“We got jumped on our way to my place,” Kon filled in smoothly. “Your husband here pretty much saved my life, and of course, I had to repay him with a drink.”
“Or ten,” she muttered, but she was beginning to soften under Konstantin’s patented charm. “It would have been nice to know where you were going at least.” She whirled around to glare at me. “I barely slept all night.”
“My fault again,” my uncle said. “Although not entirely. I didn’t know he was married until I dragged him off to help with my little problem.”
“It was a secret to everyone,” she said wryly. His exuberant congratulations caught her off guard, and she sighed. “Might as well come in.”
As she herded us through the gate, I gave Kon a warning glance, and he mimed zipping his lips shut. Not a word about what we were up to or why. We’d have to stick with the mugging story.
“I thought the streets were safe here,” she said, tutting as she made ice packs for both of us. “Did you cancel the credit cards before you started drinking?”
“Oh, Rurik put the fear of God into them long before they had our wallets,” Kon said.
She perused our faces and narrowed her eyes. “But not before they beat the tar out of you.”
“These little scratches?” I said before that Kon could get in too deep. “Really, Clem, it was over in a few seconds.”
“And if I knew the beautiful woman at his side was his wife, I would have insisted you join us,” Kon said, beaming at her as she slapped the ice pack into his hand. “Knowing this old dog, though, I just assumed you’d be better off without him and our boring errand.”
I glared hard at him. Now I had to come up with a boring errand. “Something to do with one of our Russian holdings. Needed another family member’s signature…”
“Hmm,” she said, yanking out a frying pan from the cupboard. “An emergency nighttime signature. Lucky you were here in Tokyo.”
“Well, international business never sleeps,” he said with a shrug. “And I haven’t seen him in so long… damn, Rurik, how did you snag such a gorgeous woman, and with brains, too. She doesn’t miss a beat.”
He was going to be the death of me, or the death of Clem’s shaky faith in me. She was clearly still skeptical, buthis compliment broke through enough to wring out a reluctant smile. I hurried to her side and took the pan. “Sorry, he’s kind of the black sheep in my family. We take turns looking out for him.”
Not exactly a lie, and certainly not as obvious as what he was spouting. Clem was every bit as smart as his over-the-top compliments, and she wasn’t buying any of his nonsense.
“You wound me,” Kon said, overhearing my harried explanation.
“Not enough to make you leave,” I grumbled.
“You should at least give me breakfast after nearly getting me killed,” he said, winking at Clem.
“I thought he saved your life,” she countered, but her smile was growing. No one could resist Kon for long. “Might as well stay if Rurik’s cooking.”
“Of course he is,” Kon answered.
Of course I was. I wasn’t letting my wife make me eggs after I kept her up all night with worry. I squeezed her hand as she sat down beside him, and he instantly started asking her questions about how we met.
“He knows,” I assured her, so she didn’t have to launch into our cover story on top of tossing and turning all night.
As bad as I felt about being the cause of her lack of sleep, it still made my chest swell that she was concerned about me. Enough to be angry, enough to stay awake. And while I had told Kon about the origins of our relationship, I also told him it was very real. Which was why irritation bubbled up in me when all she could talk about was the Koboyashi deal when he asked her about our marriage.
Not a word about her feelings, but what did I expect? She certainly wouldn’t open up to a near stranger, even if he was already regaling her with wild stories of our youth in Moscow.
“I bet you didn’t know your staid executive husband is a crack shot?” he asked, shoveling in the scrambled eggs I slid onto his plate.
“Do you mean with a gun?” she asked.
“Skeet shooting,” I said, glaring at Kon to no avail. “Clay targets.”
“No,” she said slowly, eyeing me with her fork halfway to her mouth. “He never brought it up.”
“He can hit just about anything. If you’re in his sights, you’re going down,” Kon said, laughing. “Just ask Gavril about that.”
“He went with me to practice once,” I said.