"Are you saying that Viktor is even scarier than Gavriil?" Lissa was half joking. She couldn't imagine anyone being more frightening that Gavriil.
"That school was disbanded after Viktor and about seventeen others finished. Even Kostya Sorbacov realized it was too brutal. There are rumors that the seventeen disappeared along with Viktor. Sorbacov has put out hits on all of them, but they can't be found. I wouldn't be in the least surprised to find out that Viktor secretly organized them all in school and they've disappeared together. Even young he was a leader."
"If Viktor knows Sorbacov put a hit on him, wouldn't he just leave whatever job he's doing and go into hiding?"
Casimir burst out laughing. "Viktor isn't the kind of man to hide from anyone. He's going to go after Sorbacov, which is probably what he's planning on doing the moment he finishes off his mark. He's after someone big, Lissa, and he isn't going to stop because of a little thing like Sorbacov turning on him. He's always been in the most dangerous of situations. Always. He went after the most high value targets, the ones that were considered extremely dangerous."
"Isn't that what all of you do?" Lissa asked. She found the conversation fascinating. She wasn't alone in what she did, or in her conviction that the job was needed in certain circumstances - when the law couldn't touch the offender. "The seafood is delicious," she added, because it was.
"Mine too," he acknowledged. "And yes, we all go after targets, but Viktor and Gavriil's targets were men surrounded by heavy protection. One had to find a way to penetrate that protection and get inside the inner circle. They spent months, or even years, doing that and living that life day in and day out, never making a mistake. It's not easy."
She nodded. "You admire them."
"I know how difficult role-playing is. Each character I play is for a short period of time; they have to be that person for months or years. You can lose yourself in a role. Life gets confusing when you don't have anything to anchor you."
His gaze held hers. She knew what he meant. Her. She was his anchor. Gavriil had Lexi now. Viktor had no one. "Maybe he's not alone, Tomasso, maybe some of the men and women he went to that horrible school with are with him right now. Maybe they have one another's back."
"Maybe. I doubt it. They went off the grid, one by one. No one has found them. Or if they have and someone quietly killed them, no one has taken credit for it. I can't imagine Sorbacov not crowing about it to someone. He prides himself on being smarter than any of us."
"He isn't," Lissa said. "His arrogance is going to be his downfall. Uri never married. Is he gay?"
Casimir shook his head. "No. He likes women. I honestly think he got caught up in his political role and just didn't have time for a real relationship. He's had a couple of mistresses, but they didn't last long. I haven't heard he's into kink. He was close to his mother and reveres his father. Cleaning up his father's mess isn't just about his own political aspirations, it's also about keeping his father's reputation clean for the history books."
Lissa nodded. "That's good to know. Uri and Kostya Sorbacov are part owners of the very prestigious Krasnyy Drakon hotel in St. Petersburg."
Casimir frowned. Shook his head. "I know practically everything there is to know about that family. How would I not know that?"
"They bought into the hotel or acquired the shares through a dummy corporation. Renovations were done, mostly to make the hotel over for the Sorbacovs to have an underground tunnel system that doesn't just extend beneath the hotel, but under other buildings as well. They want the hotel to compete with St. Petersburg's finest. By staying silent partners, the extra renovations, the tunnels and hidden hallways, enable Uri and Kostya to have a public place to go where they have extra protection."
"You've been reading the file you got from Ivan Belsky."
She put another forkful of delicious shrimp pasta in her mouth and nodded as she chewed. "Yep," she admitted after she chewed and swallowed, trying not to moan, the food was so delicious. "Belsky has a reputation for delivering the real information. It was somewhat of a point of honor with him. You got what you paid for. Of course he often killed those he delivered to, but in his mind he earned his money because he actually came up with the information. Nuts, but I suppose in his mind, it worked for him. So, yes, I believe the information is reliable."
"Gavriil." Casimir nearly spat his brother's name. "He had to have supplied you with enough information to give you a direction. Damn him. He put you on the trail."
"I was already going there, Tomasso." She emphasized his name to remind him that he was there because his brother had sent for him to protect her. "He knew he couldn't stop me and apparently he kept his word to me and didn't tell anyone, not even you, what I had come here to do."
He ate quietly for a few minutes, obviously getting his temper under control. There was no way his temper didn't burn hot and ferocious, not when he was a fire element. Hers did. She'd learned to control it, just as he had, but she didn't fool herself into believing it wasn't there, smoldering just beneath the surface and ready to burst into flames at any moment.
"Did Gavriil give you Belsky's name and a way to contact him?"
"Casimir..."
Casimir leaned close, his eyes behind the dark contacts burning with fire. "Did he? It's not that hard to answer the fucking question, Lissa. A yes or no will work."
She sighed. "Yes. He warned me not to trust him. He also said the information would be reliable. He'd heard a rumor that the Sorbacovs had bought into the hotel."
"Gavriil always did have a good network."
"Why are you angry with him for helping me?" She put down her fork and rubbed his thigh with soothing strokes of her hand. "I was going to go after them whether Gavriil helped me or not. I wasn't going to tell anyone, least of all him. He came to visit me and he found my maps strewn all over the floor. He guessed, and there was no dissuading me. I should be the one upset with him because he called you in."
He didn't answer her question. "Once we get the job done here, we're going to sit down and plan out an attack. I take it you have an appointment with the owners or management of that hotel in St. Petersburg."
She nodded. "They said they read an article on me and were intrigued with my work. I sent them some of my designs and they loved them."
"They made the initial contact?"
She nodded. "I know what you're thinking. Of course they know of my association with Sea Haven. My hometown was in the article."
"This doesn't concern you?"
"I think that's what got me the foot in the door. But regardless, they're going to look at my work for their hotel. Uri Sorbacov is a control freak. He won't be able to resist being at the meeting. I don't know about his father, but he'll be there for certain. Everything I've read about Uri says anyone entering into any kind of business deal with him is doing so at their own risk. He's a shark. He isn't going to let someone else decorate his hotel. My guess is the other owners wanted the chandeliers dripping crystals. I sent other designs after they contacted me, blown glass with crystals dripping from twisted glass ropes. Very cool. Modern, beautiful and yet old-world enough to satisfy the more traditional hotel owners."
He sat back in his chair, his hand once again covering hers and pressing her palm deep into the heat of his thigh. "You plan on charming the socks right off of him."
She smiled. Faintly. Because there was something in his expression she didn't like. "Something like that."
"Well you can just forget it, Lissa. He is a shark, and you can't play him. He's intelligent and he knows his life is in danger as long as any of the products of those schools are still alive. He will have had you thoroughly investigated. Thoroughly. You may think Lissa Piner has a great history and won't be discovered, but he'll find out who you really are."
Lissa nodded. "Honey, I'm counting on that. I intend to tell him my entire history. Volunteer it myself. Luigi will be dead, my adoring uncle. Tio Luigi insisted on changing my name and sending me to the United Stat
es in order to protect me. It will work, Casimir. You know it will."
"And what of your connection to Sea Haven and the Prakenskiis? He knows Ilya is there. He has to know Gavriil is as well."
She smiled at him. "I'll admit that as well when he brings it up. He'll try to trap me, but by that time, I'll have maneuvered him just where we want him."
He sighed and shook his head. "You have a plan."
"The beginnings of one, but we'll get into that later, not today when I want to spend my time alone with you."
He brought her hand to his mouth, this time pressing a kiss into the exact center of her palm, his face soft and warm and so loving she wanted to cry.
"You're so beautiful, Giacinta. Do you have any idea what it means to a man like me to have you sitting here with me, out in the open, seeing me? To know that no matter what I look like, no matter what I act like, you see me - Casimir Prakenskii. It's a gift I never thought possible."
She opened her mouth, but nothing came out because his teeth teased the pads of her fingers and his gaze held hers.
"It's the truth, malyshka. You make me believe I can have something more than the life I was leading. Stuck in the shadows with no name or face. No one saw me until you came along. I felt dead inside."
Her breath stilled in her lungs. Burned. Casimir always seemed easy. Relaxed. Even when he smoldered with passion, there was a relaxed quality about him. Now she could see past the contacts to the focus in his eyes. His entire focus was on her. It had been almost since the moment he'd laid eyes on her, when he'd been playing the role of the obnoxious man on her flight to Italy. He'd escorted her the entire way. Looking out for her. Taking care of her even when she didn't know it.
She might have seen him, but he saw her first. He recognized they belonged before she did. More, when her world was falling apart, he had her back. Tears burned behind her eyes. He gave her more than she thought possible from any man. He laid himself out there for her, made himself vulnerable to tell her what she meant to him.
Casimir pressed her palm into his chest. "You made my heart beat again, Giacinta. I know that sounds ridiculous, but it's the truth. I had nothing left. I was going to find the Sorbacovs, but I didn't expect to come back. On some level I didn't even want to come back. I had nothing at all to come back to. I don't know my brothers. I love them and am loyal to them because I had to have something, some code, something to hold on to, but I haven't seen them or really talked to them since I was a very little boy. I didn't mind going out in a blaze of glory for them, but I didn't have it in me to live for them." He brought her hand back to his mouth, teeth teasing her fingers until she thought her heart would explode with such emotion there was nowhere for it to go.
"Then I saw you. The way you moved, like music on the wind. The way your face lit up when you laughed. No matter how annoying I was to you, you were kind to me on the plane. That touched me, Lissa. Your kindness. In my world, there isn't much of that. You're the most beautiful woman I've ever seen and, although you're that on the outside, I think it's what you are inside that makes you so beautiful to me."
"You're making me cry," she whispered.
Her voice wouldn't go above a whisper. In that moment, she knew she had fallen all the way. Love. It was strange to her that love would come to her now, when she was committed to making a life for the five women so entrenched in her heart, but there it was. Love. The real thing. The emotion overwhelmed her. He overwhelmed her with his declaration. Every word out of his mouth was honest. Raw. She might not have anything else, but she had him. Casimir Prakenskii would always be hers. How could she want anything else?
"There will never be another woman for me, Lissa. You're it. My shot at a life. If you give me that, I swear to you, I'll never let you down." He pressed a kiss into the center of her palm, his eyes on her face. "Will you do that, malyshka? Will you take me as I am and give me the one shot I've got? Will you take a chance on me?"
Her heart thudded in her chest. She stared up at his handsome face. This was more than a declaration. "What are you asking me, Casimir?" Because there was no way he was talking abstract, not when the air itself stilled.
13
"Marry me. Before we do the rest of this. Marry me now, Giacinta. Be my wife."
Everything in her stilled. She could hear the sound of the sea below them. The birds in the trees and insects buzzing in the gardens. She was aware of everything about Casimir. His height, so much taller than she was. His chest, all defined muscle. His strong arms and tapered waist. His narrow hips and long, muscular legs. His hands were a man's hands. Beautiful.
Most of all she was acutely aware of Casimir beneath Tomasso's gorgeous Italian image. She would always see him. The real man, not the one everyone else saw. It would never matter what role he was playing, he would always be hers. She would always see the real man.
"Honey." She kept her tone gentle. "You know we can't do that. Lissa Piner is an American. You're whatever role you're playing. We can't possibly get permission to marry here in Italy."
"Giacinta and Casimir can get married. That's your legal name. That's mine. We can get married right away. The documents have been taken care of."
She shook her head. "That's impossible. A Russian citizen would have to appear in person at the Russian Embassy in order to get the necessary papers. I'd have to go with you and prove I'm an Italian citizen. You need a stamp of..."
"Marry me, Giacinta Abbracciabene. Come with me now. Let's do it. I've got a priest standing by. He'll marry us today." He reached inside his jacket and pulled out a small black velvet case.
Lissa swallowed hard. He wasn't joking. He meant every single word and she could tell this meant something to him. Not just something. Everything. She couldn't speak. She could only look at him. He'd planned this. After. After knowing about Luigi's betrayal. After knowing Arturo betrayed her. Knowing she had loved them both, at least the illusion of who they were. He had somehow managed to arrange this. He had to have had help. Still. He gave her his declaration of love.
"Are you going to give this to me?" he asked gently. "For me, Giacinta. For me."
It wasn't for him. He might think it was, but in reality, it was for her. To belong somewhere. Everyone needed to belong.
"You're certain, Casimir? Because this is a lifetime commitment. We might actually survive our encounter with the Sorbacovs, and then what? How are you going to get out of this if you marry me legally?"
"Malyshka. Baby. Do you really think I would ever want out? Ever? I haven't been to the farm, but my brothers seem to love it there. Lev told me he goes sea urchin diving with Rikki. Stefan owns an art gallery with Judith. Max heads up security for Airiana. And Gavriil..." A grin broke through, as if he couldn't quite believe what his older brother did. "Gavriil is working the farm with Lexi. I intend to learn the art of glassblowing with my wife. Welding as well. I want to work with you. Live with you. Share your home and your bed. Permanently. When we're eighty, I want to be sitting on the front porch with you in a rocking chair while our grandchildren play where we can see and hear them."
She moistened her lips. "You want children?"
He nodded. "I want the family neither of us ever got to have. With you. I want that with you. And I want us married before we go to Russia."
"I didn't expect this." Her heart beat so fast and so hard she felt the ache spreading through her body.
"Do you love me?"
Her breath caught in her lungs. In her throat. The raw emotion on his face tore her up inside. "More than anything." It was true, truer than she'd even known. In that moment, everything was crystal clear to her.
"That's all that matters. We have today to be us. Casimir and Giacinta. Luigi is with his wife and children. Tomorrow we can deal with the underbelly of the world and the ugly people residing there. But we have this day for us. The documents are legal. The priest is as well. I just have to text him, and we'll go get clothes. A dress for you, a bridal gown. A suit for me. We'll get marrie
d and spend the night in a beautiful little villa overlooking the sea. Say yes, golubushka. Give me you."
"Tell me when you put this all together."
For the first time he hesitated. "Does it matter?"
She knew then. He'd done it when he'd discovered Luigi's treachery. When he knew and she didn't. When he knew he would have to tell her, to take something precious from her. He had set this day in motion then.
"Won't the Sorbacovs hear about a Casimir Prakenskii applying for permission to marry Giacinta Abbracciabene, an Italian citizen?"
"I told you, I have friends in high places. The priest will delay the paperwork getting to public records as well. The Sorbacovs will not have a clue that a Prakenskii has married and is the happiest man alive. When they are gone, whether we live or not, those papers will be made official to the world."
She moistened her lips. He was so beautiful, sitting there looking at her with his dark, tinted eyes and the spill of dark wavy hair. Still, she preferred the gorgeous Russian with his strange, silver eyes and short, spiked, black and silver hair.
His thumb slid along her inner wrist, a lazy, languid slide that sent a million butterflies winging their way south. Her heart thundered in her ears. Could it be that easy to take something for herself? She was giving up her life for everyone else. Could she really do this? Marry him? It didn't seem possible that he could have planned this down to the minutest detail, including making it actually legal, but who cared if it wasn't? She doubted if they would live through the Sorbacovs' security.
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