by Lia Lee
There was a low murmur around the room. Dimitri turned his attention to Anatoli. His brother was trussed up so tightly that he could not move. He’d been tossed onto the floor in front of the assembled men. Anatoli had been beaten. His face was bruised and battered, his eyes swollen shut. It was obvious that the Alkaev men did not forgive stupidity lightly. They were obviously upset that they had been lied to. Dimitri could see it on their faces. Their trust in the Alkaev brothers in general had been abused.
“Let me tell you what has happened,” Dimitri began. This was not going to be easy. He could potentially undermine his own authority. Yet his instincts told him that honesty was the only way to rebuild the trust that had been destroyed by Anatoli’s treachery. Dimitri took a deep breath. “All of you know that my sister was seduced by Boris Rustikov. That is no secret. Since then, Anatoli and I have been single minded in our pursuit of justice for our sister. We wanted her honor to be restored. We wanted out honor as her brothers to be restored. We should have protected our sister, and we did not. We felt that we had failed Katya.”
There was a round of low comments, and even a few audible ones. The men seemed to agree with the necessity of regaining honor.
“The problems began when we let our thirst for revenge outweigh the good of the family,” Dimitri said firmly. “Katya had made her own choice. She is a grown woman who is more than capable of choosing her own path. Yet we were taking it upon ourselves to avenge her, making what had happened to her all about us. That was wrong. It clouded my judgment as your leader. There were many things in the last six months that were not attended to as they should have been—business things. As your leader, as the boss of this family, that was wrong.”
Dimitri was glad to hear the supportive voices lifted around the room. It would appear that he wasn’t going to lose his position after all. Then someone else gave Anatoli a nudge with his toe.
“What do we do about this one?” the enforcer asked.
This was where things were likely to get messy. Dimitri made eye contact one by one, with most of the men in the room. “I suppose that is going to have to be a family decision.”
***
Toni gazed at her father’s men. There were over a dozen of them gathered around her father’s corpse and not a single one seemed to have any clue what needed to happen. She sighed, feeling frustrated and wishing she could be anyplace but here. Of all the people who might have gotten saddled with the job of taking care of her father’s burial, why her?
“Pyotr!” Toni said tersely. “Call Dr. Poole. Tell him to come immediately, and tell him why.”
“But the boss is dead!” someone protested. “Why bother with a doctor?”
Toni groaned. “Because we need a medical official to file a death certificate in order to get the preparations going.” She glared at the assembled men. “It’s not like we can bury him in the backyard. All right? All of you go find something productive to do. As far as I’m concerned, it’s business as usual.”
There was a lot of grumbling. Toni could tell that these men didn’t appreciate being ordered around by a woman they still considered to be the boss’s bratty daughter. That no longer mattered. Toni was in charge whether they liked it or not. Other than Katya’s unborn, illegitimate child, Toni was the only Rustikov left. Still, it might not be a bad thing to have backup.
She pulled out her phone and sent a desperate text to her uncles. Viktor and Nikolai would know what to do. They’d be able to tell her what her options were too. And it was also likely that she was going to have to start talking to the authorities as well. Cops. She hated cops, but there was nothing for it. She had to cooperate or run the risk of being taken in as a suspect herself.
“Dr. Poole will be here within the half hour,” Pyotr told her quietly. “What do you intend to do?”
“Right now?” She raised an eyebrow. “I intend to bury my father. After that? I have no idea.”
“The men are restless,” Pyotr informed her. “We’ve already had four enforcers defect to another family. We could consider them traitors and go after them if you choose.”
“No,” Toni said quickly. “I’m not going to punish them for making what they thought was the best decision for themselves. I’m sure nobody expected a green girl to take over the family. If they don’t want to follow me, I don’t want them here. Their bad attitude will only destroy morale just that much farther.”
Pyotr grimaced. “You were always so much smarter than your father. You know that I hope?”
“Oh? In spite of him telling me every other second that I’m an idiot?” She chuckled. “Yes. I know. And the biggest benefit of having me running things is that I’m very unlikely to think with a cock I don’t have.”
Pyotr had nothing to say to that.
***
Dimitri heard Katya’s car pull in. He got to his feet, gripping the back of his chair to keep himself upright even though the room began to spin once again. He nodded to his men. “My sister is back. Hopefully she will have some news about what happened after you all were called back to the house.”
There was a murmur of agreement and then the men parted to let him through as he slowly left the war room. Dimitri made it down the hallway and out the door. He went up the steps, trying to understand what the deep sense of relief was all about. It had nothing to do with his sister. Was he glad she was safe? Yes, of course. But the notion that Toni was home and back by his side had a profound effect on his stress level. He wanted nothing more than to curl up in bed with Toni by his side and sleep for a year.
Katya got out of her car and shut the door. Dimitri smiled at her and kept waiting. It was dark outside, even with the carriage lights on the house blazing with light. Between the shadows and Katya’s tinted windows, Dimitri couldn’t see inside the passenger side of the vehicle to tell what was going on with Toni. What if she was hurt?
The thought had him moving at twice the speed he probably should have been. Dimitri flung open the passenger door of Katya’s car and found—nothing.
“Where is she?” He looked over the top of the low slung car and caught Katya’s eye. “Was she hurt? God! Don’t tell me she was killed! If Anatoli murdered her I will rip his lungs out and put his head on a pike!”
“No.” Katya held up her hands. “Toni is fine. She’s perfectly healthy. At least she was when I left her.”
“You left her?” Dimitri was shouting now. “You should have brought her home with you. What happened?”
“Anatoli murdered Boris,” Katya said softly. It was easy to see that she was fighting back tears. Dimitri didn’t want to be insensitive, but he wasn’t sorry the bastard was dead. Katya sighed. “Toni decided to stay and help make the arrangements.”
“Arrangements?” Dimitri said flatly. “What arrangements?”
“Funeral arrangements, Dimitri.” Katya’s tone was cautionary. “She’s her father’s only child. The only person left to take over the family business.”
“No.” Dimitri could not believe that Toni would even consider that. “She has no desire to do such a thing. Not for him! Not for an asshole that murdered her mother.”
“That’s another thing,” Katya said quietly. “Boris maintained until he died that he did not murder Maria. I can’t imagine why he would lie about something like that. Especially now. What would be the point?”
“He’s still messing with her, even now that he’s dead,” Dimitri said bitterly. “Just you watch.”
***
Dr. Poole raised his eyebrows at Toni. “My, my Ms. Rustikov. I’ve seen you twice in one night now. That’s not a good beginning.”
“Definitely not,” Toni agreed. She couldn’t decide if she liked the man or not. He was such an odd duck. “I suppose I’ll have to be more careful lest you have to sew me up next.”
Dr. Poole examined her father. Toni had asked the men to bring Boris into the house and lay him on the long couch in the living room. They’d put out plenty of towels and such, but her fathe
r had already bled out for the most part before he even got onto the couch.
“And what is it that you’d prefer I put down as his cause of death?” Dr. Poole wanted to know.
“I don’t know how these things work,” Toni admitted. “I suppose the reason would have to be something that won’t upset the authorities and bring a bunch of cops to our doorstep.”
“Then since he’d been shot in the heart,” Dr Poole mused. “I suppose I can list heart failure as his cause of death and say that he died peacefully at home.”
“Not entirely a lie,” Toni muttered. “He did die here at home. And by the time he actually stopped breathing he seemed to be pretty peaceful.”
“Gave you some deathbed confessions, did he?” Dr. Poole said as he began tugging on her father’s stiff body.
“What are you doing?” Toni was morbidly fascinated and horrified all at the same time.
“Just checking the rigor and liver mortis.” Dr. Poole continued his examination. “If you want the death certificate to hold up, you’ll need to let me finish.”
“Of course.” Toni took a step back. She watched the doctor do his work.
Seconds later Pyotr entered the room and stood beside her. “We’ve lost two more men.”
“How many more before we don’t have enough to do the necessary tasks to keep the businesses running?” Toni wondered at the conflicting feelings inside her heart. On one hand she didn’t like the idea of the Rustikov business empire toppling to the ground while she was in charge. And yet she also wondered if it wouldn’t be better just to close up shop completely. She had never intended to be a mafiya queen.
“We can sustain the business with what we have now.” Pyotr’s tone suggested that he was speculating.
“At some point I need to go have a look at the books and everything else,” Toni muttered. “I don’t even fully know what you’re saying when you say sustain the business. What business are we in exactly?”
“Laundromats mostly,” Pyotr told her quietly. “Some low level gaming halls, and a few brothels.”
“How did my father consider himself a big player when that’s all he had to bring to the table?”
Pyotr snorted. “You said it. Your father considered himself a big player. That did not mean that others shared is opinion.”
“Great.” She sighed. “I’m following in the footsteps of a consummate liar and a master of hyperbole.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Dimitri watched the sun peek over the horizon. He couldn’t remember what time it was when he finally went to bed. Everyone had been nagging him to go. He had known better. There was no way he was going to be able to sleep, not with so many unsettled things still on his mind.
He stretched, feeling his shoulder creak in protest. The injury was going to take time to heal. He didn’t have time. There was no place in his world for a man who couldn’t pull his weight, especially not now that he was having to make up the ground he’d lost because of Anatoli’s stupidity.
Dimitri rubbed a hand down his face and inhaled deeply. Toni’s scent was still on his sheets. He wanted her back. Badly. In fact he couldn’t believe just how much it bothered him to think of her navigating that shark tank at her father’s house all alone. She was smart and savvy. She would do just fine. But he wanted so badly to help her, if only to let her know that he understood and that he supported her decision.
The tip of the sun broke over the horizon, the orange ball of flame nearly blinding him with light. He thought about Toni and how much he wished that the two of them could lead a normal life. Katya’s decision to stay in the tiny cottage and raise her child by herself was making more and more sense. Dimitri had been part of the mafiya world his whole life. It was all he knew. He was tired. The notion of spending the rest of his life waking up next to Toni and seeing her smile was enticing. They could make love, lounge in bed, and live their lives like regular people who didn’t have to worry about assassination attempts, brothers with insane plots for revenge, or other mafiya families who might want to take what was theirs.
There was a soft knock at the door.
“Come in.”
Katya poked her head in the room. “I wondered if you would be awake.”
“Come in.” Dimitri gestured her toward the bed. “Have a seat.”
She gingerly perched on the edge of the mattress. “Are you all right with what the men have decided for Anatoli?”
“It’s an interesting compromise.”
Katya snorted. “It’s not a compromise, Dimitri.”
“Having him fight in the underground ring is not the same as having him summarily executed,” Dimitri pointed out reasonably. Then he sighed. Reaching out, he patted his sister’s hand. “There’s nothing else to be done. He knows far too much about our operation to turn him over to the police. I’ll be honest. It turns my stomach to imagine that I might be asked to execute him like a common traitor. And at least this way he has a chance to live on his own terms.”
“He’s half the size of the usual fighters.” Katya was wringing her hands together. “Sometimes I really hate this life.”
“You and me both,” Dimitri agreed. “I’m sorry about Boris. I’m not sure if I ever told you that.”
“Thank you.” She bit her lip, looking thoughtful. The dawn light cast her features in a fiery glow. “It was so odd to see him again. I know that Toni was disappointed with me.”
“How?” Dimitri asked quickly. “How could she ever?”
“Boris started talking to me right away. He”—she swallowed and paused a moment—“he said some really nice things. It reminded me of the time when we were together. He would always know exactly what I needed to hear.”
“Men like him always do.” Dimitri hated the self-doubt he saw on Katya’s face. “That doesn’t reflect badly on you, sweetie.”
“Boris held out his hand and I just went. It was like I couldn’t help myself.” She actually looked puzzled. “It wasn’t like I believed he was going to change his mind or that we would be some stupid happy couple raising our child.” Now Katya looked guilty. “I’ll admit that for just a few moments after I found out his wife was dead, I entertained the idea that he was going to marry me. That our agreement would change, and then we would raise our baby together and be the perfect couple.”
“What happened?”
She snorted in disgust. “He sent me that text telling me that the deal was off and wishing me luck.”
It still burned Dimitri to no end that that Boris had so disrespected Katya. She was so wonderful, and so innocent in many ways. “Anatoli and I kept you too sheltered,” he admitted. “We did you a disservice and I’m sorry. I won’t do it anymore. You’re more than capable of making your own decisions.”
“What about you?” She cocked her head. “I know you love Toni.”
“I do.”
“What are you going to do about it?” Katya shifted on the bed, resting her chin on one bent knee.
“I’m not sure.”
“Well you’d better not give up.” She poked his leg. “She loves you, you know? I’m not sure she really understands how that affects her yet, but she really does.”
“Sometimes love isn’t enough.” Dimitri wondered if there was a quota of clichés for every relationship. Once you fell in love you had to start spouting these ridiculous sayings that didn’t really mean anything while simultaneously being absolutely apropos for the situation. “I would love to believe that she can get her father’s crap straightened out, and that I’ll get everything back in order here at home. Then we can—I don’t know—try dating or something.”
Katya actually laughed. “That sounds hilarious, you know?”
“I know.”
“Her father tried to marry her off to one of his lackeys while we were there, you know?” Katya said suddenly. Her brow furrowed. “I didn’t understand why he would do that, but Toni seemed to understand.” Katya shrugged. “Then Anatoli showed up and everyone forgot about so
me bullshit wedding.”
“Then that’s one good thing my brother did,” Dimitri murmured. The idea of Toni marrying another man, no matter what the reason, was absolutely abhorrent to him. No. He would certainly not allow that. He had to find a way to make things work. There was simply no joy in living without her.
***
Toni leaned against the wall in her parents’ closet. The dawn light seeped through the windows and painted bright strips of light across the floor. She was curled up in a little ball with an old blanket tucked around her legs. She’d pulled all of her father’s papers and correspondence from his safe.
There was a part of Toni that could not believe her father would keep this stuff. It painted him in a horrible light. There were receipts from a dozen or more jewelry stores, flower shops, boutiques, and even sweet shops. Each receipt had been placed in a little file labeled with a woman’s name. There were nearly thirty files. Her arrogant, pig headed father had kept records of his relationships. There were scribbled notes about what each woman liked to receive, when her birthday was, what she considered their “anniversary”… It was all there. Boris Rustikov had kept meticulous record of each woman, even penciling in the date the relationship had ended and putting down a few lines about what had happened.
Toni picked up Katya’s file. This one was thicker than the others because it contained information from her pregnancy. There had been a genetic workup, a family history, and even several ultrasound photos. Boris had actually hired a company to do some kind of genetic predictor of the baby’s gender based on the family history of both himself and Katya. It was absolutely insane to think of her father going to so much trouble, and then turning around and deciding he didn’t want the child anymore.
Shuffling through a few more papers, Toni found the contract that Katya had signed that gave Boris control over the baby. Toni also discovered the precise outline of what Katya had been promised in exchange for giving up her maternal rights.
“A million dollars and an estate at the edge of the city,” Toni whispered. “Expenses to be paid by Rustikov Enterprises. Damn.”
