“Yes.”
Avery shook her head slowly. “I don’t remember anything else.”
Trina smiled. “Well, it’s more than yesterday, so there is progress. The doctors will be excited to hear that.”
Her head started to throb, and instead of denying herself relief, she opened her palm. “Where is that button of fun?”
Trina reached over the bed and put the thing in her hand.
Avery pushed it and sighed long before the medication circulated in her veins.
Ruslan Petrov was a patient man with one impatient moment in his past. That moment changed everything. He was a man who had more plates spinning in the air than a circus performer, and one was slipping off his finger, and he’d be damned if he dropped anything now.
Across from him, Zakhar delivered unwelcome news. “Ms. Grant had already delivered the items to the auction houses.”
“Did your man at least steal her wallet?”
“No.”
Ruslan clenched his fist. “He didn’t finish the job.”
“He said he was interrupted.”
“Let me see if I understand this correctly. I said to make it look like burglary, and now it simply looks like a vendetta. And she’s alive to identify him.”
Zakhar matched Ruslan’s stare. “I have already taken care of the situation. Nothing will be tied to you.”
That had Ruslan releasing the hold he had on his own fingers and rubbing the tension away.
“What about the other collateral damage?”
“She is scrubbed. No trace.”
“I expect nothing was messy.”
Zakhar smiled, a white line of a scar he earned in a street fight distorting his face, making his grin look like a threat. It was one of the many things Ruslan liked about the man. “Car accident.”
It would be so much easier if he could just scrub the woman who destroyed everything. But that would only result in the wrong people looking his way. Instead of losing a fortune, he’d lose his freedom.
He used a remote control to reveal a monitor behind a picture on the wall. When the image flicked into focus, a map of the world emerged. With another button, the map focused on the state of New York. Several dots blinked, each a different color.
Katrina’s bitch lawyer and their friend blipped in the same place. He knew without looking that they were at the Manhattan hospital where he’d put their friend. The redneck blipped a few blocks away, and it appeared Trina was by herself downtown. Which didn’t sound right, considering she’d been flanked by security since he’d started his cover-up. A cover-up he had thought he’d taken care of the year before.
Ruslan pointed at the map. “Where is this?”
Zakhar moved behind the desk and clicked into the program tracking the players.
“Looks residential.”
“Have our man on the ground find out. What about the house?”
“Police activity has pulled out. They didn’t find anything.”
At least that worked as he’d planned.
“I do have some positive news,” Zakhar said.
“I’m waiting.” Ruslan reached for a cigar on his desk.
“The tabloids are circulating speculation on your daughter-in-law. Indirectly pointing a finger at her for Fedor’s death and questioning if she’s unhappy with one man’s fortune and trying to add to it with her new male friend.”
Ruslan rolled the cigar between his fingers and held it under his nose. “That’s helpful,” he said before he reached for a lighter. Once the cigar was lit and the sweet smoke filled his lungs, instantly calming his nerves . . . he blew out the smoke slowly. “I think it’s time for me to visit my son’s grave.”
“In Texas?”
If his Russian friend disagreed, he didn’t express his feelings.
“I’ll arrange it.”
Two days later, Trina was arranging a hospital bed to be delivered to the Hamptons house for Avery’s release. She wanted to take her back to Texas, but the plastic surgeon and neurologists felt that should wait for another week.
Lori argued to return to LA, but Trina pointed out the quiet of the country would give Avery the time she needed to heal. Ultimately the decision was one of practicality. They would stay in the Hamptons home for the next week and then fly back to Texas for the prolonged future. Considering the surveillance and bodyguards on them now, it would be easier to watch over them at the ranch.
Truth be told, Trina was a little anxious to get into the safe deposit box Sasha had given her the key for. But taking care of Avery was the priority, and the box would have to wait.
The only media was a lone car parked across from the Hamptons home with a camera pointed out the driver’s side window.
They pulled in like a presidential motorcade. Three black SUVs, all rented, and all home to at least one armed bodyguard.
Wade jumped out of their car and opened the door for Trina and Avery. Jeb stepped in the second Avery poked her head out, reached in, lifted her out of the car.
The drive from the hospital had been slow, to avoid potholes and any unnecessary bumps along the way.
Trina walked ahead of everyone with keys in hand to let them all in. Once inside, she disarmed the alarm system and tossed her purse on the foyer table.
She turned to Avery, who looked comfortable in Jeb’s massive arms.
“Do you want to go to bed or get propped up in the family room?”
“I’ve been in bed for days,” Avery said.
“Family room it is.” Trina pointed Jeb in the right direction and went upstairs to find a few pillows and a blanket while everyone else filed inside.
By the time she returned, the flowers from the hospital were brought in from the cars, as well as several pieces of luggage from the group.
Shannon took the blanket and pillows from her and went to Avery’s side.
Lori was already in the kitchen, brewing a pot of coffee, and Wade and Ike were hoisting bags to the second floor.
“Good thing this is a big house,” Lori told her as she removed coffee cups from the cupboard.
“It felt like a mansion when I was married. Then it was a place to rest between hospital visits and funeral homes.”
Lori gave her a one-arm hug. “You survived it.”
“Feels like I’m right back where I started.” Her gaze drifted to the family room.
“Except that no one is ending up in the ground, and there’s a big Texan winking at you every time you walk in the room.”
Just thinking about Wade had blood rushing to her face.
“God, it’s good to see that smile,” Lori said.
“I can’t believe he’s still here. All this crazy and he hasn’t even hinted at leaving.”
“Nothing wrong with that.”
Jeb and Reed walked in from the back door, with Rick close behind.
“Okay, ladies.” Rick managed to get all their attention through the great room right as Wade and Ike walked in. “And gentlemen. The security system has been updated as of yesterday. Everything is being monitored remotely from our headquarters. Audio and visual. Trina, you’ll notice the new cameras we have put inside.” He pointed out two small fixtures that were in the corners of the great room and another in the kitchen. “There are more in the hallways and other common spaces. Bathrooms and bedrooms are not online. The backyard, and especially the back office, are live. The front door and gate are up, as usual. We have also placed a few cameras on the perimeter of the property for shits and giggles.”
“That seems like a lot of work, considering we plan on leaving in a week,” Trina said.
Rick let his usual smile lapse, and his gaze traveled to Avery, lying on the couch.
No one continued to question the need for more cameras.
“So keep that in mind if anyone wants a little touchy-feely in the kitchen. Not that my men will go out of their way to watch, but you never know.” Rick was joking, his men weren’t really like that, but then again . . .
Trina’s eyes found the whites of Wade’s, her heart skipped a beat. Since Reed and Lori already knew the drill of surveillance, and Shannon didn’t have a man in the house that she knew enough to be touchy or feely over . . . and Ike and Jeb didn’t seem to be into each other, that left the warning squarely on Wade and her.
“I think I’m safe there,” Avery said from the sofa.
Oh, yeah . . . and Avery. Who probably wouldn’t mind someone watching if she were up to doing anything other than sleeping and popping a pill every four hours.
Rick continued, “We have a team overhauling the ranch as we speak to get it ready for your return. Wade?”
“Yeah?”
“I assume you have a security system at your place.”
“I do. Although not quite as extensive as what you seem to have here.”
“There are always people around, anyway,” Ike told him. “It’s a working ranch.”
“Which means you need more security, not less. Trina, do you plan on spending any time at Wade’s?”
She glanced at Wade, then back at Rick. “Well, yeah . . . eventually. I mean, I hope—”
“Then we’ll send in a team.”
Wade held up a hand. “Whoa, wait just a minute.”
Before Rick could continue, a call from the gate did a double ring on her phone.