15. Tamara #2
When it does, it’s like all the lights going out at once and illuminating the world in all its glorious technicolor when they come back on.
The woman with the white-blonde hair.
All the resources at your disposal, and she has managed to fly under your radar.
That’s what I told Leonid and Andrej when I suggested that she was trying to take down the Petrovs single-handedly.
It’s so fucking obvious, I can’t believe how blind I’ve been.
The first time I saw her, she stopped me from approaching the men with the serpent tattoos by causing a distraction.
She was at the port again when they locked me inside a container.
For all I know, she was probably there when the warehouse blew up too.
Andrej was right about one thing. I have been hung up on the wrong person. I’ve been trying to track down the mystery woman thinking that she would lead me to Ivana, when I should’ve just focused on finding my sister because they are the same person.
The mystery woman is Ivana in a white-blonde wig.
I get up, bolt to the door, yank it open, and hurry downstairs to Leonid’s study.
He isn’t there.
I don’t know his schedule for the day, but Andrej and Gianna will know if Leonid has already left the property. I dart from room to room but can’t find them either.
There’s only one thing left to do: go and find him myself and let him know what I’ve figured out. He promised to find my sister, and this is the first clue we’ve had to her whereabouts even if I don’t know her exact location.
But when I open the front door to leave, a member of the security team blocks my path.
“What are you doing?” I demand when he refuses to let me pass.
“Orders from the Pakhan. You’re not to leave the house armed.”
Fuck! I haven’t left the house unarmed since I was fourteen years old. It would feel like stepping outside naked wearing a hat that reads UNARMED AND VULNERABLE, but I realize I have no choice if I want to find Leonid right now.
I hand over my guns and watch the guard pocket them like the school bully stealing the other kids’ candy and saving them for later.
“Blades.” His biceps are so pumped his elbows are practically at right angles with his body. He holds his hand out flat for me to part with my daggers.
I slide them from my inside jacket pockets and place them in his palm, heat and anger and every swear word I’ve ever learned rushing around my veins and threatening to cause an explosion that will seal my fate with the Ivanov family one way or another.
I move to step around him, and he places his bulky frame between me and the rest of the world.
“And the rest.”
“That’s everything.”
He folds his arms across his chest. “Do you want me to search you?”
“I’d like to see you fucking try.” I instinctively reach for the blades inside my jacket and the blood drains from my face when they’re not there.
“Not quite so confident now.” A small silver scar splits his left eyebrow as he smirks at me, and I fight the urge to give him a matching one above his right eye. “All weapons, that was the order.”
I could fight him with the blades inside my boots, but he’ll read the move and put a bullet in me before my fingers even close around the hilt.
Or I could ask him to return my weapons, head back inside, and wait until Leonid returns to tell him about Ivana.
But the first option will get me killed, and the second option comes with the kind of humiliation that was served up for breakfast, lunch, and dinner at the orphanage.
Something that Ivana and I promised each other we would never tolerate again once we found our new life here in Chicago.
I look him in the eye, raise my middle finger, and say, “Go fuck yourself.”
I don’t flinch as he slides a gun from his holster and presses it against my temple.
“You sure about that?” His face is so close to mine I can smell coffee on his breath and garlic from whatever he ate the night before. “Want to change your mind before I splatter your brains across the porch?”
“Nope.” I hold his gaze. “I won’t be the one cleaning them up and groveling to the Pakhan because you killed his best enforcer.”
“You’ve got some fucking balls.” His smile isn’t the kind that wants to be reciprocated, and I don’t see his other hand move. But I feel it when he lifts the hem of my skirt and grabs my pussy.
Seems my conversation with Leonid did nothing to quell my impulsiveness.
I chop his arm with my left hand and raise my right knee to his groin, the sensation of his balls meeting bone making me want to vomit.
Before he even has a chance to press the trigger, I’ve grabbed his wrist and wrenched him forward, the momentum stealing his balance as my right fist connects with his jaw.
Pain explodes in my knuckles. But he doesn’t go down. I watch his fist arcing towards my face as I duck and lunge at his legs, the top of my head hitting his thighs. He sprawls backwards with me on top of him, as a woman’s voice rings out, “Stop!”
Gianna steps out from around the side of the house holding her daughters’ hands, and my stomach clenches tightly as she ushers the twins behind her to shield them from the sight of us fighting.
I haul myself onto my feet, sucking in air, and straighten my clothes to face her.
Behind me, I sense the security guard is doing the same. He towers over me, casting me into shadow, and says, “Sorry, Mrs. Ivanov. If I’d known you and the children were there…”
Gianna ignores him and looks me up and down, checking for signs that I might require medical attention. “Are you hurt, Tamara?” She steps closer, her daughters hiding behind her.
“No.” Only my pride.
She narrows her eyes at the security guard. “Can you explain why I watched you attack another member of the Pakhan’s team?”
Gianna’s olive skin, high cheekbones, and luscious honey-blonde hair wouldn’t look out of place on a Hollywood movie set.
When she isn’t being a mom to Anya and Liliyana, she devotes her time to helping women seeking refuge from abusive relationships, and she charmed Leonid when he was keeping her captive enough for him to adopt a dog from a rescue charity for her.
But I sense the guard squirming beneath her gaze now, and I don’t think it can be blamed entirely on the fact that she’s married to the Pakhan.
“Just following orders, ma’am.”
“Which are?” Her eyebrows practically disappear beneath her bangs.
“The enforcer isn’t to leave the building with her weapons…” He pauses as if unsure whether to continue or hold back, then decides he has nothing to lose. “And if she leaves, she isn’t to return.”
Gianna locks eyes with me, blinking while she processes the statement. “Is this true, Tamara?”
“Yes.” And I was moments away from walking out of here for the last time if she hadn’t shown up when she did.
My pulse races. Is that what I really want, to walk away from the family who saved me and my sister to prove a point to this asshole?
When I stepped through the door, I hadn’t considered Leonid’s threat.
I hadn’t thought beyond finding Leonid and telling him what I knew about Ivana.
I certainly hadn’t dwelled on not being allowed back in the house.
Now, I glance at the open front door, my knuckles throbbing, and my pussy feeling violated by this fucker, and I know I’m not ready to leave. I’m twenty-five years old, but I still need a safe space.
And this is it.
Gianna walks up to me, and her daughters finally peer out from behind their mommy’s legs, watching me with those wide eyes that belong to Leonid. “Do you want to leave?”
I swallow the lump in my throat, but it won’t go down. “No.” I don’t know where this admission leaves me exactly, but in this moment, it’s true.
Her expression softens. “You’re coming with us. Have you eaten? I was going to prepare some fruit for me and the girls.” She climbs the porch steps and halts outside the front door, waiting for me to join them without another glance at the security guard.
I follow them inside and close the door behind us, leaving my weapons outside with the asshole, vowing to get them back later.