Page 82 of Brazen Obsession

“How are you doing? Do you need to rest?” I ask as Theo heads down the hallway. With the pregnancy, she’s been napping in Tom’s office when she’s there. Today has been stressful. If she needs to rest, she should rest.

Natasha sighs. “I’ll be good. I just want to get through with this so I can be at Tom’s side.”

“We’ll try to make it quick.” I walk into the space. It’s a nice-sized apartment with good views of the city. I don’t explore it because we have a finite amount of time. If what we want isn’t here, we’ll be forced to check more properties. “Where’s his office?”

Natasha gestures for me to follow her and leads us down the hallway. Theo is already there. She walks through the double doors into a very masculine office with heavy leather furniture. Theo is at the desk already logging onto the computer.

Natasha moves to a picture of her father and a pregnant woman who resembles her. She swings it open to reveal the safe. “He always said he’d leave me everything I needed in this safe. He didn’t realize I’d be the one to give the Feds information to take him in.”

There’s a sadness surrounding her. Maybe she regrets that now. Thinking that with her dad out of the way, she could have a peaceful life with Tom.

“You were protecting your family.” I place a hand on her shoulder.

She looks back at me with sad eyes. “My father is my family.”

I can’t imagine what she’s going through, so I nod. She had to make a choice and chose Tom and their baby over her father. But even she said there were worse things she could have given the Feds. Things that would guarantee hard time.

She taps the code on the keypad and pulls open the safe. Inside are some stacks of money and a couple leather portfolios.

“May I?” I ask.

She steps away. I take the leather portfolios over to a chair and open them. There are bank accounts listed with all the information we might need to access them. All we have to do is download the statements and we might be able to match deposits to the file Tom found. If we find out Peter was skimming off the top, maybe we’ll have a way for Alexander to keep his empire even if Peter gets out, without having to marry Natasha.

Natasha talks to Theo for a few minutes about possible passwords for the computer before she heads down the hallway.

Even though Theo cleared the apartment, I stand and follow after her. She’s sitting in a bedroom plastered in purple. I lean against the doorframe as she sits on the bed and plucks at a doll’s outfit.

“Did I do the right thing?” Natasha lifts her gaze to mine, looking so lost. “I could have prevented all of this if I just did what my dad asked of me.”

“He wanted you to marry someone you don’t love.”

“I could have at least tried.” She runs her hand down the doll’s frilly dress. “I panicked. Tom...”

My eyes narrow. “Tom what?”

She lifts her gaze and they shine with unshed tears. “He saw me. He saw me fading into the background, trying to become invisible. Trying to be the daughter my father wanted.” A tear falls down her cheek and she gives a sad little laugh. “I’ve seen the way you all look at Sara. Like you can’t believe she’s yours.”

I don’t say anything because Sara was always an impossibility. Something we wanted but couldn’t have.

“That’s what Tom is to me. He’s this great guy. He makes me laugh. And he loves me in spite of my father, not because my father wants him to take over and he needs to use me as collateral.” Natasha looks down at the doll. “My dad was doing what he thought would protect me and his grandchildren. But I want to live my own life. And I want to share that life with Tom.”

She covers her mouth as she breaks down. “I should have never involved him. He almost died. And it would have been my fault.”

“Tom knew the risks.” I’ve known him most of our lives. I know how his brain works. “Being with you was always a risk. Your father could have found out and taken care of him. Alexander could have made moves to make sure you didn’t get together with him. Tom is a lot of things, but he’s smart. He knew what he was getting into.”

Natasha nods and wipes at her tears. “I told him this wouldn’t be easy, but he’s worth it.”

Tom tried to warn us Sara might be in danger. He didn’t prepare us for the level of danger she’d been under, but he wouldn’t have told her to come to us unless there was a damned good reason.

I’ve seen the way Tom and Natasha look at each other. If Sara were in the hospital, I would be by her side, holding her hand.

“Let’s go to the hospital.” This trip was necessary, but it’s enough for now.

She lifts her gaze to mine. “Really?”

“Yeah, what we have here will be plenty for us to go through tonight.” I rub the back of my neck. “He’ll want to make sure you’re safe with him.”

Natasha stands and wipes her hands down the sides of her slacks. She turns and looks over the room. “My father isn’t a bad father. Alexander follows my father’s lead in business, but he’s not my father. Hopefully, we can negotiate with him. He wants the kingdom, not me. So giving him the power to maintain the empire should be enough to make him not need me.”