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"If Sergei doesn't back us, not enough, Boss." Pavel's unsettled expression alarmed Nik more than his words. Nothing rattled his number one man.

But then they'd never faced certain defeat before. They'd lose this war. If they fought, Tatyana would fight with them, and she'd also die. "I can't put her at risk."

"Then don't let it come to that. Keep it friendly, retreat, regroup, and try again."

It was sound advice except that Igroek would take her away. He'd block access to her. "The brother? Stepan?"

"Both missing. Neither seen since this morning."

Another problem, but that one could wait. "If she goes back east..."

A dark eyebrow rose. "You think she'd do that?"

"Igroek will insist." She wouldn't have a choice. She'd be on the first flight back today.

A snort. "When was the last time your fiancee did what she was supposed to do?"

True. Nik's grin held no humor. He didn't know what she'd do, but he did know his fiancee was going to be pissed. As though summoned, she waltzed into sight, clad in a white terry cloth bathrobe, hotel slippers on her feet. Fuck. He rubbed his arm. Those slippers would sting.

"What's happening with your hair, Brat?" It was crazier than normal, yanked up in curlers and pins with what looked like tinfoil stuck to the strands.

She rolled her mud green eyes. "It's being set."

"Set for what?" He touched a lock. It was stiff. "Satellite reception?"

"I'm trying to look beautiful for you, ass." She leaned against him.

She thought they were getting married. He kissed her. "You always look beautiful to me, Tatyana." He loved her. She knew that, right? No matter what happened, he didn't want her to doubt his feelings.

Lines appeared between her brows. "What's with the sweet talking? Did you bump that fat head of yours?" She caressed his face. He rubbed his cheek into her soft palm. "And what's this meeting about? The aunties are in a tizzy about you seeing me before the wedding. It's bad luck."

Considering she woke up in his arms this morning... "I don't know." But, he suspected. "This is all Grandfather."

She hooked her arm in his as they walked. "As long as it's your grandfather, not mine. The crazy gnome is not ruining our day."

The crazy gnome? He stifled a chuckle. The label fit. "I do love you, Brat." Yuri opened the door for them, his face a foreboding blank. Pavel, Boris, and Fyodor followed them in.

Tatyana stopped abruptly on the threshold. "This isn't good, Nikky."

It wasn't. He pushed her further into the room. Grandfather's men were situated around the room, trying to blend into the woodwork. Igroek's people weren't as casual, blocking exit routes, their eyes attentive. "Courage, Brat. We'll get through this."

"Together." She gave him a brave smile.

He didn't answer. He couldn't promise they'd be standing together at the end of this interview. "Grandfather."

"Nikolay. Tatyana." Grandfather's gaze surveyed the room. It paused on Tatyana's hair before settling on him. "Igroek and I have come to an agreement. There will be no wedding today."

"Like hell." Retreat was good in theory. In practice, Nik couldn't do it.

"It is decided."

"It is not." He wouldn't let Tatyana go.

"Silence." Grandfather held up a hand. "If you insist on going ahead with this wedding today, you will no longer belong to this family." He played his ultimate card.

"And Tatyana will not be recognized by me," Igroek added.

"You'll have nothing, Nikolay. No family, no protection, no money." As though he'd been given those things, hadn't earned them.

"We won't have nothing. We'll have each other," the brat hollered defiance at the old men.

"And that's enough, isn't it, Nikky? More than enough." There was no doubt in those mud green eyes. She believed in him. She knew he'd say yes.

Nik wanted to say yes but, Pavel shook his head in confirmation, he couldn't. If he did, he'd lose her forever. Igroek would see to that. No, they had to retreat or feign a retreat. Feign a retreat... He drew himself up. "Is it, Tatyana?"

"You're damn right, it is." She squeezed his hands so tightly, his fingertips must be turning purple. "We love each other. We don't need them, Nikky. We'll run away, like my parents did. They were happy, so very happy, and we could be as happy, you and I."

"They're not happy, Tatyana, they're dead." He tugged his hands away, steeling himself. For this to look real, he had to be callous. "And I'm not your dad, satisfied with shopping at Walmart. I grew up with all this." He waved his hand. "Designer clothes, luxury cars, everything a man could possibly want. I can't live on your nothing."

She flinched as though he'd physically hit her, her face tightening into a terrifying mask.

"What the fuck are you saying?"

Staring into her eyes, Nik knew he couldn't do it. He couldn't hurt her. He took a deep breath and bet everything he had on his partner's hand. "I told you how I felt about family."

He willed her to remember last night's conversation.

"Family is everything." She was nothing. Tatyana's world spun around her, a dizzying display of color. She was alone. He didn't love her. Not enough. "You told me once you'd say the words, ass. When we were done. Say the words." She had to hear them. Final confirmation that they were over.

"Tatyana."

"Say the damn words, Nikky," she yelled at him. When he said he no longer wanted her, she'd be gone. Forever. He'd never see her again. No one here, she glared at Igroek, would.

"Language, Brat."

"The words!" She slid her foot out of her slipper, prepared to beat the words out of him.

Nikky stepped back, glancing behind him. At the giant man at the door. A stranger. Not one of his. The room was full of strangers. All watching her. Them.

"Fine, you want me to say the words, I'll say them. I choose my family, Tatyana. My family over you. Are you happy?"

She was. She stared at him. Because those weren't the words. He stared back. He knew that.

She knew that. They weren't done.

A hush hung over them, the men around them waiting for her reaction. Nikky's men braced for her rage but it wasn't Nikky's men Tatyana had to entertain. No, today her target audience was the crazy gnome and his merry band of male chauvinistic pigs. They expected the little woman, the irrational woman, the weak woman. Everything she was not. This would be her finest performance yet.

"But, but, but." She screwed up her face so tightly, she drew tears. "You said you loved me, forever." She let out a heart wrenching wail. After decades of death and loss, she had unlimited sadness to draw upon.

The circle around them widened, even Nikky stepped back. "Tatyana."

"No." She fell to her knees, unable to watch his face while she did this. "You can't leave me, Nikky. You can't." She wrapped her arms around his legs. "You said you loved me. You called me your little bunny." She used the most inane endearment she could think of.

"Aren't I your little bunny?"

"Tatyana." He stumbled backward.

Burning her bare knees on the carpet, the ass. "Was it because of last night?" She dug her nails into his calves. "Because I didn't allow you to stick yourȄ"

"Tatyana!"

She buried her face in his pant fabric to hide her grin. "I've changed my mind. I'll do it.

Whether Father Kaerta says it is immoral or not. I don't care about my soul and eternal damnation." She crossed herself. "Not if I can't have you. I want you. Don't you want me, Nikky?" She parted her robe, showing him her silky camisole, boy shorts. "Don't you want this?" His body stiffened. That was a yes.

"Put your clothes back on, Brat." Nikky yanked her robe up to cover her shoulders.

He was such a prude in public. "Nikky, I love you. Don't you know that?" She grabbed at his hands.

He pushed her away. "Pull yourself together, Tatyana. You're the heir to an empire, the Igroek princess, Russian royalty. Think of everything you have. You have."

She had. Not the family had. She had. It was a message. Princess, royalty... All she had was at the Crown Hotel. Was

she to go there? "It means nothing to me, Nikky. Not if I can't have you." "The Kaerta boy is right. Have some dignity, Granddaughter." Igroek's lips curled with disgust.

The Kaerta boy was going to marry her. Tonight, if all went well. "I'll do anything. Anything, Nikky. I don't want to be alone." She threw herself onto the carpet then peeked up through the veil of her product treated hair. Yes, the gnome was embarrassed, his face red. Nikky's grandfather wore a strangely pleased expression. The gnome's men stared at her, horrified.

Boris was coughing, Pavel slapping his back with a heavy hand. She sobbed some more, raking the carpet with her nails, messing up her wedding day manicure. It was a sacrifice she'd make Nikky pay for later.

"I want her on a plane tonight," the gnome railed.

Hell, no. "You're sending me away, Nikky?" She rose to her knees, tears streaming down her cheeks. "How can you be so heartless? I lost my parents, I lost you, and now you're sending me away from the only home I've ever known?"

Released from the death grip on his legs, Nik found it more difficult to tear his eyes away from the brat, rolling around the floor, pitching the mother of all hissy fits. She was a terror, an absolute terror, and he adored her, now more than ever.

"Give her a couple days, Igroek. This is a shock and the girl is..." Grandfather coughed. "...

delicate." Delicate, Nik's ass. The only thing delicate about Tatyana was her hold on reality.

"We'll continue to offer her our protection for the duration of her stay. It is the least we can do under the circumstances."

"That's not necessary, Kaerta." Igroek smirked, smug that he'd won. "I think I can handle the protection of one little woman."

"Indeed." Grandfather's lips twitched.

Grandfather was not on their side, but not on Igroek's, either. He didn't help them, but he also didn't tell Igroek his granddaughter would require round the clock surveillance by a team of his best men.

"We shouldn't leave her there like this." Nik nodded at the prostrate Tatyana, slapping her slipper against the floor, sobbing nonsense about his sexual prowess. Flattering nonsense, thank goodness, but nothing he'd like the entire casino to know. "Someone should take her to the hotel room." Although he was almost certain his clever Tatyana knew the plan, another hint couldn't hurt.

"Mikhail," Igroek barked.

A big man approached Tatyana. "No, stay away from me," the brat screamed, scurrying back. "Don't hurt me. Help me, Boris!" More screams. "Don't let him touch me!"

Damn, she was magnificent.

"I won't, Boss." Boris stepped between Tatyana and Igroek's man.

"Boss?" The bodyguard stopped, looking to Igroek for direction.

"Boris is her man, loyal to her and her alone," Grandfather shared. It wasn't a lie, but it wasn't the entire truth, either.

Igroek wavered, undecided.

"Keep him away from me, Boris. I don't want him touching me. He's got a snarly face,"

Tatyana wailed pitifully.

A snarly face? Nik frowned his fiercest to prevent from smiling.

"Let her man handle her." In the powerful presence of female hysterics, Igroek became decided. His bodyguard's shoulders sagged in relief.

"Boris." She scrambled to her feet. "You will take care of me, won't you? You won't leave me? Everyone else leaves me, but you won't, will you?" She twisted her hands, looking like a lost child.

"I won't leave you, Boss," Boris managed to say with a straight face.

"I knew I could count on you, Boris." His blank expression turned to genuine terror as she flung herself at him. "You're the only one I can count on." She wrapped her bathrobe clad body around his uninjured right side, looking up at the man adoringly. Nik took a step forward before remembering it was an act. "Could you carry me to my room? I'm too weak to walk."

Too weak to walk? Sure the man could manage it, even with his bandaged ribs, but was that really necessary?

"Yes, Boss." The good-looking bodyguard's voice was unusually high. Only two men followed them as they left, one of them the sheepish Mikhail with his snarly face.

"Why does the child have her own man?" Igroek watched them leave.

The child. She almost looked like one in the bodyguard's arms. "Boris was assigned as her bodyguard. I fired him. She made such a fuss, I allowed her to rehire him." Nik intentionally built upon Tatyana's helpless image.

Igroek nodded. "Women can be so emotional sometimes, huh, Kaerta?" He nudged Grandfather.

"Tatyana more than most. We never know how she'll react to anything." Grandfather stared at Nik.

He knew. But for some reason, Grandfather only knew, he kept quiet.

"Your grandfather thought you'd react poorly." Igroek, however, was blissfully unaware of what was about to happen.

They talked about him. Nik ground his teeth. "Grandfather should know I make the best of any situation."

"Indeed." Grandfather's lips quirked upward. He braced his hands on the table as he stood.

Nik had never noticed before that he needed that extra push. "Igroek, you and I will soon have a church full of guests and we have an announcement to share with them. We'd best put our heads together to synchronize our stories." That told Nik they'd be busy for the next hour. It was not much of a head start, but it was better than nothing.

Tatyana continued to sob into Boris' neck until he closed the hotel room door behind them, leaving the two brutes in the hallway. She put her finger to her lips, signaling him to be quiet. Then she turned on the TV, putting on a soundtrack heavy chick flick, and cranking the volume.

"Did I hurt you, Boris?" She had been careful not to touch his damaged ribs. "I shouldn't have asked you to carry me." She wouldn't have, except it conveyed the right amount of helplessness. If she couldn't walk, they'd never suspect she'd run.

"You didn't hurt me, Boss." He sniffed as though insulted. "You weigh nothing. I could lift you with one arm."

"Good." Could Nikky lift her with one arm? She'd ask him tonight. "So, what's the plan?"