Las Vegas Sidewinders: Toli & Tessa (Book 6)

by Kat Mizera

  “Tessa?” Drake sounded more upbeat than the last time she’d seen him and she took a deep breath so that her voice didn’t give her away.

  “Hey! I was calling to check on Erin.”

  “She’s much better,” he said. “They’ve moved her to a regular room and she’s awake. Do you want to talk to her?”

  “Yes, please.” Tessa held her breath.

  “Hey.” Erin sounded tired but alert.

  “Hey. How are you?”

  “Much better. How are you? Is Russia wonderful?”

  Tessa’s voice cracked at the sound of the concern in the voice of one of her closest friends. “N-no, not really.”

  “It’s not? You’re not having fun?”

  “No.” She couldn’t stop the sniffle that escaped.

  “Honey? Are you okay?”

  “I need you to help me,” Tessa whispered as tears started to slide down her face again.

  “Tessa, what is it?”

  “I’m so sorry, I know how sick you’ve been but I can’t—you have to get me and Raina out of here!”

  “Okay, slow down.” Even in the hospital, recovering from a gunshot to the chest, Erin went into soldier mode without batting an eyelash. “Where’s Toli?”

  “In the restroom making out with Tatiana!” She was sobbing now, pressing herself against the wall.

  “Oh, fucking hell, I’m going to kill him when I get better.” Tessa could hear Drake grumbling in the background and Erin telling him to be quiet.

  “Can you get us a flight? Tonight? Or really early in the morning?”

  “I have friends in the area—I’ll find something—but you have to tell me what’s happened.”

  Tessa told her everything, not giving a damn if someone was somehow listening in on their conversation; she wasn’t a spy or KGB or any other damn thing and her life wasn’t an adventure movie. She had people she trusted and she wouldn’t hesitate to do anything necessary to get her daughter out of this nightmare.

  “The first thing you need to do is calm down,” Erin said firmly, her voice growing stronger. “I need you to go back to your room, pack the necessities, get Raina and get out. I’ll call you back in five minutes with either an address to give a driver or who to look for. I think one of my friends from my unit in Afghanistan is in Russia, but I’m not sure how far he is from Moscow. I’ll find you a place to hide until he can get to you, okay?”

  “Erin!” Tessa was almost hysterical now.

  “You need to calm down!” Erin snapped. “I’m serious, Tessa. I’m going to take care of you, but if you’re out of control, you’re going to draw attention to yourself and you have to think about Raina. Are you listening?”

  “Y-yes.” Tessa wiped her nose with the back of her hand.

  “Go up to your room and pack. Keep your phone in your hand. If you don’t answer when I call, I’m calling the embassy. Keep your passports in a pocket, not your purse. Now move. Are you heading to the elevator?”

  “Yes.” Tessa practically ran inside.

  Chapter 10

  When Toli got back to the room, it was eerily quiet. He knew instantly that she was gone. Her carry-on bag and Raina’s diaper bag were gone, but the dress and shoes she’d been wearing were on the bathroom floor. He called down to the front desk and asked if Tessa had called for a car or a taxi but they didn’t have any record of that. The concierge remembered seeing her and her little girl hurry out but hadn’t seen where they’d gone. Toli threw open Anton’s door and found him on the bed listening to music. Anton pulled his earbuds out with a frown.

  “Hey, Dad, what’s going on?”

  “Did you talk to Tessa?”

  “Not since we got back to the hotel. We came up here and she apologized, said she wasn’t mad at me, that she was upset with you. She told me everything would be okay and we put Raina to bed. Why? What’s going on?”

  “She’s gone,” Toli said with a sigh. “And she only took two small bags, so she left in a hurry.”

  “Dad?” Anton sat up frowning.

  “I need you to go back to the States,” Toli said abruptly.

  “No way.” Anton got up and folded his arms across his chest. “I’m not a kid anymore, Dad. If something is going on, I can help.”

  “Not with this,” Toli muttered. “I’m concerned for your safety and—”

  “I speak Russian. I’m as big as you are. I know the area well enough to get around. Whatever’s going on, you need me.”

  Toli felt tears sting his eyes at his son’s reflexive call to action. He didn’t even know what was going on but was determined to stay at his father’s side. Toli didn’t know how he’d gotten so lucky to raise a kid like this—especially considering he’d barely been around to raise him—and he couldn’t resist reaching out to pull him close.

  “I love you very much,” he whispered against his ear. “But I’ve gotten involved in something that might be dangerous, and if anything happened to you, I would never forgive myself. Please go home.”

  “No. You can drop me off at the airport, but you can’t make me get on the plane.” Anton was whispering too, aware that this had to be serious for his father to be behaving this way. “Tessa was scared, and now you’re scared. I’m safer with you, Dad. By myself, anything could happen.”

  Toli swallowed and finally nodded, his mind reeling. “Pack your things. We’re going to your grandparents’ house.”

  Anton nodded. “Okay.”

  Toli turned and went back into his room, looking around in frustration. He began throwing everything left in the room into their two big suitcases. He held Tessa’s dress in his hands and brought it to his face, inhaling her faint scent. Damn, he’d screwed up royally and something or someone had scared her to the point she’d run without even talking to him. That meant she’d been approached by someone who made Toli out to be the bad guy. That was the only explanation he could think of, and though it infuriated him, he was glad she was going home. He reached for his phone and called her, positive she wouldn’t pick up, but wanting to leave her a message anyway.

  “Hello, sweetheart. I’m not sure what’s happened, but just listen for a moment, okay? I love you. No matter what’s going on, I hope you know that. I don’t know why you left or where you’ve gone, but please be careful. Not all taxis are safe and the people in Russia will take advantage of an American traveler, so don’t trust anyone. I wish you’d call me, just to tell me you’re safe. I’ll be home soon and we’re going to talk about whatever it is that’s upset you. I love you, Tessa. Always.” He disconnected and sank onto the bed. What had these damn people done to scare her away? He didn’t understand why she hadn’t at least come to him, confronted him, something. There was no time to worry about that, though. He had to call Sergei, get to his father, tell him everything, and work out a plan to fix things.

  Toli dozed on the couch at his parents’ apartment while Anton slept in the guest room. He was too wound up to fall into a deep sleep and he just closed his eyes for a while to allow his body to rest. He, Sergei, his father and Anton had been up until almost dawn trying to find some answers and when Toli had finally fallen asleep his father had been on the phone. He was startled awake when his phone rang and he snatched it up when he saw Zakk’s name.

  “Zakk.”

  “What the fuck did you do?!” Zakk growled. Even from nearly 10,000 miles away, Toli could hear the fury in his friend’s voice.

  “I don’t know,” he admitted. “Have you heard from her? Did Tiff talk to her?”

  “Of course Tiff fucking talked to her!” Zakk was still yelling. “You had sex with Tatiana?! In the fucking bathroom?! Are you out of your motherfucking mind?!”

  “What?” Toli blinked in total confusion. “What are you talking about? Would you stop fucking yelling at me?!”

  “She saw you, God dammit! Jesus Christ, I’ve fucked a million girls—I get the allure—but why did you have to marry her if you were still hung up on your ex? She’s not just another p
iece of ass, for God’s sake!”

  “What are you talking about?!” Toli lost his temper as he sat up. “Of course she’s not a piece of ass—she’s my wife! What did she see me do?”

  “She saw you and Tatiana together—I don’t know the details, but—”

  “We weren’t together like that!” Toli protested. “She and Sergei were at the party last night and they came back to the hotel bar with us—but Tessa never came down.” His voice trailed off. “Zakk, I swear to God I don’t know what’s going on.”

  “I don’t know what you did, or what she thinks she saw, but this is bad. I mean, she called Erin, at the hospital, and Erin called one of her buddies from her old unit in Afghanistan, who’s undercover somewhere in Russia, and he put her on a fucking military plane at 5:00 a.m. your time this morning. This is a big deal—whatever you did goes way beyond you fucking your ex.”

  “But I didn’t!” Toli growled in frustration. “I haven’t slept with Tatiana in something like four years!”

  “Are you sure?”

  “What do you mean, am I sure?” Toli was the one yelling now. “Of course I’m fucking sure! You think I don’t know who I screwed and when?!”

  “I didn’t talk to her, but Tiff said she saw you—in the bathroom—”

  “Oh, God, no.” Toli groaned. “No, no, no! God dammit!” He balled his hand into a fist.

  “Did you do her in the bathroom?”

  “No! She wanted to check my stitches—my shoulder was hurting, so while we were waiting for Tessa to come down, Sergei and Tatiana went into the men’s room with me and I took my shirt off so she could check the wound to make sure it was only soreness, not some sort of infection. How could she see that and why wouldn’t she have yelled or come in or something so she would have seen that Sergei was right there… Fuck me!”

  “Dude, there’s more going on than you and Tatiana,” Zakk said after a moment. “Are you staying in Russia?”

  “What?!” Toli was pacing now. “Why the fuck would I be staying in Russia? My career is in Las Vegas and my son is in the U.S.!”

  “I don’t know what happened over there,” Zakk’s voice dropped to a whisper. “But if you plan to stay married you need to sort this shit out.”

  “She wouldn’t talk to me,” Toli said in frustration. “Something happened last night—we had a fight. I tried to explain why I was acting the way I was and I thought she understood, but then at the party she just shut down. She smiled and danced and hugged people, but when I looked at her, I knew something was wrong. I tried to get her to tell me, but she wouldn’t. I thought afterwards, at the bar, I could get her to relax. And then…”

  “And then shit hit the fan.” Zakk paused. “Toli, you’re like a brother to me. I don’t know what happened, but I’m caught between you and my fiancée, and she says until we get all the information, we have to side with Tessa. The truth, my friend, is that I’ve got your back, but you’re going to have to prove that you’re for real.”

  “What does that mean?!” Toli demanded.

  “It means that while I don’t believe everything I’ve heard, your wife apparently has some compelling evidence that you not only cheated on her with your ex, but that you’re not who you say you are. I hope you’re working on this shit because I’m gonna be pissed if you’re not the best man at my wedding. You need to come home.” Zakk disconnected and Toli stared at the phone. What the fuck?! He had no idea what Zakk was talking about, but he was sure as hell going to find out. With a grunt, he stormed into the kitchen in search of coffee.

  Tessa got back to Las Vegas at almost midnight, having changed planes twice. Zakk was there waiting for her, and he didn’t say a word as he took Raina from her arms. They gathered her things and made their way out to his truck. She climbed in, still without a word, and he put Raina in one of the twin’s car seats. They drove in silence for a while before he reached out to put his hand over hers.

  “Whatever it is, we’re going to figure it out.”

  “Does he really love me?” she asked softly. “Zakk, you know him better than almost anyone and I need to know.”

  “That man is crazy for you,” he said. “I know guys, and if he didn’t really love you, he wouldn’t have had the look he had when you left him back in January. He easily could have found someone else. There are literally hundreds of women available to him! He plays for the NHL—you know how easy it is to find willing women, especially if you’re offering a wedding ring? Come on, Tessa, are you sure you saw what you think you saw?”

  She closed her eyes. “I saw him with Tatiana. He had no shirt on and she had her hands on his shoulders. He was laughing, looking down at her, with the hand of his good arm at her waist. She was touching him as if she owned him—I know what I saw, Zakk. And you didn’t see the way he changed while we were there. I tried to be patient, but something was just off. It’s not just that—all these things happened that are hard to explain. His buddy Phil said some weird stuff about him planning to move home to Russia and then this man approached me...” Her voice grew quiet as she told him about her conversation with the man outside the hotel.

  “I don’t know what to think,” he admitted. “But I know that Toli was in the bathroom with both Tatiana and Sergei so she could check the wound. He’d been in pain and said she just wanted to make sure it was soreness and not infection.”

  Tessa felt a moment of confusion—had she been wrong? It didn’t matter. Even if the thing with Tatiana was a mistake, she knew something was different with Toli and that man who’d approached her was definitely a real bad guy. The combination of the events of the last week left her feeling about as alone as she’d ever been. Not physically, but emotionally. It felt like Toli was so far away from her she might as well have never met him. Whatever he had going on in Russia put a chasm between them bigger than any physical barrier ever could have.

  “Can we go get some of my things at the house and then go back to your place?” she asked in a desolate voice.

  Zakk glanced at her. “You know you can. But you also know you’re going to have to face him, because he’s not done with you and I know you sure as hell aren’t done with him.”

  “No, I’m definitely not.” She leaned her head against the window and closed her eyes.

  Toli, Anton, Sergei and Anatoly walked briskly through the neighborhood to a small local park. There were children playing and mothers chatting in small groups, students heading to class or walking hand in hand, and a plethora of people milling about. Anatoly surveyed the area critically before turning to look at his sons and grandson.

  “Toli, why didn’t you come to me?” his father asked quietly. “I could have handled the situation with Marco!”

  “You spent your whole life protecting us, trying to keep your nose clean so that our family would be safe—I didn’t want you to owe anyone.”

  “So you called Grisha?” He scowled. “Knowing you would then be the one to owe something?”

  Toli rolled his eyes. “You said to never call you directly if something happened, and also that we could Grisha in an emergency. I decided this was such an emergency.”

  “If you called and asked for protection but none came, this is much more serious than I imagined. I hoped they wouldn’t go after you or Sergei, but it appears they have you in their sights.”

  “What does that mean?” Toli asked in frustration. “What can I do for them? I’m edging up towards 40—and I spent a whole nine months in the military. They can’t possibly think I’m spy material? I’m basically a dumb jock!”

  Anatoly laughed. “No, son, you’re much more than that, and they know it. You didn’t go to college because you were such a good hockey player you were ready to play at the highest level at 18. But you could have—you could have done anything you wanted.”

  “I did exactly what I wanted,” Toli said. “Hockey is all I’ve ever wanted.”

  “I know, and I did everything possible so that would happen for all of you.”

/>   “All of us?”

  “Well, you and Sergei.”

  “Not if I’m caught up in this nonsense. Papa, tell me what’s going on. I thought the KGB folded?”

  “There’s a new faction in the works. The Prime Minister has been slowly setting it up again, bringing in people from before, trying to build it up. I’m retired, but I’ve been asked to…oversee some of the organization. It’s not the kind of thing you say no to.”

  “Papa…” Sergei looked horrified. “You can’t!”

  Anatoly shook his head. “This is why I sent you to America—to keep you away from here. But you had to come back after the death of your friend and forced me to call in many favors…”

  “So this is my fault?” Sergei demanded.

  “It’s no one’s fault but mine,” Anatoly blew out a breath. “And I will fix this. Do not worry, Toli—I will make sure everything is okay with your wife. You need to go back to America and let me handle it.”

  “No!” Toli grunted. “You’ve been all alone in this your whole life—maybe it’s time Sergei and I stepped up to ease your burden. You gave us a life most people can’t even imagine. I can’t let you sacrifice any more than you already have. If I hadn’t reached out to Grisha—”

  “I make the sacrifice because I love you!” Anatoly snapped. “You and your brothers are all—”

  “Brothers?” Sergei interrupted, his eyes widening in confusion.

  Anatoly laughed. “I’m sorry. I think of Anton as one of my boys as well. He’s so like you and Toli, and I’m so very proud of all three of you, I think of all of you as my children.”

  Anton shook his head. “That’s not disrespectful, that’s awesome. I love you, Grandpa.”

  “I love you, too.” Anatoly reached out to hug his grandson tightly, pressing a light kiss to his forehead. “I know I am not the grandfather you read about in books, and I’m sorry for this, but it’s because of circumstances, not because I don’t want to.”