“Sergei, you better start explaining,” I demanded furiously. “Or I’ll kill you myself.”
And he knew I wasn’t joking. I never made empty threats. I loved him and Nikolai; we were the only family to each other growing up but having Anastasia kidnapped was against everything we stood for.
By Nikolai’s expression, I could tell he knew nothing about it and was just as shocked. Today turned out unexpected, to say the least. If Sergei was compromised, we couldn’t stay here. We’d need to leave today.
“It was either you or Scarlett,” Sergei muttered to Anastasia. I’ve seen that expression on his face many times while we were growing up. He fucked up and knew he was fucking up when he decided to go through with kidnapping too. “I didn’t know you, and Scarlett barely mentioned you so I assumed you weren’t that close after all.”
Sergei tested my patience a lot in all the years together but I never wanted to murder him before. Right now, I wanted to beat him senseless. He always did the dumbest shit when it came to women. Just like when the woman he stayed behind for in Russia turned around and married some old, rich Polish mobster. He decided to crash the wedding, literally crash it by ramming his Maserati through the venue. He only got out of it alive because Nikolai and I intervened. Michail, Sergei’s guy, had enough brains to text us their plans. Both of them were lucky they came out of it only badly beaten. When we reached those two fools, I wanted to beat them myself for such stupidity. But Nikolai calmed the situation, as always.
“What do you mean?” Anastasia’s lip trembled as she asked him
Anastasia’s tear streaked face made something shift in my chest. I wanted to take away her hurt and her fear. How could she impact me so much? There was no denying she had the air of a princess about her. How she tried to argue that I couldn’t tell her what to do, that I worked for her dad. But her heart was golden, there was no mistaking that.
I have known her for only three days now and she already mattered so much to me. She lifted her head off my chest and turned her head towards Sergei but never moved away from me. I wanted to keep her in my arms and close to me until I understood exactly what Sergei’s intentions were. He was my brother, but if he was a threat, he’d have to be eliminated. Just the thought of it was disturbing. He and Nikolai were the closest I ever had to a family.
“We ran into each other in St. Petersburg in the hotel lobby,” he said simply. “You probably didn’t notice because you were studying a travel guide or something but your redhead friend saw me. Scarlett and I hit it off, and she’s important to me.” I had been so enraptured with Anastasia, I missed all the signs from Sergei. His regret when he first saw her bruised up sleeping in the car. I thought he was falling for Anastasia but he was repenting. “Boris’ men must have been following the three of you because one night they followed Scarlett to me. They offered me the deal they’d leave Scarlett alone if I could deliver them Anastasia. I couldn’t risk losing Scarlett so it seemed like a no brainer.”
“Why didn’t you call us?” Nikolai asked the question I was thinking.
He pushed his hand through his hair. “Fuck if I know,” his voice a mutter. “For once, I wanted to fix it all on my own and leave all the shit in the past.”
Her green eyes lifted to my face. “Did you know Sergei was involved?”
“Fuck no,” I hissed. Did she think so little of me?
“Nobody knew but me,” Sergei confirmed and Anastasia threw him a glance.
“Why would I believe anything you say?”
She had a valid point and I couldn’t argue with her to defend Sergei. At this moment, I wasn’t entirely sure what his deal was.
Anastasia pushed away from me, a frown on her beautiful face. “That’s the part I don’t understand. What do Boris’ men want with me? He’s put away for life, awaiting execution.”
“Fuck,” I muttered under my breath. I didn’t want to worry her but it seemed I didn’t have a choice now.
Before I had a chance to answer, Sergei commented. “I really didn’t know, Anastasia. They mentioned your family would pay the price. I planted three men into that group to ensure nothing happened to you.”
She scoffed at him. “Seriously?” She glared at him, then added, “Define nothing.”
Anger rose within me and disappointment at my youngest brother.
“Have you made any other bad decisions like this that we should know about?” I questioned him. “Did you work this up with Vlad because I swear it sounds like shit he would do. Although you tend to fuck up pretty bad when it comes to women too.”
Sergei clenched his jaw but shook his head.
Seconds ticked before he replied. “No, he showed up around the same time but I didn’t tell him anything. This is all on me.”
“The whole time they held me captive, it was as if they were waiting,” Anastasia pondered. “I just couldn’t understand what they were waiting for.”
“They were waiting for Boris,” I told her. I really wished we didn’t have to tell her he was out on the loose.
I could see confusion in her beautiful eyes. “But he’s in prison.”
She might as well know it all now. “Your father told me yesterday that Boris escaped. We believe he escaped the U.S. and is probably in Russia now.”
I waited for her to lash out. She’d had an information overload today but she just stood stoically in front of me. Maybe her earlier outburst took it all out of her.
Slowly her gaze turned to Nikolai, then to Sergei, before her eyes came back to me, and there was a hard resolution in them. Anastasia was quite a force when she decided something. I liked that about her.