Before the candle flame of anger that ignited could turn into a full-blown inferno, she put her hand on my chest. “I’ll stay in your bed even if you say no,” she continued. “But I’d like for you to at least be able to say you trust me. If you can’t… then that would be the thing that makes me leave.”
With a sigh, I closed my eyes, but kept my hand locked around hers. I didn’t want Tati to leave, so that we’d be back to being silent enemies, but did I trust her? All I knew for certain was that I wanted to.
Rolling to my side, I pulled her close, our noses an inch apart. I didn’t have the answer she wanted, not yet. But that didn’t mean I couldn’t give her something.
“We can talk about how you can help tomorrow,” I said. “Right now…”
Our mouths met at the same time, distracting each other from the things neither of us wanted to think too much about.
Chapter 31 - Tatiana
If Kon thought he wore me out and I’d lay around in bed all day, forgetting what we talked about last night, he was wrong. I barely laid around for five minutes, running my hand over the rumpled pillow beside me, gathering it close to breathe in Kon’s scent.
What was I doing? I shouldn’t have been having any kind of feelings involving the way he smelled like spring rain and expensive cologne at the same time, or letting it invoke such primal urges. The thing I should have wanted to do immediately was find him and demand we talk about my involvement in finding Papa. Not smile into a pillow while having all sorts of memories that made my whole body blush.
That man knew exactly how to turn me into mush. It was time to regain that steel spine I supposedly had. Looking outside before I ran to my own room to get dressed, it looked to be a lovely day, as usual. It seemed to be against the law to have bad weather here.
My closet was empty, and I retraced my steps to the bedroom Kon had taken as his own, the smile fixed firmly to my face. Somehow, he managed to move all my things while I was still asleep, making good on his command that I’d be sleeping with him from now on.
Like the glorious weather, I couldn’t get mad about it.
I found him at the breakfast nook overlooking the back patio, a steaming mug of coffee halfway to his lips. Pausing in the doorway, I took him in. He took up so much of the cozy space, dominating most of the round table with his laptop, tablet, and an ignored plate of toast. He had a slight scowl marring his forehead, and there was a bit of stubble on his strong jaw. His t-shirt and baggy sweatpants were endearing when I was used to seeing him in designer suits, all buttoned up but never able to diminish his broad shoulders or towering height.
His biceps were on full display, a hand I had grown to know so well wrapped around the coffee mug. What those fingers could do to me. He looked up and smiled, catching me gawking. Putting down his mug, he stretched and yawned, raising his arms over his head to reveal a few inches of washboard abs.
Showing off.
As soon as I had a cup of coffee in my own hand, I sat down across from him.
“All business, I see,” he said, not referring to my twirly blue sundress at all, but the expression on my face.
“Yes. I want to see my phone. You can watch me the whole time, hover over my shoulder if you want. But I need to see if Papa’s been trying to contact me.”
“I expected as much,” he said, but didn’t frown or even scowl any harder than normal. “And to put your mind at ease about one thing, I’ve been checking the phone regularly. There’ve been no messages from Grigor or his assistant.”
My shoulders slumped. “That doesn’t mean anything,” I said, trying to convince myself. “It could mean they’re trying to keep me safe. Papa always thought ignorance was bliss where I was concerned. But not anymore. I want to message him. His assistant, too, and any other people who might know something.”
“Not happening,” he said. “Some of the members of the Yakuza already know you’re with me.”
“But they don’t have any clue where we’re at, you said so yourself yesterday. You were pretty smug about it.”
Now the scowl lines deepened over his brows. “If you start contacting people and asking questions, they’ll know you’re involved and redouble their efforts.”
He stopped, holding up his hand so he could think in silence. I held my breath to keep a flood of arguments from spilling out. At least he was taking me seriously by not shutting me down altogether.
“I can just send messages under the guise of a worried daughter,” I said when his silence stretched out too long. He had nothing, he knew it, and was stalling. “We’re at the end of a tunnel. If we can’t turn around, we have to start digging.”
His lip quirked up. “Even if it’s one of our graves? They’ll go into overdrive trying to find you. Not going to happen. Unless…”
His eyes lit up, and it was like I could read his mind. “Unless we tell them where I’m at,” I said, with an exhilarated rush. “Right? And then I can try to contact Papa?”
Reaching over the table, he pulled me across his uneaten toast to give me a hearty kiss. “We’ll see about that. But first we’ve got to put on a show.”
The next few days were a whirlwind of activity, and I was in the center of it all. There was no more holding back, no more rushing out of the house without explanations or goodbyes, and no more secrets. We were in perfect sync.
Kon enlisted one of his cousins’ wives to help out. In fact, she was the key player in our little game. Daria was tough as nails, having been born into a crime family, raised in hiding, then forcefully reenlisted by her cruel brother to try to bringdown the Fokin family. The plan was a huge bust once she fell in love with Ivan, who helped her finally break free from her brother.
Ivan wasn’t too keen on the plan at first, since there would be a modicum of danger involved for Daria, but she convinced him she wanted to help, admitting that things were getting a little tame in their lives.