Page 98 of Possessive Mafia Bodyguard

The event is due to start in four hours.

Four hours!

Leonid isn’t here. I haven’t seen Andrej in days because he has been spending time with Cartier and their baby son, Maxim. Gianna isn’t even here adding the finishing touches to the decorations because she always knows what she wants.

“Are you?” Ivana smiles as she opens the door and enters the corridor first, her gun aimed at chest height.

I follow her, the only sound breaking the silence my blood gushing in my ears.

There is only one reason why Leonid would’ve left his resort deserted, and that is if Gianna and the children had been threatened. But we would’ve been the first to know about it.

Unless…

I touch Ivana’s arm to get her attention. She halts and turns dark eyes my way.

“This isn’t about Leonid,” I whisper.

I sensed it when we arrived, the way nothing added up, but I didn’t connect the dots because this event means a lot to Gianna and Leonid. They’re promoting the women’s refuge, celebrating the wins so far, and generating interest for a second refuge to be built in the city in a nineteenth century property that recently came on the market.

But now it’s all slotting into place.

“This is about me and you.”

The Petrov family has been biding their time, lulling us into a false sense of security before they made their move. I’m not afraid to face them—we beat them once before—but I wish I’d gotten to speak to Finn before shit went down, just so that I could tell him I love him.

I see no fear in Ivana’s eyes either. Only resignation.

“Together?” she says.

I smile. “Always.”

Ivana doesn’t warn me to wait while she checks out the ballroom. She covers me while I kick open the door and burst into the room to find it empty apart from a familiar face standing underneath a simple white arch in the middle of the vast space.

Finn.

I linger in the doorway, gun aimed at his chest, my heart thudding so heavily I can’t fill my lungs.

He smiles, and his beautiful face lights up, his dimples sending ripples of anticipation through my body. He’s wearing a gray suit and pink shirt, my favorite colors on him, not that I’ve ever told him this, and he has never looked more handsome.

“I was starting to think you weren’t coming,” he says.

“The gala event…” My brain is still a few beats behind, and I don’t even catch on when Ivana sneaks up behind me and links her arm with mine. “What are you…”

“Your man is waiting for you, Tamara. Let’s go.”

I pocket my gun and walk with her towards the white archway, leaning on her because my legs are trembling. “You knew?” I ask her without taking my eyes off Finn.

“Yes. Finn asked me to help, and how could I refuse?”

“By saying no,” I suggest.

“No chance.” We stop in front of Finn, and Ivana takes my hand in hers. “Listen to your heart,” she says before stepping aside and leaving me alone with him.

Connor appears from nowhere and stands beside my sister, grinning as widely as his brother. For a fleeting moment, I hope that he and my sister will find happiness together. Then, Katya peeks out from behind the arch with an apologetic smile on her face, and she stands in front of them, completing the picture of joy and contentment.

But then Finn takes my hand, and I know where this is going.

I pull my hand from his and shake my head, panic taking over the way it always does whenever Finn tries to talk about the future.