Page 87 of The Beauty Who Loved Him

“Didn’t hear anything about a body.”

“No?”

Kiril shook his head. “Nope. Just a lot of fucking money.”

Huh.

“How much money?” Vera asked, honestly curious.

“All I know is that when I got a call from a buddy in town warning me about the blockade on the road to Dubna this morning, I was told not to ask questions. Because nobody was offering any answers.”

“Where was the money? In the car?”

Again, the kid shook his head.

“Nah,” he said, lifting one hand from the steering wheel to point his index finger downward. “They found it down in the water.”

Vera didn’t have anything to say to that because nothing Kiril said made a whole lot of sense. Besides, in less than twenty minutes, she’d be exactly where she wanted to be again, with Vas. And what did a burned bridge or car, and mysterious money in the river, have anything to do with that?

Very little, likely.

She hoped.

*

Vera did not expect to find Vaslav waiting on the front steps when Kiril parked the SUV at the bottom. It was the soft smile that tugged at the better side, better meaning it showed more emotion than its scarred counterpart, of Vaslav’s lips that had her heart picking up the pace of its beats at the very sight of him.

She barely had time to admire the way the Pashkov property looked cloaked in a blanket of white snow before Vaslav distracted her.

Kiril, already stepping out of the vehicle to grab the one bag Vera had packed while Hannah was readying her luggage the night before, didn’t seem offended that she left him to do a job she was more than capable of handling herself.

Vaslav met Vera on the middle steps.

One higher than hers.

She had to look up at him even more from where she stood, and Vaslav didn’t appear to mind the extra height it afforded him what with the way he winked down at her.

“Hannah’s flown out, has she?” Vaslav asked, his blue gaze sweeping over her face.

“Oh, she’s not the friend now?”

“Do you want her to be?”

His easy banter, and lack of a scowl, made her believe he wasn’t suffering too much. She could always tell when one of his eyes squinted, but both were wide open. And locked on her.

“I want a kiss,” she replied. “That’s what I’d really like.”

He reached for her at the same time he replied, “Done deal.”

Vaslav caught the underside of Vera’s jaw in his large hands, keeping her head tilted up for him as he bent down to press three kisses, one after another, against her grinning mouth. When he leaned in for the fourth, she parted her lips and teased him with her tongue.

He kissed the tip of that, too.

“Mira’s made a late lunch,” he told her, still not pulling away. Instead, he dotted soft kisses along her forehead, each one melting her into a puddle of sappy happiness, murmuring, “I’ll meet you inside, hmm? Get out of the cold.”

She didn’t even feel it.

Not with him.