Painted Scars (Perfectly Imperfect, #1)(36)

“And where is your young wife, Petrov?” Tanush asks while nursing his second whiskey.



“My wife is no concern of yours.”

“Too bad. I was so excited about meeting her. To see for myself the girl who managed to nab the big bad Roman Petrov.” He smiles. “The things I heard, hmm . . . I wonder if she even exists.”

I look at the bastard and wonder if I should gut him on the spot.

“The food is here,” Maxim says, quite possibly saving the moron’s life. “Let’s eat, before the meat gets cold.”

Olga rushes forward, setting the big plates in the middle of the table, while Valentina runs around refilling drinks. There is a steak knife beside the wine bottle. I reach for it and move it closer to my plate. Maxim excuses himself and leaves the table, but I don’t pay attention to where he’s going with my gaze focused on Tanush. I have the feeling we’ll be replacing the carpets again after all.




The pills started to kick in some twenty minutes ago, and I’m returning to normal. My head still hurts a little and my throat is sore, but it’s eons better than this afternoon.

“I feel better. You should go downstairs,” I say to Varya who hasn’t left my side since she arrived.

“Roman said I’m to stay here until he’s back, child. I have to message him every twenty minutes with updates or he’ll come up.”

“I’m fine. You have a ton of work to do tonight.”

“If I go downstairs and Roman sees me, he’ll get mad. He’s entertaining two very dangerous men, and he can’t afford to be distracted.”

Varya’s phone rings. She reaches for it, looks at the screen, and tenses.

“It’s Maxim,” she says and takes the call. “What’s wrong?”

She listens for a moment and shakes her head. “Absolutely not. She had a fever the whole

afternoon . . . Alright.” She extends the phone to me. “Maxim wants to talk to you.”

I look at Varya, confused, and take the phone. “Yes?”

“Can you come down?” he asks.

“To the dinner?”

“Not for long, but yes. Please.”

“Okay. I need to shower and change, though.”

“How much time do you need?”

“Thirty minutes. Why?”

“I can’t distract him that long. Can you make it in fifteen?”

“What’s going on, Maxim?”

There is a silence from the other end of the line, and then—

“I think Roman is going to kill Tanush, and we really don’t need that now. I need him to focus on something else.” He cuts the call.

I look at the phone, throw it at Varya’s lap, and run straight to the bathroom.





“You should have seen her, Leonid!” Tanush holds his hands in front of him. “Her hips were this big. I’m going to start manually approving all whores from now on. Can’t offer untried goods to the clients, right?” He hits his leg and laughs like a madman at his stupid joke while his wife cowers on her chair, her face getting redder by the second.

When he comes up for air, Tanush continues, “Maybe that’s why Roman rejected my daughter’s

hand in marriage? I guess I should have offered to let him try the goods first.” He laughs again and turns to me. His face is flustered and his eyes watery.

I stopped counting his drinks after the fifth one, but I don’t need to know how much he’s had to see he’s wasted.

“Your daughter is seventeen,” I say.

“So what? My mother married at fifteen.” He leans too close to my face. “Did you try out the goods before marriage? Tell me, was she good or maybe your cock got blasted along with your leg?”

I’ve had enough for tonight. I take the steak knife from the table, where I intentionally placed it earlier, grab Tanush by the collar of his shirt, and put the knife under his throat. Varya is going to kill me, but I will quite enjoy ending the bastard.

“My husband’s cock works quite well, but thank you for your concern.”

My head snaps up. Nina is standing in the doorway and looking at me with one eyebrow raised.

She’s wearing the short black dress, the one I said she wouldn’t be wearing for this dinner.

“You have a fever. Get back to your room.” I snap.

Tanush tries to wriggle free, so I press the blade more, just a hair’s breadth shy of it breaking the skin.

“I’m fine, honey. Can I join you? I see that you saved me a spot and I’m starving.”

Nina approaches, her heel-clicks on the floor the only sound that can be heard, and stops between me and the empty chair. After leaning forward to place a quick kiss on my cheek, she sits down.

“You must be Mr. Tanush. I’ve heard you own the biggest casino in the city. Maybe Roman can

bring me one day and you could show us around, I’ve never been to a casino.” She smiles at him sweetly and turns to me. “Honey, would you mind removing the knife? I’m trying to have a

conversation here.”

Tanush stares at her for a moment, then bursts out laughing. I slowly lower the knife, giving Dimitri a discreet signal to keep his gun ready, and let go of Tanush’s shirt. He’s still laughing. Crazy Albanians.