Chapter 15 - Konstantin
I allowed the doctor to give me a mild painkiller after he dug out the bullet like he had a vendetta against my arm, and it was doing its job enough to let me close my eyes. However, I only pretended to be asleep to see what Tati would do now that everything had calmed down.
I didn’t expect her to act like my life was so important, holding onto the towel even as blood seeped through it to stain her hands and clothes. She hadn’t freaked out at the grisly sight of my gunshot wound, but instead, she flew into action, even barking at the guard to call for help.
Now she was currently dabbing at my forehead with a cool cloth and sighing, and had been sitting by my bedside for the last hour.
Never once did her delicate hands wrap around my neck while she thought I was in a vulnerable state.
There was a silver letter opener on my desk, not ten feet away, that would have made a very fine stabbing implement, but no.
Just gentle touches and soft murmurs that anyone might mistake for caring.
And I had accused her of trying to call for help for herself, even knocking the phone out of her hand. She had gone so far as to try to assuage my guilt over my dead guard, bringing up a memory of her own that had to be painful for her to share.
She tutted and hurried out. I cracked my eyes open to watch her leave. Always a nice view, though, for some reason, I wished she would stay. It must have been the blood loss or the fact I hated getting stitches—and I really hated getting shot—but I was enjoying having her near.
The nurse who’d been left behind came in only a moment later with Tati on her heels. “He feels warmer. Doesn’t he?”
The nurse didn’t lay a caring hand on my forehead, just stuck something in my ear, which let out a low beep. “His temperature is normal; you really have nothing to worry about. It was a simple wound, despite the bullet taking a bit to get out.”
I groaned involuntarily. Yeah, getting that sucker out with no anesthesia had been a bitch. Tati sucked in a breath, and a second later, her cool palm rested on my brow. “Well, if you’re sure,” she said.
“I am,” the nurse told her and left.
But Tati didn’t, resuming her spot in the chair next to my bedside, starting in with the intermittent sighs.
No matter the reason, I was enjoying having her near. Enjoying her soft touches way too much. It could be that I was just glad to have someone, anyone, near. Despite having a huge extended family and five kids, I’d been on my own for a long time.
My children’s mother certainly wouldn’t have been hovering over me in the case of an injury.
I hated even thinking of her like that, but couldn’t bring myself to give her the title of wife.
The woman I once foolishly thought was the love of my life when I was in my tender teens, Yeli, turned out to be a viper who almost succeeded in taking everything I had.
The attempt to turn the children against me had failed, so she decided the money, properties, and businesses should all be under her control.
A simple divorce wouldn’t have gained her nearly what she thought she was owed, so she went to my enemies and got too deep into a murder plot.
It backfired on her, and it wasn’t until after I found what was left of her that I discovered how hard she’d been working against me, and for how long.
Years of perfidy and betrayal. Love—what I thought was love—had blinded me completely. No, Yeli would have never sat by my side, worrying and checking for a rising temperature. That should have been a tip-off, among so many other things. But I could blame my youth for my foolishness.
What was happening now?
Nothing, because I wasn’t about to get foolish over Tati. Not when the evidence was stacking up against her father. This wasn’t about past trust issues.
As she dabbed at my cheeks with the damp cloth, I tried not to flinch and give away the fact that I was awake. Both because I liked having her there, and because I wasn’t sure what I’d do if she discovered I wasn’t so helpless at that moment after all.
There were still too many unanswered questions.
How in the hell did anyone know I was in LA at all, let alone staying at this apartment?
Both those things were a locked-down secret that no one would dare spill.
The ownership of the building was hidden behind so many shell corporations that it should have been impossible to trace me here, or to any of the Fokins.
Did Tati get in touch with someone in the Yakuza before I picked her up? Or the worst option that wouldn’t stop nagging at me. Was this a setup? Perhaps not to completely infiltrate, but to make contact and lure me to the Yakuza by pretending to be on my side?
I groaned again, and Tati’s hand reached out to smooth the hair off my brow. Was this all an act? If so, it was a good one. And if she had meant to make contact with me while she was here, she got a lot more than she bargained for, stuck, with no means to get in touch with anyone.
So why didn’t she take advantage of the chaos after the shooting and try to run instead of helping me?
At the moment, I was sick of thinking and even more sick of playing the invalid. I opened my eyes to find Tati leaning over me with a look of concern that was so real it gave me a twinge in my chest. Her eyes flew wide to see me awake, but she leaned in close as if to hear what I had to say.
I didn’t have anything to say. Not a single word.
Instead, I reached behind her head with my uninjured arm, sliding my fingers into her silky hair and pulling her closer.
Her lips parted on a gasp as mine touched hers.
Gripping her hair, I kissed her deeply, my tongue nudging against hers.
For a split second, not even the time it would take to blink, she relaxed against me.
The hand that had fallen from my forehead when I pulled her in brushed against my cheek.
Another soft sigh. I liked that sound, liked it even more when her breath mingled with mine.
It was over as fast as it started, and she finally jerked away. Not so fast that I didn’t fully feel the warmth of her lips. Enough to make me crave more of her. All of her.
This had to be blood loss. The damn infusion wasn’t working properly. That was the only reason for doing something like that. There was no way I wanted her. Not so much that it stole my ability to breathe as well as think.
As she staggered back to the safety of her chair, I let my hand fall to my side and closed my eyes, as if the kiss had never happened. Let her believe I was out of my mind on painkillers. Let her think whatever she wanted. It was of no concern to me.
I fell asleep for real, and when I awoke, the sun came into the room at a different angle, letting me know I had slept through the night and it was an entirely new day.
Tati was gone, and instead of being relieved, I was strangely bereft.
Until the incessant buzzing of my phone on the bedside table made me realize it was what had brought me out of my pleasant slumber, where I’d been dreaming of an extension of that kiss.
Seeing CJ’s ID pop up on the screen jerked me back to reality, and I answered it, ignoring the vague sense of dread that I was about to find out something I really didn’t want to know.
“I’ve got the deleted messages from the phone you left with Mat,” she said after my greeting.
“So there were deleted messages,” I said.
“Not too many, but they tell a story. A short one with no ending, that definitely wouldn’t make a blockbuster,” she said, laughing humorlessly. “Oh, and there was a tracker on it.”
I held the phone away while I swore, entirely at myself.
That should have been the first thing I checked for when Tati was still screaming her lungs out in the trunk of my car.
Long before I ever brought her here. I had trackers on all my kids’ phones and most of my employees.
Stupid oversight. The woman had me turned inside out, and I wasn’t thinking straight.
However, the only way anyone in the Yakuza would know about Tati having a tracker in her phone was if someone told them, and it would only be useful if they were certain she was in LA. Certain she’d end up with me.
Fucking hell.
It was already done, there was nothing I could do about it now, and I turned my attention to the messages. “I’m assuming they’re to and from Grigor.”
“Only one that might have something to do with his disappearance, based on the timeline. ‘Don’t talk to anyone. Stay put. Don’t worry.
’ Then there were a couple that told her some dates of meetings he had, explaining he wouldn’t be able to call her on those days.
I’ll send them to you in case they mean anything.
Then there were two from someone named Klara that were also deleted. ”
“Klara is Grigor’s assistant. She’s been working for him for years. And I can’t find her, either.”
CJ made a sound like she was warming up to the best part, and I held back my impatience as she explained the process she used, trying to be modest but also having to admit that the attempt to hide the messages was amateur at best.
That only meant that Tati hadn’t been in the game for long, not that she wasn’t in it at all.
Finally, CJ read off the message from Grigor’s long-trusted assistant. “The first one said, ‘Listen to your father and stay put.’ And then, she was going into hiding. That’s odd to admit something like that, right?”
I grunted. It could be part of the show, it could have been an honest admission, so Tati didn’t waste time looking for her. Either way, Klara was definitely part of Grigor’s scheme. That wasn’t shocking at all, since the woman would have walked off a pier into an ocean full of sharks for Grigor.
“Anything else?” I asked, disappointed that there was nothing useful and relieved for no good reason at the same time. The relief was snuffed out at CJ’s next words.
“The other deleted message was a name, Riku Yoshida.”
I didn’t make a single sound since I wasn’t sure how much Mat had told CJ. He’d want to keep her safe and out of this burgeoning war with the Yakuza. Inside, a tempest was raging.
Tati had lied about having any prior knowledge of Riku before arriving in LA.
“When was that message sent?” I asked, not sure why I had any hope at all. Or why I cared so damn much that Tati was being honest about everything.
“Those were sent at the same time as the ones from Grigor.”
She gave me the date, and I thanked her and ended the call. Now I knew that Tati was aware of Riku Yoshida before her arrival in LA, and how my enemies had found my current location.
Damn it, a good man was dead because of my mistake.
No, because of Tati’s betrayal.
Wasn’t it completely obvious now? Why was I still fighting against the facts? Instead, I was more confused than ever, and certainly more pissed off.
It was time to demand some answers from Tati. And this time, I needed the whole truth from the very mouth I was still thinking about kissing.