyana kept thinking about the human with the rifle. Who was he? Would Mika kill him? Had Mika hired him? She tugged on the royal-blue thread between her fingers and saw a stitch in the seam loosen.
Was this human with the rifle an innocent? Had Oleg hired him without informing the sharpshooter whom he was hired to shoot? Or was he a professional who missed?
Either way, he was hired by someone.
Should Tatyana be worried about the fate of a hired assassin?
“We have to come up with a new plan,” Kezia said, “because this is going to make our previous plan impossible.”
They had counted on Ivan’s security being lax when Sándor’s men ambushed him in Saint Petersburg and dispatched Ivan before the wedding, but with a brand-new assassination attempt, Tatyana was guessing his security would be anything but lax.
“Perhaps this isn’t the best idea,” Tatyana said. “Even if Sándor’s men aren’t caught, others could be. Innocent people could be hurt.”
“Humans maybe.” Kezia frowned. “But not Poshani.”
Her sister was remarkably indifferent to any humans outside their clan.
“I don’t want any innocent bystanders getting hurt, Kezia.”
“That’s not always possible.” Kezia softened her voice.
“But it’s about perspective, sister. In the end, even if some humans are lost, fewer humans will be hurt because Ivan will no longer be a danger to them.
Think about how many drugs he’s trafficked.
Think about how many people whose lives have been ruined by that monster. ”
Tatyana hadn’t been thinking about Ivan’s victims; she’d been thinking about her mate. She was as shortsighted as Kezia in her own way.
Would Oleg be angry? Would it interfere with his own larger plan?
Could Tatyana even do this, or was it all a huge mistake?
“We’re doing the right thing,” Kezia said. “For the Poshani, but really for everyone who has to live in that monster’s territory. We’re doing it for them.”
“I understand.” She smoothed the loose thread on her skirt. “Let me talk with Sándor about a new plan and get back to you. Things are about to get very complicated with this wedding.”
“Call me before you leave for Warsaw,” Kezia said.
“I will.”