Food splattered everywhere, and the sound of breaking dishes sounded around us.
He caught his footing, and then he charged me. With his hands on my throat, I staggered backwards, out of the room, into the foyer. Around us, people screamed and scrambled to get out of our way. The marble floors were slippery beneath our wet dress shoes. It was like fighting on ice.
I pulled his suit jacket over his head to blind him.
He responded by tucking his body and driving his shoulder into my sore abdomen. More people screamed. I felt my footing go beneath me and then he tackled me, his weight coming down on my hurt ribs.
The pain was breathtaking.
He crawled on top of me and starting swinging. The first hit is always the worst.
Pierre was a big guy, but I knew I could knock him out with one easy swing. He hit me again. Did I really deserve to fight back? Wasn’t it poetic justice that he tackled me at the funeral reception of Edward Jonathan Asterdam, the man who had died on my watch? After my failure, didn’t I deserve his anger and his fists?
He hit me again. The fact was, I was weak. I didn’t have it in me to let Blaire go like a real man would. I was struggling to let her spend the rest of her life with someone like this.
“Is that all you got?” I grunted. “You hit like a little kid.”
He got four more solid hits into my face before someone tackled him off me. I lay on the floor and stared at the ceiling. Above me was the most beautiful chandelier I’d ever seen.
Beside me, I could hear Andrusha’s fists connecting with Pierre’s face.
I could feel the warm blood flowing off my face onto the cool marble floor beneath me.
The pain was welcome. For a moment, it overrode my guilt and shame.
Her face appeared over mine, and tears were in her eyes. “Oh my god, you’re so hurt. Viktor!”
“Don’t touch me, Blaire.” I somehow managed to sit up. When I did, people standing around all gasped when they saw my face.
Three security guards appeared at the door. They first devoted their attention to lifting Andrusha off Pierre. And then two of them lifted me onto my feet, which was welcome because I was feeling pretty punch-drunk.
“Time for you two to go.”
It gave me perverse pleasure to see Pierre lying on the ground, holding his bloody face. “They attacked me, both of them. They’re animals.”
A sob escaped Blaire.
I found the strength to tell her the words I didn’t mean. “He’s telling the truth. You need to stay away from me.”
I avoided looking at her as the guard shoved me toward the front door.
Andrusha was steaming mad as he walked, and I limped, back to the car. “Why did you let that punk hit you? You should see your face.”
I didn’t answer.
“You let that stupid little fuck kick your ass? And you’re letting him steal your girl while you slum it in the strip bars? Why? Why are you punishing yourself for something that wasn’t your fault?”
He was my responsibility—and I failed. “Did you give her an invoice?”
He stopped walking. “I don’t know what that sniveling little weasel told you, but it’s a ruse. She’s not going to pay it. She did that strictly to keep the cops off our ass—and it was her idea. And for the record, I tried to say no to her, but she’s impossible to argue with.”
I tried to smile, but my face hurt too fucking much. “That’s pretty smart.”
“It’s helped our case, and you know I would never take her money.”
“I know.”
Andrusha stopped so short in front of me I nearly walked into him. “I think we have a problem.”
I stepped around him. Three perfect bullet holes marred the front windshield of his car. The car seats looked like they had imploded.
I opened the car door and studied the seats. “This is from a long-range rifle.”
“Our friendly neighborhood sniper.”
I needed to get my head out of my ass. “Now I’m pissed.”
Andrusha gave me an exasperated look. “It’s about fucking time.”
CHAPTER TWENTY SIX
BLAIRE
I sat on the bay window bench and looked up at the dark forest. It was raining heavily, and everywhere I looked there were dark shadows hiding behind the trees. For a moment, I fantasized that Viktor was up there, just like he was the first night. I pretended that he was looking down on me.
“A penny for your thoughts.” My grandmother sat down on the bench beside me.
“How are you, Grandma?”
“I feel like utter crap, and I miss Pappa every second that I am awake, but you know what? Today was a bit better than yesterday. And maybe tomorrow will be better than today.”
I reached up and grabbed her hand. “I’m sad too.”
“Darling, do you think you are going to be moving back to your place?”
I couldn’t imagine returning to my empty, cold apartment. I couldn’t imagine returning to anything normal. I wanted to stay in my childhood home and heal with my grandmother. “Do you want me to leave?”
“I love having you stay here, but I don’t want you to put your life on hold for me.”
“It is on hold. But not because of you—because I don’t know how to move forward.”
She gave me a sad smile. “You’re welcome here as long as you like. You know that. I just don’t want you to be here out of pity.”
“It’s the only place I want to be right now.”
She rubbed the top of my hand. “This is going to sound weird, so bear with me, okay?”
“Okay.”
“I was in such a fog the day of the funeral that I wasn’t really present, but I have this nagging memory that doesn’t make sense. Was there a fistfight at the reception?”
I winced as I remembered how horrifying that fight had been. I thought Pierre would kill Viktor. “Yes.”
She frowned further. “Was Pierre in that fight?”
“Yes.”
“Oh, thank goodness. I thought I had been hallucinating.”
“It happened.”
She sat back with an intrigued expression. “Who was Pierre fighting?”
“My friend, Viktor.”
Her eyes lit up. “The very big man who helped us find Pappa.”
“Pierre said that Andrusha and Viktor attacked him, but I don’t know what to believe. Viktor looked like he got equally hurt in the fight.”
“Pierre is extremely jealous of this new friend.”
“He shouldn’t be—Pierre and I are only friends.”
My grandmother laughed. I think it was the first time she’d laughed since my grandfather had gone missing. “Darling, Pierre has been in love with you since day one.”
“Why do people keep telling me this?” I could hear the exasperation in my voice.
“Maybe because it’s true.”
“I’ve never led him on.”
She tilted her head and squeezed my hand. “No, but a man can dream. What about this Viktor gentleman?”
I had told my grandmother that I had hired Viktor’s company to help us find my grandfather and that we had gone to Asia together, but I had never gone into details. There had been too many other things going on.