Page 53 of Tarnished Queen

Nikolai reclines back in his chair. “When it comes to teaching you lessons, I’ve learned mine. I won’t waste my breath.”

I round on him. All of the tension from the morning is starting to condense in my chest. A tight ball of anxiety I need to either ease up or erupt, because the pressure of it is killing me.

“Could you take this seriously, please?” I snap. “I know this isn’t about your Bratva or the Greeks. It may not be life and death like you’re used to, but it’s about my life and my sister’s life. It’s important to me.”

“Which is why you’re freaking out.”

“I’m not freaking out!” I shriek, completely undermining my point. “But I’m about to meet a man who might blow up my relationship with my sister, and you’re just—”

“Distracting you until he arrives.”

I frown, staring at Nikolai as a smirk turns the corner of his mouth upward. “You’re… you’re trying to distract me.”

“And considering you’ve finally stopped destroying your fingernails, I’d say I’m succeeding at it.”

I cross my arms, failing to feel even a fraction as annoyed as I want to. “Your confidence is endlessly frustrating, you know.”

Nikolai stands up and crosses the distance between us. His broad shoulders block the doorway and the rest of the world. He is the only thing that exists right now.

“I’m here with you, Belle,” he breathes. “You don’t have anything to worry about.”

A small part of my brain wants to argue with him.What will I do when Elise finds out I lied to her? What if Howard wants her back? What if she hates me forever?

But a larger part of my brain—the part that Nikolai has forever and fully invaded—just nods along, certain he’s right. How can things go wrong when he’s here with me? They can’t. They won’t.

He has me.

“You’re ready,” he pronounces.

Then he pivots to stand next to me—just as Howard Schaffner walks through the door.

The man has the same strawberry blond hair as Elise, though his temples have turned white since I saw him last. He’s grown a beard, too. It’s full white. But I can still make out the same high cheekbones Elise has. The same deep green eyes looking at me with a fair amount of trepidation.

“Howard?” Nikolai asks in a harsh tone that cracks the moment open wide. I practically shake myself out of a trance. Based on the way Howard seems to wobble on his feet as his eyes shift from me to Nikolai, I think he felt it, too.

“Howard Schaffner.” He extends his hand, but Nikolai doesn’t reach for it. After a second, he curls his fingers against his palm and shoves his hands back in his pockets.

“Hand where we can see them,” Nikolai barks.

He yanks them right back out. “Right. Yeah. I’m not armed or anything. You don’t have to worry about me.”

“Sending a private investigator to tail us doesn’t exactly scream ‘just minding my own business.’” There’s more venom in my voice than I intended, but I can’t help it. Too many emotions to name are coming to life just under my surface, and I don’t have the energy or the strength to keep them all at bay. Nikolai might be able to bury every feeling, but I can’t. I never have.

Howard ducks his head. “I know. I’m sorry. I got the best my money could buy. Which isn’t anywhere close to the best. But Chris found you. I guess I’ll have to leave him a five-star review now. If you leave reviews for P.I.’s, that is. I guess I don’t really know the protocol.”

Even as an eleven-year-old, I knew it was strange that someone like Howard would be with my mom. He was… normal. Most of her boyfriends treated me like a roach crawling across the floor. They curled their upper lips when I dared walk out of my room and they never wanted me to go anywhere with them.

“Can’t the brat stay home?” they’d hiss in my mom’s ear. “This place isn’t really for kids.”

I never found out what “place” they were talking about because my mom always decided they were right. “You can stay here, Belle,” she’d say, patting my head like she was giving me a prize. “You’re a big girl.”

But Howard always included me. He’d choose the restaurant with the play place so I could crawl through a maze of plastic tubes while they ate. And when Mom wouldn’t let me tag along, he always made sure to bring me back something to eat.

When Mom got pregnant with Elise, I wished Howard could be my dad, too.

Then he left.

“How do I even know you are who you say you are?” I demand.

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