“Everything is fine,” he strokes his hand down her little back. “Aunt Sasha will take you to Ava.”
Sasha pushes herself off the wall then, no longer looking at me, but at Dimitri. He gives her a half smile that doesn’t reach his eyes. He says something in Russian I don’t understand.
She gives a tentative nod, not looking at me as she makes her way into the back room of the chapel.
I grimace as I watch her go. I lied to Dimitri about the affection between myself and Sasha.
He didn’t take the bait. He called me yesterday to tell me that the plan would remain intact. I was to marry Katarina.
He’s going to be suspicious of me after my request to change the bride. I don’t regret making the move and showing my hand. Dimitri deserved my request first. But that doesn’t mean that I don’t have a plan in place to get my way.
But for all involved, I need to play the romance card again, and I need Sasha to play along.
Sasha disappears into the room, the door remaining open. Dimitri points into the chapel proper and then starts walking away from the back room’s door.
“What’s wrong?” I ask, not moving.
He stops, his mouth twitching into a frown. “Katarina’s car hasn’t arrived.”
I give him a blank stare, some of my best acting work. It’s going to be a full day of make-believe. “I’m sure she’ll be here any moment.”
A lie. I know she isn’t coming. I came up with her escape plan myself.
And I’ve tucked her in the safest place I know.
Dimitri slowly shakes his head. “I’m not so sure. Her phone is off and the car was right behind us. No amount of traffic…” He looks away.
“Why wouldn’t she come?” I ask, playing dumb. “This is for her safety.”
Dimitri shakes his head. “They’ve been with my father a long time. I think they don’t trust that I have their best interests at heart.”
My hand clenches at my side, hearing the truth in those words. No wonder Sasha was trying to steal money. She’s trying to escape what she thinks is danger.
I don’t let the guilt rise up this time, though. Because married to me, I will do one thing, and that is I will keep her safe until her father can be eliminated as a threat. In this way, I will perform my duty as a husband, and I will be an asset to her.
“So, am I about to be a jilted groom?” I ask, not going in for the kill yet. Dimitri is a savvy businessman, and I have to be careful with my approach.
He looks at the room where Sasha just disappeared with Anna, his silence filling the hall.
I don’t take the bait and start talking. Instead, I let it build.
Finally, he scrubs a hand down his face. “I know we have a deal in place.”
“We do,” I answer, giving nothing away. I got the casino and a bride, my family got the second property, Dimitri got thetunnel access. The marriage was meant to protect one of his sisters. With a new wife and a daughter, Dimitri has a lot of women to care for.
It was also meant to bind our families the old way. We’d be able to trust each other because we were family.
He’d be breaching that trust if he doesn’t deliver now. It’s the binding tie in the arrangement and without it…
He draws in a deep breath through his nose. “I know what you’re thinking.”
“I doubt it.”
He glares at me, his eyes narrowing. “Sasha is sensitive. Special. She needs?—”
“I’ll keep her safe, Dimitri.”
“It’s more than that,” he bites back, his teeth grinding.
