by Katie Reus
“Okay, Brooks is completely and utterly forgiven,” her sister said laughingly. “All right, I actually do need to get out of here. I still need to pack for our honeymoon, which I can’t believe is so soon. I’m looking forward to it more than the wedding,” she muttered before glancing around.
The place was milling with people, but thankfully no one had bothered them in the kitchen. Darcy pulled her into another hug. “You’ve been a champ with this whole circus of the wedding. I can say you’re going to be the most beautiful bride ever.”
“You have to say that.”
“Yeah, but in your case, it’s true.” At that, tears pricked her eyes and she batted them away. “Damn it, I swore I wouldn’t get emotional.”
“Just get it all out now. There will be no crying on my actual wedding day.”
“No promises.” Because her baby sister was getting married. Brooks had told her that Peter looked aboveboard and didn’t appear to have any type of ties to his father financially. And Darcy simply couldn’t imagine that Peter was involved in any of this. If he was, she wasn’t sure that she could forgive herself for not telling her sister about Mr. Markov.
But if she did tell her, and Emma mentioned it to Peter—and Peter was involved—things could get very bad for them. Especially since the FBI was now neck deep in this thing. No, deep down Darcy knew she was doing the right thing, but she still hated keeping this from her sister.
Whatever her own wants were, this wasn’t about her. It was about innocent people who might be killed. She had to remember that.
* * *
“Everything will be wonderful tomorrow. I have faith in you.” Darcy beamed at Mr. Singh. This would be one of their biggest jobs to date. All their food was quality and they never cut corners. They were pricier than some caterers in the area but worth it.
Mr. Singh nodded once. “He has a great setup in his kitchen. We’ll be preparing everything ahead of time except the desserts. It will be better if they’re done onsite.”
Darcy nodded since they’d gone over this a few times. She was pretty sure that Mr. Singh was just nervous and triple-checking everything.
“And you already know all this.” He laughed lightly. “I’m going to get out of here now. My crew has the setup under control. We’ll be here three hours early tomorrow just so I can go over everything with the waitstaff one more time and do a dry run with the table layout. But my people are pros.”
“Sounds good. And I’ll be here when you are.” Darcy planned on being here most of the day tomorrow. Well, first she had to go get a manicure and pedicure with her sister, which sounded fun, but part of her wished she could just skip it and prep more for the wedding. But in addition to being her sister’s wedding planner, Darcy was also her maid of honor. Something she definitely couldn’t forget. So she would be pulling double duty, trying to balance fun and work—and not freaking out about everything else going on.
She glanced at her cell phone and frowned when she saw the time. Seriously, why hadn’t Brooks called her back? She knew he was fine. The man could take care of himself. But she still worried. It was impossible not to.
Sighing, she tucked her cell phone into the pocket of her black pants. Then she scanned the white-linen-covered tables. There were six in all, with eight covered chairs at each table. Just for the rehearsal dinner. Many more tables would be added once everyone had left the dinner. The giant room itself seemed to shimmer. A huge chandelier hung in the middle of the ballroom—there was no other word for the room—and Semyon had installed five more for the wedding. It created a sparkly, whimsical atmosphere.
The multiple sets of French doors opened out onto a huge lanai, where the actual ceremony would take place. Then people would be free to come inside, eat, mingle and dance. Emma had wanted to be married outside and hadn’t been willing to compromise. So despite the cold weather, it would be an outdoor wedding. The warmers were already in place and would be ready to go long before the guests arrived.
Not that any of that mattered now. She was just stalling. She needed to tell Semyon she was leaving to go meet her sister. Emma wanted to try on her dress one more time. Darcy thought she really just needed some sister time, and that was fine with her. Almost the entire place had cleared out and there wasn’t much for her to do at this point. Unless she wanted to give herself busywork.
After walking around the room and checking each door to make sure they were all locked, she stepped into one of the hallways. His place was huge, and not exactly a maze, but it would be easy to get turned around. And she had no desire to get lost here. She didn’t even want to be here at all. In fact, she could just text him and tell him she was leaving. There was no need to hunt him down.
As she rounded the corner at the end of the hallway, she nearly ran right into Oleg. Ugh. Her immediate reaction to him was instinctive, and she knew she didn’t hide it. That was the bad thing about wearing her emotions right out in the open. She tried to cover it up, and pasted on what she hoped was a smile. But she knew it didn’t show in her eyes. Thankfully she didn’t need to make small talk with the man. They had no business together. So she simply nodded politely and tried to sidestep him.
Instead of moving out of the way, however, he moved with her, blocking her way. And the first trickle of panic started to bloom inside her. That had been deliberately rude. “Excuse me,” she snapped. She’d learned that with him she couldn’t be overly polite.
“You’re looking lovely today.” He had the barest hint of an accent. His pale blue eyes were frosty, and if it had been possible, they would have sliced right through her. For whatever reason, he didn’t like her.
Well, the feeling was mutual. “Thank you. Now if you’ll excuse me—” She tried to step around him again, but this time he moved lightning fast.
Before she realized what he intended, he had her pinned against the nearest wood-paneled wall, his hand wrapped around her throat. She grabbed onto his wrist with both hands as shock tore through her. He was strong.
“You stupid little bitch,” he whispered. “You think you’re too good for me?”
She couldn’t answer even if she wanted to because of his tight grip. Gasping for air, she yanked at his wrist. Pain ricocheted through her when he grabbed her breast. Hard.
On instinct, she raised her knee, aiming for his groin, but he turned to the side, laughing at her.
“I’ve been watching you,” he murmured as she continued to struggle.
Black spots appeared in her line of vision. Still clawing at his wrist with one hand, she slapped his face hard. She had to get him to release his grip. She couldn’t breathe. He was going to kill her!
He reared back, his face mottled with rage. As he raised his fist back, she tried to shrink against the wall, but—
“Oleg!”
He squeezed her neck once before letting her go.
She crumpled to the floor, sucking in deep breaths as she crawled a few feet away. At the end of the hallway Mr. Markov stood there, his face flushed dark red. “Get out of my house.” His words were savage, and Darcy was certain that if she hadn’t been there, he would have killed Oleg.
Suddenly, Oleg pulled a gun from inside his jacket. Her heart skipped a beat as she stared at the gleaming weapon.
Mr. Markov didn’t flinch at the sight of it, just stared him down. And two more men stepped out from an intersecting hallway, guns drawn.
She wished the ground would open up and swallow her. She wanted to be anywhere but here, but was afraid that if she moved, Oleg would focus that gun on her.
“Get out of here and don’t come back.” Markov’s voice was calm but deadly.
Ice had completely frosted over her veins, her heart thundering in her chest. How was he so calm?
“You’ll never make it out of here alive if you shoot me,” Markov said. “So just go.”
Oleg looked down at her, rage in his eyes. “I’ll be seeing you,” he whispered before racing down the hallway in the opposite direction.
She had a feeling that if she hadn’t been there, Mr. Markov’s men would have shot him on sight.
Mr. Markov shouted something in Russian to the two men with him and they took off. Before she could move from her position on the floor, he was crouched in front of her, concern in his expression. “Are you okay?”
She shook her head because she couldn’t find her voice—and her throat hurt.
He helped her to her feet, steadying her elbow with one hand. “Do you need to go see a doctor?”
“No,” she rasped out, trembling all over. “But we need to call the police.”
“Don’t worry about anything. Come, let’s go to my office. You’ll be safe there.”
That was the last place she wanted to go, but she didn’t plan to leave until she knew that Oleg was captured. Once inside his office, she collapsed in one of the plush leather chairs. Mr. Markov was quiet as he poured her a drink. Bourbon, she thought.
When he handed it to her, she took the glass tumbler automatically, her shaking hand making the amber liquid slosh.
“Drink,” he said. “It will make you feel better.”
“Why haven’t you called the police?” she rasped out.
He was silent as he leaned against the front of his desk, crossing his arms over his chest. Looming there, he looked a little terrifying. She didn’t think he was trying to, however. “If I call the police, they will come to my house, question you, and disrupt my son’s wedding.”
Darcy didn’t point out that the wedding wasn’t for two more days. “We can’t just let him go. He assaulted me and threatened you.”
“I won’t be letting him go. I will involve the police on Sunday.” Even though he looked sincere, she didn’t buy a word of it.
She wondered how hard she should push. Because knowing what she did, she wasn’t sure what he would do if she pushed too hard. She felt as if she were walking a tightrope right now. “I just don’t understand why we can’t call them now.”
He sighed, sounding exhausted as he sat next to her. “Where I come from, we don’t trust the authorities. I know it’s different here. I just don’t want to risk anything ruining Peter and Emma’s wedding.”
It was such bullshit, but she also knew that she’d gone as far as she could. She needed to appear to bend. “You need to tell Peter and Emma what happened, then. What if he goes after them? And why did he attack me?”
The tension in his shoulders seemed to lessen as he realized she wasn’t arguing with him. He nodded once. “I will inform both Peter and your sister. And I will make sure they both have security with them—I’ll insist they come stay here tonight.”
Darcy could just imagine how that would go over with her sister but didn’t respond. Instead she repeated, “I don’t understand why he attacked me.”
“I don’t either. That is something we will let the police figure out.”
“They’re going to want to know why we waited so long to call them.”
“Just let me worry about that.” Then he actually petted her on the head, like she was a puppy. It was as if he was saying Don’t let your tiny woman brain worry about it. Or maybe she was just projecting, but it sure felt that way. The fact that he assumed she would go along with this insanity—and the only reason she was, was because of what she knew about him—made her realize how stupid he must think she was.
“Maybe you should stay here tonight,” he said.
“No, I’ll stay at my boyfriend’s.” If she said anything different, it would look weird. And no way was she staying here.
He was silent for a long moment, as if weighing her words. Then he surprised her by saying, “Maybe you’re right, and we should involve the police. But I will take you to the nearest police station instead of calling them.”
She wondered if he’d changed his mind because of her mention of Brooks. He had to realize she would tell him, and a normal boyfriend would insist on calling the police. “Okay, thank you.”
He nodded once and took the drink from her. “Let’s go.”
Unable to shake off the chill still running through her, she followed him. As soon as she made it to the police station, she was going to call Brooks. She wanted to call him right then, but didn’t want to do it in front of Semyon. She didn’t care if he hadn’t called her back yet, he needed to know about this. And she wanted him with her.
Who was she kidding? She always wanted him with her.
Chapter 16
—Absolutely no regrets.—
When Darcy stepped out into the lobby of the police station, she found Brooks, her sister, Peter and Mr. Markov—gah, Semyon—waiting.
There were other people sitting in the lime green chairs as well, but she only had eyes for Brooks. Her sister rushed at her first, however, eyes wide as she pulled Darcy into a hug.
“Oh my God! I’m so glad you’re okay.” Emma was petite, but very strong as she tightened her arms around Darcy.
“I really am.” Her throat was a little sore, but she was otherwise unharmed. She’d made a report with the police and they were going to search for Polzin, but for some reason it didn’t make her feel better. She wouldn’t be able to rest until he was in jail. For what he’d done to her, or what he was potentially involved with. She wasn’t going to think about that now though. Part of her wondered if Semyon’s men had caught him and just killed him but there was no way to know. Squeezing her sister one last time, she stepped back and found herself facing a wall of rock-hard muscle as Brooks pulled her into his arms.
Unlike her sister, Brooks held her firmly but didn’t squish her. He was a solid presence who wasn’t going anywhere. For a long moment, she buried her face against his chest and simply inhaled his spicy, masculine scent. She didn’t care if it looked weird either. She’d been keeping it together, she thought fairly well, but now she wanted to be in her own home, in her pajamas, with her favorite mug filled with hot cocoa, curled up with Brooks. She did not want to be at a police station on a Thursday night surrounded by strangers.
“I’m going to get you out of here in the next sixty seconds,” he murmured against the top of her head. “Fair warning, I might be rude about it to the others. But you’re leaving now.”
It was really hard to argue with him when she was glad he was taking over. She was usually the woman in charge of things, and she liked it that way. She loved everything about her job and helping women on their big day. But right now, she didn’t want to make any decisions. “Okay,” she whispered, grateful for his strong presence.
When she stepped back, Brooks wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her close.
“Do you think you should go to the hospital?” Her sister looked close to tears.
A few feet away, she heard Peter say to his father, “I told you that you should have let that bastard go a long time ago. I don’t understand why you kept him on when he was clearly a creep. Darcy could have been seriously hurt!” he hissed.
“No,” Darcy said, looking at her sister. She was glad that Peter cared so much, and she didn’t think it was for show. It also made her think that he had no idea what his father was currently involved in. “He choked me—”
Darcy broke off when her sister let out a panicked little yelp. She’d thought that Emma knew what had happened.
“He choked you!” It was more a shout than a question.
“Yes,” she murmured. “And let’s take this outside.” A few people had turned to stare at them and she hated being the center of attention on the best of days.
The sliding glass doors swished open, letting in an icy breeze that she felt straight to her bones. Despite wearing her thick jacket, she snuggled closer to Brooks. She had a feeling that her chilled body had nothing to do with the weather, or very little, anyway. She was still shocky and needed to get out of here. As far away from Semyon as possible.
“Darcy—”
Brooks cut her sister off, his voice gentle but firm. “We’re leaving. I’m taking Darcy home right now
. She’s been through a lot and she needs rest. It’s not up for discussion. She also won’t be looking at her phone or working until tomorrow morning.” There was the slightest hint of an edge to his words—as if he was daring anyone to argue with him.
Emma nodded immediately. “Of course, but I’ll have my phone if you guys need anything. Or do you want me to stay with you?” she asked.
“Thank you, but no.” Darcy loved her sister more than anything, but she wasn’t up for conversation or anything really. And she knew that Brooks wouldn’t push her. He would simply drive her home and take care of her. “I’ll feel better knowing that you and Peter are at Mr.… Semyon’s house. And I’ll meet you tomorrow—”
“No, we’re not going to do the manis and pedis.” Now there was no give to Emma’s words. “At least not at a salon. I know someone I can call. We’ll set it up at Semyon’s estate. I’ll let Audrey know that there’s been a change of plans,” she said, referring to her other bridesmaid. “You deserve to be pampered so if you’re up to it, it’s happening.” Darcy’s instinct was to take over but Emma must have read her expression, because her sister simply shook her head. “I love and appreciate how much you’re doing for our wedding, but I’m not helpless. I can take over from here. You need to go home and rest. Please.”
Darcy pulled her sister into a big hug and then hugged Peter as well. Semyon, to give him credit, still seemed concerned, and was scanning the parking lot as if looking for danger. Which made her think that his men hadn’t caught and killed Oleg. She seriously doubted that Oleg had come to the police station, but she would be happy to get out of here as soon as possible.
It didn’t take long for Brooks to pull his truck around and bundle her up into the passenger seat. Before he’d even pulled out of the parking lot, he had the heater on full blast.
“What do you need from me?” he asked quietly.
“Honestly, nothing right now. Thank you so much for taking over.” She laid her head back and closed her eyes.