I still can’t believe it.
My emotions soar and dip between happiness that makes my heart so full I fear I’m going to explode, and disappointment that I can’t share my experience with Mel. She would love Leo … once she got over the fact that he’s at war with Xander. And that he’s a Russian bratva boss. And that he kidnapped me en route from Montenegro to Chicago.
So much has happened in the short space of time since I met Leo that I’m going to need a month alone with my sister to fill her in on all the gossip. At least a month.
But as soon as she meets Lucky and Marvel, and I tell her about the refuge, she’ll understand that Leonid Ivanov is the man of my dreams.
We are going to be married at the house.
Next week.
Because the sooner we’re husband and wife, the sooner I can tell my family. This is when my mood plummets, each time I try to predict my father’s reaction.
I’m currently torn between him hugging me tightly and whispering into my ear that all he ever wanted was for me to be happy, closely followed by him agreeing to forge an alliance with the Ivanov mob. Or—and this is the image that brings me out in a cold sweat and anxiety hives around my neck—he’ll draw a revolver from his pocket and shoot Leo straight through the heart.
This is why I need Mel. She would convince me that our father wouldn’t shoot my husband first and then ask me if I’m happy after.
He wouldn’t.
I time my meals for when I’m in full-on soaring-like-a-bird mode. In those moments, my appetite is so great I could out-eat Leo. This morning, I almost polished off an entire loaf of homemade bread spread thickly with butter and marmalade. But when I picture Leo lying in a pool of blood with my father’s bullet lodged in his chest, I feel so nauseous, the only thing I can stomach is a can of soda.
Victoria arranged for me to meet with a wedding planner the day after Leonid gave me their grandmama’s ring. The woman was tall, elegant, graceful, dark hair swept into an Audrey-Hepburn-worthy chignon. She casually dropped exorbitant sums of money that her previous clients had spent on weddings into the conversation and promised that she would do her utmost to find me a designer wedding gown at short notice.
I smiled and nodded in all the right places.
Then the instant the door closed behind her, I gathered up all the samples and brochures that she’d left behind for me to read and tossed them into the trash can.
Flashy weddings are for flashy people.
They’re not for me.
A wedding is a celebration of two people falling in love and vowing to spend the rest of their lives together. For better, for worse. For richer, for poorer. To love and to cherish. Leo cherishes me; I’d be an idiot not to see it in his eyes every time he looks at me.
But he hasn’t said it yet. He hasn’t told me that he loves me, and these missing words feel like a crushing weight pressing down on my chest.
I don’t know why they’re so important. Actions speak louder than words, right? The puppy. The refuge. His grandmother’s ring. But Leo putting the refuge in my name is niggling away at me. I heard Victoria when she said that Leo wants me to be happy, but I didn’t pay enough attention to what she wasn’t saying.
People like Leo and Victoria and my father never do anything unless it benefits them in some way. I only wish I knew what Leo stands to gain from opening a women’s refuge in the city.
I try to shove this thought to the back of my mind and smother it beneath a mountain of wedding preparations. It feels surreal to be planning my own wedding, when I spent the last month in Montenegro dreading my imminent nuptials, but Leo has warned me that he’ll marry me in an oversized T-shirt in the piano room if I don’t get things sorted.
And I believe him.
I find the perfect setting in the Japanese garden behind the house. It will look so romantic strewn with rose petals, and I liaise with the gardener about laying out a rose-petal path from the house to the pagoda.
Back in the house, I swallow my embarrassment and ask Olga if she knows a caterer who will prepare a small banquet for us and our minimal number of guests. Her mouth pinches into a button-hole shape. She doesn’t look me in the eye—perhaps because she saw her boss going down on me on top of the piano—when she says, “I prepare the food in this house. You think I don’t know how to make a banquet?”
I don’t dare argue with her. Olga in a foul mood could make Leonid resemble an angel in a white robe with a halo hovering above his head.
I spend hours sitting at the breakfast island in the kitchen, the dogs at my feet, and Leo’s tablet in front of me, scrolling through endless websites for a wedding gown. I haven’t seen anything I like, or at least I haven’t seen anything that I want to wear, and I’m panicking because I’m running out of time.
“At this rate, it might have to be the oversized T-shirt.” I peer down at Lucky who is balancing her front paws on Marvel’s chest so that she can get closer to me. “Maybe we could get matching T-shirts, huh? What do you think?”
“Are you asking me?”
I didn’t hear Tamara sneaking up behind me—I swear the woman flies in on an invisible broomstick—and I reflexively lock the tablet and turn it over so that she can’t see what I was doing.
“I was talking to the dogs.” I go to stand up, but she stops me by grabbing hold of my left hand. I try to wrench it free, but her grip is like metal.
“You’re wearing Grandmama’s ring.” She says this as though she has claimed Leo’s family for herself, and a jolt of something icy stabs at my heart.
“You knew about the ring?”
“Of course.” She releases my hand, climbs onto the next stool, and gestures for me to sit. “It was Elena’s before you came along.”
Elena?
“W-who’s Elena?” I feel numb. The question formed on my lips before I could stop myself. I don’t want to know who Elena is.
But it’s obvious from the casual smile on Tamara’s face that she can’t wait to tell me. “Elena was the pakhan’s fiancée. I’m not surprised that he hasn’t mentioned her. Everyone loved Elena.”
“I…” I swallow.
Leo didn’t think to mention that he was engaged to be married to someone else. Neither did his sister. It shouldn’t matter—it was before he met me—but the twisting, sickly feeling in my gut is telling me that this is important.
This is a big fucking deal.
This isn’t like my family arranging my marriage to Seamus. Leo loved another woman enough to propose to her. She probably sat right here with the sunlight glinting off the diamond on her finger, arranging her high-profile wedding to the man I love, and I never knew. I thought I was the first.
No, it isn’t even not being the first woman that Leo proposed to that’s eating away at me. I thought—no, I convinced myself—that he was somehow broken before we met. That he was married to the family business and that I’d woken up something inside him that, until now, had remained dormant.
I feel such an idiot, that my voice trembles when I ask, “What happened to Elena?”
Like Tamara might tell me that she changed her mind and went backpacking around Asia, or she got swallowed up by an earthquake, or she fell off the side of a mountain and her body was never found. Each hopeful scenario more brutal than the last.
“She left the pakhan when she discovered that he was cheating on her.”
And there it is, the bombshell that shatters my heart into a million tiny, bloody shards.
“I’m sure he learned his lesson though, and it won’t happen again.”
She’s still talking. Why is she still fucking talking? I look around for something to shove so far down her throat that they’ll have to pick the pieces out of her butthole when they find her. But a banana isn’t going to do the trick, and I don’t know where Olga keeps the rolling pin.
I climb off the stool, narrowly missing Lucky’s front paw with my foot, and bend down to pick her up when she lets out a heart-wrenching whine.
“I’m sorry, baby.” I nuzzle her face and kiss the top of her head. “I won’t hurt you.”
Whatever I’m feeling right now is nothing compared to how Marvel and Lucky must’ve felt when they were mistreated and left to die by the humans they trusted. It’s nothing compared to what Hope and the other women I met in the refuge experienced at the hands of their abusers.
I’m not Elena. Leo would never cheat on me; I feel it deep inside my chest whenever I’m with him. He isn’t an actor. No one could fake the way he is with me. It’s unfair for me to accept Tamara’s word that this is what happened without giving him the opportunity to explain.
That’s what I’ll do. I’ll try to suppress the kernel of simmering disquiet settling in the pit of my stomach until I’ve spoken to Leo. There are only two people who really know what happened between him and Elena, and one of them will be sharing his bed with me tonight.
“We meet at last.”
I don’t recognize the voice, or the face of the man it belongs to.
He’s younger than Leo. He has the same dark hair and brown eyes as Leo and Victoria, but that’s where the similarities end. This man’s smile doesn’t reach his eyes. His gaze slides away from me as he crosses the room and opens the refrigerator door, but I notice the way it lingers briefly on Tamara before snapping to the bottle of beer in his hand.
“I’m Andrej. I thought I’d come and introduce myself as my brother seems to have forgotten his manners.” He leans lazily against the counter and stares at me. “Leonid has probably told you nothing about me.”
He cranks the lid off the bottle with his back teeth, and guzzles beer, his eyes on me the entire time.
I don’t know why, but I have the overwhelming urge to get the dogs as far away from him as possible. Lucky nestles in my arms. Marvel’s ears are pressed flat against his head as he leans against me, his eyes on the unexpected visitor.
“Another mutt?” The question isn’t aimed at anyone in particular. “My brother’s a sucker for a stray it seems.”
Heat rushes to my face, but I force myself to maintain eye contact. I sense the naughty child in Andrej waiting for his parents to turn their backs before he causes mischief and blames it on his siblings. Only now, the mischief has way higher stakes.
“We were just talking about Elena,” Tamara says.
That’s what she’s leading with? I’m starting to wonder if this was planned, an unspoken agreement to gang up on me and shatter my illusions of my fiancé while there’s still time to call the wedding off.
“Ah, Elena.” Andrej’s gaze rakes my body, drawing more heat to my face. “She was a stunner.”
Okay, so now I know they’re deliberately being obnoxious, or in Tamara’s case, more obnoxious than usual.
“I’d have taken a shot at her myself given half a chance.” Andrej raises the bottle in a mock toast to himself and his missed chances with his brother’s ex.
“One brother was enough.” There’s unmistakable amusement in Tamara’s voice.
“Always my fucking luck.” Andrej’s mouth twists into a sly smile aimed my way. “Unless you fancy trying out the more athletic brother.” At my silence, he shrugs like it’s no biggie. “No? You don’t know what you’re missing.”
“I think I do.” I wish I sounded stronger, more confident, but this is Leo’s brother, and Andrej is right about one thing: I don’t know anything about him. Leo might be oblivious to his younger brother’s charm, or lack of.
His eyes grow wide when he spots the ring on my finger. “Grandmama told me that she’d given Leonid her ring, but I didn’t believe her.”
“Why not?” I don’t like where this is going, but like a fly caught in a spider’s web, I’m stuck here waiting for the spider to claim his meal. “It was promised to Leo.”
His eyebrows lower, and his face darkens like he just stepped back into the shadows. “It was promised to Leo’s future wife. Not to an enemy printzessa.”
I set my shoulders back and jut my chin, just like Daniel taught me when we were kids. “You’ve been misinformed. I’m not the enemy.”
“Oh, but that’s where you’re wrong.” He pushes himself off the counter and comes closer.
A growl emits from somewhere deep inside Marvel, and I don’t stop him.
“Your sister is married to the enemy, and therefore that places you on the opposite side of the board.”
I shake my head. “This war has nothing to do with me. I haven’t even seen my family since I came back from Montenegro.”
“Oh, but you’re the crucial piece in this never-ending game, printzessa.”
His use of Leo’s pet name for me makes my flesh crawl. “If you’ll excuse me, the dogs need some exercise.” I turn to leave, but he isn’t finished, and I wish I’d taken the dogs out when Tamara first walked in.
“Let me enlighten you, Gianna. My brother is marrying you because it’s part of the trap to snare your precious brother-in-law. The ring and the refuge. Sounds like the title of a fantasy novel, don’t you think?”
“You’re lying.”
Marvel must sense the panic coursing through my veins. He prowls towards Andrej, ears still back, his tail between his legs.
Andrej spreads his arms wide and sways in front of the dog, top lip curled away from his gums, snarling like a feral animal. “Come on then, Marvel. Try taking me on and see what happens.”
“Stop!” I grab Marvel’s collar and pull him towards the door, still holding Lucky in my arms. I’m almost there when Ivana appears in her customary black leather.
“Why are you running away, printzessa?” Andrej’s voice follows me as I push past Ivana in the doorway. Marvel is still straining to get back to the man in the kitchen and protect me. “We were just getting acquainted.”
“What’s going on?” Ivana grabs my arm, but the expression on my face must change her mind, because she drops it almost immediately.
“Ask him.”
I keep walking, but not before I hear her say, “What the fuck, Andrej. Why don’t you fucking grow up?”
I spend the rest of the afternoon in the garden with the dogs, waiting for Leo to come home. I try to focus on Marvel and Lucky, but it’s hard with my thoughts whirling around inside my head.
Elena was Leo’s fiancée.
Leo cheated on Elena while she was wearing the same ring that’s on my finger.
The wedding is part of the plan to trap Xander.
I want Leo to come home and clarify that it isn’t how it sounds. Because Tamara might have the hots for my fiancé, and Andrejmight be the demon younger brother, but when I remind myself that Leo had me drugged and abducted from an airplane, they all start to add up to a shit-show that I want no part of.
What if he comes home and denies cheating on his first fiancé?
I know I should believe him over Tamara. I can’t imagine life without Leo, and when he asked me to trust him, I did so willingly. I know that what I should do is forget about the conversation in the kitchen and think about the wedding gown that I haven’t yet found, but it’s hard with Andrej’s voice playing on repeat inside my head.
My brother is marrying you because it’s part of the trap to snare your precious brother-in-law.
What would Mel do? I’ve hardly spent any time with her since she married Xander, but she’s still my big sister. She knows how it feels to be so in love that it consumes every waking moment. Her advice would be to quit over-thinking it and speak to Leo.
The exact opposite of what she did when she was pregnant with Lucian.
Mel couldn’t bring herself to speak to Xander about the pregnancy. Then, before she could change her mind, our father and Xander’s father convinced her that it was best if she went away to have the baby. To give Xander a chance to focus on being the new head of his family. The new don. No distractions.
So, she went to Montenegro and kept his child a secret from him for six years, bottling up her own pain at the same time.
I don’t think I could do that to Leo.
But what if he has been lying to me all along?
Ugh! The questions in my head are deafening.
So, when Sergei approaches me with a travel cup filled with coffee, I accept the distraction gratefully. “You looked like you could do with some refreshments.”
I sip the scalding coffee and grimace. This won’t help quell the anxiety tearing through my body, but it might help to clear my head. “Is it that obvious?”
He smiles. I haven’t spent much time with Sergei, but looking at him closely, I realize that he has kind eyes. His face is round even though he carries no surplus weight, the kind of face some kids might associate with the grandpa in a story book if he grew a white beard and moustache.
“You normally smile when you’re out here with the dogs. Today—” he shrugs “—something is missing.”
I swallow another mouthful of coffee. I’m not so naïve that I believe I can discuss Leo’s brother with one of his men. “When will Leonid be home?”
He turns his face towards the sky that’s already showing hints of pink and lilac as the sun melts into the horizon. “Late. He’s at the casino.”
This sends another surge of panic through me. What does he do at the casino? Does he mingle with the guests or watch them from the comfort of a glass-walled office? Is he a gambler? A slot machine fanatic? Or is poker his game? I know so little about him, but I’m prepared to marry him without my family’s blessing.
Am I being played for a fool or is it real?
“He did ask me to give you this though.” Sergei slides a phone from his pocket and hands it to me.
My phone.
I haven’t seen it since I boarded the flight back to Chicago.
I take it from him and am surprised at how cold and heavy it feels in the palm of my hand, as if my time in this house has stripped me of all my memories of everyday life. This device was my connection to the rest of the world, but living without it has turned it into forbidden fruit.
“He said to tell you to call your sister.” Sergei keeps his face tilted upward as though soaking up the remains of the day.
“Mel? I can call Mel?” I don’t even try to hide the excitement in my voice. I hand Sergei the cup of coffee and unlock my phone.
“I have to stick around though. You understand.”
“Yes.”
I don’t even care that he’s been instructed to listen to my conversation. He’ll probably report back to Leo, but he won’t hear anything incriminating. I’m not exactly going to ask her to come and get me. I just want to talk to her about Leo and the wedding and Lucky.
My fingers are trembling so violently that it takes me three attempts to locate Mel’s number in my contacts app. When I hit the green button, I pray that she’ll pick up—it would be too cruel to be given this opportunity only for Mel to be too busy to answer.
My heart is thumping like crazy. Pick up, Mel. Please pick up.
There’s a click, and then Mel’s voice is saying, “Oh my fucking God, Gianna, you’re alive. Where the fuck are you? Tell me now, and I’ll come and get you.”
Tears sting my eyes. “I’m okay, Mel. Don’t worry about me. I’m safe.”
“Bullshit, Gi. You disappear off the face of the fucking earth and then call me up to tell me you’re safe?”
“Mel, listen to me. I don’t have long.” I raise my eyes to Sergei, who is discreetly looking the other way.
“Why? Where are you?” Her voice is shrill, and I feel a surge of love for my sister who probably hasn’t slept since I was abducted. “Tell me the name of the fucker who’s holding you and I’ll kill them myself.”
I can’t help smiling. I’ve missed my sister.
I’ve missed her so much that I don’t pay attention to the sounds in the background of the call until I hear a gunshot and realize that it isn’t at Mel’s end.
It’s right here in Leo’s backyard.
What happens next is a blur. Sergei grabs my hand. We run, not in the direction of the woods, but back towards the house. A bullet whistles past my head. Something hot and wet splatters my face, and still, we keep running, and I’ve no idea what’s going on, but I do know that everything feels wrong.
More gunfire.
A voice yells at us to stop right there. I look around and, through blurry eyes, find Ivana running in our direction with her gun aimed directly at us.
