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?
Chapter 43 - Tatiana