CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
TIFFANY
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Sadie stacks the new brochures onto the merchandizing shelves inside the cupboard in my office.
“Still can’t believe it was Nadia’s boyfriend.” She shakes her head. “Do you think she was involved? Perhaps she broke in. She is tiny.”
We’ve had this conversation in one form or another over the past week.
A real estate sign went up two days ago, so while she probably knew she would be extradited, it was clear she’d decided to leave the USA.
I don’t know how I feel about it.
A part of me is relieved it’s over and she has gone, and that Alexei is dead, but I’d like to know what is real and what is not.
I guess I’ll never know.
Sadie and I have hounded Noah for information despite telling us he doesn’t know.
“Come on,” Sadie cried. “You have to know something.”
“I don’t. I’m just a bootleg soldier.” He crossed his arms, amused by our insistence.
“Rubbish.” I shook my head. “You were a commander.”
“Was.”
“But...you know people.” Sadie tilted her head.
“I know my mom, my dad, brother, you—” he started counting on his fingers.
Sadie kicked his leg from where she was sitting on the floor, counting pens and stickers. We were sending out media kits in a few weeks for my new winter line. One that would have nothing to do with diamonds.
“Come on, Noah.” She groaned.
“Fine. Stop nagging. I’ll go into the BHS Facebook group and see what the gossip is.”
“You have a BHS FB gossip group?” I asked.
“No,” he deadpanned me. “We are men.”
Sadie giggled, but the ripped soldier could sneeze and she’d giggle.
“I don’t know,” I told Sadie now. “Crazy to think she is the daughter of one of the most dangerous men in Russia.”
And had been in my home many times.
“She must know something.” Sadie shrugs and adds more brochures onto the shelf.
“Ladies.” Noah walks in with a box of donuts and, by the smell wafting into my office, delicious coffee.
We both look up.
“Kitchen meeting. Come on.” He tilts his head toward the living room, and both of us scuttle after him.
“What is happening?” Sadie asks.
“I don’t know.” I giggle.
Life is lightening up, even if my heart still is heavy.
Jayden hasn’t made any attempt to contact me, which was expected, if I’m honest. It’s been weeks since we spent that week together and over a week since he killed the Russians and saved my life.
It’s hard not to romanticize what happened.
Especially when he showed up, carried me away, and made love to me with power and passion.
To someone watching, it might look like he just fucked me. He didn’t. There was love and anguish in his eyes.
I can’t force him to face his feelings.
I can’t wait for him forever.
I am not sure if I am even waiting.
I simply wake up every day grateful to be alive and remind myself to make the most of it.
We step into the kitchen and dive into the donuts as Noah hands us our custom coffee.
“Yum, thanks. What’s this about?”
“I have top secret information,” he says, sipping his drink.
“Ooh, is it going to put our lives at risk?” Sadie asks, grinning.
I swear she loves this cloak and dagger stuff.
“You know I’m not in the mob, right?” Noah frowns.
“Yes, good point. Okay. Go. Continue. Oh god. I’m so excited.” She bounces on the spot.
Noah glances at me all should I be worried about her.
I wave him off. “Spill, Commander.”
“Fine. I recommend you keep this inside these four walls—”
“Oh God, it’s like we’re informants or something.”
“Sadie,” both Noah and I say at the same time.
“Sorry, sorry. Keep going.”
Noah eyes her for a moment, then looks back at me. “You know Nadia is Dmitri Volkob’s daughter. He’s the head of the Russia mafia—”
“Eeeeek.”
We ignore Sadie.
“I’ve seen the transcript of her police investigation. She didn’t say too much, likely trained for such an eventuality.”
That makes sense.
If you were born into a mafia family, they would train you from the time you were little. I imagine.
“Do they think she was complicit?”
“They haven’t said, and then the president demanded her return. Politically, it would have been too much trouble to keep her,” Noah shares. “But Josh and I have a theory. Between you and I...and our accomplice here,” Sadie chuckles. “I think Josh has spoken to people way up the food chain.”
“What food chain?”
“The government, Sade’s. Senior people,” I explain.
She looks between us.
Noah deadpans her.
“Carry on,” I insist.
“What we think is that she was either being used as a pawn and didn’t know about the diamonds being laundered by the men she had come to the US with. It wasn’t just Alexei. She had Bratva guards and other soldiers here.”
“Jesus. A mini mafia living next door.” I scowl.
“Yeah, we should have fucking discovered it, but they are clever.” Noah shakes his head. “So she either knew, or she didn’t.”
I blink.
“She could have been used as a pawn, a cover, to move to America so Alexei could move the diamonds through the States.”
“Wow, real mafia stuff. Right here in Bel Air.” Sadie sighs. “Like in my smut books.”
“What are smut books?” Noah frowns, and I have never seen her blush so hard.
“Nothing. Research.” She looks at me with big eyes, begging for help.
I snort.
“So, Nadia was innocent?” I ask.
It would be nice to think she was, after the effort we both put into our friendship. We were never going to be best friends, but to think someone lied and used you all that time is hard to swallow.
“It’s a theory, that’s all.”
I realize now that I will never know the truth. I guess I should be grateful I lived through that horrible ordeal and get to be frustrated about it.
“So, the diamonds haven’t been recovered?” I ask.
“Commodities like diamonds don’t sit around. They will have had buyers that took them within hours.”
I won’t ever get the necklace my father bought me back, and that’s the saddest thing about this.
No, losing Jayden is.
Did I ever have him, though? It doesn’t feel like it.
“Well, I guess we owe Messy Bob an apology.” I finish my donut and tip back the last of my coffee. “That’s a joke, but it is good to know it wasn’t a crazy fan.”
“Don’t get complacent, Tiff.”
I don’t plan to be. I’m keeping BHS on as my private security, and they’ve said it might not be Noah.
He’s been wonderful, though.
A few days after the shooting, I phoned Rebecca, and we talked about me having a break and coming to visit her in London.
During our discussion, I told her all about Jayden.
“Honey, you’re out of his league, and he likely knows it.” Rebecca said.
“I don’t care about that sort of thing. I don’t need a man to provide for me. In a month I’ll be able to repay Dad, and the house is mine.”
“That’s amazing, but how will that make your hot alpha bodyguard feel? Those types of men are very proud.”
I chewed my lip.
Was that his problem?
If it was, and a week on he hadn’t contacted me, I had my answer. Which meant I should take Mom’s advice and see someone else.
Sam Moore.
She’d been trying to set me up with him for years. Our mothers were good friends, and while he was a very good-looking man, I hadn’t wanted to date him as I knew the two of them would be so excited and push hard for a marriage between us.
Sam is in show business, and while not yet hugely famous, he was on the precipice.
I wasn’t sure I wanted that life; all the media attention again, the red carpets, and invasion of privacy.
That probably sounds cynical, given what I did, but I was able to control it.
I wasn’t a movie star, which was a whole other universe compared to what I did.
I know—I lived it as a child.
Sam had messaged asking me out to dinner, and I was sitting on the response. As I watched Noah and Sadie flirt...more Sadie, to be fair...I decided I should go.
It would at least help me move on from Jayden.
It was just dinner, after all.
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SAM PICKS ME up in his Ferrari around seven and drives us to one of the hottest spots in Los Angeles.
Salt.
Salt is an Asian-fusion restaurant, and as we order and make small talk, the women around us try to be subtle as they sneak glances.
They’re not.
I get it. He has shiny, perfect white teeth and grooming that rivals Matt Damon’s (in his prime), and the sort of presence only those at the top of their game possess. I have no doubt Sam is going to end up with some stunning starlet, but it’s not me.
“Can I confess something,” he asks, leaning on one elbow, playing with his wineglass with the other.
“Don’t even try to tell me you’re gay,” I laugh.
“Not gay. Not even on the fence.” Sam grins back. “I’ve been wanting to ask you out for ages. Since the Fosters’ party.”
Wow.
“Oh? So, what stopped you?” I ask, playing along, because I know what stopped him.
Me.
I showed no interest.
“I didn’t think you were interested.” Sam sips his wine, and I internally say snap. “Then your mom rang mine and said you’d been waiting for my call.”
I am going to kill my mother.
I take another sip of my wine. “Would we say I was waiting?”
“Well, you’ve been busy recently with all the crime. I’m pleased you have bounced back so quickly.” Sam reaches and takes my hand.
I haven’t.
I’m trying to, and I wish he would let go.
“I want to see you again,” he presses as I blink, surprised by his forwardness.
Sam is a lot more confident than I was expecting, and it’s clear I’m not ready for this at all. I feel vulnerable and have thought about Jayden at least twenty times during our meal.
Noah is outside, my security stepped down a notch since we now know who was responsible, but that’s not why I feel vulnerable.
My heart is a little broken.
Crap.
I stare at his hand and stop myself from pulling away, but all I can think is don’t touch me, I’m Jayden’s.
I force a smile as his hand drops away. “One step at a time. We haven’t had dessert yet.”
“Then what are you having? Quick, so I can take you home, kiss you on the doorstep and see you again.” He grins and waves to the server.
I laugh, despite myself.
Some lucky lady is going to be swept off her feet by this handsome man one day.
He orders a dessert for us to share and then asks me about being held at gunpoint.
“God, I saw the viral video. You must have been terrified.” He shakes his head, sipping on a sticky Italian wine.
I wasn’t sure what to say.
Yeah, it was scary, but then the bodyguard I was banging shot them—he’s a sniper, so no big deal—and then swooped down and dragged me away to fuck me like he’d die if he didn’t get his cock inside me right that moment.
Best sex of my life.
His need was palpable, raw and passionate. It was so intense I was sore for days, and my soul felt like it had been ripped out of me and then returned with pieces missing.
I still feel like that.
“Yes,” I say instead, and we finish our dessert.
After dinner, we walk out into the balmy California evening and climb into his black Ferrari, then drive back to Bel Air.
I hope he doesn’t want that kiss.
I’m not into him and hope this doesn’t make things awkward for our moms.
When we pull up into my driveway, Sam gets out and circles the car, then takes one of my hips in his hand. I keep my purse in front of me so he can’t get closer.
“Dinner was lovely,” I say, wondering how I get away and not make a big deal.
“So are you, Tiffany,” Sam says, but my eyes have caught on something in the shadows.
I know Noah is in the car outside the gates, but I thought I saw...
Jayden.
When he leans in to give me a kiss, I turn my head, and he pecks my cheek. The moment he straightens, I see the acknowledgement in his eyes.
“This isn’t happening, is it?”
I shake my head.
“I’m sorry, Sam. You are lovely, but I have a lot going on.”
Sam nods and steps back. “Goodnight, Tiff.”
I don’t wait; I just want to have a shower and go to bed. I turn, stride to the front door, and step inside.
Jayden.
Why can’t you be with me?
This isn’t a fairytale princess. I’m not your prince.
I lean against my front door and feel the familiar sadness rise up as trickles of tears threaten to fall down my cheeks.
Then a fist bangs against my door, and I jump out of my skin.
“Tiffany!”