15. LEIGH
Chapter 15
LEIGH
“Leigh.”
Dmitri’s voice reaches me through the haze of shock, sharp but not unkind. A hand lands on my shoulder, warm and firm, tethering me back to reality.
I jerk away on instinct, my breath coming in shallow pants. My mind reels, trying to grasp onto something—anything—that makes sense, but nothing does.
He’s Dmitri.
Dmitri Mirochin.
The fucking Ice Man.
I want to scream. To launch myself at him. To demand what kind of sick, twisted game this is. But instead, I force my hands to unclench from the wooden bench beneath me. I focus on my breathing, pushing down the panic that rises like bile in my throat.
I can’t afford to lose control now.
“Are you alright?” His voice is calm, but I hear the underlying tension.
I swallow hard, shoving away the terror clawing at my insides. “You said something changed nineteen years ago,” I rasp. “Before we got sidetracked.”
He watches me for a beat, then exhales slowly.
“Yes,” Dmitri murmurs, turning his gaze toward the Black Sea. The sun is higher now, glinting off the water, but it does nothing to warm the ice in my veins. “Nineteen years ago, the first real love of my life died. She was killed in a hit-and-run while out jogging.”
My brows knit together. A strange sensation prickles at the back of my mind, like a puzzle piece sliding into place.
“My aunt—” The words spill out before I can stop them. “Thea. She died the same way.”
Dmitri’s jaw tightens. His fingers flex against his thighs, but he doesn’t immediately respond. When he does, his voice is softer than I expect.
“She was that person.”
My heart lurches violently in my chest. “No.” I shake my head, the word instinctual, an immediate rejection of the truth. “That’s not—she was married to my uncle Mark. I thought—”
“I know.” Dmitri sighs, rubbing a hand over his face. “At first, I wanted to remove Mark in any way I could.”
My stomach churns.
“But I knew I never wanted to win Thea’s heart that way. And Mark… he changed for her. Gave up everything. Went legit. Became a damn good Wall Street broker.” His lips twist bitterly. “For her, he became the man I never could.”
I stare at him, my pulse roaring in my ears.
“He did get back into stockbroking,” I murmur. “When we moved to Vegas with him, he had a firm there. But after Vivienne died, everything just… fell apart.” My throat tightens. “Maybe that was my fault.”
“Why would you say that?” He looks at me curiously.
“When I think of it now…” I swallow, my throat feeling dry. “I realize just what a burden I must’ve been to everyone. They had to live this lie because one word of the truth could’ve sent me into so weird psycho episode.”
Dmitri’s head snaps toward me. “Don’t do that Leigh,” he says sharply. “None of what happened to you was your fault. Unfortunately you were born to be a heiress of not one but two of the biggest organizations in the world. That a big cross to bear for an adult let alone a little girl. Unfortunately you weren’t blessed with the best parental figures either.” He coughs and wipes his mouth as he continues. “Your grandmother had a stroke after her husband was killed and then she lost Thea and Nikolas. It took her a long time to recover. She entrusted you to her daughters best friend and widowed husband.”
I blink. Why is he being so… so… caring? It’s confusing me and making me feel awkward as I not only have his brother brother-in-law’s blood on my hands but I’m the one responsible for the poison that’s eating him from the inside out. Yet here is still in his own fucked up way trying to protect me.
“You were never a burden, Leigh.” His voice lowers, rough with conviction. “The people around you banded together because they loved you. They bent the world to fit the reality you knew so that you’d feel safe. Not because you were weak. But because you were fiercely protected.”
Something thick lodges in my throat.
“I envy that kind of love,” Dmitri admits after a beat.
I glance at him, surprised by the rawness in his tone.
“My father always favored my brother,” he continues, his gaze fixed on the horizon. “No matter what I did, it was never enough. He was always the golden child.”
I tilt my head slightly. “So you stole an heiress to build your own empire and top his exponentially.”
Dmitri’s lips quirk, but there’s no humor in it.
“At first,” he says simply. “But after Thea died… something changed.” His eyes darken. “Then one day, I walked in on Vivienne abusing you.”
A shiver rips down my spine.
“She’d yanked a chunk of your hair out. Your little cheeks were blood-red from where she’d slapped you.” His jaw tightens. “I looked into your eyes, Leigh—your green, green eyes—and I saw it. Defiance. Courage. You refused to cry.”
I stiffen, my breath hitching.
“You were three,” Dmitri says, almost in awe. “And that’s when I fell in love with the bravest little girl I’d ever met.”
A wave of nausea rolls through me. “What?” My voice is strangled.
He exhales sharply. “Not that kind of love, Leigh.”
I recoil, disgust twisting through me. “You pervert—”
Dmitri hisses, cutting me off. “Not. That. Kind. Of. Love.” His tone is sharp, irritated. “The kind of love a father has for his child.”
The words hit me like a punch to the gut.
“I thought your father was dead. You had no one to champion for you,” he goes on. “And I knew what Carlos and Vivienne were doing. I was part of that plan.” He clenches his fists. “But I also knew what kind of monsters they were—fuck, I’m that kind of person too. Seeing you like that… I knew that day my plans had changed. I started seeing Vivienne and Carlos in a whole new light. I knew too that the only way to protect you was to go ahead with the fucked up plan only I’d be the one running it.”
I stare at him, my skin prickling with unease. “Still you’d end up with all the power.”
“No. I’d end up ensuring no one stole your power.” He exhales sharply. “To this day I’ll always regret the way I handled Vivienne they day I walked in on her abusing you. She was enjoying your pain. Feeding off it.” His eyes flick to mine, stormy and unreadable. “I snapped. I told her I’d kill her if she ever laid a hand on you again.”
A tremor runs through me.
“A few hours later, your grandmother announced that your father’s body had been found. Burnt beyond recognition.” His jaw flexes. “That the man posing as him—bearing an uncanny resemblance—was an imposter.”
My stomach lurches. “That’s why my mother ran.”
“That,” Dmitri nods, “and because Carlos tried to kidnap you. He planned to hold you for ransom. Demand Matriarch from your grandmother.”
I squeeze my eyes shut. “Galina helped us leave,” I whisper, memories surfacing. “She took us to Uncle Mark. We weren’t allowed to take anything. I couldn’t even say goodbye to Yaya Alexi.”
“It had to be done,” Dmitri says simply. “Galina and Mark didn’t want you to your grandmother after she’d had a stroke.”
I don’t know whether to believe him.
Then he drops the next bomb.
“Carlos eventually told me that Vivienne was the one who killed Thea—that was eleven years ago.”
Everything stills.
A sharp, ringing silence fills my head.
“She was jealous,” Dmitri continues, his voice almost… gentle. “She knew I cared for Thea. And she hated that.”
A harsh, broken laugh escapes me. “I can’t believe Vivienne would do that.”
“Believe it.” His expression is unreadable. “I wanted to kill her with my bear hands. But if I’d approached Vivienne, she would have known I’d been keeping tabs on her and you the entire time. Making sure no harm came to you.”
A deep chill seeps into my bones.
“Eleven years ago after Dmitri told me what Vivienne had done to Thea, I was ready to disband the Golden Hydra. It was time to make a change,” Dmitri says. “I was going to turn Dmitri over to the agency the real Nikolas worked for. I knew they were looking for him.”. He pinches the bridge of his nose. “But Carlos had other plans.” His face hardens. “He was tired of waiting. He wanted to take down my father. He knew Galina was the executor of Dant’s will and was convinced my father knew where you and Vivienne were hiding.”
I swallow.
“He planned to force the information from him—by holding Dragunov Village hostage.” Dmitri shakes his head. “I warned my father. He didn’t listen. He refused to give me men. I had no choice but to gather what few villagers I could, plus some loyal Mirochins and ensure Carlos wasn’t successful. I had to slaughter my own men and for the first time in my life, I could no longer stomach the life I was born into.”
My fingers tighten against my knees.
“What a fuckup that was,” Dmitri mutters. “So many villagers died. But I killed every last Golden Hydra that attacked them.” His voice drops. “My father was furious.”
“Why?”
“He was furious that I took over the mission.” Dmitri’s voice is grim. “Because one of the men that were killed was the village elders’ son-in-law, I had to atone. I was to marry his daughter grieving daughter Zoya and look after he family while recruited men to protect and work in the village.”
I listen as he continues, and I sense he needs to talk it out.
“Carlos showed up a week later,” he continues, his tone clipped. “Pissed that I wasn’t marrying Wanda Manning instead as we needed her money and her company. She was willing to help us as long as we got rid of her father for her.”
I shake my head, disgust curling in my gut. “You say that like it’s nothing.”
Dmitri shrugs. “I grew up in a world where it happens all the time.”
“That doesn’t make it okay.”
“No, it doesn’t.” His voice is quiet. “But in our world, it’s kill or be killed.”
My heart pounds.
Dmitri exhales slowly, his gaze drifting over the Black Sea. The wind shifts, carrying the briny scent of the ocean, but it does nothing to clear the suffocating weight pressing down on my chest.
“I know,” he murmurs, voice quieter now. “I tried so hard to keep you apart from it.”
I let out a sharp, disbelieving laugh. “Yeah, right,” I bite out. “Then why the fuck am I here? Married to your nephew?”
Dmitri turns to me, eyes dark with something unreadable. “Leigh—”
“No,” I snap. “I don’t want to hear whatever bullshit excuses. I was set up and I’ve never been in control of my own life. All I wanted to do was write music not be some fucking g…” My eyes open wide. My head snaps around to look at him. “What did Vivienne tell you about the golden key?
“She always bragged about how her golden key opening all her secrets.” He frowns. “I’m betting there are a lot of people wanting that key now.”
“I still don’t know what it is.” It’s not a lie. I don’t but I know at some point I must have because there is this nagging at the back of my mind each time it’s mentioned. Just the antidote.
His fingers flex against his thighs, a flicker of something—regret, maybe—passing over his face. “I came to get you ten years ago when I realized what Vivienne was up to.”
I freeze.
“You didn’t have your father. Mark was off on some weird-ass Robin Hood crusade. My sister had turned into a fucking politician—balancing my father, my brother, her husband, and raising three boys.” He shakes his head. “She put your care in the hands of Carla Craft and Mark.”
He turns toward me, expression darkening. “The only person I had any real faith in was Sol Craft.”
The name slams through me like a sledgehammer to the chest.
Uncle Sol.
Tears burn the back of my throat.
“He—” I choke on the words. “He died.” My voice wobbles.
Dmitri stiffens beside me, his posture going rigid. “Oh shit.” His head snaps toward me. “Did you—did you forget that?”
A horrible, twisting guilt curdles in my stomach.
I nod weakly. “He was one of the people I just… didn’t remember.” My hands curl into fists in my lap. “I feel awful.”
Dmitri watches me for a long, heavy moment, then sighs, rubbing a hand down his face. “Carlos did that.”
My stomach clenches. “Did what?”
His jaw tics. “He killed Zoya. And then he doctored the video to make it look like I did it.”
A cold shiver slithers down my spine.
“I found out later he’d been drugging me.” Dmitri’s voice is low, hoarse. “For months. I wasn’t even sure where I was or what the fuck I was doing half the time while I was at Dragunov.”
Bile rises in my throat.
“Then my father disowned me,” he continues, his voice bitter. “And the only place left for me to turn?” He lets out a humorless chuckle. “Wanda.”
I stiffen.
“Just like Carlos wanted.”
“Then he tried to kill my father.” Dmitri exhales, leaning back against the bench. “Ten years ago, Boris had a car accident in Los Angeles. I flew out to see him, and that’s when I realized what Vivienne was up to.”
I swallow hard, waiting for the other shoe to drop.
“She’d aligned herself with my older brother and Galina’s husband.” His eyes flick to mine, sharp and assessing. “She’d convinced them that marrying you to Radomir was a strategic move.”
A cold sensation prickles through my veins.
“Vladimir had already put the idea in my sister’s head,” Dmitri says. “And I couldn’t fucking believe she was considering it.”
I clench my jaw. “But she did.”
“She, Mark, and your grandmother called it their backup plan.” His voice is grim. “The one that would ensure your protection if Nikolas ever showed up.”
I stare at him, heart pounding.
“Remember,” he continues, “they thought Carlos was your father. That he’d gone rogue and joined the Golden Hydra.”
My blood runs cold.
I open my mouth, but no words come out.
Dmitri tilts his head slightly. “And now you’re wondering,” he murmurs, “why the fuck I stayed with Carlos and the Golden Hydra, aren’t you?”
I nod stiffly, my throat too tight to speak.
Dmitri exhales, his expression unreadable.
“I had no choice,” he says finally. “By then, I’d been exiled. My father had disowned me. My brother wanted me dead. And Carlos had already set Wanda’s company up to help ship product for crime families. If I took him out he’d release all the evidence he had against Wanda and my family to the FBI.” His lips press into a thin line. “Then two years ago I approached Oleksi. I needed help and I didn’t know where else to turn to. Wanda and I have been married ten years and… I love her.”
My breath hitches.
“I think you mean that!”
“I do.” Dmitri sighs. “Dmitri realized what I was doing so he took something I loved away to keep as leverage. Leverage that I’d honor our plan of getting you married to Radomir, and hopefully pregnant on or around your twenty-second birthday when you could get your inheritance.”
“Then you led me into a fucking trap.” Anger boils inside me.
“No. I went to my sister and your father,” Dmitri admits. “I told them that Carlos was coming for them—for you. I couldn’t do anything about it because he had Wanda.”
“So it was Galina and my father that led me into the trap with the compliments of my Uncle Mark.”
It is not a nice feeling having other people dictate my life, which if Radomir finds out what I did. I fear it is not going to last much longer. So what little time I may have left? I’m fucked if I’m letting anyone dictate the terms to me.
My eyes scan the grounds, and I frown when I see movement to the side of near a mermaid fountain. I watch for a few seconds more, but nothing moves. It must’ve been the wind. I turn back to Dmitri. I now have conflicting emotions for the guy. He’s bad as all hell but I feel he’s being genuine when he says all he wanted to do was protect me, although I don’t know how protecting it is that I’m locking in a dungeon unless he’s expecting a nuclear fallout.