by Anna Antonia
“Cleanly?”
“Clean enough.”
I couldn’t deny the spark of concern. My entire life had been built on the foundation that no one could ever find out about my connection with Grigor. It had been pounded in me since I was a child. How could a leak have occurred?
Now I knew the bitter truth, but back then I was still innocent to the treachery in my own circle.
My father lifted up his arm and checked the time. “We only have a few minutes left.”
The visit was shaping up to be the oddest and shortest one yet.
“Is there anything you’ve ever wanted to ask me? Now is the time.”
I looked at the man who sired me, one who sent me away to never speak his name in any of our houses, only to find my mind drew a blank.
Time slipped away and then it was gone.
“Very well. There is something I want you to know. I always loved your mother. Always. Even now. It’s my fault she’s gone. I’m sorry. So…ah…so very sorry you had to grow up without her.”
Pain. I didn’t want to think about my poor mother. I didn’t want to hear my father claim responsibility. More than that, I didn’t want to think I could one day be saying the same about Risa.
“There’s nothing to apologize for. You couldn’t have controlled what happened.”
One set of words for him and another for me.
“Oh, son. If only I could believe that.”
Grigor didn’t attempt to hide his emotions. I read them. Again with the pain. Greater than before.
I felt faulty. My father was baring his soul and I responded by standing mute. I didn’t like his outpouring of emotion. It unsettled me. I’d spent my entire life following the ghost of his example, the ultimate Ice King, and now it was nothing more than an illusion.
If I wasn’t fashioned into Grigor Konstantinov’s image, then who was I?
He stepped into my shadow, arms wide as they pulled me against him. The strength in them crushed me. It was a sweet pain, stirring all those buried feelings I had as a young boy wishing for a far-away father.
A whisper in my ear “I love you, Damian. Always.” Then he released me, hands sliding down my arms as if reluctant to let me go.
I strangled the unseemly impulse to snatch my father back. Something was happening, something I couldn’t predict and it left me frozen.
Grigor coughed once. He ran his hand across his face, wiping the tears away. “This is goodbye, my son.”
I didn’t like the way that sounded. I took several steps towards him, but he took the same back.
“That’s enough, Damian.” His expression creased. He then drew his shoulders back, facing me with a golden head tilt of regal arrogance.
I should’ve felt comfortable with a return to the familiar. Instead it put me on edge. There was so much unsaid, squirming under a vault of silence. Blindly, I reached for something to say. The words couldn’t come through.
My father erased the silence for the final time.
“There’s one more thing I have to say. It’s about Elaine and Leon. You need to know the final truth—”
Grigor Konstantinov crumpled.
Before I could register the blood seeping out of his head, I was on the ground too. Snow soaked through my clothes.
Strange.
Snow was cold but this was hot…
Risa.
***
My last thoughts were of Risa.
I didn’t regret anything I’d done to have her in my life, but as I laid there in the snow only feet away from the man who loved me enough to send me away, I finally understood him.
I now finally understood why I forgot all about Risa when I woke from my coma. It wasn’t because I loved her that little. It was because I loved her that much.
I erased Risa from my mind because of my love. I loved her enough to forget about her, but I still wasn’t strong enough to send Risa away from me and the madness of my secret world.
And this was where it got us both.
I sat alone in the dark, Risa taken from me, and all the money in the world couldn’t help me find her.
I didn’t have to become Grigor Konstantinov’s ghost. I was already him.
I didn’t want Risa to be part of any of this, especially when the answers of what ‘this’ truly was died with my father.
I shouldn’t have taken her. I could’ve hid her better. It’s worse than that. I let her walk right out of the house, assuming she couldn’t do it because I had everything under control.
Regret strangled my throat.
13
RISA
I didn’t want to guess, but this was Marcus’s show.
“He loves me.”
“No. At least, in my opinion.”
I held both of my hands palm up. “I’ve got nothing.”
“Damian’s bull headed. He thinks he can control everything in the world and refuses to understand that isn’t so. There are dangerous people who will use that against him.”
“Like you.”
“Nope. I’m a pussycat in comparison.” Seeing the skepticism in my face, Marcus chided, “Now you’re hurting my feelings. Have I amputated any part of your anatomy and sent it to him?”
I blanched. Trying to cover up the nausea churning, I said, “The night is still young.”
Marcus smiled. “One day you’ll apologize for thinking me a bad man. And I will tell you that you’re generally right, but I’ll be gracious and accept it anyways.”
Hell will freeze over.
He continued, surely choosing to ignore the skepticism I couldn’t quite hide. “Because Damian is so stubborn, he’ll go to any lengths to prove he’s right. A man like that is liable to kill himself. And that makes him a very bad boy. I’ve never failed a contract, Miss Kelly. I won’t start with you two.”
Marcus positioned himself to be an ally. One who kidnapped to help…hell. Maybe I was crazy to contemplate believing him, but I didn’t have any better offers.
Sometimes you had to take the deal on the table.
“What can I do to keep your record spotless?”
Marcus didn’t smile this time. “It’s frighteningly simply. You have a choice. Help Damian or not.”
“That’s not a choice. It’s a given. Of course, I’ll help him.”
“Even if you hurt him?”
His unblinking stare didn’t give me reassurance. “What exactly are you asking of me?”
“You’re going to see him tomorrow.”
Marcus’s statement lit a fuse. Excitement sparked, lighting each word. “You’re making a trade then?”
“Perhaps. You have a choice, Miss Kelly. You go with Damian when you see him and watch as he kills himself in the mad pursuit of controlling the uncontrollable. Or you go with me and set him free.”
My smile cracked. “I…don’t…ah…I don’t understand.”
“Damian expects you to go with him tomorrow morning. You do that, you make him happy in the short-term while ruining his long-term options. What I’m asking of you, Miss Kelly, is time. There’s a plan in motion that will sever all ties between Damian and his past. However, it hit a snag when you popped on the radar. If you stay with me—just a bit longer—then the pieces will be in place and Grigor Konstantinov’s legacy will end. Damian will be free. Forever.”
I tried to see the angles. I tried to go past the words and find the intention. There were too many holes for me to make sense of it.
“What’s the point of bringing me to him tomorrow if you just want me to leave?”
Marcus’s expression was one of pure professionalism. “Damian needs to be at his mark for a reason. You are singularly the best reason for him to hit it.”
I tucked my hands in my lap. They were like hunks of ice. I went from the heights of joy to despair just like that.
“If I go with you, what then?”
“Then you ultimately save the man you love. You free him, Risa, just as his father wanted you to do.”
&nbs
p; I rocked back in my seat. “Grigor knew about me?”
“Of course, he did. Who else do you think paid me to make sure his well-meaning son didn’t get in the way of his plan?”
“I’m just a pawn then.”
He gifted me a slight tilt of his head. “Yes, but you don’t have to be.”
“No?”
“No. You could be the Queen, Risa.”
His green glass gaze sparkled with fey eeriness. It lent me a strange confidence.
The Queen had full control of the board but her most important purpose was to protect her king.
I’d be Queen before this was all said and done.
“Tell me what I have to do.”
“Simple. Make your decision—”
“I already have.”
“I admire your enthusiasm, but I don’t want your answer until after you see Damian. In order for this to work, I’ll need you all in. You’ll know after you see him.” He paused. “This is a lot for a normal person to bear. Therefore, I want you to consider a third option.”
I got a heavy feeling I knew where he was going. Denial was ready to spring.
“Just listen. I know you’re ready to do anything to prove your love for Damian. I believe you really do love him that much. It’s just…are you also really ready to do what it takes? Are you strong enough to be with a man like him as you learn everything there is or will you find it better to go back to your normal life? It’s not a personal slight or an indictment against you.”
I hated the fairness of his thoughts because they were absolutely valid.
“I can’t give Damian up. Not now.”
Marcus tapped the table once. “Tomorrow you’ll really know. If you find you want to go with him, I won’t stop you. I hope you choose to come with me, but if neither of those options end up working for you then know I’ll get you home to your family safely. You’ll be protected—Grigor Konstantinov deemed it so. You can start over and one day this will all seem like another life.”
He stood up and gestured to my room.
“Go to bed, Miss Kelly, and get some rest. I’ll get you up in one hour and fifty-seven minutes.”
And that was that.
I trudged across the room, damp blanket trailing behind me. I still had a million questions, but I knew Marcus was done.
Coming to my room, I saw the neat pile of clothes lying at the foot of the bed. A pained smirk and then a shrug. There was never a real chance of eluding Marcus and the proof was me standing right here. I shrugged off my damp clothes and hurriedly slipped into its replacement.
I didn’t want to sleep, knew I couldn’t. There was nothing left but for me to think.
How did I know Marcus was telling the truth? Maybe Grigor Konstantinov wasn’t Damian’s father. Maybe he was his enemy and this was all part of a sadistic plan to get me to betray Damian.
And yet…
My intuition pinged Marcus’s words as true.
Damian had proven more than once his ruthlessness. He spoke Russian as fluently as Elaine did. It made sense if he wanted to communicate with his father.
In Switzerland, I remembered Elaine and Thomas—the rare occasion I saw him—as being devoted. I mistook it as parental, but thinking back it was possible I misconstrued it. The elder Black-Prices showed deference, acceding to Damian’s wishes more often than not.
Not because they were indulgent parents but because they were Damian’s guardians in a foreign land far from his birth.
This sounds so crazy! Am I on the right path in taking his word or am I going to regret being so naïve?
Away from Damian, away from Marcus’s words, I had just my judgment to rely on. And after going through the last few months, I wasn’t confident that it was enough.
14
DAMIAN
“I don’t agree to it.”
Wolffington’s growl couldn’t beat mine. “I’m not taking any chances with Risa’s safety. Stay back.”
“You go there in that dead zone alone and neither of you will leave.”
Logic stated he was right. Grinding my teeth, I concentrated on taking one step after another. My frustrated security expert’s curses sounded clearly in my ear piece.
“You’re paying me to protect you. Let me do my damned job.”
“I’m paying you to follow my orders. The instructions were very clear. Keep to the 2km perimeter.”
“Fine. But I’m sending a drone. At least that way we can compensate for the distance.”
“No. You send in a drone and that puts Risa at risk. I go alone.”
The snow crunched beneath my measured footfalls.
“With all due respect, sir, this is fucking suicide. You’re not going in for a trade. You’re going to get taken as well. Then you’re both up shit creek.”
What better place for me to be than by the side of my little girl?
“This isn’t a reflection of your services. If I don’t come back alive, my offices can always be counted on for an excellent reference.”
“Fuck your reference.”
Wolffington didn’t lose his cool which was why we worked well together. A humorless smile tugged the corner of my mouth.
“I could fire you for such language.”
“I should fire you for being so damn thick-headed. I do this for a living, Black-Price. I know a setup when I hear it. This is a setup. Don’t go.”
“I’ll contact you when it’s done.”
“I’m telling you don’t—”
The communication went dead. My gaze flicked about, looking to see anyone lurking in the tree line. There was no one I could see, but it didn’t mean they weren’t there.
The sun hadn’t come up yet. The moon still hung in the sky, lending a sense of complete isolation to this desolate area. I understood why this spot was chosen.
The meeting point was a circle, about half a kilometer in circumference. Free of plant life, it was an unexplained anomaly. All animals seemed to avoid the area. All electronic equipment failed here.
It truly was a dead zone.
Superstition had it that otherworldly creatures kept this place for their own. If Wolffington was right, I’d find out for myself whether it was true or not.
One hand stayed in my pocket. Compulsively, I rubbed my thumb against the lock of hair hidden there. I loathed tardiness in any fashion, but no more than now.
Five…four…three…two…one.
Just as my watch alarm beeped, two figures entered the circle from the east. It took every bit of strength I possessed to keep control of the beast roaring inside me. It demanded I cross the circle and bash the man’s face with a nearby rock.
Not just for taking her from me but also because this bastard kept his hand on Risa’s arm as if he had the right.
I wanted to cut off that presumptuous hand and feed it to him.
Feverishly, I strained to catch clear sight of my little girl. How had Risa fared the last day? Had she cried for me? Had she been abused?
Another wave of rage crashed through me. It was better than the fear curdling my gut. I didn’t know how I would keep my wits about me if Risa suffered so much as a broken nail.
Come to me, love. It’ll all be over soon. Just hold on.
Soon Risa was within twenty feet of me. Outwardly, I spared her minimal attention. Inwardly, I obsessively catalogued the mental snapshot I’d taken.
Her hair was neat. Face pale, eyes tired but snapping with attention. Her pink mouth free from lipstick as was the rest of her beautiful face. Its lack made her look almost obscenely young.
Too young to have gotten swept up in this maelstrom of dark deceit.
Risa’s clothes were different. They matched the man’s in hue, dark gray. A perfect color to hide in shadow. My fists clenched and my muscles strained against their unnatural stillness. Why did this bastard make her change? Was it proof of abuse? Did he tear her other clothes right off her body?
No, don’t get caught up in your imaginations. Risa’s here.
Safe. He won’t have hurt her. He doesn’t want that. Elaine wouldn’t want that either and she never deals with anyone less than professional.
I had to hold onto the hope. Otherwise…
The man let go of Risa. She remained off to the side, slightly behind him. Her stare fixated onto me. The heat of her regard warmed, sending tingles of relief and pleasure throughout my system.
I focused on studying her captor. Only of average height, he wasn’t close to being as tall as me. However, I didn’t make the mistake of believing this made him less dangerous. I sensed what he lacked in size he more than made up in speed. The lines of his stance weren’t rigid or tense with fear. He was relaxed and alert.
My studying came to an end when he spoke.
“Damian Black-Price. Thank you for being prompt. It’ll make things go much quicker.”
The bastard’s voice was friendly. Cheerful even. I imagined ripping his tongue out for a blissful moment.
“I’m listening.”
He cut straight to the chase. “We have a problem, Mr. Black-Price. Your government doesn’t feel confident and secure knowing a man of your stature and pedigree has access to certain unsavory connections.”
I couldn’t process the words. I’d hope…no…prayed this could be done clean. Quiet. Unwillingly, I shifted my hard gaze to Risa. Her expression remained as it was—tired and worried.
The unspoken name hung over my head like the proverbial sword.
Keeping my breaths even, I strove for the calmness in logic. It wasn’t too much of a stretch to think Risa didn’t know the first thing about the Russian mafia. She would never recognize the name.
More so, never in a million years would she ever believe I was involved in any way—even if she’d thrown it out in the heat of the moment while digging for answers. Risa knew me, the me I showed her. That person only broke the law for her.
I was clean in every other way. I had to keep the line. No matter what transpired in the next few minutes.
“I’m a business man. Not a gangster.”
“No, but you could be.” He dipped his head once. “You made a mistake, Mr. Black-Price. A big one. Would you care to know what that was?”