Rennell’s gaze was ice-cold as he met Kaskov’s. “Absolutely. No one left at all. If I choose to do it. And I’ll be glad to help out occasionally if Nikolai decides he needs me. But that’s not why I’m here, as Tanner must have told you.”

“Pity.”

“You might not say that when it’s over.” He began to help Nikolai serve the coffee. “It will depend on your point of view, and that’s what I’m here to find out.”

“And you will,” Kaskov said as he turned to Lara, who had dropped into a chair in front of the fire. “But I believe I’d better deal with Lara first. She’s on edge and Tanner is becoming very protective. Not that I object—that’s one of the reasons why I involved him.” He dropped down in the chair next to her. “But I admit I haven’t given you the courtesy you deserve, so let me rectify that.”

“I don’t give a damn about courtesy. I want information about why you decided to hire Tanner to move Maria and me around like pieces in a chess set.” She paused. “And I want to know what you intend to do about us going forward.”

“I imagine that you’re more interested in the future than the past,” he said. “However, I still feel bound to explain why I put you through that very boring dinner tonight. I knew you were eager to cut to the chase.” He smiled. “But I’d been looking forward to having my own way in this, and I was selfish enough to ignore what you wanted.”

“Why does that not surprise me?” Tanner asked caustically.

“It shouldn’t,” Kaskov said. “I never pretend to be anything but what I am.” He turned back to Lara. “I wanted to see you how you should be seen. I wasn’t going to give that up after all the trouble I’d gone through to arrange it. You walked into that room tonight in that gown and it was almost enough. But not quite. So I pushed it a little more and made you play.” He smiled. “And that was perfect. I could see you at a concert hall playing with all that fire and passion. It really annoyed me when I’d drop in at Anton’s and see you sitting there in jeans pounding on that piano.”

She frowned. “Clothes don’t make a difference.”

“But a waste of talent does, and once I’d made a decision, I thought that the entire package should be perfect.”

“What decision?” she asked.

“To save you from Volkov and Anton, free all that beauty stored inside you, and get you out of Russia. Of course to do that, I had to adjust my plans to include it on another transaction I was working on.”

“You’re saying you did it out of the goodness of your heart?”