"Your other family?"
She knew of none. Was he trying to pawn her off on someone else? "I'm not your problem. I can take care of myself." She didn't need someone else. She wasn't a child.
"I'll do this for you." The old man turned to Maggy. Again, Tatyana and her wishes were ignored. She slid a hostile glance at the handsome man. Their arrogance would be their downfall. "We will talk to Joey Chan and she will be protected."
She will be protected. Nik stared at his grandfather. Why? Why would he bring this trouble into their home? "The family will ask questions, want to know her history." They wouldn't blindly accept a stranger.
"Will they?" His grandfather stared pointedly at him, then at Tatyana. "Not necessarily." Nik took a step further away from her, disliking the speculation in those crafty eyes. "There's one relationship in the family they wouldn't dare to question."
"You're thinking...?" Oh shit. "My fiancee?" The frizzy-haired brat? "No way in hell."
Grandfather's forehead furrowed in thought before he smiled. "Why not? It is the perfect solution."
"No one would believe it, that's why." Nik paced, thinking of an out. "Look at her." He had to be callous, for both their sakes. "No one would think I'd choose her as my wife."
"Like I'd want you to choose me." Her voice dropped so only he could hear. "Ass." He clenched his fists.
Grandfather ignored her. "For every beauty, there is an eye somewhere to see it. For every truth, there is an ear somewhere to hear it. For every love, there is a heart somewhere to receive it," he quoted Ivan Panin. "And everyone knows love is blind," he added for good measure.
"It's too fast. They'll wonder why they haven't met her before." Or why he hadn't killed her yet.
"They won't. They know you, Nikolay." They thought they did. They thought he was like his grandfather, they murmured behind his back. He wasn't. He was nothing like Grandfather.
"You keep your plans to yourself, and when you're ready, you move quickly," Grandfather said with admiration.
"He'll have to move very quickly," the Brat said, "because I'm leaving."
A wave of a heavily ringed hand and Pavel blocked the door. "Enough." Grandfather's patience was at an end. "You will accept my hospitality."
That wasn't a request. Tatyana opened her mouth, she was about to get herself killed. Nik clamped a hand over it. She bit his palm and he tightened his grip. "Why do you want this?"
This wasn't about Maggy or a favor returned. There was more to this than that.
"It's not your place to ask why."
No, it was his place to obey, blindly, like a damn dog. He was tired of that shit. Nik released Tatyana.
"He'll die." She somehow took his release as permission to speak. "You're sentencing your grandson to death."
That she assumed he couldn't defend himself irritated him. He was a grown man, not a child. "She can be my fiancee, boss." Pavel folded his arms. Nik didn't appreciate the way his number one man looked at the brat. Like he'd be only too happy to take her off his hands.
"Yes." Tatyana peered up at Pavel. "You might have better odds at survival. Are you a slow bleeder?"
"I carry a hemostatic agent with me at all times; it helps to seal traumatic wounds quickly."
Why did Pavel always have to talk like a damn doctor? Nik couldn't understand half of what the man said.
"I was told it only works if they're superficial." Tatyana had no such difficulty.
Pavel's already too-warm-for-Nik's-liking gaze on the brat heated. "Correct, but any slowing of blood loss adds seconds to a man's life.
"That's true." Tatyana gave Pavel a big smile. "If anyone is to protect me, I'd want you to do it. You might live."
Like hell. "He is not protecting you," Nik barked.
Everyone turned to stare at him, Maggy's green eyes wide, Grandfather's smile mocking.
They thought he was interested in the brat. He wasn't. "Pavel's job is to protect me," Nik clarified. It had nothing to do with her.
"I don't need protecting. I can protect myself." She was back to that again. "Take me to the Crown Hotel."
"No," Nik said in unison with Grandfather. Why was Grandfather so insistent they protect the brat? A stranger.
Or was she a stranger? Nik examined her again, slowly, thoroughly, from her flip-flop clad feet to the top of her frizzy head. When his gaze eventually returned to her face, she stuck her tongue out at him. A small pink tongue that he wanted to taste.
"The engagement will be temporary until we deal with Chan," he decided. And who knew?
The brat might also finally give him a Sergei acceptable excuse to kill that pain in the ass.
"Or until you die." The sparkle in her muddy green eyes dimmed. "Whichever comes first.
Two
"A man may be truthful yet not honest."ȄSergei Kaerta He'd die for holding her hand. Tatyana jerked, but Nikky's grip tightened. She was his fiancee, and she'd been told she'd act that way. She frowned up at his determined face.
Funny how that meant doing everything he said. "You live in the casino?"
"In the hotel." He didn't slow down, pulling her forward, as though he was afraid they'd meet someone. Considering she was clad in a giant hoodie and bloodstained pajamas, that fear might be justified. "Once I marry, I'll get a house. Until then...," His elegant shoulders lifted and fell.
"You have a suite?" That meant two bedrooms. The space needed if she was to be trapped with him.
"Yes." His thinly pressed lips relaxed into a grin. "Good, he's here." A big brute stood in the hallway, leaning against a door. "Boris."
"Boss." A respectful nod to Nikky. Not that the ass deserved respect. He didn't.
"She's your assignment." Nikky looked down at her. "She's never to be alone. She goes anywhere without you, you die, understand?"
"Yes, Boss."
"Not a good idea," she said mostly to herself as no one else was listening. "You go anywhere
