Chapter Seven
Time? Toni thought it was just going to take some time for Katya to open up and be willing to talk to Dimitri and Anatoli about what had really happened between her and Boris Rustikov? Dimitri was already sick of waiting. In fact he was pretty certain he’d been waiting an eternity even though it had only been a week.
“Our sister is a brat,” Anatoli observed as they began the trek back to the main house from Katya’s cottage.
The two of them had just gotten done with a fruitless interview with Katya. They’d attempted—without luck—to get the real story of what had transpired between her and Boris Rustikov. Katya maintained that it was too painful to think about the father of her baby. Dimitri was beginning to see why Toni believed Katya was hiding something big.
“Are you on Boris patrol tonight, or am I?” Anatoli asked suddenly. “And how long is this going to go on?”
“Did you not see the tantrum he threw last night?” Dimitri asked with amusement. “Yuri actually asked him to leave Dyadya’s.”
“Very satisfying,” Anatoli agreed. “But where are we going with this strategy?”
Dimitri sometimes marveled that his own brother could be so short sighted. “The idea was to punish Rustikov for making our sister suffer and for disrespecting her, right?”
“Yeah.”
“So don’t you think that making him look like an impotent fool is punishment?”
“Perhaps.” Anatoli grimaced. “I was thinking more along the lines of physical punishment.”
“Because you’re a very literal person.” Dimitri shook his head. “You can’t make the man into a martyr. He’ll just blame us and make himself feel like a victim. He needs to experience the same humiliation he dished out to Katya. That will make an impact. Remember that not everyone in the world is like you.”
Anatoli snorted. “I still want to kill him.”
“What good would it do?” Dimitri wondered out loud. “Would it teach him a lesson? Would it make him reconsider what he did to Katya? No. He would just feel vindicated.”
“I think you’re full of shit.” Anatoli pointed angrily at the main house. “You’ve got Rustikov’s daughter in there and you’re fucking her instead of using her to teach him a lesson.”
Dimitri gazed at Anatoli and shook his head. “Tell me. Do you think the man will appreciate knowing that I’ve had his daughter in my bed? Do you think that will make him happy? Or will it make him feel impotent and powerless?”
A slow smile spread over Anatoli’s face. “So when do you intend to rub his face in it?”
“Soon.”
“Does the girl know you’re just using her?”
A twinge of doubt hit Dimitri somewhere in the vicinity of his heart. “No. She doesn’t.”
TONI WATCHED FROM the window as Dimitri and his brother strode across the rolling green lawn. They’d obviously been out there browbeating Katya once again. She’d asked him about a dozen times to let her talk to his sister, but Dimitri was convinced that she would be more willing to talk to her brothers than to a stranger. Dimitri didn’t understand why Toni believed that Katya would be more willing to talk to a woman. But of course, that was because he was a man. So today Toni was going to sneak out of the house and go talk to Katya on her own.
She waited until the men disappeared beneath the back stairs. Toni had yet to figure out what was down in the basement, but she had a feeling that was why she could never find any evidence of Dimitri’s business in the house.
When the coast was clear, Toni quickly left her bedroom and trotted down the back steps. She emerged from the back door of the house already at a dead run. She sprinted for the trees, not stopping until she was safely hidden behind the leafy green wall of vegetation. Finally she paused. Bending at the waist, she breathed deeply until she no longer felt as if she were going to pass out. Then she jogged the rest of the way to Katya’s front door.
She knocked, banging on the door until she heard footsteps on the other side.
The door swung open. “I told you, I’m not going to…” Katya paused, looking surprised. “Oh. It’s you.”
“Yes. Me.” Toni nodded. “You and I are going to talk and you’re going to give me some answers. I’m not one of your brothers. I’m not going to be persuaded that you’re too tired or emotionally vulnerable to tell me what I want to know.”
“Okay.” Katya crossed her arms over her chest and looked belligerent. “You can ask whatever you want, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to answer.”
“No?” Toni cocked her head to the side, wondering if she was barking up the wrong tree completely. “You got pregnant for a reason. You can’t tell me you’re so ignorant that you don’t know about birth control. You were sleeping with a married man. That means the baby you’re carrying had a purpose. Maybe for my father. I don’t know. But most certainly for you.”
There was a shadow of fear lurking in Katya’s dark gaze now. Toni had certainly hit a nerve. Katya gave a curt nod. “So ask.”
“Did my father ever mention anything about my mother to you?” Toni asked carefully. “Did he say what his intentions were, or why he was being unfaithful to her?”
“If you think I was the only one he cheated with, you’re horribly naive,” Katya scoffed. “That man couldn’t keep his dick in his pants if his life depended on it.”
“Yet you’re the only one who has ever been pregnant.”
“Are you sure?”
Toni licked her lips, willing to trust her instincts on this one. “Yes.”
Katya looked surprised. “Why are you so sure?”
“Because my mother was the one with the money and the connections.”
Now Katya was biting her lip. “Go talk to your uncles.”
“What?”
“Your mother’s brothers.”
“We never talked to them.” At least Toni didn’t think her mother had kept in touch with her siblings.
“According to your father, they were giving him trouble,” Katya said slowly. “That’s all I know.”
“That isn’t all you know,” Toni retorted. “But I’ll let it go for today.”
“Gee, isn’t that nice?”
“You’d better be nice if you want anything for that kid.” Toni pointed at the baby bump around Katya’s middle. “You and I both know that you had a purpose for that baby. And whether either of us like it or not, that kid you’re carrying is my half sibling.”
“Boy,” Katya whispered. “It’s a boy.”
“Holy shit.” Toni realized that her father had finally gotten exactly what he wanted, although he seemed determined not to claim it. What was going on?
* * *
Toni was missing. Dimitri had searched the entire house with no luck. Her bedroom was deserted. There was nobody in the kitchen, which was where she usually hung out. And Mrs. Urevich hadn’t seen her today. He was just about to lose his damn mind when he got a call from Anatoli.
“What?” Dimitri answered sharply.
“One of the guards let her out of the gate about half an hour ago,” Anatoli said darkly. “He didn’t realize she didn’t have your permission. Since you treat her like a freaking guest instead of a prisoner, Anton didn’t realize that she was supposed to stay on the grounds.”
“Did she happen to mention where she was going?” Dimitri felt his gut tighten with anxiety. All he could think about was the possibility of Toni challenging her father and getting herself seriously hurt. Boris was bound to be in a seriously bad mood by now about his daughter’s disappearance.
“There was nothing mentioned about a destination. She simply told Anton that she had to meet with some family.”
“Shit.”
Anatoli snorted. “You should have killed her when you had the chance.”
“No.” Dimitri took a deep breath and tried to calm himself. “I’m not going to worry about it for now. Chances are she’ll wind up in some trouble and call us for help anyway.”
“You don’t have much faith in the girl’s street smarts then, do you?” Anatoli was laughing. “You don’t think the princess can survive without her entourage?”
“I don’t think she’s ever had to.” Dimitri contented himself with that. “She’ll be back. Just tell Anton to let me know immediately when she comes straggling up.”
“Will do.”
Dimitri hung up and wondered if he was making a huge mistake. Surely Toni wouldn’t stray far. Even the night he’d met her she had been at a bar less than four blocks from her father’s home. Where was a piece of fluff like her going to go all on her own?
* * *
Toni had only a vague recollection of where she might find her uncles. She’d walked to the bus stop from Dimitri’s home and then from there she’d wound up at the train station. She knew her uncles owned a restaurant called The Samovar on the polar opposite side of the city from her father and Dimitri’s territory. Now she stood outside a busy, imposing restaurant trying to convince the person at the door that she should be allowed to see the boss.
“Nikolai Kabalevsky is my uncle. I swear,” Toni insisted. “Please just tell him that Toni Rustikov is here to see him. Please?”
“Mr. Kabalevsky had no family.” The snooty girl at the hostess stand looked down her nose at Toni. “He’s a very busy man.”
“And you’re going to be a very sorry bitch when he fires your skanky ass for not telling him that the daughter of his dead sister is here to see him,” Toni fired back. “I’m not kidding.”
The woman’s nametag read Veronika. Toni couldn’t stand girls who stuck a “K” somewhere in their name just to make it sound Russian. Chances were, the chick didn’t know anything about their culture at all. She just worked in a freaking restaurant.
“Go along home now.” Veronika shooed Toni away like a stray dog.
Toni glared at the woman and spoke in rapid, angry Russian. “Tell me, you insufferable snob, do you even know who it is you’re working for? Or do you just come in to work every single day and pretend that you understand what’s going on even though the only Russian you know is from spending hours fantasizing that you were Anastasia Romanov, or Anna Karenina? It’s pathetic! And if you don’t go get my uncle right now, I’m going to have you thrown out on your ass!”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa now.” A male voice entered the fray from the shadows to the right of the restaurant’s foyer. “Is that my little Toni I hear?”
“Uncle Nikolai! Oh thank God!” Toni said with relief. “They told me you didn’t have any relatives and that I should leave.”
“Is that right.” Nikolai turned and gave the hostess a gimlet stare.
Veronika looked chagrined. “I didn’t think. That is to say… I’ve been told that you don’t like to be bothered.”
“Toni is the daughter of my dead sister. She is hardly a bother.” Nikolai pointed at the door. “Get out and don’t come back. You do not get to presume whom I may or may not want to see. You overstep yourself in the worst way possible. And my niece is right. You’re not Russian. Stop trying to pretend that you are.”
“But,” the girl stammered. “I need this job.”
“Then you shouldn’t have made such a grave mistake.” Nikolai waved her off. “Begone.” He turned and led Toni back into the shadowy alcove, which hid a doorway.
“Does she really need this job?” Toni worried. “I didn’t mean to get her fired, Uncle Nikolai.”
“My little mouse, this is not her first offense, believe me. She’s had it coming for a long time.” Nikolai ushered her into an office. “Now, let’s have a little chat. I cannot imagine what has brought you all this way!”