He looked at me. “Look. Another sign.”
“It doesn’t work like that.”
“Damn straight it does.”
I glanced over at my closest friend. Maybe last week I had saved his life, but this week he had saved mine with his dry wit and his relentless needling that kept me from completely going to the dark side. At night, he sat beside me at the back of multiple strip bars while I silently drank and refused to look at the women on the stage. He hated strip clubs almost as much as me, but he endured my own form of self-torture alongside me.
He showed up at my place every morning with a smoothie and forced me to go for a run.
And the rest of the time, he worked alongside me to track down the lone sniper who didn’t seem to fit the rest of the puzzle. A sniper I couldn’t find.
“We won’t be here long,” I told him.
He gave me a critical look. “You take all the time you need.”
Blaire was occupied with her duties, so I stood at the peripheral of the large banquet room and watched her on the other side. Andrusha had gone searching for food.
She tucked a blanket around her grandmother’s lap. A tall, well-built guy seemed to be watching over them both. He left and came back with a box of Kleenex and then, on his second trip, came back with two steaming cups of something hot. On his third trip, he came back with two small plates of food that he discreetly set beside them. He had to be family.
Blaire and her mystery man had cocooned the older woman as best as they could. Already, people were hesitantly approaching with their cards and their hugs.
Andrusha returned to stand at my side.
“Did you find the food?”
“Catering is exceptional. You want something?”
“No.”
Everywhere I looked, I saw lavish jewelry and old money. Now Blaire and her male cousin were sitting on the couch.
“Shit.” Andrusha spun around so he was facing the wall, his back to the crowd.
“What are you doing?”
He gave me a regretful look and started speaking in Russian. “My judge is here.”
“Your judge?”
“Yeah, the douchebag who sent me to jail.”
My eyebrows shot up. “He’s here as a guest? A special friend of the Asterdams?” I started to look closer at the faces of the crowd. “Is that the mayor?”
He gave me a knowing look. “Your girl has connections.”
“She’s not my girl.”
“Pretty sure you can turn that around.”
I gave him a hard look. “She deserves better.”
He looked over his shoulder. “Yeah, like that numb-nuts who’s been hovering over her since we arrived.”
“I thought he was a cousin or something.”
“Nope.”
He spoke with a lot of confidence. “How do you know?”
He froze for a moment as if at a loss for words, and then looked back over his shoulder. “He wasn’t even near the front of the church. If he’s family, why wasn’t he sitting in the pew with them? He wasn’t even in the second or third row.”
I watched the man murmur something to Blaire. Red-hot jealousy washed over me as I eyeballed the guy hard. This is what I wanted for her. I wanted her to find someone from her world.
I couldn’t let it go. “How do you even know who was in the first three rows?”
“I remember what I saw.”
I couldn’t argue. Andrusha noticed different shit than me. And once I had caught sight of Blaire, I hadn’t spent too much time studying those around her. “Maybe he’s a nice guy.”
“Maybe you need to grow a pair.”
“I know what I’m doing.”
“I should mention that the battlefield of love is different from the one for war.”
“Thanks, Dr. Phil.”
A caterer paused in front of us, offering an appetizer. Andrusha helped himself as he spoke to the person with the tray. “Twenty bucks if you can discreetly find out the name of the guy sitting on that couch.”
Two minutes later, the guy returned and held out his hand. “Mrs. Asterdam called him Pierre.”
Her non-cousin was Pierre? Pierre, the guy who had been chasing her for years? Pierre, the guy who had flown to Hong Kong to give her thirty thousand? I had envisioned him to be some weak fraternity kid. I didn’t expect him to look like a linebacker.
Andrusha slipped him the money. “Thanks.”
The caterer paused. “For the record, the guy’s a piece of work. Super polite in front of the two women, but behind the scenes he’s like the worst boss you’ve ever had. He’s already made two servers cry, and he doesn’t even live here.”
I was done talking about Pierre. If I heard much more, I would have to do something about him.
“I need a drink. You want one?”
Andrusha shook his head.
I allowed myself one shot of vodka at the bar. The time had come for me to take one last look at Blaire and then commit to never seeing her again. I would walk out of here with my dignity intact after saying a respectful goodbye. I needed to give Andrusha a break from my nightly seedy penance—tonight, I would skip the bar and drink at home.
To avoid the crowd of people talking in the foyer, I cut through the side room that had all the catering. Most of the room was empty except for some staff refreshing the trays on the tables.
“Don’t you think you’ve done enough damage?” a voice asked from behind me.
The cocky male tone made me stiffen. I turned around. It didn’t shock me that it was Pierre. What shocked me was how happy I was that he had confronted me. Like him, I wanted something concrete to push back against.
“If it isn’t our family friend, Pierre. Blaire told me all about you—she kept stressing that you’re like a brother to her.”
“At least I didn’t let her grandfather die on my watch.”
I ground my teeth.
He was watching me closely. “I wish she’d let me hire a professional security team that had some skill. Instead, she hired mall cops who got in way over their heads. The fact that you thought you could protect this family cost them. You’re a junkyard dog, and you should stick to patrolling junkyards.”
“Piss off, frat boy.”
“You think you’re so tough, but the reality is you’re a failure.” He gave a short laugh. “You have the audacity to let your clients be killed, and then you have the nerve to still charge them. You’re not a man—you’re pathetic. How many people have been killed on your watch?”
He was hitting my deepest nerves. I clung to the one lie in his statement as I took a menacing step toward him. “I didn’t charge her or this family for anything.”
“We both know you did. Why are you even here? Are you here for more money? Did you show up today to squeeze more blood from that stone? That’s so fucking sad.”
I felt deep unease. “Shut up with the bullshit.”
“You and I both know that your partner brought over an invoice for several tens of thousands of dollars. And Blaire, even though she was devastated, took it. She’s knows it’s unfair to have to pay you, but she’s scared of you.”
With a roar, I charged toward him and shoved him backwards across the room. He caught himself on one of the folding catering tables, which nearly flipped. Half of the silver trays slid off as he grappled with the tablecloth to find his balance.