Page 50 of The Bratva's Arranged Virgin Bride
“No, for us,” he assured me. “You’ll come out of this ahead, don’t worry.”
Oh, I wasn’t worried about that. He shook my hand vigorously, only holding on a little too long, and then left me to crow to myself about my victory.
It was short-lived because within just a few minutes, my Uncle Nik was rattling the front door, wanting to be let in. My heady mood evaporated. What the hell was he doing here when he shouldn’t even know about the place? He wasn’t an art lover.
He also didn’t seem surprised to see me working inside, which had me panicking that this was no coincidence and my fun was about to come to an end. My father never wanted me to have anything to do with his life of crime, though reaping the benefits of it never bothered him.
“Don’t worry,” he said when I let him in. “I’ve known since before the opening. Congratulations, by the way, I hear it was a huge hit.”
Wait a minute. He must have thought the place was legit, or he would have had it shut down by now. “It was a big surprise,” I said.
“Yeah, who would have thought Mikhailov could arrange such an apt wedding gift.”
I breathed a sigh of relief. I was safe, for now. He looked around, making idle chit-chat for a couple of minutes, clearly not interested in the art. Waving his finger around, he pointed outside.
“I was involved with every step of putting this place together. It’s not bugged,” I said.
He didn’t believe me, pointing insistently at the door. Outside, he ordered us coffee and pastries from a stand, then we sat on a bench under a shady patch of palm trees. Anyone looking at us would never suspect I was being grilled.
He wanted to know what I had learned so far, which wasn’t much. I admitted I learned Kolya had another house I hadn’t been to yet, and that one of the rooms in the beach house was always locked.
“There’s a camera in the hall,” I said, when he gave me a look that said he knew a lock wouldn’t stop me. “He’d know if I broke in.”
“Then I’m going to advise pulling you out,” he said, crumpling his empty paper cup. “We’ve gotten some intel we don’t like.”
“What?” I yelped, more upset that I was getting pulled away too soon than about some plot against the family. “What, exactly, do you know?”
“Not much, yet,” he admitted. “But Arkadi and Mila have disappeared, and that’s making your father nervous.”
I was disgusted he’d think Mila would ever do anything against us. With a raised brow, he reminded me that she never told them that Kolya was in town and meeting with Arkadi in the first place. That stung, reminding me how much Mila hid from me, too. I had no answer because I didn’t know what to believe about my aunt and oldest friend anymore.
“They’re probably on one of their impromptu vacations,” I said listlessly.
He snorted, refusing to believe it, and I couldn’t give much more of an argument in their favor. He refused to tell me anything more about what scant information he had about Kolya, just repeated that he thought I was done.
Panic welled as I thought my uncles might drag me from Kolya. It would mean certain war, and destroy my revenge.
“I’m getting close,” I said. And I was, to whatIwanted. I just had to convince them I could still get them what they wanted, too. “I’ll find a way to disable the camera and get into the locked room.”
He grumbled. “The clock’s ticking, Nat. None of us like you being with him. It’s driving us nuts thinking he’s going to take advantage of you. The longer you’re with him, the harder it might be to get an annulment."
Pissed off by that, I almost spit out that I was the one pouncing on Kolya at every opportunity. No one was taking advantage of me in that respect, and good luck getting an annulment now. That ship had sailed long ago. Instead, I kept up my promise of being on the verge of finding something out.
“It could be what you’re missing,” I said. “It could be the key to whatever he’s planning. At the very least, I can probably find out where Arkadi and Mila went.”
He nodded unhappily, but left me to get back to work in the gallery he thought was a wedding present and not a major scam. Now also a major stepping stone to my revenge. I had just barely bought myself some more time, but how much?
I just might have to stop having so much fun with the man I was trying to destroy and concentrate on bringing him to his knees sooner rather than later.
