by Ivy Clyde
“Ready to go?” I asked, pulling the helmet on my head.
“Yeah. I can’t wait.” Her hand caressed the side of the bike lovingly. “I’ve missed being on it so much.”
“What about me?” I said with a grin. I cringed mentally at the cheesiness of the question but I couldn’t help myself. I needed to know she missed me as much as I’ve been missing her.
“You too,” she said with a chuckle. “How about you let me ride you too?” A mischievous glint came in her eyes.
“You can ride me any time you want,” I said, pulling her against me. I was about to kiss her but something else caught my attention. Christian was glaring at me from the doorway. What the heck was his problem? Perhaps, it was better to get out of here with Skye as soon as possible. Taking a second helmet, I placed it on her head and fixed the latch under her chin. “Let’s go.”
I mounted my bike and waited for Skye to climb in behind me. She was just as awkward as before while trying to get on it. I smothered the chuckles that rose from deep within me. Surprise washed over me as I realized I rarely felt like smiling anymore. Only she was able to trigger real, unbidden happiness inside me.
“All set?”
“Yeah!”
“Hold tight.”
Skye’s arms tightened around me, suffusing me with warmth immediately. Even though it was a chilly November morning, I felt none of the cold. Excitement coursed through me as I revved up the engine and let the bike shoot forward. Skye’s scream of exhilaration further lifted my spirits as I speeded toward the gates leading out of the Ivanov estate.
The ride through the winding hilly road was an absolute thrill. Most of the land belonged to the Ivanovs and they kept the path free of all unnecessary traffic, allowing me to go at a speed higher than a hundred miles per hour. Skye clung to me tightly from behind, shouting out with excitement from time to time.
We were halfway back to the Romanoff Manor when my phone buzzed in the pocket of my jacket. I would normally ignore it but Mikhael was supposed to have gone to one of our factories to sign a secret deal with a politician who was running for the post of mayor next term. He needed our weapons and men to be his security personnel and was willing to pay the exorbitant fees I’d demanded. It was an important deal that would bring us some profit to make up for the deficits that had piled up since my father’s death.
Decelerating the bike, I came to a smooth halt. Taking the phone out, I was glad I didn’t ignore it. The screen showed that Mikhael was calling. Picking up, I answered.
“You’ve got to come down to the factory immediately,” he said in a tight voice.
“What’s wrong?”
“I can’t explain. It’s important you get here as fast as you can.” I frowned at Mikahel’s panicked tone. He was usually quite calm when handling matters. Egor bullied him as a child but that had turned him into a cold, ruthless warrior on the battlefield of business deals. This wasn’t the only thing that worried me though. Usually, the loud sounds of machinery could always be heard in the background but right now, it was completely silent, helping me listen to Mikhael’s voice loud and clear. The strange silence was alarming in itself. The factory never stopped its manufacturing processes until a scheduled maintenance check was announced.
“Skye is with me,” I said. Next moment, I felt the bike move as Skye clambered down from it.
“Bring her along but there is no way to ignore this. I’ll take her home with me but you’ve got to be the one who needs to be here. Don’t delay, Andrei.” The call switched off before I could get any other explanation.
“What’s wrong?” asked Skye, moving to stand before me.
“There’s been an emergency at one of my places,” I said, feeling anxious because Mikhael had kept the main reason away from me. “I need to get there immediately.”
“What emergency?”
“Mikhael wouldn’t tell. He asked me to get there as soon as possible.”
“Okay,” she said with a slow nod. “Let’s go, then. I can wait somewhere for you guys to get done with your work. Don’t worry about me getting in your way.”
“I’m not worried about that,” I said at once. “I’m just hoping it’s safe enough for you there.”
“Mikhael would have said something if it wasn’t.”
“It’s hard to tell,” I said, thinking back to our conversation. “He didn’t sound like his usual self.”
“No point in wasting time,” she said, turning away to mount behind me on the bike. “Let’s hurry over there.”
Once Skye got on and was holding onto me firmly, I drove the bike toward the lane that would take us on the highway leading toward New Jersey. That was where the particular factory, specializing in bullets manufacturing, was located.
It was another hour before we reached the borders of the state. I felt a deep foreboding within me, knowing something had gone terribly wrong for Mikhael to call for me. He’d taken over most of the management of our businesses on his shoulders, relieving me from a lot of stress and pressure while I recuperated from my grief. I was slowly taking on more responsibilities but still heavily depended on Mikhael. He was one of the very few people left alive whom I trusted completely.
The gray building, housing the factory, soon came in my view. The property was located away from the main roads and was cut off from access by regular people. Only authorized workers and managers could get entry. All other guests needed prior approval.
Stopping the bike near the security checkpoint, I gestured toward the guards to open the gates for me. They took a closer look at me before carrying out the order.
Entering through the gates, I took in the guards who were stationed around the property. They looked tensed and held their guns in tight grips as they looked about themselves, expecting an attack at any time. My brows furrowed.
Moving ahead, I came to a stop right before the main entrance leading inside the factory. The still silence unnerved me like nothing else. On a regular day, the place would be filled with loud machinery noises and the voices of workers and mechanics shouting at each other.
Dismounting the bike, both Skye and I hurried through the door. I noticed there was no one guarding the entrance to the factory. We walked through the hallways leading to the main workshop area. The place was so unusually quiet that it felt like I was walking through a graveyard.
I stopped in my tracks just after passing through the entrance to the workshop area. There were several people grouped together with their heads bent and talking in low, urgent whispers but that wasn’t the sight that chilled the blood in my veins.
On the far side of the workshop, several humanoid shapes were strung up high on the wall. From the distance, their spread out arms made them look like wiry angel figures. A closer look revealed that they were all real human corpses that had been placed there. Dark patches of blood covered the otherwise white-painted wall, making it look like a terrible paint job.
“What the…”
I tore my gaze from the sight to look at Skye. She’d walked several feet forward and was staring at the macabre display.
Footsteps approached me from the side. Turning around, I watched Mikhael step before me. His usual careless demeanor was gone. He looked unusually grim. “The men you see up there were assigned to be Miller’s bodyguards. As you can see, he’s quite upset.” I looked toward the group of men in office suits who surrounded Jacob Miller, the man who was running to be the next mayor of the city. They were in deep discussion but their voices were too muted to be heard by me.
“Who did this?”
“No idea,” said Mikhael, his brows crumpling. “All camera feeds since eleven P.M. have been deleted. The security guards outside changed shifts twice since yesterday evening but no one noticed what happened inside the workshop until Miller and I walked in a couple of hours ago. The place was unusually quiet but I had no idea we’d find ourselves witnessing this bloody display.”
“What about the workers on night duty?”
>
“All dead. I found their bodies stuffed inside one of the storage rooms.”
“And the guards outside noticed nothing?” I asked in disbelief. “They had to have heard or seen people coming in or going out. It would take at least a dozen armed men to make such a large kill. How is it possible they know nothing?”
“We can investigate the matter later but right now, you need to handle Miller. I heard his advisors recommending the Sokolovs of East Texas.” Mikhael gave a nod as he noted my frown. “There’s no way any of the mafia families would forgive us for letting them encroach on our territory. You need to assure Miller that this was due to an internal gang war that has nothing to do with him or his campaign. He is running to win the post of mayor next year. We need him on our side.”
“I’ll handle him but you need to do something else for me,” I said, looking toward Skye’s lone figure that was still staring up at the bloodied corpses that were hung on the wall like a string of cut-out paper angels. “Take Skye home and get her settled there. Get her to relax.”
“Keep this with you.” He thrust a gun into my hand. “Even if there are men guarding the perimeter, it’s not safe here. Take Miller back to one of our hotel suites and talk to him there. He needs to be taken out of here too while we get in the cleaning crew to clean this site up.”
I exhaled a long breath. All my plans of spending a relaxing weekend with Skye just went up in flames. It would take days to sort out everything and run an investigation on who could be bold enough to launch a second attack on the Romanoff family.
A couple of months ago I would have probably caved into the pressure but Skye’s presence fueled something hot and fierce inside me. My determination to protect her was triggering a part of me that had never really awakened. Both my father and brother took pride and joy in being ruthless, heartless leaders. Their cruelty made others shudder. Right now, I felt cold rage sweeping through me, willing me to kill the people responsible for this attack on me. I wanted to squash their skulls under my boot for daring to harm me.
Andrei Romanoff was seen by the world as the good-for-nothing son of Hale Romanoff. They thought him to be soft and weak. They would soon see I am my father’s son, I vowed as my fists clenched at my sides.
I watched Mikhael drag Skye away from the scene. She glanced at me anxiously, the fear and worry quite clear in her gaze. I gave her a curt nod, hoping she would see that the incident hadn’t fazed me, that I was strong enough to handle it on my own.
I waited for Mikhael and Skye to leave the workshop before turning my attention to Miller and his office colleagues. It was time to show the world that I wouldn’t back away as easily as they anticipated.
43
Skye
Mikhael was silent as he drove me back toward the city.
I watched the countryside flash by, hoping to erase the image of the dead men that had etched itself into my memory. Each time I closed my eyes, the macabre scene flashed in my mind. They weren’t just killed but their corpses had been strung up high on a wall. Their arms were outstretched away from their bodies, each hand linking to another’s in a chain. Blood had dripped down from the ripped and cut-up bodies, bathing the entire wall with rivulets of dark crimson. The scene was horrific but something you couldn’t tear your gaze from. It compelled you to keep staring and be bound to the horror.
The day had started off with me waking up in Christian’s arms, leaving me feeling happy but sore from last night. Even then, I was excited about seeing Andrei and was looking for a ride on his incredible bike. I got everything I was hoping for but they all faded away in the wake of what I’d just witnessed.
The incident was a stark reminder of the world I’d entered. Sergei and the dangerous-looking men he kept around him had been enough to scare me. Some of that fear had lessened with time. Nikolai, Andrei, Christian, Dimitri, and Mikhael were all so handsome and well-spoken. Their skins weren’t peppered in ink, giving their prey a false sense of safety.
I had to remember they were worse and crueler than a streetside gangster like Sergei. They ruled over people like him. It had been stupid of me to lull myself into thinking that my days of cowering before tatted up punks with guns and daggers were over. I was in the midst of killers who weren’t satisfied with simply murdering their prey. No. They had to use the corpses in macabre art form to leave behind a warning as well.
“Are you all right?” Mikhael’s voice broke through my thoughts.
“Not really. I feel like bleaching my eyes of that scene.”
“Yeah. That wasn’t pretty.”
That crass statement gave me a glimpse into the darkness Mikhael hid inside him. He still had some humor left in him after witnessing the corpses of people he probably knew and worked with.
“Will Andrei be okay on his own?” I asked.
“Yeah. I already brought in our security teams to cover the area. They will protect him.”
“That’s good,” I said with a nod, hoping it would be enough to keep him safe from the people who’d committed such horrible murders.
“You’re turning gray,” Mikhael remarked with a sideways glance at me. “Let me know if you need to puke or something.”
“I’m fine,” I muttered.
“Booze helps a lot to blot out the gory stuff. You can help yourself to as much as you need once we get back home.”
“When did Romanoff Manor become your home?” I asked. Mikhael’s past had always been a mystery to me. While I knew he grew up with Andrei and Egor, I was sure he wasn’t related to them in any way. There was a certain distance between him and them. He was treated as someone who worked for them rather than a friend. No one ever mentioned him when they spoke about Maria Volkov’s incident. It felt like he was part of the staff rather than the family.
“I was close to nine years old,” said Mikhael in an unusually grim tone.
“What happened to your parents?” I asked, hoping the conversation would keep my mind away from the gruesome sight I’d just witnessed.
“They were murdered in their homes the same way as the Romanoffs,” said Mikhael.
“What?” I gasped.
He kept his gaze on the road. A hollow chuckle escaped him as he glanced at me. “Did you think they died of cancer or something and the Romanoffs kindly brought me into their home?”
“I…I’m sorry.” For a moment, I was lost for words because that was exactly the sort of thing I’d assumed.
“Once upon a time, the Petrov family was the strongest in this area,” said Mikhael, looking back toward the road. “They were no less than the Romanoffs or the Volkovs. The only mistake they ever committed was to put their trust in the wrong person.”
There was no bitterness in his voice. He sounded like he was repeating a history lesson to me.
“All members of my family were murdered. My home was burned to the ground. The only thing left of the Petrovs was me,” he recounted. “They would have killed me too but I was discovered two days after the incident. By then, too many people were around for them to murder me in plain sight.”
“Do you know who killed your family?”
“No. I was too young back then.”
“Then, how did you come to be with the Romanoffs?”
“Hale Romanoff, Andrei’s father, took over my family’s business. Weapons manufacturing in this part of the country originally belonged to the Petrovs. After they were gone, the Romanoffs bought it and made it their own. They also took me in as a charity case.”
The last two words triggered a feeling of intense helplessness and desperation within me. It was terrible to class oneself as a charity case.
“I’m so sorry, Mikhael. I never knew.”
“It’s all right,” he said in a dead sort of voice. “I don’t live in the past.”
I reached for his hand that was resting on the seat beside me. “Egor bullied you a lot, didn’t he?” I said, tracing the scars on his hand, remnants of the wounds that broke his dream of becoming a profess
ional piano player.
An involuntary shudder went through him at my touch but next moment, he relaxed, allowing me to keep touching him.
“I was Egor’s favorite punch bag,” he said after a while.
“Didn’t his parents ever say anything?”
“His mother scolded him at times but his father praised him for it. Hale thought it was good training for his son’s future.”
“What about Andrei? Was he mean to you too?”
A chuckle escaped him. “Andrei was as old as me and rarely paid me any attention. He was too engrossed with Maria Volkov even when he was a child. If she hadn’t been engaged to Dimitri since birth, he would have been the one to marry her.”
“Did he love her?” I hated the bitter tone of my voice. Why did I still have to feel so jealous of Maria? I mean, we had the same face, right? I must seem as pretty as her to both Dimitri and Andrei, but deep within, I knew she was a very different person from me. She was said to be innocent and loyal. I was a thief and a liar. My own truth made me feel uglier and unwanted.
“Everyone loved Maria.” He slowed the car and I saw the first glimpses of Romanoff Manor in the distance.
“Did you love her too?” I pressed on, hoping at least Mikhael would be different.
A soft chuckle escaped him as he glanced at me. “I’m sorry, Skye.”
“She was that great, huh?”
Mikhael stepped on the brake suddenly, jerking me forward.
“You’re great too,” he said, turning toward me. “Don’t you feel our desire for you too?” He suddenly leaned in, his hooded eyes focusing on my lips. My pulse quickened at the sudden change in him. He moved closer, his scent of bergamot and sage enveloping around me in a haze. For the briefest second, he brushed his lips to mine.
“Mikhael,” I whispered. My heart pounded in my chest as he left more kisses on my cheeks and nose. My mind felt confused, not really knowing how to respond to him. He’d never really shown this kind of interest in me before.