I soon found that to be a mistake as the side door swung open, revealing two somewhat unwanted guests sitting at my twelve-foot dining room table.
Nana smiled at me as I dragged my exhausted ass through the house and straight to the fridge. I was starting to regret not drinking the glass of whiskey now.
Grandmother lifted her nose. “You’re getting snow all over your beautiful home.”
I sighed loudly. “How did you two find me?”
I’d made sure to cover all of my tracks. This place wasn’t evenin my own name.
Nana’s smile faltered slightly. “Benson is a valuable asset to our family.”
My lips curled.Benson, of course. You couldn’t hide anything from that tech mastermind. He was my brother, Dimitri’s, best friend and an absolute genius. If you wanted something hidden from him… good luck.
I placed a beer on the counter, not worried at all about offering either of them one. They would be here for a while, and they would be sure to make themselves at home, if they hadn’t already. “To what do I owe the pleasure of thisvisit?”
The fact that they’d made it here without a hiccup, without a single hair out of place, and they looked warm as could be, was a mystery to me. But that was what they’d always been to everyone. A complete anomaly.
“Well, when you don’t answer phone calls or text messages, people assume the worst. You’re lucky Dimitri is busy with his next term, or he would have flown in himself.”
The grannies, as my almost sister-in-laws had dubbed them, were a mercy compared to my brothers. I could handle my grandmothers. My brothers, on the other hand? I didn’t know what to do with them at all. They all got along so well. They all had things in common. I was the odd one out. The black sheep.
“How long do you two plan on staying?” I had to get over that hurdle to do anything else.
“Just long enough for you to tell us about your future plans, your new job, and if you’re coming to Alexei and Audrey’s wedding.”
They had no business knowing if I even had a job. Iclosed my eyes. The beer was no longer appetizing. I just needed to soak in a warm bath and fall into a dreamless, long sleep. Both of those things looked light-years away with the grannies staring me down from across the room.
“Would you like a tour?”
Grandmother’s smile didn’t meet her eyes. “We helped ourselves.”
That explained the lack of luggage. I hummed in the back of my throat. I wouldn’t be getting rid of these two that easily. “Wonderful. Well, I do hope you have a fabulously warm stay here.”
I left my beer on the counter and turned on my heel to leave the room. “Are you going to tell us about your marks, or are we going to have to hire you ourselves?”
Chapter Two
Ivan
My entire life,my grandmothers hovered. They stayed their distance when necessary but when they wanted something… There was absolutely no stopping them, and right now, for whatever reason, they wanted something. I locked myself in my room most of the next day, unsure of how to proceed. I had a deer hanging in my barn that needed to be taken care of, if something hadn’t broken into the high-tech shed overnight and helped themselves.
I stared at myself in the mirror and shook my head. My hair was curling up around my ears, and my light eyes had dark circles under them. I’d gained muscle, but somehow I made it look bad, since I’d also lost so much weight.
I pushed off of the counter with a huff. I would have to face the music eventually, and it was always better to do it sooner rather than later. If I waited until they came to find me, it would always be worse. The scent of bacon cooking met my nose as soon as I opened the bedroom door. I forcedmyself down each step, even though the breakfast smelled heavenly. When was the last time I’d had a proper breakfast?
I stopped mid-step. Wait, since when did the grannies cook?
Walking into the kitchen, I found that they didn’t. They’d ordered an entire spread of everything you could think of, and it was laid out carefully on the island. Both of the grannies were sitting at the table reading a newspaper. The town had those? I scrubbed a hand down my face.
“How the hell did you get someone to bring all of that out here?”
Grandmother folded her newspaper neatly beside her half-full plate and stared at me from across the kitchen, one elegant brow lifted on her forehead. “My boy, someday you will find that with enough money, people will do anything.”
Nana grinned across from her and winked. “Anything.”
That was the last thing I needed to hear coming from them. I pressed my lips into a thin line. “Let’s get this over with.”
Nana raised a brow as Grandmother folded her hands in front of her. Nana was the first to speak, “You can try to avoid us, but we won’t leave until we have the answers we seek.”
