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Inside? "What the hell?" Before Nik could figure out who was shooting, another blast detonated.

"And they're in." That gloomy tidbit was shared by Chan.

"Boss." It was Boris' only warning before he was flung back into the room. Tatyana screamed his name. They fired into the hallway. Something was thrown in the room, metal against the hardwood. Then smoke. Nik sniffed. No, not smoke.

"Shit. Tear gas." Why hadn't he prepared for that? "Close your eyes, Brat." He pressed her against the wall, covering her with his body. His eyes burned. He coughed, breathing difficult. All the time, he continued to shoot clip after clip, his men doing the same, the noise deafening.

A dark form swung through the air. Nik twisted. A knife sliced his vest. Tatyana gasped as she was yanked from behind him. "Nikky! Nikky!" Fuck. The bastard had Tatyana. Nik heard her struggling, fighting like a wild woman. He couldn't see, damn it, his vision was too fuzzy. He raised his gun high, higher than Tatyana's petite form, forcing himself to wait, and wait, and wait. Finally, he heard it. A shot, then a gasp. He aimed and pulled the trigger.

Another scream. A heavy thud.

"Tatyana!" He moved toward her, reaching out. Was she hit? Had he missed?

Shots to his right, where Chan had stood.

"Nikky!" His neck was gripped so tightly, he winced. "Nikky! He...there..." She sounded half hysterical. A figure lay crumpled on the floor. Nik shot once, twice, three times to ensure the body wouldn't move. "Shot...I... Shot," she breathed, her voice thick, as though she found it hard to take in air.

Shot. His heart stopped. "You're shot?" He patted her body blindly. Moisture. Sticky.

"No." Her frizzy hair brushed against his cheek as she shook her head. "Are you?"

He sagged with relief. She was safe. "No. Pavel?"

"Yes, Boss." A raspy reply.

"Ventilation." Chan's voice in the smoke was weak. A fan whirled overhead. Fresh air. Nik breathed in. It took a few minutes for the room to clear. A few minutes more for Nik's eyes to recover enough to see shapes.

"Boris?"

A groan. "Boss. My ribs."

He was hurt but alive. "Ivan?"

Silence. "No, Boss," Pavel confirmed.

A whimper from Tatyana. Fuck. Ivan was a good man, leaving behind a wife. Damn it.

"Chan?" A group of dark figures stood to the right.

"One of my own, Kaerta. During the fight."

Nik blinked rapidly, trying to focus on Chan.

"Your shoulder." Tatyana pointed. There was something metallic stuck in Chan's shoulder.

A throwing star? Blood pooled around him.

No one was doing anything. What kind of shit organization was he running? "Where's your medical team, Chan?" He'd have one.

"One of my own, Kaerta," the man repeated from his place on the floor. "How do I know he doesn't have a man on my medical team? How can I trust anyone?"

A buzz of Chinese around him. Reassurances of loyalty.

"You're a paranoid bastard, Chan. Let them treat you." Before he died and created a whole new mess.

"Look at that man." Chan pointed. "What do you see?"

Tatyana squeaked. Nik looked, and immediately pressed her face into his chest. A shot to the head was never pretty. "Fuck, Chan. My fiancee didn't need to see that."

"One of mine. He waited until this happened andȄ" A watery cough. "I can't trust my team."

There were denials in Chinese, tone universal.

"Nikky." Tatyana whispered. "We couldȄ"

"No," Nik refused. "If he dies..." It'd be war. Could be two wars. At the same time. They hadn't yet figured out who ordered the attack on the brat.

"And if he dies now," she spoke directly into his ear, "who will be blamed? Please, Nikky. I don't want any more death."

"Fuck." She would play that card. "You can use our medical team, Chan." He motioned to Pavel. Pavel rumbled instructions into the phone.

"Why would you do that, Kaerta?" Suspicion colored Chan's question. "You getting soft?

This is your chance."

His chance to put an end to this pain in his ass. Nik glanced down at Tatyana. He wouldn't do it. At least not today. She'd been through enough. Tears streamed down her cheeks. His eyes watered, too, from the tear gas.

"I'm patient, Chan. I'll wait until you're healthy to kill you. Much more satisfying that way."

Tatyana's hands squeezed Nik's neck as she shook all over. She was in shock. "I'm taking my fiancee upstairs, Chan."

"Safest room in the house." Chan's laugh disintegrated into a cough.

They moved out of the way as the medical team arrived. "Pavel, take care of this." Nik swung Tatyana into his arms and walked out of the room.

"It's over." Tatyana sat on the bed, allowing Nikky to strip her of her holster, her shirt, her vest. "And you're alive." She ran dirty hands through his hair. Her ears rang, her eyes burned, her body ached, but they were alive. Both of them. Alive.

"I told you I wouldn't die, Brat." Nikky kissed her hungrily. She fell back on the soft bedspread. He covered her, his vest pinching her skin.

"Ouch." She pulled at the straps, her hands blistered from the gunfire.

He removed his shirt, his vest, his undershirt. She examined him, needing visual reassurance he was okay. He was. His bare chest was polka-dotted with red marks but his skin was unbroken.

"I was proud of you." His brown eyes gleamed. "When you foughtȄ"

"I shot him, Nikky." Tatyana moaned, horrified. She shot a man.

"I shot him, Brat." He pinged her softly on the head.

"After I did. I shot him in the leg." The man grabbed her. She pressed the muzzle to her attacker's thigh and pulled the trigger. That she did that without thinking. "I shot a man, Nikky."

"He would have killed me." He stroked her shoulder. "He tried."

The slice in Nikky's vest, over his heart. He could have died. She closed her eyes, focusing on his soothing hands, rough against her smooth skin. "And me? Why didn't he kill me?"

She didn't understand. The killer could have killed her easily. Had he been after Nikky?

"I don't know, Brat." Nikky kissed her again, his mouth moving from her lips, over her chin, down her neck. He cupped her breasts. "Hmm..." His fingers slid inside her bra, scooping out the dressings. Her nipples tightened. "But, I do know I wouldn't have let him." Nikky pushed the cups aside, suckling her. "You're mine."

"Nikky." She arched as he reached down to fondle her.

"Fuck, Tatyana. I need you so much." With one pull, he removed her pants and panties, his own clothes removed as expediently. "I can't wait. I need..."

She knew what he needed. She needed it, too. His flesh against hers. She bent her knees and spread her legs and he was inside her, thrusting hard, moving frantically, passionately, alive and healthy into her. He panted, his muscled body sleek with a thin layer of sweat. He was alive, so very alive.

"Nikky." She was coming apart. She clawed at his back as relentless emotion swept through her, needing his skin under her fingertips.

He thrust once more, deep and hard. "Tell me you love me, Tatyana." Heat filled her. "Tell me." He collapsed, his weight pinning her to the mattress.

It was a welcome weight. "I love you, Nikky." He was alive. She was alive. Tatyana pet the back of his head, smoothing down his thick hair. "I'll always love you."

Nine

"Loved ones need the assurance of strength so they can grieve but not worry."ȄSergei Kaerta

"Find out everything about him," Nik instructed after Pavel wrapped up the debriefing.

Details about the slain assassin were key to locating his client. Locating the client was needed to keep the brat safe. Her safety was Nik's top priority.

"We will, Boss." Pavel nodded his head, spread out in the seat across from them. Boris rode up front beside the driver as IvanȄpained coursed through NikȄIvan needed no seat now.

Tatyana sat too far forward on his knees to offer the comfort he needed. Nik wrapped his arms underneath the borrowed blouse she wore and pulled her back, snug against him.

Better. He breathed in the sweet smell of her damp hair. Tatyana was here. He'd deal with the pain and the grief later when they were alone. Right now, he concentrated on her.

Tatyana wiggled. His body reacted. "Nikky." That earned him a halfhearted reprimand as though he was solely responsible for his arousal.

"Brat." It was the sight of her in the maternity top, the fabric billowing around her flat stomach. It got him thinking of ways to put her in that condition. If she wasn't in that condition already. He caressed her soft skin. She could be. They hadn't used protection. His child could be growing inside her.

That possibility appealed to him immensely. The first would be a daughter. He was sure of it. They had plenty of time to have the son needed to carry on the Kaerta name. Nik would get his little girl, first. A baby girl with big trusting eyes and frizzy hair.

"You can drop me off at the Crown Hotel." Tatyana's words shredded his serenity.

What the hell? She wanted to leave him? Nik tightened his embrace. "You're not going anywhere."

She turned sideways to kiss the tip of his nose. "It's over, Nikky. You upheld your side of the bargain. You protected me. NowȄ"

"Now nothing. It's not over, not by a long shot." It'd never be over between them. "Weren't you listening to Pavel? Don't you know what that man was?"

"Of course I don't." She looked at him like he was the irrational one. "Pavel doesn't know who that man was. We might never know."

"Not who, what. He was a professional," Nik continued. She needed to know this. "He was paid to get to you." To kill her or worse. "The person paying him is still out there. He'll replace the man we killed this morning and it'll start all over again."

Guilt slammed into Nik as her face crumpled. "It'll start all over again." She laid her forehead against his, her trembling fingertips skimming over his face. "So many people died today and nothing was accomplished."

"Not nothing." He refused to think that. Ivan's death wasn't a waste.

"Yes, nothing. We didn't stop death. It's still out there and it'll come for me, for the people I care about. It always does." Her breathing was ragged. "You have to let me go, Nikky. You can't fight this war again and again, losing loved ones each time. It isn't fair to you, to the family."

Did she not understand? "You are my family, Brat. I'm not letting you go." Ever. "When Pavel locates the source, we'll confront him." Nik would kill the bastard himself. "And we end this."

"You really think we can end it?" She raised her head, hope lighting her eyes.

"I know we can." The professional had been tracking Tatyana for years. He must have fucked up at least once.

"We have a plan."

"We have a plan." She relaxed in his arms. "We locate the source."

"Pavel locates the source," Nik corrected. She wouldn't be involved.

"We'll confront him," the brat continued as though she didn't hear him.

"I'll confront him." With his men at his side and her safe at the casino. Today, he almost lost her. Nik wouldn't put her at risk again.

"Then, you'll take me to the Crown Hotel."

"No Crown Hotel." Again with her leaving him. "You love me." She said she did. Yes, she loved him. She must. "You're not going anywhere." Nik covered her parting lips with his.

She wasn't going anywhere. Tatyana curled up in Nikky's lap as the car turned into the casino. She said she wouldn't leave unless he no longer wanted her. She wiggled against his arousal. Nikky still wanted her.

And she wanted him. She wanted this. She felt safe, loved. But, those feelings were an illusion. She was neither safe, the killer's client not located; nor loved, Nikky her temporary fiance, but it was more than she'd had for years, so she took it.

The car stopped and Yuri, Grandfather's henchman, opened the door. Relief flashed over his normally taciturn face so quickly Tatyana almost missed it. "Sergei wants to see you." Yuri took Tatyana's hand, helping her out of the limo. "Both of you."

Nikky radiated irritation. "He'll have to wait."

"Nikolay," Yuri warned.

"Is that wise, Nikky?" Tatyana laid a comforting hand on his arm. Although he'd never admit to it, his grandfather would be worried. He'd want to see for himself that Nikky was well.

"It is necessary, Tatyana." Nikky's handsome face sagged. He must be exhausted. Neither of them had slept well the night before. "We lost six men today." A sharp intake of breath from Yuri. "Their families should hear it from me before anyone else says anything."

She hated death. Hated it. "Give me a couple minutes to change." She didn't want to visit grieving widows wearing a dead woman's maternity top.

"You don't need to..." He rolled his shoulders back. Tatyana heard a crack.

"I do." She rubbed his sleeve. "I'm your fiancee. I'll be by your side." She loved him. She wouldn't make him do this alone.

He gazed at her for a couple seconds, focused and intense. "Tatyana, it'll beȄ"

"I know." She hugged him. It weighed heavily on her that she had never done this, the right thing, look directly into a person's eyes and tell them they'd never see their loved one again, knowing all the while she was responsible. Today, she would, because once again, she was responsible. Nikky's men died because of her.

"And you'd do it?" He folded her into him.

"Of course." For him, she'd do anything.

"Nikolay," Yuri tried again.

"Tatyana and I have to take care of our family." Our family. She liked how that sounded.

"We'll see Grandfather after we're done. He'll understand."

The two women hugged fiercely, tears streaming down their cheeks, off their chins.

Tatyana cried as heartily with this sixth woman, Duscha, Ivan's widow, as she had with the others. Her grief seemed endless.

Nik blinked and tried to control his emotions. Pavel and Boris had already left the cozy living room, unable to keep their sorrow in check. Loved ones needed the assurance of strength, Grandfather always said, so they could grieve but not worry. It was the toughest part of the job.