“As always, fam, you’re a genius. You really are disgustingly brilliant,” I said.
“Thank you,” she preens.
“Your brother Yuri’s situation aside, you know how absolute the vows of an arranged marriage between Bratvas are. If we break them, our family has no honor. No other family will have anything to do with us. You know I’m right.”
“Well, I don’t know what the deal was between Yuri and the Balabanovs. I never got that much information, though you’d be impressed with how much my sisters-in-law tell me. There was some combination of… like… blackmail and mutually assured destruction. As for you, it’s almost March, which means we have three months or so before Aleksandr graduates and you’re forced to get married.”
“Meaning?” I said, so pathetically grateful to see even the slightest glimmer of hope.
Mariya smiles, her eyes tilting up like a fox’s. “We have ninety days to find a way for Roman to cut a deal with the Rostova Bratva that does not include you.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
In which there are warm baths and many questions.
Moulin Rouge Soundtrack - Come What May
Lucca…
When Dr. Giardo finally released Tatiana two days later, she begged me to help her back to student housing early in the morning, saying she didn’t want to be center-ring in the Academy freak show. I got why, stares and false sympathy are irritating as fuck, no matter who they are directed at.
She tries to protest when I carry her, and I ignore it. All I can think of is racing across the lawn to the clinic with her in my arms ten days ago.
When I turn in the direction of the men’s side of the building, she stiffens. “I should really go to my room,” she said weakly.
“Don’t worry,” I said, “I don’t intend to soil your virtue.”
“You already did that,” she interrupts.
“I’m taking care of you. And as I recall, you were an enthusiastic participant in the soiling.”
“Let’s not call it that,” she sighs, but she doesn’t argue as I carry her up the stairs to my place. “Is Konstantin going to mind that I’m his space?”
“No. He and Mariya have been really worried about you, so I expect she’ll be over a lot, too.”
“On the bright side, Athena always wanted to have her own place, she’s sort of getting her wish,” she said. “Also, she is very loud and I’m happy not to have to hear it.”
“What, like her music?” I ask.
“No, her… you know,” she said, flushing a little.
Given how pale she’s been, the extra color in her skin is a relief. I’ll just have to keep embarrassing her. “You mean when she’s fucking?”
“Will you stop that?”
Yeah, she definitely looks healthier when she’s blushing.
“Go over the six fastest-acting plant-based poisons with me again,” Tatiana said, rubbing her forehead.
“We’ve run through prep for this test three times,” Mariya whines, clearly bored out of her mind. “Let’s do some plotting instead.”
Konstantin looks up from his gaming console. “Plotting?”
Mariya and Tatiana talked us through their conversation from yesterday.
“I’ve thought about it since my genius friend,” Tatiana nods at Mariya, who's attempting to appear modest, “laid this all out for me, and it’s raised more questions. Why did my brother seek an alliance with the weakest of the Moscow Six? My father had connections everywhere, surely Roman could have reached out to more reputable ones.”
“With attacks coming in from all directions, Roman can’t know who to trust, especially if your father kept so much of his business from him,” I said.
“Yeah, but Roman and Ilia knew one of the biggest threats was to Tati, right?” Kon asked. “I mean, the reason she’s here is to keep from being kidnapped. Did he just pick the Rostova Bratva because Leonid has a son of marriageable age?”
“Yeah…” Tatiana rubbed her forehead again, she was exhausted, I could tell. “My father spent a lot of time with Leonid. I know they did business. Maybe Roman and Ilia decided he was the first, safe choice.”
“Baby, it’s late and if you’re going to get better, you’ve got to sleep,” I said, rising from the couch and stretching. Before she could argue, I scooped her up and carried her to my room.
“Night night, Nurse Toscano!” Konstantin called.
“Flip him off for me, would you? My hands are full.” I said to Tatiana, laughing when she used both hands.
Carrying her into the bathroom, I sat her on the counter and started the water in the tub. “How about a hot bath?”
“Oh, that would be so nice,” she sighed. “That horrible little shower in the clinic was not enough.”
Leaning closer, I took a long, pointed sniff. “Well, I wasn’t going to say anything…”
“You are a very bad boyfriend,” she said severely.
“Is that what I am?” I grinned, lifting her into the water.
“Only if you get in with me,” she said, wiggling her fingers at me. I have my clothes off and I’m sliding in behind her in seconds. “Thank you,” she sighed, turning to her side so she could curl against me like a cat, resting her cheek on my chest.
“It’s just a bath,” I chuckled.
“No, it’s not,” she said, “you saved my life. Again. You looked out for me even after I was promised to someone else.”
My arms tightened around her, thinking of her tied to that chair, unconscious. “Piccolo bacio,” I sighed, “I will always come for you. There is no one else for me. There will never be anyone else but you.”
“I remember sitting there with that hood on, so cold… I couldn’t stop shaking, it was bone deep, and I just…” She laced her fingers with mine, “I thought about you, how you would fall in love with someone else, have a family with them. And I would be nothing more than a breeder and an ornamental wife for the rest of my life and I…” her voice choked on a sob.
“I think I was already sick, but this little voice kept whispering to me, that if I just let it happen, if I just drifted away… it would be all right if I was gone. Roman would think of something else. I couldn’t picture my life without you. Not one with any meaning, anyway.”
I can’t move, listening to her voice growing sadder, and quieter and I can’t take it anymore. “Listen to me,” I said urgently, “don’t you ever think that way again, ever! We will find a way out of this.”
The same cold terror I felt in the Catacombs when I found her gripped me again. She would rather die, torn between disappointing her brother or losing me. “There is always a way, my sweet girl, I promise you. We’ll find it. But you can never let yourself lose hope like that again. Swear it.”
Tatiana looks up at me, her wet eyes are forest green, glowing with little flecks of gold. “I vow to you that I won’t let myself think that way again. Thank you for not giving up on me.”
Lifting her by her hips, I turned her to straddle me so that I could hold her to me, squeezing her as tightly as I dared.
“You’re so nice and warm,” she sighed. “I love you.”
Why is my chest so tight? Like a fist, twisting my heart. “I love you, too. Always.”
Her hand slides between us, gently holding my cock, which is already growing hard. “No, baby you have to take your hand off me,” I groan.