"I'm serious, Kaerta. It'll be war."
That didn't worry Grandfather. "Threats have never worked on me, Igroek. You know that."
"What are you saying? You approve of this?" Igroek's forehead wrinkled. The brat was right. He did look a bit like Yoda. "My heir marrying yours?"
Grandfather tapped his cigar against the ashtray. "It is not what I hoped for." That had to be a lie. Grandfather had planned all this. "But what can we do?" He shrugged. "History repeats itself."
History did not. He was not his grandfather. Tatyana was not his grandmother.
"It won't." Igroek was as certain. "They will not marry."
"We will." That Nik knew.
"You never learn, do you, Igroek?" Grandfather laughed. "Fine. If you are so certain they won't marry, then there is no harm if we add a side wager, is there?"
Grandfather would bet on his happiness? Nik scowled.
"What do you propose?" Igroek leaned forward, clearly intrigued.
"If they don't marry, you get Phoenix. If they do, I get Philadelphia."
Grandfather would never risk Phoenix. Never. He would marry Tatyana. Nik wanted to smile. He kept his face a careful blank.
"Why would you give up Phoenix?" Igroek must have thought the same thing.
"I'm hedging my bets. Nikolay is more valuable than Phoenix. This way, I don't lose, regardless of what happens." Cold hard logic from a cold hard man.
Igroek licked his lips. "You won't back them?"
"I will back you. But." Grandfather held up a ringed finger. "I don't want either of them harmed." He paused. "And your brother dies."
"If he did not take the flight." Igroek sounded less certain about that than before.
"Agreed." Grandfather reached out his hand.
"Agreed." Igroek took it. They shook, two old men deciding people's lives.
"Nikolay." This wouldn't be good. Nik braced himself. "Tell Tatyana the wedding is off."
What the hell? "No."
"Nikolay."
"No." He wouldn't move on this. Tatyana was his.
"You'll do as I say." Grandfather thumped the table, the ashtrays jumping.
"Normally, I do." One hundred percent obedience, like a damn dog. "But not in this case."
"Nikolay."
"No." He crossed his arms.
"Then leave us." He was dismissed.
Because he didn't toe the line. "I'm marrying Tatyana, Grandfather."
"I said leave us." Grandfather's tone didn't entertain refusal.
Nik left because he had nothing more to say and he needed to see Tatyana, not because Grandfather commanded him to.
Nik found Tatyana inside the Russian Orthodox Church, waving her thick wedding planning file at Stepan. "It is none of your damn business." Her language wasn't curbed by being in a house of worship. "If I find you trying to pry information out of my bodyguard again..."
Boris stared up at the ceiling. "... I will beat you into tomorrow, you hear?"
"A sermon on wrath is long overdue," the elderly priest standing beside Nik murmured. He was family. Nik was sure he'd heard worse.
"Why would DNA tests be sent to Grandfather? Why would Igroek be here?" Stepan pelted Tatyana with questions.
"Maybe he's hoping your father's not his. How the hell would I know?" Was Tatyana's smart ass reply.
"Adultery, profanity." The corners of the priest's eyes crinkled up. Father Kaerta had his work cut out for him if he planned to redeem Tatyana's soul.
"You go too far, little cousin." Stepan stepped ominously closer to Tatyana.
He dared to threaten her? "Tatyana." Nik moved to her side, putting a protective arm around his fiancee. "Stepan. You helping with the wedding?"
"No, he's not." The brat was not known for subtly.
"I hear congratulations are in order, Nikolay." Stepan smirked. "The Igroek heir. No wonder you had to fight Chan for the prize."
"Envy." The priest summed up Stepan's issue with him in one word.
"Chan knew, too?" Tatyana's eyes widened.
"No, Brat." If Chan had known, Nik would have never gotten her back. "And I didn't, either until recently, remember?"
"Right." That drew a disbelieving laugh from his cousin.
"Why are you still here?" Tatyana skewered his cousin with her mud green eyes.
Stepan opened his mouth.
To cause more trouble. "Why are you still here, Stepan?" Nik stopped him.
His cousin glared. Nik arched an eyebrow. What would he do? Nothing. At least not to his face. Stepan turned around and left. No doubt to talk to Chan and the great-uncle.
Backstabbing bastard.
Father Kaerta approached them, his wrinkled face animated. "Miss Tatyana." He took her hands. "Cousin Sergei must adore you. So like his dear departed wife." Uncontrollable. A menace to society in high heels.
The brat beamed as though she'd been given the highest compliment. "People tell me that all the time."
"I appreciate you accommodating us like this, Father Kaerta," Nik changed the subject before the priest added vanity to the list of sins to talk on.
"It is an honor, Nikolay." Another tolerant smile. "At least with your wedding, I have a day's notice. I recall attending my cousin's midnight nuptials."
"I am not my grandfather." Why did everyone think he was?
"No, no, of course not." The elderly priest assured him. "Though I suppose, as with that wedding, we should make the ceremony as short as possible?"
Tatyana laughed. "That may be prudent."
Was inviting a wife killer to a wedding prudent? Tatyana hadn't had time to argue with Nikky. When he announced they'd hand deliver Chan's invitation, she hastily addressed the envelope, wondering what other guests she'd forgotten.
"Miss Tatyana." Chan kissed her cheeks. "You are looking very much like a bride."
"Thank you." She smiled, pleased that her point had been made. The red silk mandarin-style dress had been carefully chosen to communicate to Chan she was unavailable. "Nikky and I are hoping you can attend tomorrow."
Nikky, having forced this meeting, was suspiciously quiet. He looked like he wanted to shoot the man.
"I can attend. I suspect it could be bad for my health." Chan wheezed out a cough as they walked to the backyard. "But I wouldn't dare miss it. It may well be the wedding of the decade."
Tatyana maintained her bland expression, ignoring that foreboding statement. "I don't think it will be the wedding of the decade. It'll be very simple." She hoped, having lost control of the tasks delegated to Nikky's mother and aunts.
"We're only inviting family
