Heartless Sinner (Empire of Sinners #5)

Chapter 1

Chapter One

Scarlett

Messy little raindrops scatter across the windscreen of my car like tiny crystal bracelet beads. The downpour clouds my already hazy view of the road ahead.

I hate driving at this time of night, let alone in the pouring rain where my only source of light are the tunnel-shaped beams shining from my headlights and the dappled moon in the turbulent sky.

Shaking my head, I take a good look at the murky view before me. The winding mountain road blends in with the backdrop of the shadowy, jagged edges of the Rockies in the distance, and the forest of fir trees covering the expanse below it looks like an army of ghosts.

More rain pours down, heavier this time, and I know it’s going to be one of those nights when it storms for hours on end. A rough ending for today and a bad start for tomorrow.

Getting home is going to be a nightmare. So is getting back out to work for six in the morning. Driving in these conditions after a fifteen-hour shift at the diner—with little to no sleep for over a week—is definitely asking for trouble. Add in the fact that it’s nearly midnight, and I’ve cooked up a recipe for disaster.

Damn it. I should have turned down that extra shift. Robbie, that arrogant asshole, is always throwing work no one else wants my way.

He claims the men who head to the diner at night spend more money on booze and food when more pretty girls work the shift.

Pretty to him means girls with big tits and curvy hips.

The last time I considered myself pretty by normal standards, I had more meat on my gaunt body, my black hair actually had a sheen to it and was free of split ends, and my green eyes were a vibrant color and weren’t bloodshot.

Robbie offered me the shift because he thinks I fit the bill in the big tits and curvy hips department. And he knows I won’t say no to the money.

Honestly, I can’t blame him too much about the latter . He was just being a manager and he knows I need the money.

He was right. All I saw in my mind was an extra hundred bucks with the hope of getting more tips for the day, which I did. I wasn’t thinking of my safety. But I am now.

If I have an accident, no one will find me before morning. Out here in Leadville, the roads are deserted until first light.

Like with most small towns, people here tend to have a cut-off point at a certain time of day. They most certainly wouldn’t be out in hazardous weather conditions, so if I did have an accident, I’d have no hope in hell.

Dad would come looking for me. I know he would. But I wouldn’t want him out here at risk of danger, too.

I can just imagine some crazy scenario where I run myself off the road into the ravine. Then he comes looking for me and does the same thing.

Shit. Listen to me thinking something bad is going to happen and signing myself— and Dad— away to death.

A long, haggard sigh leaves my lips.

At the beginning of last month, I promised myself I wouldn’t do that anymore— the negative thinking thing .

Last month was February, so not exactly a pledge of New Year’s resolutions, but I put myself on a quest to get my life back on track and myself back into acting.

I’m so ashamed of the way I slipped off the radar and ended up splitting my time between waiting tables at The Happy Snappy Diner and cleaning offices with the Ever After agency.

After so many years of studying and hard work to fulfil my dreams to become an actress, I saw so much more for myself than what I am now. That’s why I’m more determined than ever to fight for my dreams.

In prep for the audition I did two weeks ago, I took myself away from the stress for a few days and head to Wyoming. I couldn’t afford the break but I wanted to give myself the best chance to prepare for the audition with that clarity of mind that always helps me.

The role was for a part in a new TV series similar to CSI . As they’ll be in production in Denver for the next three years it would be perfect for me. If I get the part it means being closer to Dad.

It would also mean no more working at the diner until my legs feel like they’re going to dissolve, no more asshole Robbie, and no more putting my safety at risk to make an extra hundred dollars.

While I was in Wyoming I did the whole positive-thinking-and-clearing-limiting-beliefs thing.

I got myself a copy of Atomic Habits , subscribed to a mindset coach, and even gave myself a set of daily affirmations —something I’ve never ever done in my entire twenty-five years of existence.

I didn’t do it when my favorite college professor encouraged the class to incorporate it in our stage prep exercises.

I didn’t do it when the stage manager of the TV series I landed my first acting job on included it in her tips for success.

I didn’t do it when my life seemed to be at that pivotal point and it felt like my next step was to reach for the stars.

I did it when I accepted I’d hit rock bottom and the only way I was going to climb back up was believing I could.

It sounds so simple, yet I’ve seen so many people start with nothing and reach their dreams. Here’s hoping the same can happen for me. Even if it feels like I had my chance and blew it over a man I should never have known.

My mind drifts to Anton as I slow the car to take the corner. The mere thought of him has goose bumps covering my skin like a colony of flesh-eating ants.

It’s funny how I used to think it was sexy that he made me nervous. I realized way too late that it wasn’t the good kind of nerves you see in those feel-good movies or romantic comedies like Bridget Jones or Love Actually .

It was the other kind of nerves. The sort you’d experience if you were shoved into a horror movie or trapped in a Stephen King novel.

But what else did I expect from a man with links to the Bratva— the Russian mafia.

Saying I should have known better is the understatement of the century.

I was twenty-two and fresh out of college when I met him. My twenty-two year old self was also impressed that he owned a night club in Phoenix and seemed to have the world at his beck and call.

I was young and dumb. But in all honesty I firmly believe that even the average young and dumb person would have known to stay away from a man like him.

It’s been a year since Anton and I broke up, but he still makes my soul tremble with terror.

The worst thing is knowing he would have kept trying to get me back if he weren’t under investigation by the FBI for murder and drug trafficking.

He went back to Russia, but he sent me a creepy note before he left, letting me know he’d be back for me soon.

Sometimes I feel like I’m being watched and I worry I’ll run into him.

I don’t even know what I’d do if that ever happened.

I’d never go back to him. That’s the one thing I know for certain.

Anton Chekhov is the most dangerous man I’ve ever met in my life. He’s the kind of man who’d make you disappear if you pissed him off.

No one would ever hear from you again. Or you’d turn up dead somewhere.

I’ve seen it happen before.

If he didn’t love me —in his own crazy obsessive way—it would have happened to me too.

My phone rings out loud, piercing my thoughts, and I nearly jump out of my skin.

“Jesus.” I grab my chest, breathing hard, then I feel silly for scaring myself.

With an edgy laugh, I calm my breathing and glance at my phone on the passenger seat.

It’s Lucy. My best friend/agent. She’d never normally call me this late, but I told her to call me at whatever hour—day or night—if she heard back from the casting director.

This must be the call I’ve been waiting for. God, please let it be good news.

I quickly answer the phone. “Hey, Lucy.” I try to sound alive and not like my body isn’t begging for sleep. “Please tell me it’s good news.”

“Hi, Scarlett.” There’s a hesitation in her voice I don’t like. “I’m so sorry, girl. I really wish I could give you good new. But I can’t.”

Shit. I didn’t get the part.

My chest caves and I try like hell to hold on to hope, but it melts away from my heart like ice in the heat. “Oh no. They went with someone else?”

“Yeah. I’m so sorry.” Lucy sighs. “They said you were great—really, really great—but they wanted someone with a few more years’ experience and… pop ?”

“Pop?” I raise a brow. “What the hell does that even mean?”

“Just forget them. They’re idiots. You were perfect for that role. But let’s think about the next one.”

The next one .

Always the next one.

I haven’t had an acting job in two years. I’m starting to think I’m never going to get another one and I’ll be stuck in that diner for the rest of my life.

God. What if I can’t act anymore? What if my talent has dried up and I’ve lost that spark that made me who I used to be?

I really thought I had that audition in the bag. But clearly I didn’t.

Stay positive, Scarlett. Stay positive.

This is how the industry works. It doesn’t mean I’m not good or that I lack talent. But damn… the rejection hurts like crazy.

“I appreciate you for trying for me,” I say when I realize I’ve been silent for too long. “I know you don’t need to. I’m sure you have more clients with more experience and pop.” I’m also sure they’re less tired than me.

“Scarlett, please don’t talk like that. Where’s your inner Vivien Leigh?” She laughs.

I manage a smile. “She’s still in here somewhere.”

“She better be, because I know something will come up soon.”

“It sure would be nice.”

“That’s why I’m going to keep trying.” I can imagine her nodding with that fiery determination she’s known for.

“Thanks.”

“You know you don’t have to thank me.”

“I always do.”

Lucy and I met at Brown University. She wanted to go into the business side of entertainment while I wanted to be an actress. We were a match made in heaven.

She went to work at her uncle’s agency in New York, and I came back here for my first acting job on the set of the Emmy-award-winning soap All my Years .

That job was supposed to last for a few years, but it didn’t because the owners got themselves tangled in a murder and securities fraud scandal. It’s been difficult to find work since.

“Hey, it sounds like you’re driving.” Lucy’s worried voice pulls me from my thoughts again.

“I’m on my way home from the diner.”

“What? Please don’t tell me you were there all day again.”

“I wish I could.” I borrow her words from earlier.

“Oh, Scarlett. That’s just too much.” The pity in her voice grips me.

I hate pity. It reminds me that I messed up my life. “I know. It was just an extra shift. It will go toward my savings.”

The measly ten grand in my account is hardly worth calling savings for my plans. But it’s a start.

I need to move out of my father’s house, get my own place, and find another job, then really focus on landing the dream job.

“I understand and I’m rooting for you.”

“I know you are.”

“I’ll let you go and call you back tomorrow. Get home safely and sleep for the whole day.”

I won’t bother to tell her that the closest I’ll get to sleeping tomorrow is watching the tired truckers snoozing in the diner’s booths after breakfast. “Thanks again for everything.”

“You’re so welcome. Please remember, you’re amazing.”

“You, too.”

We say goodbye and I slip my phone in my bag.

I return my focus to the road ahead with less hope than I had an hour ago.

That version of me from earlier didn’t know that she wasn’t going to get the job.

Damn it. It’s back to the drawing board. Now I have to figure out how to get that pop .

Disappointment sits heavy in my chest but I try to shake it off as I continue down the road.

Twenty minutes later, I turn onto my street. Dad’s house is just up ahead.

When I get in, I just want to crawl into bed and sleep, so I hope my brother isn’t there with his crazy, rowdy friends.

I love Johnny, but his bad, bad, bad habits and unsavory choice of company get on my nerves.

He’s five years older than me but anyone would think he’s the youngest because he’s always getting himself in some kind of trouble.

He often crashes at Dad’s because it’s closer to the racetracks. Like our father, he became a race car driver and has a wild obsession with fast cars that’s often the cause of his trouble. I think he got that taste for trouble from our deadbeat mother who walked out on us when we were kids.

Sadly, I’m beginning to see that I have a little of her in me, too.

I park up on the drive, grab my things, and make a dash for the porch. I just about manage to get myself there without getting too wet.

I’m about to open the door when I realize it’s already open.

That’s weird. Neither Dad nor Johhny would do that.

I hesitate for a moment then convince myself that Dad must have left the door open by accident. Or maybe Johnny is here.

When I walk into the house, raised voices greets me. It sounds like an argument.

I pick out Dad’s voice and someone else I don’t recognize.

Suddenly, Dad cries out in pain. The sound of his anguish stops my heart and freezes my blood.

What the hell is going on?

I rush toward the sound. It came from the back. In the kitchen.

I stop short when I turn down the hallway and see a big hulking man pointing a gun at Dad while he kicks him in the stomach.

Dad lies on the floor curled into a ball with blood and bruises covering his face.