Tatyana glanced at Kezia from the corner of her eye. “He did.”
“His reason?”
They were sitting in a box at a small concert hall where a chamber orchestra was performing a set of Tchaikovsky pieces to welcome Rudov and Kezia to the city.
Kezia and Radu would both be attending the wedding, but only Kezia would attend the weeks of formal events leading up to the grand finale.
“Urgent business called him away,” Tatyana said. “That’s all.”
“Hmm.” Kezia didn’t look pleased.
“If there were an emergency in Warsaw among my people, I would leave to take care of it and I would not make excuses for my absence,” Tatyana said. “I cannot expect him not to see to his own businesses with the same diligence.”
“I suppose that is fair.”
What she wasn’t telling Kezia was about their… disagreement the night before.
Tatyana didn’t know what had provoked Oleg’s attack on Ivan, but what had been a surprisingly fun evening at Pavel’s home had turned into what her old friend Grimace would call a clusterfuck.
Grimace was in the concert hall that night, dressed in a suit of all things and sitting in Rudov’s box. He was in the second row, and he kept glancing over at Tatyana.
“From what I hear, Oleg lost control last night and nearly killed Ivan.” Kezia smiled a little bit. “That would solve our problem, wouldn’t it? A relief to get rid of the man.”
“He won’t kill his brother,” Tatyana said. “And now Ivan has his guard up. I was hoping we’d be able to kill him while he was here in the city, but Sándor and I have been talking. I don’t know if that’s going to be possible now.”
“Ivan is staying with Pavel,” Kezia said. “Pavel is cautious by nature. He’ll increase the security at his house.”
“To guard against his own knyaz?”
“Do you think any of them love Oleg? They do not. Maybe his personal druzhina loves him, but his brothers?” Kezia shook her head. “He is simply the one who rose to the top. Do not let down your guard. Your husband-to-be could easily face a challenge from within. Don’t forget what Vano said before he died.”
“About?”
“About those in Oleg’s clan who were plotting against him.”
Tatyana flashed back five years to the doomed vampire planting seeds of doubt in Oleg’s head before he was killed.
“You don’t want to know who else in your clan is plotting against you?”
“Do you want to tell me?”
“Polina.”
“Is that so?”
“Pavel.”
“Fascinating. Anyone else?”
“Rudov. Am I lying?”
“Oh yes. And maybe no.”
Polina was Oleg’s own daughter, and Tatyana had seen the affection and trust between them, but Pavel? Rudov? She didn’t truly know either of Oleg’s brothers. Perhaps they hated him as much as Ivan did and they were just more quiet about it.
Were the threats against her husband more than she had anticipated. Ivan? She could probably figure out how to kill one very old and powerful earth vampire.
But not three of them.
