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Nazyr looks right at me, his eyes filled with rage he’s soon going to be unable to contain. Out of all my brothers, I think Nazyr is the most protective of me. “Nothing yet, but give me some time, and I’ll know everything about this sorry son of a bitch.”
Ruslan looks right at me, then at the group of people staring at us, wondering how we’re going to handle the situation we’re dealing with. He comes a bit closer and speaks directly into my ear. “Where the fuck is Julio?”
I yank my head back and scan the surrounding area, not seeing my father-in-law among the crowd. He and Santos just had a very heated conversation, so could the shooter be one of his men? “I don’t know.”
Danill comes walking up with three more men who work for the Umarova family. “Put him somewhere secure. It’s my sister’s wedding day, and I want her to enjoy her night. We’ll deal with this later.”
“I know a place.” It’s the same place where I killed Lu, so I take a step closer to Danill and whisper in his ear, telling him how to get there and that I have a key to the location at my penthouse at the Dorchester.
“Okay. I’ll get inside and retrieve it. Meanwhile, they’ll get him on the road,” Danill explains, and Ruslan nods.
I sigh heavily as Santos comes up to my side. “Have you seen my father?” He’s asking the same question my brother just did a few moments ago.
“We don’t know, and right now, it doesn’t look good for him,” Ruslan snarls at Santos, and I step in between the two men.
“Keep your cool. You have a fucking audience,” I whisper-yell at Ruslan. My brother’s nostrils are flaring, and he seems to think Santos could be in on this with his father. But it wouldn’t make any sense. Santos needs me alive to keep him safe, so killing me would only put him in a much worse position.
“How well do you know your husband, sister?” Nazyr adds, and I roll my eyes at how incredibly bullheaded my brothers are being. The only one who isn’t saying anything is Lom, and I know he’s trying to calculate the motive behind this.
“I would never do anything to hurt Eset. You have my word on that,” Santos speaks up.
“Is your word as trustworthy as your father’s?” Ruslan asks him, and the tension could be cut with a butter knife right about now. I can hardly believe this is even happening.
“Act like childish boys somewhere else, but don’t you dare do it right now. He’s being taken somewhere secure, and we’ll get every question we have answered in a few hours. Until then, maybe have the rest of our team locate Julio because if he is missing, then it looks extremely suspicious,” I tell them, and after a few moments, my brothers agree.
The fact of the matter is we’re Umarovas. We have as many enemies as we do allies, and someone could’ve used my wedding as a perfect opportunity to make a spectacle out of killing me. That’s what I believe this was, all for show.
“Eset is right. We’ll have our answers soon enough. Until then, have a good time,” Lom speaks up in my defense, and finally, Ruslan and Nazyr begin to calm down a bit. I know in the back of their minds that they want to know who did this and why, but it won’t hurt waiting for a few hours. I know our men are likely going to beat the perpetrator over and over again, making what we need to do a lot faster, hopefully.
I do find it ironic that none of our allies have come up to offer a helping hand. Maybe they will at some time, or maybe they know we can handle any threat brought to our attention on our own.
My family is made of beasts.
We’re the fucking Umarovas, and no one is going to intimidate us.
“I want more guards on all of us for the time being. We might get answers tonight, but it’s very possible this man is going to stall for as long as he can,” Ruslan states.
“He’s right. We can’t be too careful,” Lom adds.
“I think more security would be best for the foreseeable future,” my husband adds in, and finally, my brothers don’t have any smart-assed retorts to say. Everyone goes their separate ways, and we act like this didn’t just happen.
Tonight we should be celebrating. We can worry about this mess later.
Fuck, I need a drink.
Chapter Fifteen
Santos
Eset tried to keep her cool as best as she could, but it was no surprise that she was shaken up right after it happened. It’s now three hours later, and we’re eating dinner with our guests in the Wohl Room. It’s in the most historic part of the building and can house every single one of our guests, so it made sense that we’d have our reception here. Paintings from the Venetian Renaissance fill the room as we dig into our delicious food.
As I take a bite, I notice my wife staring off at a painting on the wall. “Is it something you like?”
Eset immediately turns to look at me. “Love, actually. Out of all the rooms in the National Gallery, this has to be my favorite. I’ve already found paintings by Veronese, Tintoretto, Bassano, and Bordone. I’m so grateful that we were able to have our wedding here. It’s something I’ll certainly remember for years to come.” Eset seems happy for a moment, and then a sense of seriousness washes over her. I know she’s thinking about the assassination attempt. How couldn’t she be?
I grab her hand that’s lying on her leg and give it a squeeze. “Don’t you worry about anything right now. We have it covered, and we’re going to handle it after we leave if you want to tonight.” I don’t want to make any assumptions. Maybe Eset wants to deal with it in the morning.
She sucks in a deep breath and licks her lips. “It’s been a long day, and while I want to deal with it as soon as possible, I think it would be best for me to go there with a clear head on my shoulders. Right now, I’m clouded with so much anger and stress that I don’t think I’d be able to do my best work.”
