Chapter 42 - Konstantin
Walking up to that house was one of the most terrifying moments of my life.
Not for myself, but for what I might have lost. It was dark and quiet.
Was she already dead? Then a racket sounded from the back, and I tore inside like the place was on fire, no idea what was going on, but unable to stand by when Tati needed me.
And there she was, as fierce as any warrior, using the last shreds of her strength to try to free herself. She barely stayed conscious long enough to recognize who I was, and her smile felt like sunshine after a long Moscow winter. My girl was going to be okay.
The last thing she tried to tell me was that she held out as long as she could, and I could have shaken her if she weren’t already so weak.
While it was a shocking surprise to be able to just walk in and take her away, I wished that Riku were there so I could make him suffer a fate a thousand times worse than what he put Tati through.
There would be time for that, and the men I’d sent to the ambush point would do their best to capture him and bring him in alive. Then he’d pay, and continue paying.
“You’re fine now,” I said when she briefly roused and tried to fight as I put her in the car.
Dima was horrified at her condition, despite not having a single mark on her face. “This might be the time to go to a hospital.”
Tati’s eyes flew open again. “No hospital. I just want to be with…” She reached weakly for my hand as her eyes drifted shut. “No hospital,” she repeated.
“If your doc tells me to send her, that’s where she’ll go,” I said, then had Dima and his guys search the area in case anyone had scurried off when we pulled up.
She slept the entire way back to the house, where Olivia was waiting, her phone clamped to her ear. “They’re here,” she said. “I’ll keep you updated.”
I smiled warmly at Dima’s wife as she made way for me to carry Tati inside.
She was treating Tati like she was already family, based solely on how I acted.
Sometimes I took my huge, caring family for granted, and that was about to stop.
I needed to spend more time with my LA relatives, and not just when something was going wrong.
The physician rushed out when he heard us, and ordered me to carry Tati to the newest hospital room he’d set up in one of the many bedrooms. All the commotion woke her up, and she struggled to get out of my arms.
Her strength was a relief, and the stubborn scowl on her beautiful face had me grinning as well as putting her down.
“See? I can walk. It’s not as bad as you think. The nap in the car fixed me right up.” But as soon as she took one step, she winced in pain and grabbed her ribs.
The doctor and I exchanged glances, and he snapped for his assistant to bring out the wheelchair. Tati balked and told him he better not.
“Tati,” I said warningly. “You don’t need to be strong anymore. Let the man take care of you.” I gently gripped her hand, realizing her struggle to stay in control was based on leftover fear.
She relaxed, but not by much, whipping her head around to look at me with wide eyes. “Did you say Papa was here? Or did I imagine that?”
Her look of hope made my heart twist. “He’s here,” I said. “But you need to get fixed up first.” I didn’t think it would do her much good to see Grigor in his current state, and hopefully, the doc had cuffed him to the bed to keep him from crashing around like a bull anymore.
I waved the doctor back to the room he’d prepared, and carefully took Tati in my arms. “Your father is fine, but he needs rest—”
“Why?” she interrupted. “Is it that bad?”
“It’s not good, but I promise you he’s fine. He’ll be back to normal soon enough, driving me up a wall.”
And walking you down an aisle. I shook the thought off as soon as it landed in my head, but it was determined to stay there. Would Tati want any part of me now, though, after all those weeks of not trusting her father, and by extension, her?
None of that was the most important thing at the moment. “Let the doctor look at you, and then I’ll let you see him.”
“Let me?” she scoffed, but it was with a slight smile. “You’re too bossy, and you worry too much.”
“Damn right I am, and yes, I do worry. How can I not worry about the woman I love?”
I slid my hands down her back, and she gasped, but not with pain. Her eyes were bright, and her smile grew wider.
“Kon,” she whispered, gazing up at me. The only thing I needed.
“I do love you,” I said. “I should have trusted you, should have done what you said, just with an army of guards surrounding you.”
She shook her head. “I should have listened to your reasons. You were the one who was right.” She reached up to rub the back of her head, but then let her hands fall onto my shoulders. “I prayed you wouldn’t go to that other place, but I couldn’t dare to hope you’d find me.”
“You’ll have to change your thinking about that,” I told her. “Because for one thing, you’re never leaving my sight again, and even if you do… Tati, I’ll find you. You’re mine. You’re—”
She raised up on her toes and pressed her lips to mine in answer. As much as I wanted to crush her closer to me, I didn’t want to hurt her. She seemed to forget her injuries as our tongues brushed against each other. Her soft sigh was warm against my mouth.
Finally, after hours of ice-cold fear and worry, peace settled over me as she held on tight. This was all I wanted. Nothing was truly settled; a war was still waging outside these walls, and much too close for comfort. But it didn’t matter with Tati in my arms. Everything bad faded away.
Until a hoarse shout broke us apart. On instinct, I jumped in front of Tati to protect her from this latest threat.
“What the hell is going on?” Grigor yelled, advancing on me as best he could. Once again, he tore out the tubes connected to his arm and tossed the rolling stand aside.
“Papa,” Tati shrieked, but his wild eyes were fixed on me.
He had already seen that she was alive and reasonably well, and also witnessed us in a passionate clinch. Not exactly the way I wanted to break the news to him about my feelings for his daughter.
He was prepared to break my face, advancing on me with surprising strength. “I see what your so-called rescue was all about,” he roared. “You kidnapped her. Brainwashed her. Used her for your own ends. And now I see you’re all over her, too? You’re going to fucking die for this.”
As battered as he was, he found it in him to lunge at me with his bandaged hands upraised.
I could hardly blame my old friend for his outrage.
I would have done the same, and his reputation with women was far cleaner than mine.
I did have a history of meaningless flings, but the operative word was history.
That was all in the past. I was a one-woman man now, and that woman just happened to be Grigor’s daughter.
I had no words of apology, because while I might have changed a few things I did to get to this point, I couldn’t change my feelings for her. And I couldn’t be sorry about that kind of love.
But I could let him get in a few punches, and one of them fucking hurt. “All right, enough of that,” I said, blocking his next blow.
I stopped the one aimed at my face, but he got in a fast, hard hit to my solar plexus, and I doubled back, the wind knocked out of me. He flew at me like a deranged, bandaged bat until a smaller, but equally deranged figure threw herself in front of him.
“Stop!” we both yelled at the same time.
Grigor barely managed to stop the momentum of his next punch before it landed on Tati, and I scrambled upright to get her out of the way.
“No, you two, stop it,” she said, standing her ground, reawakened pain clear in her eyes as she glared at each of us in turn. God, she was so damn pretty when she was fired up. “What are you doing?”
“He—he took advantage of you,” Grigor snarled, reaching around her to aim another smack at my head.
I ducked out of the way, but grabbed his fist and shoved him away, instantly regretting it when Tati was sideswiped as he teetered backward and skidded on his socked feet. She gave me a dark look before turning it toward her father.
“He did not,” she said, as outraged as he was. “And he didn’t use me or brainwash me or whatever other nonsense you said. God, Papa, stop treating me like a baby. I’m twenty-two.”
“He has a daughter your age,” Grigor bellowed. “He should have—”
“What?” she snapped, cutting him off. “Let me walk right into Riku’s trap when I first came to LA?
The only reason I ended up doing that anyway was that I didn’t trust or listen to him.
He was keeping me safe and helping me look for you.
” She coughed, clutching her ribs. “I’m not going to let you two kill each other after I risked my life trying to save you. ”
Grigor and I looked straight at each other after that declaration, and a brief moment of agreement passed between us.
“About that,” I said, riled up from getting punched and then yelled at.
“How could you do something so foolish?” Grigor jumped in to take over. His face started to crumple as he realized how much worse things might have been. I was right there with him on that.
“She’s safe now,” I said gruffly, taking pity on him even though my face still stung. “And I’ll keep her that way.”
“Like hell you will,” he argued. “She’s my daughter. As soon as she’s patched up, we’re leaving.”
“Papa,” she said, but all the anger and fight were gone from her voice. She wavered on her feet, the last drops of adrenaline draining away to remind her how badly hurt she was.
I caught her before she went down. “Time for you to go to bed,” I said as she went limp in my arms. With a sharp intake of breath, her father tried to hobble after me as I strode past him. “You too,” I snapped.
I got a growling noise in response, but he didn’t follow me any further. Before I took her into her designated recovery room, I looked back to see Grigor resignedly dragging his ass back to his own doorway, a dark scowl on his face aimed at me.
“This isn’t over,” he said.
Ignoring him, I carried Tati to the bed and let the doctor take over, who was muttering about how idiotic people in the Bratva were.
“Is she okay?” I asked, leaning closer, as if taking my eyes off of her would make her disappear.
“Out of the way, she’ll be fine if you let me work,” the doctor said, then set about ignoring me, feeling for fractures and directing his assistant to start a restorative drip.
“Not over!” came another angry shout from the hall, closer than before.
“Go to bed,” I yelled back, before sinking into a chair to watch over Tati.
All fell quiet, the only noises were the low voices of the doctors, then the hum of the portable scanner they brought in to check for internal damage besides her cracked ribs.
I held my breath while more and more bruises appeared as they carefully cut away her clothes, but after a long time, it was determined that she really would be fine.
Just needed time to heal, like her stubborn father, and that meant no more upheavals or fights.
That seemed impossible. Grigor was furious and not only at me. He’d raised his daughter to stay out of the Bratva, never wanting her anywhere near the danger we all faced. He often spoke about her settling down with a teacher or perhaps an architect. Someone safe. Not like me.
He would view her becoming involved with me as going against everything he ever taught her. A betrayal, and perhaps one he couldn’t forgive, having the brain of a mule when it came to Tati.
But so did I, if it came down to having to give her up. The only thing I couldn’t stand more than that idea was having to witness her feel any kind of pain because of me. She’d be heartbroken beyond repair if Grigor cut her off. Would he go that far?
And what could I do if he did? Killing him for causing such pain was off the table—she’d really never forgive me for that. I couldn’t live without her, but could I let her give up everything for me?