Found by Kimber Chin (100 books to read .TXT) 📗

Ivan will be with me. I won't leave the casino. I promise."

"Don't fret, comrade. I won't steal her away." Chan laughed. "Today." Before Nik could tell him to go to hell, they were gone.

"Our plan does not please you?" Grandfather lit a cigar, taking short, quick puffs to get it started.

No, it did not please him. Not at all. "Chan's involvement is unnecessary." Nik threw himself into the booth. "A Kaerta home would be more secure." He didn't like another man having primary responsibility for his fiancee's protection.

"More secure than Chan's?" Grandfather snorted. "Unlikely." Nik couldn't argue. The man was paranoid. "The killer expects us to use a Kaerta facility. He'll know our buildings inside and out. Chan's home..." He shrugged. "Maybe not. And this allows us another layer of security. Chan's best men. Our best men."

They'd need them. "He's a professional."

"As are our men and professionals do make mistakes."

Rarely. "So, we kill him and then what?" Nik took out his favorite pack of playing cards, shuffling as he thought. "Whoever hired him will find a replacement. It'll be a temporary solution." All this would start again.

More lines appeared around those wrinkled eyes. "True. But that's next week's problem."

Next week. Igroek. Tatyana. "What's her relation to Igroek?"

Grandfather puffed on his cigar. "Could be nothing. Could be something. Next week we'll know." He leaned forward. "Keep her safe, Nikolay. If this goes wrong..."

War. It'd be war. For that to happen... "Igroek's daughter died years ago." Some sort of hushed-up family situation, the details hazy.

"Supposedly." Another puff. "After running away with a man her father disapproved of."

Tatyana's family tradition. "Shit." Igroek was the brat's grandfather. That wasn't supposed to happen. She was his, and only his. Damn it.

Grandfather chuckled. "I couldn't have said it better myself." He tapped the cigar against the ashtray. "These are interesting times, Nikolay."

Eyes tracked Tatyana as she moved through the casino floor. Her costume, a red, sequined, body hugging tube dress ensured that. It was bright, bordering on garish, particularly chosen to draw attention. If the killer didn't know where she was before this, he would now.

When Nikky spotted her, his face would be even grimmer than it was this morning. "Where is he?" She hadn't seen the ass since their meeting with Grandfather and Joey Chan.

"Security," Boris answered, Ivan following at a greater distance.

Nikky must be locked up with Pavel, preparing for tomorrow. She had preparations to make too, equally unpleasant. Tatyana perched in front of a penny slot machine, put a dollar in, spun, and waited.

"Cousin Tatyana." She didn't have to wait long. Stepan sat beside her, his leg brushing her thigh.

Cousin Tatyana? So now she was back to being family? He must think her a complete idiot.

She didn't answer, ignoring him.

"You and Joey Chan looked cozy earlier."

"Looks can be deceiving, dear cousin." She glared straight ahead, spinning. Pineapple, red seven, diamond. Nothing.

"Or not. Should your fiance be worried?" Stepan didn't bother playing, staring at her in that creepy, needy sort of way.

"If I was engaged to any other man, maybe." She pressed the spin button. "But Nikky isn't any other man." A pineapple, purple bar, red apple.

"I think he should be worried. Joey Chan has influence my cousin might never have. Nikolay reports to Grandfather. Joey Chan reports to no one." Joey Chan also murdered his previous wife and is a male chauvinistic jerk. What was Stepan's point? "There are rumors that you brought this morning's trouble to us, that Joey Chan was looking for a woman resembling you, that Nikolay, like Grandfather, took what didn't belong to him."

Tatyana knew the source of those rumors. Two-faced bastard. She spun. "You think I should leave Nikky for Joey Chan?"

"I didn't say that." Stepan squirmed, aware he had gone too far. As he had. Nikky would go ballistic if she relayed this conversation. "But you could get to know him better."

That was the opening she needed. "Well, I can't help but do that with Nikky and I being at Joey Chan's house all weekend. Oh, no." She covered her mouth. "I wasn't supposed to say anything." She looked to the left and right, feigning concern. "Forget that last bit."

"It's already forgotten, little Tatyana." The cousin lapped it up. "My lips are sealed."

Stepan's smirk communicated that they weren't.

"I knew I could count on you." To do the opposite of what he should. The killer would know exactly where to find them.

"Of course, you can count on him." A warm hand rested on her shoulder. "You are family and Stepan is loyal to family," Nikky warned.

"Nikolay." Stepan stood. Chicken shit.

"Stepan," Nikky dismissed his cousin, kissing Tatyana's neck.

Stepan looked to Tatyana, then Nikky, as though he wanted to stay. Receiving no encouragement, he turned and slinked off.

Tatyana stifled a smile. Nikky bossed people around simply by looking at them. He shuffled that ragged deck he carried with him always, his long fingers flying. He did that when he thought. And whatever he was currently thinking wasn't pleasant.

"You going to play?" She loved how fierce he got sitting at the blackjack tables. Like it was serious business and not a game.

He smiled, slow and sexy. "We're going to play. You and I."

"But..." She glanced around them. His family was everywhere. They'd notice her bad luck. "I always lose, Nikky."

"You won't when you're playing with me." He sounded sure of that. She let him draw her to her feet. "I'll show you how to win."

Shit. Nik stared at the cards in disbelief. The dealer had twenty-one. Again. A push, Tatyana neither losing nor winning. He was engaged to the unluckiest woman on the planet.

"Amazing, Boss." Pavel shook his head. Ivan crossed himself. Boris simply chuckled.

The brat smiled at him, happy as anything. "I'm not losing, Nikky."

No. Because he was switching her cards. They were cheating and she still wasn't winning.

Impossible, and eventually she'd lose or the dealer would suspect. "Do you want to play some more, Tatyana?" Because he had had enough.

She shrugged. "There isn't really any point, is there? I