Chapter 26 - Konstantin
Why was I protecting her? What was in it for me? I had to get out before I spilled my guts. The answer I wanted to give her was much too close to coming out. How could I tell her anything when I wasn’t certain how I actually felt?
Attracted? Yes. Obsessed? Definitely. Absolutely wild about her? No question there.
But all of that could come crashing down around me if she were working against me.
The fact of the matter was that I couldn’t explain to her or myself, or anyone, why I needed to keep her safe. Yes, need. It was wall-consuming. All of this might have been over by now if I were willing to dangle her as bait or throw her to the wolves.
Not going to happen. I would have burned up under the force that kept me protecting her. She was mine, there was no denying it, even if it ended up tearing me apart.
To keep from reaching for her soft cheek and doing whatever was necessary to erase the hurt in her eyes, I fled the apartment.
Once I was in an anonymous diner somewhere in the heart of Hollywood, far from quickly running home and doing something insane, I did something slightly less insane instead. This second nightmare of Tati’s was the last straw. It was time to get some answers.
Sofiya answered right away since the time difference worked in her favor, and it wasn’t too late in Italy. At first, I pretended I had no reason for calling except to touch base, and she filled me in on her wayward brothers, who she insisted were playing with fire there in Milan.
“Sounds like everything is normal, then.”
After making sure I knew I never took things seriously enough, she asked how I was. “Any new leads on Grigor’s location?” she asked. “It was a shame that our contacts here didn’t know anything.”
“I didn’t expect they would, and I wish you hadn’t bothered them. They can be… touchy about inquiries.”
She laughed. “Oh, could you actually be worried about me for a change of pace?”
“I always worry about you. And I hate that you have to worry about me, but I have a few questions about your old friend Tatiana.”
Sofiya grew serious, asking if I thought Grigor’s daughter was involved. “She was never really a close friend,” she said.
“But you like her? You trust her?” Why did that matter?
“Sure, I guess,” Sofiya answered, beginning to sound suspicious. “But I haven’t seen her in a year, and that was a very short lunch.”
“Just catching up? Nothing suspicious?”
“She talked about her job, and I talked about dodging the latest man you were trying to marry me off to.”
I grumbled, but stayed on track. “So she spoke about her apprenticeship at the textile mill? Is that why she dropped out of college?”
There was a long pause. My wily daughter was definitely suspicious now.
“I don’t really know why she dropped out of college, but yes, she got that job shortly after and seems to love it.
Why are you so interested in Tatiana all of a sudden?
Surely you don’t think she’s got something to do with Grigor’s disappearance. ”
The reason could have been nothing, exactly what was on the surface.
But it could also mean she’d been roped into working for her father in some kind of secretive capacity.
If that was the case, it meant Grigor had been lying to me for a very long time, which was a punch in the gut, but at least it meant I could stop being so damn guilty about sleeping with his only daughter.
Not that I had reason to anyway. She made her own decisions.
What if that particular decision was part of the plan?
To gain my trust or get on the inside? Another punch to the gut, but I couldn’t bring myself to consider it a mistake.
I still hoped she was innocent. And if she wasn’t?
I had been fooled once before. That was why I normally kept my relationships short and meaningless.
Damn it. Now I was thinking of what Tati and I had as a relationship. It certainly wasn’t, so it didn’t matter.
Sofiya prodded me when I remained silent for too long, and I cast back to her question about my sudden interest in Tati’s past.
“I just don’t get why someone so bright would quit school after only one semester. She was an academic star.”
Sofiya sniffed. “Yes, so I heard all the time in secondary school. Perhaps the pressure got to be too much. And she wasn’t very social, but I never considered that too weird. Maybe she really likes weaving, she did say it was peaceful.”
I finally decided to spill my guts. “The truth is,” I started, hearing her long sigh. “I’ve got Tati here now, under my protection.”
“In Los Angeles? How did that happen?” she yelped.
Yeah, I wasn’t spilling that much. “It doesn’t matter. I’m just trying to keep her safe until this is over.”
“Well, I don’t remember you ever grilling me about anyone else you’ve had to hide from an enemy.” She paused, and I heard a loud clink, as if she forcefully set something down. “Are you getting…”
“Thanks for the info, Sof, I’ll call you in a few days.”
I hung up, shaking my head and reaching for the cold drink the waitress had set before me while I was on the phone. There was no way I was going to admit my obsession to Sofiya of all people, who was much too astute for her own good.
What the hell would my daughter think of what was going on with Tati and me? That was a thought I was in no mood to handle, and I went back over what little I learned.
Sofiya didn’t find it odd that such a brilliant young woman with all the opportunities and potential in the world would give it up to sit in a studio and play with a string all day.
I did, though.
Weaving? In this modern day and age, where everything is made by machines?
When her father ran multiple lucrative businesses, and she could have had a cushy position in any of them?
Pulling up a search engine, I did a little digging around and then ordered her a loom.
It was supposedly one of the best available, and the website helped me add everything someone would need to create a project with it.
If that person knew how to use it in the first place.
If Tati had truly been working as an apprentice under a master weaver for the last few years, I’d know it soon enough.