Deryk (Dragon Hearts #2)(32)

“I just called to see how Tanya is.” Izzi was the one to answer him evenly, a little surprised at the aggression in Pyotr’s tone. Admittedly, the last time she saw him, she had told him she was having dinner with Deryk, but she had thought the two of them were still friends.

Pyotr gave her a scathing glance. “I’m surprised you could tear yourself away from your new boyfriend.”

She winced at his accusing tone but knew she probably deserved it. “Deryk isn’t my boyfriend.” He was so much more than that. Her fated mate. The man who had stated without hesitation he wanted to spend the rest of his long life with her at his side.

Pyotr snorted. “You could have fooled me. The man has become your shadow.”

Izzi eyed him quizzically. Pyotr was far from being the affable man she’d been dating for the past two months. Was it because he was jealous of the time she had been spending with Deryk? Or something else?

“Are the two of you going away somewhere, or just having a clear out?” She lightly changed the subject to something less controversial as she saw the several hastily packed boxes on the kitchen floor.

There was something very wrong with this whole scenario. Tanya didn’t look ill and neither did Pyotr, so why were they both at home instead of where they should be? And why the packed boxes?

It was as if the two of them were about to leave St. Petersburg for some time, if not for good.

This whole situation gave Izzi a terrible feeling of unease in the pit of her stomach.

“But don’t you see, this is perfect.” Tanya ignored Izzi and answered her brother instead. “We failed last night, but now we have her. Think, Pyotr,” she bit out impatiently as he continued to glare at Izzi. “She is now our safe passage out of St. Petersburg.”

He shook his head. “I keep telling you I’m not leaving until those bastards pay for what they did.”

“But they will pay.” Tanya lightly squeezed her brother’s arm. “We have the leverage now to achieve exactly what we set out to do.” She gave a triumphant glance in Izzi’s direction.

That unease in Izzi’s stomach turned acidic as she realized she was the leverage Tanya was talking about.

But leverage for what and against whom?

It couldn’t be Deryk. He might be arrogant and abrasive, but he hadn’t been in St. Petersburg long enough to have earned the rancor of both brother and sister.

Besides, Tanya and Pyotr had both implied more than one person had to pay for something that had been done to them.

Tanya’s mention of the two of them having failed to take that revenge the previous night was pretty telling, because last night, Vaughn had almost been killed by what Deryk believed were dragon hunters.

Were Tanya and Pyotr those dragon hunters?

If so, which of the dragons was to be their next target after they had failed to kill Vaughn?

“Deryk will come for me,” Izzi told them with absolute certainty. She might not have agreed to go through with their mating yet, but she knew Deryk had no doubt. She was his. His woman. His mate.

“But he will not come alone.” Tanya gave a smile that, to Izzi, went way beyond reckless and bordered almost on madness.

Why had she never seen any of this in the other woman before now? “Deryk’s brothers—”

“The Romanovs will come too,” Tanya stated with certainty.

Izzi’s frown was pained. “Are the two of you responsible for the attack on Vaughn last night?”

“Of course,” Pyotr confirmed without regret.

“The youngest Romanov was so easy to seduce and lull into a false sense of well-being,” Tanya added contemptuously. “He was even whistling softly to himself as we followed him on his way to meet with me.”

Izzi frowned at Pyotr. “You tried to decapitate Vaughn.” She knew it couldn’t have been Tanya who had wielded the knife or sword that had been used, because she had seen Tanya later that evening, and there had been no blood on the other woman’s clothing.

“And failed.” Tanya gave her brother a reproving frown. “Next time, I will be the one to make the death strike.”

And Izzi had almost come home with this woman the night before! “Why do you hate the Romanov brothers so much?”

“Because they are unnatural,” Pyotr scorned. “An abomination on the earth. Nothing but animals. Dragons!” His hands clenched at his sides.

“They are simply wealthy Russian citizens.” Izzi tried to brush off the accusation, her thoughts racing as to how Pyotr could possibly have discovered the truth about the Romanov brothers. Oh God, please let it not be because of something she had said or done—

“They’re all dragons,” Pyotr insisted vehemently. “And murderous bastards!”

Izzi remembered being shocked by Deryk’s comment about not hesitating to kill if the situation warranted it. Did the Romanov brothers live by the same code? And if so, who was the someone they might have killed who was close to the Petrovs?

Or someones…

“Your parents.” She spoke the words out loud before she had time to stop herself, knowing by the fury that now darkened Pyotr’s handsome face that her guess had been correct. Pyotr had never said how his parents died, only stated that they were dead. “How did your parents die?”

“The authorities claimed they were attacked by wolves, but Tanya and I know exactly who it was. The Romanov dragons killed them.” Spittle sprayed from Pyotr’s mouth in his vehemence and hatred against the dragons.