“Shut up,” I ordered.
He lifted his one hand, the other still clutching his wound. “Just saying. This is new.”
Ilana swallowed hard. Her voice came out barely above a whisper.
“I think I should leave you two alone.”
“No, please, stay,” Timofey spoke before I could, turning his attention towards Ilana. “I need to know the woman my brother has married and is keeping hidden in his safe house. I am Timofey, the handsome, more fun brother.”
He extended his hand but winced in the process. Ilana moved forward and took his hand anyway, her gaze darting to his wound.
“Ilana,” she replied with a soft smile.
“Congratulations,” he muttered, looking at both of us. “I’d offer champagne, but I am bleeding out. And I believe a celebration needs to be done with the entire family present here.”
“The entire family is not coming here right now, and you’re fine,” I said, even though I could clearly see he wasn’t.
“I am literally dying.”
“You are just being dramatic and nosy.”
Ilana took a step forward. “Should I… get something? Towels?”
I shook my head. “No. Dimitri will bring what we need.”
She hesitated. She wasn’t looking at the blood anymore but directly at me. At us. At the word married, hanging heavy between her ribs and mine. She gave a small nod, then stepped back.
“I will go fetch everything with him anyway. Just looking at this wound is giving me anxiety with how much blood is coming out. I don’t understand how you are even sitting there and talking so normally, Timofey.”
“See!” Timofey said. “Someone cares.”
Ilana left the room as Timofey turned towards me, my gaze still stuck on her retreating form. He waited until she had disappeared entirely.
“Holy shit, brother. You’re gone for her.”
I glared at him. “Shut up.”
He smirked, winced, then smirked again. “Does anyone else know? Isoif? Luckyan? Zhenya?”
“You are the first. And that too only because you found yourself hurt near my property and had to come in.”
“That is actually unbelievable. I am never the first one to know interesting things in the family. Especially not things like my brother getting secretly married to a beautiful girl he bought at an auction. Speaking of which, what were you even doing there?”
“I had intel the new Russian family was going to be there.”
“Were they?”
I shook my head. “No. Instead, this auction was happening, and they brought Ilana on stage, and I just couldn’t stop myself from trying to save her.”
“You did the right thing,” Timofey said, serious now.
“Did any of you get any other intel on the new family? I haven’t been able to continue my investigation since I have been here, but I am trying to locate their identities. Still no luck yet.”
Timofey shook his head. “You already know Iosif is waiting… for them to show themselves and refusing to go out looking, so we have all been ordered to do the same. But other than that… none of us have neither heard or seen anything as yet. You are the only person who is still talking about them or looking for them. Otherwise, they have been completely absent… from the scene.”
His regular pauses between speech were enough to tell me he was in pain.
“But I do know a few things that you might not know,” Timofey added, stealing all of my attention once again.
