Page 96 of The Beauty Who Loved Him

The other man shrugged.

Some things didn’t need to be said in the presence of a woman, and that was certainly one of them. “I think Vera will like having us here for a bit,” Claire put in with a wink.

“Me, too.”

Demyan pointed at his wife, asking, “I’m helping her find a seat, and then taking your spot here, yes?”

Vaslav nodded at the arriving SUV slowing for the turn at the gates. “Right, I just have to greet the other two. There’s a place for your coats and things in the lobby, Claire. I’ll be in shortly.”

His soon-to-be in-laws, a funny concept to Vaslav considering his only other in-law had been murdered by his hand, headed up the few stone steps to the front door as the SUV came to a rolling stop directly in front of the church.

Hannah popped out of the passenger side of the vehicle, barely paying the slushy snow under her pale-yellow leather pumps any attention while Demyan and Claire stepped inside the church.

He heard Claire read out loud the plaque, written in both English and Russian, embedded under each brass door knocker before the door swung shut.

“The Beauty’s Chapel - Any and All Welcome.”

Even the devil needed a place to pray.

“The extra she paid for the matching cloak was not worth it,” Hannah muttered to Vaslav and passed him by on the steps, shivering as she raced to catch up with Vera’s parents. The billowing, fur-trimmed silk cloak, yellow like the floor-length soft yellow gown she held high from the wet ground, fluttered behind her, and did little to protect against the chill.

Vaslav laughed under his breath as Hannah quickly slipped beyond the doors. Turning around, he came face to face, so to speak, with the man sitting behind the driver’s wheel of the SUV. Igor had rolled down the passenger side window so the two could see one another, and apparently speak.

Which would be the first time the man had talked to Vaslav in days. Well, not minding business, of course. Anything else, though, Igor shut down.

His oldest friend, even if he wouldn’t be able to say that forever, nodded upward at the church, leaning over the steering wheel a bit in his fitted, three-piece tux. “You know, I’ve never actually been inside it.”

Vaslav, either.

“It’s a good spot for today.”

Because if Irina was in heaven, and Vaslav had to get through God to talk to her, then so be it. Had funding the cost of building the church that was practically a World Wonder in itself and donating the land and deed not been a good enough price for whatever, or whoever, God was?

For love, there wasn’t a price Vaslav wouldn’t pay.

The quiet murmur from inside the back of the SUV drew Igor’s gaze over his shoulder. He rolled his eyes back to Vaslav, saying, “Someone just reminded me we have a wedding to get to.”

He smirked at Vera’s polite prodding.

Frankly, he’d been trying to keep his mind off the fact that she was so close, and yet, he couldn't see her. Let alone touch her. From the very second Igor pulled up, Vaslav was supposed to help Hannah inside, but his old friend distracted him.

“She could roll down the window.”

“Nope.”

That time, Vera spoke loud enough for Vaslav to hear.

He chuckled darkly, shaking his head.

“You good?” Igor asked. “It’s freezing.”

“Are you?” he asked back.

That was the important question.

Because Vaslav’s stance on many things, including Kiril and his recent legal issues that had not yet been resolved, hadn’t changed. The thing about people? Everybody had a line.

Igor shrugged, but his agreement came off weak all the same. “Yeah, I guess, Vas.”