"Now an even larger family than previously thought, I'm told, Miss Tatyana." He was told?
By whom? That sneaky bastard, Stepan? "I hope you won't hold my past actions against me." He reached out a hand as though to touch her.
"Chan," Nikky cautioned.
"Miss Tatyana." Chan indicated a lounge chair instead, all politeness.
Not Chan, too. She sat, hiding her disgust at his deferential treatment. She hated the sucking up as Nikky's fiancee. Now being related to the crazy gnome, it was a thousand times worse. "As though you would have done anything differently." And as though the results would have changed. She would have still fallen in love with Nikky.
Chan claimed the chair beside her, leaving only the chair on the far side of him free, so Nikky sat with Tatyana, sliding his body underneath hers. Settled, he flashed Chan a triumphant smile.
Tatyana rolled her eyes. They were both such arrogant asses.
"If I had known, I may have changed a couple of my decisions," Chan addressed Nikky. "Or I may not have. It is impossible to get a flight from New York to Las Vegas today."
The crazy gnome was from New York. Had he told his family? Her family? Did they want to meet her? No. No, they wouldn't. Igroek didn't like her. They would mirror his feelings. The only other reason to come was to stop the wedding. She wrapped Nikky's arm tighter around her. They wouldn't be successful. She was marrying Nikky.
"This may be a good week to go someplace else," Nikky commented casually. "If you were a cautious man." Chan flicked a piece of lint off his sweater. "But cautious men never achieve true greatness. There is opportunity in risk."
She was not an opportunity. She was not a means to achieve greatness. "I'm not interested in New York," she declared. A beautiful Asian woman handed her a cup of tea. Tatyana smiled her thanks. Where was Wei?
"That's too bad, Miss Tatyana." Chan laughed as he accepted his cup. "New York is interested in you."
Tatyana waited until the woman left before asking "How is Wei?"
Chan's brown eyes cooled. "She didn't work out." He sipped his tea.
Didn't work out? Was she dead? "But...?" Tatyana looked at Nik. He shook his head. She shut her mouth. She didn't want to know, she told herself. It was better not knowing.
"My fiancee is working on seating arrangements, Chan." She was? Tatyana checked her mental list. No. One of the aunties had that job. "She asked me which family you wished to sit with. I didn't know."
"You didn't?" Chan's smile was unfriendly. "That should be obvious. I'm sitting on the groom's side."
"With the Kaerta's, then." Tatyana wanted no confusion over who her husband would be.
"Will you be bringing a guest?" If he wasn't, she'd seat the wife killer far away from any attractive females.
"No guest. I'm saving all my dances for the bride."
"The bride will be my wife."
Chan didn't comment, sipping his tea.
Igroek opposed their marriage. He might have sent for reinforcements. Chan wanted her connections for himself and had the manpower to do something about it. Stepan hated Nikky and held no great love for her. The forces of evil were aligning against them. She wouldn't allow them to be triumphant. "Let's get married tonight, Nikky." They'd launch a preemptive strike.
"Patience, Brat." Nikky smiled slowly, his eyes half closed. "Less than a day and I'm all yours."
"I can't wait. Ass." Why she was marrying him, she didn't know. "I'm serious, Nikky." Her elbow in the stomach for emphasis caused him to gasp. "Let's get married tonight."
"And tomorrow?" He secured her arms. "When all those guests you invited arrive expecting a wedding?"
"We'll get married again. No one would have to know."
"Someone would know, Brat. Someone always knows. Word will get back to our families."
He was right. Everyone in Vegas knew Nikky. Someone would rat them out. "Who the hell cares if it does? This is about you and me, us."
"Language, Brat." Nik was tempted, very tempted. Chan was right. Flights were full of men loyal to Igroek and those in service to the great uncle. It was shaping up to be a war, all over the tiny woman in his lap. "Marrying tonight won't stop anything and could hurt us. It'll piss them off, eroding what little support we have. They can force an annulment, Tatyana."
That would be a disaster. "No, Grandfather is right. We do this properly."
"I guess." Her disappointment magnified his feelings of failure. "Then stay with me tonight, Nikky." She clutched his thighs. "Spend the night."
Another temptation he had to resist. "If my grandfather doesn't shoot me, yours will. Dead men make poor husbands."
"Chicken shits make poor husbands, also. Risk it, Nikky," she pleaded. "Defy the family for me. I need you. I don't want to be alone."
He didn't, either. "I need the family's support to keep you safe, Brat. That's why they're important. You know that, don't you?"
"I know." Nik watched her face, waiting. She wouldn't give up that easily, not his Tatyana.
He didn't have to wait long. "We could do," she whispered into his ear, "page fifty-eight."
"Ahhh...." He grinned. How he loved her. "One of my favorite numbers."
"Mine, too." She wiggled.
He unzipped the back of that dress she poured her body into. "Then why wait for tonight?
We can do that here."
Every family had their own wedding traditions. The Kaerta's traditions involved the tying up of loose ends.
So on the morning of his nuptials, Nik raised his gun, his finger on the trigger, his back pressed flat against the wall and informed his men, "The old man's mine." Killing the great-uncle himself was the respectful thing to do. He'd ensure the death was clean and dignified, suiting an elder.
On his signal, Pavel kicked in the door. Gunshots rang out. Three shooters. There. Pavel downed the front man. And there. Nik dropped him. And, he pivoted on his heel, there.
Another clean shot by Pavel. The following silence was
