by Lia Lee
“Careful there.” A male hand grabbed her arm and steadied her in the seat.
Toni glanced up to find herself staring at a very handsome man. He was probably her age with dark hair, dark eyes, and a very nice smile. He had that look, as if he were interested in maybe getting her phone number or going out for a drink or something.
Toni forced herself to relax. “Thank you.”
“Do you ride the bus very often?” he wanted to know. “I’ve never seen you here before and I take this line home from work every night.”
“I’m just going to visit my uncle,” she said uncomfortably.
Was the guy being too nosy? She couldn’t tell. In fact she was utterly aware in that moment of the vast gulf between herself and other twenty-three year old women. She was suspicious because practically everyone she knew would lie for personal gain. Then she looked at other people around her and had trouble believing they were any different.
“Would you maybe want to go out for a drink with me?” the young man asked. “There’s a place at the next stop that’s pretty good.”
She swallowed. The vast gulf between her and this man was simply too much to bridge, at least for now. She offered him what she hoped was a polite smile. “I think I really just need to get to my uncle’s.”
He shrugged. “All right then.”
The man moved away and Toni felt her eyes prickle with tears. Her mother was dead. Her father was an ass. She’d fallen in love—yes, she’d totally fallen for Dimitri—with a criminal who had only used her to get to her father. Her life was a wreck. The only option she had left at this point was to go to her uncle’s and try to regroup.
When the next stop came, the young man got off the bus. He gave a little wave and a smile, but she knew that she would never see him again. She spent the rest of the ride to her uncle’s torturing herself with images of the nice young man meeting a beautiful young woman, getting married, having a house full of kids, and then growing old together. For some reason she kept obsessing over the notion of sitting on a back porch somewhere in a rocking chair with her husband of sixty years by her side.
Finally the bus reached her stop. She could see her uncle’s restaurant half a block down. Climbing off the bus was a relief. She opened up her stride, moving quickly down the sidewalk as she eagerly approached the front doors of what could probably be considered the Kabalevsky stronghold.
“Antonina!”
She half turned in shock and glimpsed her father. Her father! Picking up her pace, she was practically sprinting toward The Samovar. How had her father managed to get here so quickly? He should have been tied up at Dimitri’s for hours, to say nothing of the diversion she’d put together with her father and Dimitri’s men!
“Antonina, you stop right there!”
Her legs wanted to obey, but her brain was too smart to let them. She ignored his arrogant demands and burst through the front door of the restaurant as though her butt was on fire. The hostess drew back in surprise, looking as if she were ready to throw Toni right back out the door.
“I’m sorry, can I help you?” The woman cocked her head to the side and looked doubtful.
Toni sucked in a huge breath. She had no idea if her father was enough of an idiot to actually walk through the doors of The Samovar. “I want to talk to Nikolai or Viktor. Now. They’re my uncles. Please?”
The young woman paused, looking skeptical. Then she picked up a phone. “What’s your name?”
“Toni Rustikov.”
“Yes, Mr. Kabalevsky? This is Nicole. There’s a Toni Rustikov up front to see you. Shall I send her away?”
Toni snorted. She could actually hear her uncle’s voice on the other end of the line. It didn’t sound like Nikolai, which meant it was probably his younger brother Viktor. Her mother had been the youngest of the three. The baby.
The hostess looked mortified. “Okay sir, yes. Right away, sir.” She put the phone down and looked apologetically at Toni. “I’m sorry, let me show you into his office.”
“Thank you.” Toni glanced behind her. The front door of the restaurant was opening. She saw her father and his favorite enforcer Pyotr step inside.
The door to Viktor and Nikolai’s office opened. The hostess nodded as she let Toni into the office, then her father started shouting. The door closed behind her and his voice was blissfully muffled.
“What in the hell is going on?”
Toni turned and couldn’t help but smile. It was Viktor. He was smiling and holding out his arms. She accepted the embrace and then pointed to the door. “My father decided to make an appearance. I thought I made a clean getaway, but I was apparently mistaken.”
Viktor laughed. “You have a seat and I’ll go deal with my dear brother-in-law.”
“Thank you!” Toni sank gratefully into a chair, still clutching her pack to her chest. She was going to be all right. She was going to figure this out. Eventually.
Chapter Fourteen
Dimitri stared out the window, feeling almost morose. He didn’t understand where he had gone so very wrong with his brother. It was late, or early depending upon how he viewed things. Somewhere out there his younger brother was wandering. Although it was idiotic to suppose that Anatoli was lost and alone like some poor orphaned child. It was more likely that he was holed up with friends, plotting revenge.
Dimitri sighed. He began walking without really paying much attention to where his feet were taking him. Soon he was plowing through the dew soaked grass on his way to Katya’s tiny cottage. There were lights on in the front windows. He knocked and she answered only a few moments later.
“Can I come in?” he asked.
She stepped away from the door, allowing him access though she didn’t speak. He walked into her tiny home and realized that it was exactly that. A home. His sister had fixed the little place up and made it looked exactly like the sort of home where a child would feel loved and cherished. There were even baby toys in the corner waiting for her unborn child.
“You really like it here, don’t you?” Dimitri commented as he took a seat on the plush sofa.
She sat in her chair, drawing her feet up and pulling an afghan over her legs. “Is that so surprising?”
“I guess not. I would have thought this place was too tiny to be comfortable, but sometimes the house seems too massive,” Dimitri mused.
“I hated it there,” Katya said bitterly. “It was pretentious and never really felt like a place to call home.”
“I suppose,” he murmured. This wasn’t really what he’d come to talk about.
“I saw Anatoli earlier,” she told him suddenly. “He came here after you apparently threw him out of the house.”
Dimitri shoved his fingers through his hair, feeling strangely ashamed though his decision had been a sound one considering the circumstances. “I don’t know what’s wrong with him!”
“How so?”
“Did he tell you what he did?” Dimitri demanded. “Did he tell you that he took Boris Rustikov hostage and roughed him up? He and Ivan had plans to kill the man. They felt my plan was too passive.”
“What plan was that?” she prodded.
“I was systematically ripping away at the things he loved, trying to make him understand loss and humility, and perhaps making him miserable. Yes. But I never intended to cause physical harm. A man like that learns nothing from physical punishment. He only thinks of himself as a martyr.”
Katya made a low noise and then sighed. “You certainly understand psychology, big brother.”
“Would you have me just let him get away with what he’s done?” Dimitri shot to his feet, pacing because he couldn’t sit still. “Not just to you, Katya. Look at what he’s done to Toni!”
“Toni isn’t as much of a victim as you might think,” Katya said drily. “She still has no idea what she’s really looking for out there. She says she wants answers, but she’s not going to like the ones she gets.”
“What do you know? How do you know that
?” Dimitri sank back down onto the cushions.
“I know that Rustikov was never going to let her mother go. Never.” Katya sighed. Her gaze grew faraway. “Boris is a very strange man, Dimitri. He’s charismatic and charming and he makes you believe all sorts of things about yourself and about him. I really thought that he loved me. Looking back, I can see that was absolutely ridiculous. But he made me believe so many things about him and about his motives. I agreed to have this baby because I wanted two things.”
“What’s that, sweetheart?” Dimitri said, keeping his tone soothing. She was finally opening up and he didn’t want to mess things up now.
“I wanted him to have the son he’d always wanted. And I wanted to be independent from my family. He swore he could and would give me both.” She gave a bitter chuckle. “Oddly enough, I still consider myself to have gotten the better end of the deal.”
“How?”
She gestured to her tiny cottage. “Look at this, Dimitri. I have a place of my own. I have money, even though it’s just an allowance from my family. It’s mine. My share from my inheritance, or dowry—if that word can really still be used in this day and age—and I have a baby on the way that will be my family. I’m excited about my life for the first time in ages. I’m going to be a mother. I’m going to be responsible for this tiny child. And it’s all mine. Nobody can take it from me.”
“Aren’t you afraid that Boris will change his mind?”
Katya’s derisive snort said it all. “No. His reason for wanting the child is no longer valid. It died with Toni’s mother.”
“What?” Dimitri frowned. “I don’t understand.”
“And I’ve already said too much.” Katya sighed. “But you did the right thing about Anatoli, Dimitri. Our brother is crazy. He’s frustrated with you and with what he sees as his lack of power. He was never going to be happy being second in command for long.”
“I would have done anything for my brother,” Dimitri whispered.
“Anything wasn’t enough. Nothing ever would have been enough for Anatoli. You have to understand that. It will help you get through whatever is coming.”
“What do you mean?” Dimitri frowned. “What’s coming?”
“It’s Anatoli,” she reminded him. “I don’t know what he’ll do, but we can both assume that it will be big, dramatic, and completely unnecessary. It will also be destructive.”
Dimitri squeezed his eyes shut. She was right. Something big was going to happen and Anatoli was going to bring the war to their doorstep.
***
“Do come in, Boris,” Viktor said in a voice that made Toni cringe.
She watched her father throw his shoulders back and strut into the office as if he owned the place. Where did the man get his confidence? Was he really so deluded that he thought Viktor was going to help him? Boris was the enemy here. He was just too stupid to realize it.
Behind Boris, Nikolai entered the office and shut the door to close them all in. Toni had a faint sensation of claustrophobia. Then she reminded herself that this was a good thing. Not the feeling trapped part, but the getting to the bottom of the mystery part.
Boris gave an ostentatious wave of his hand. “It’s good to know that my Kabalevsky brothers have seen fit to help me talk some sense into my daughter.”
Toni struggled not to roll her eyes. She saw Viktor and Nikolai share a glance and realized that they were in much the same position. They knew they needed to speak with Boris to gain information, and yet he was so ridiculous that it was hard to take him seriously at all.
“Well,” Nikolai said on behalf of the Kabalevskys. “We felt it was high time we cleared the air about our sister’s death.”
“Pardon me?” Boris looked almost bored. “That was a senseless, tragic, and—if I might add—selfish decision on the part of your sister. I had nothing to do with that.”
“Oh nothing,” Viktor spat. “I’m sure. Other than the rampant infidelity that made our sister feel alone and vulnerable.”
“A man must do what he needs to do.” Boris shrugged. “I have a healthy appetite for sex and Maria just wasn’t willing to satisfy my needs any more. She was barren you know.”
“And yet she was your only means of obtaining a legitimate heir,” Viktor reminded him.
Boris looked uncomfortable. He shifted uneasily in his chair, crossing and recrossing his legs. “That doesn’t matter anymore.”
“It sort of does,” Toni argued. She dug in her pack, pulling out the file folder she’d stolen from his office. Then she turned to her uncles. Nikolai was at the back of the room behind Boris and Viktor was behind the desk. “I found this in his office. It’s a packet of adoption papers. They aren’t filled out, but it occurs to me that we talked a lot about the way a Kabalevsky trust is set up. That it has to go to a blood descendant and not a child from a second or third marriage or wife that isn’t a Kabalevsky. Right?”
“Yes.” Nikolai was the one to nod.
“So,” Toni began, staring straight at her father. “What if Boris here had forced his wife to adopt a baby?”
Her uncles both raised their eyebrows in surprise. They shared a loaded glance and then both men turned to glare hotly at Boris. He was openly squirming now. He looked horribly uncomfortable, even jumping to his feet as if he thought he was going to escape.
“Sit,” Viktor ordered. “Before I break your legs.”
“It’s really unnecessary for you to be so rude,” Boris whined. “I’m an important leader in the mafiya community.”
“So you would believed,” Nikolai said with barely concealed disgust. “And yet you can sit there and tell me that it doesn’t matter that you were going to force my sister to adopt your bastard.”
Vikotr picked up where his brother left off. “That was your plan, was it not?”
“She refused!” Boris shouted. “So it doesn’t matter.”
Toni felt utter contempt for this man. “How can you be such a horrible person? And how can I be related to you? It’s shameful!”
“Shut your mouth, you insolent bitch!” Boris snapped. “If you had simply done what you were told, none of this would have happened.”
“You’re blaming me?” Toni was mystified. “What did I do?”
“You can’t just leave your mother’s death alone!” Boris moaned. “I’m telling you. The stupid whore committed suicide. I don’t know why and I’m not even sure I care, other than the fact that it was a horrible inconvenience.”
Both Kabalevsky brothers stood up. Their deadly looks were zeroed in on the man who had just gravely insulted their beloved sister. Toni couldn’t help but wonder if her father was too arrogant to see his own danger.
“Jonathan!” Nikolai shouted. A hugely built man burst into the office. He dipped his head to her uncles, and then glowered at Boris. Nikolai gestured to Boris. “I want him out of this club for good. He is never under any circumstances to return. Our niece is always welcome beneath our roof. She can hide from her idiot father as long or as often as she wants. But he will never be welcomed here again.”
“Yes, Boss,” Jonathan said eagerly. “You want me to get rid of him?”
“Immediately.” Viktor sounded very, very satisfied.
Jonathan grabbed Boris by both arms and picked him bodily up off the floor. Jonathan carried Boris out the door. As the office door closed once again, Toni could hear Pyotr protesting the treatment of his not so fearless leader. Boris’s howling mixed with Pyotr’s yelling before finally disappearing out the front door of The Samovar.
“Now that he’s gone,” Viktor muttered. “So Toni, we can almost certainly assume that Boris had something to do with your mother’s death.”
Toni wanted to agree, and yet something didn’t add up. “I need to talk to Katya. If she was really going to give her baby up for adoption, surely she knew something about the deal.”
“Then perhaps you should talk to her one on one,” Viktor suggested. “Woman to woman.”
“B
ut not tonight,” Nikolai added. “It is late. We’ll have Jonathan take you to our home. You can settle in there for the night and get some rest.”
“Have we seen the last of Dimitri?” Nikolai asked with a sly smile. “I was surprised he wasn’t here with you this evening.”
“Dimitri wasn’t what I thought,” Toni said quietly. “He was just using me to get to my father.”
Nikolai’s expression didn’t change. He didn’t say a word against Dimitri, and he didn’t make her feel as if she’d come to the right conclusion. Why?
Finally he shrugged. “Perhaps things will seem clearer in the morning.”
“I hope so,” she said softly. “I’m getting a little tired of running around in circles.”
Chapter Fifteen
Dimitri stood on the rise and watched the sun come up. His talk with Katya had left him unsettled. Worse, he missed Toni more than he ever would have imagined possible. How was it that a man could miss a woman that he’d known for less than a handful of days? They had slept together twice, both times because it seemed to be their default expression of anger toward each other. That could not possibly be healthy.
Yet he could stand here and observe the sky turning from indigo to brilliant pink and orange, and the only thing he could think of is that he would love to share this moment with Toni. It would be fun to hear her thoughts, and to see her smile in wonder as the world around them began to wake up.
He had been such a coward where she was concerned. His infatuation with the daughter of his enemy had seemed like a weakness. He had hidden it behind convoluted motives, and tried to minimize what it was that he felt. The only thing that had gotten him was the equivalent to a kick in the face. She had left without a word. The only thing he could figure out was that she must have woken up alone and decided to make an escape from there. It wasn’t as if Toni hadn’t left for her own reasons before. Perhaps she had even known that her father was on his property. Maybe she had seen that as her chance. He would never know until he found her and could ask.
Yet he was still hoping that she would come back of her own accord. She had once before. Why not again? Unless something had changed. Perhaps he was fooling himself that there had ever been anything more between them. Maybe she had only been using him to get what she wanted, because they had a deal.