Chapter 1 #2
Our housekeeper, Ann, comes into the room, bringing plates filled with food. “I hope the food is to your liking.” She doesn’t comment on me being here. Ann is a woman who does her job and has never asked too many questions.
“Thank you, Ann,” Dimitri says.
The middle aged woman nods, making her red hair bob around her chin. “If you need anything else, let me know.”
“Of course.”
Once Ann leaves the room, we all begin to eat. It’s a quiet affair, for which I’m grateful. I don’t really want to be interrogated anymore about my previous panic attack.
Sofiya and Dimitri exchange concerned looks and I choose to ignore them.
The same age as me, Sofiya has always felt much more womanly than me.
More mature, like she’s been through more in life.
I know for a fact that I’ll never get to grow into a woman, partly because Dimitri will always protect me, and partly because it’s just a struggle to eat in the dining room with my family.
If this is a struggle, then how can I ever expect to have a life outside of this house?
Once the meal is over, I immediately leave the table and head right back to my room before Sofiya and Dimitri can stop me. I need the comfort of it or I might die.
Alek
The smell of warm cinnamon is in the air as I enter the home of Maria Petrov, a good friend of mine. Her husband, Gregor, was one of my best friends until he passed away a few years ago, leaving behind Maria to care for their two daughters, Nina and Susanna.
“Alek,” Maria says with a bright smile, giving me a hug once I step over the threshold.
“It smells wonderful in here, Maria.”
“Good. My chef has been cooking all day to make you the perfect dinner tonight. It’s not every day you come over. The girls have missed you.”
“And I’ve missed them.”
Maria claps her hands together. “Girls, come here.”
Nina and Susanna appear in the foyer. At seventeen and sixteen respectively, they’re on their way to becoming women but I still see them as the little girls they once were.
“Hi, uncle Alek,” Nina says, giving me a hug. I helped raise them after Gregor died and when Gregor was still alive, I was always like a fun uncle to them. Even though they’re not my blood related daughters, they’re close to being so. They are my family.
Maria, who’s in her late fifties, had the girls later in life. She and Gregor had struggled to conceive for years and it finally happened and then happened right away again. She always calls them her miracle babies.
“Susanna,” I say, opening my arms. She rolls her eyes but gives me a hug too. Susanna was always one prone to attitude.
“Hi uncle Alek,” she mumbles.
“Your hair is blonde,” I say. “When did it become blonde?”
“When I was tired of being a brunette,” she says it like it’s supposed to be obvious to me but it’s not obvious at all.
“Your older sister has brown hair.”
“Well, I wanted to look different from Nina. So sue me.”
“I think it looks horrible on her,” Nina says. “She should have stuck to the brown.”
Susanna flips her blonde hair over her shoulder. “No. This makes me stand out. I want nothing more.”
“Girls, enough,” Maria says. “Alek is here to enjoy a meal together. Not listen to you fight all the time. Come along, Alek.”
We settle in the dining room and enjoy a three course meal. Nina and Susanna bicker amongst each other for the entire night. Maria looks like she’s going to die of a headache real soon.
The housekeeper, Sarah, comes to collect the plates when we’re finished eating. Looking at her gives me an idea. One that has come at the perfect time.
Nina and Susanna gladly go back to their rooms to be on their phones while Maria and I talk.
“Are you ok?” I ask her.
She rubs her temple. “I’m just tired. Tired of dealing with both those girls. They’re menaces. Spoiled rotten because of their father.” She shoots me a look. “And because of you.”
“Sorry.”
“When are you going to have kids of your own? You’re already thirty-eight. You should get on it soon.”
“Are you offering, Maria?”
She swats my arm. “Of course not.” We both know our relationship is just that of friends. I would never go after Gregor’s wife, not just because she’s in her late fifties but because I respect my old friend too much.
Besides, I have a different idea brewing. One much more fun.
“When I meet the woman of my dreams,” I say.
“You have Dimitri Ivanov breathing down your neck. You need to be careful. He might hurt you before you can meet the woman of your dreams.”
“Dimitri hasn’t hurt me so far.” He hasn’t been able to. I’m always surrounded by guards. Right now, I have five guards outside this house, keeping an eye on me.
“But he might. Why did you let him live?”
About a month ago, Dimitri and I faced off in a fight. I could have killed him but I chose to let him go. I want to hurt him and killing him is too easy. I have plans for him that require him to be alive.
“It’s better I don’t discuss business with you,” I say. “For your own safety.”
She nods. “You’re right. Those girls only have me left. If something were to happen to me…”
“I would take them in. You know that. Even after they turn eighteen. I’ll always make sure they’re ok.”
“Good. Thank you, Alek.”
“Of course. Now, I have somewhere I need to be.”
“Business you can’t talk to me about?”
“Yes. Afraid so.” I give her another hug before leaving her house. Seeing Maria’s housekeeper, Sarah, tonight planted the perfect idea in my mind. The best way to get to Dimitri.
The thing is: Dimitri and I have been at each other’s throats for months now. I’ve been encroaching on his territory, gaining strength and power, and he doesn’t fucking like it. Well too bad. Because I’m not going anywhere.
He’s been trying to kill me for months but I keep evading his attempts. I know he’s trying to kill me and make my death look like an accident. I’m not going to let that happen. Dimitri needs to be punished for what he’s attempted to do to me.
So, that’s exactly why I’m going after the thing he loves the most in this world: his elusive sister.
I went after his wife, Sofiya, a month ago but that didn’t pan out.
Sofiya loves her husband too much for me to do anything about it.
No. I need to target another woman in Dimitri’s life who might open her heart up to me.
I want to kidnap his sister and beat her down until she’s mine.
That will hurt Dimitri to his cold, icy core. It’s the only way.
The problem is trying to get to his sister.
She’s been a rumor for years. People talk about her like she’s a ghost. No one has ever seen her but everyone knows she exists.
It’s not hard to find out Dimitri’s past. How his father killed his mother and he took his sister in to raise her as his own daughter.
I know something of being a surrogate father.
But despite never having seen Katya, I know she exists. There’s no record of her dying.
And when I kidnapped Sofiya from Dimitri a month ago, I was in Dimitri’s bedroom. I remember seeing a door against the wall in his room. A bookshelf was opened up to reveal the door as if it was hidden.
I remember Sofiya looking at it, like she was trying to decide if she wanted to hide in it or not. But then she chose not to… like she was trying to protect someone on the other side.
Dimitri’s sister, perhaps?
It won’t be possible for me to break back into his house. Dimitri has upped his guard count around his house after I kidnapped Sofiya. So, I’ll need another way into that house and I know just the way.
Ann, the housekeeper. Dimitri’s housekeeper.
Chances are, she’s too loyal to Dimitri. She won’t just tell me about his sister, even if I threaten her life. But I’ve looked into her and there’s nothing I can use against her to blackmail her. She’s squeaky clean.
So that leaves me no choice.
I call up one of my guys, Sean, and tell him to keep an eye on Ann for the week. Watch her. Follow her. Find out where she lives. And when the time is right, I’ll kill her and make room for a new housekeeper to take her place.
One I can mold to kidnap Dimitri’s sister for me.
After a week, Sean shows up at my house with Ann beside him. She has duct tape over her mouth and her hands are tied behind her back. The poor woman looks terrified. I don’t blame her.
“Hello,” I say, peeling her duct tape off.
“What is this?” she demands to know.
“It’s nothing personal. You’re just a means to an end.” I nod at Sean and he wraps a plastic bag over her head. Ann struggles and kicks and scratches but it’s no use. She’s not surviving tonight. Once she stops fighting, her body goes limp.
“Get her out of here,” I tell Sean. “Make it appear like she chose to leave the city. Do not let her body be found.”
“You got it, Boss.” Sean heads out with Ann’s body in tow to do as I said. A good loyal follower.
That’s what I need in a new housekeeper.
It’s not hard to find women in desperate need of a job to interview for the position. I just need to make sure that Dimitri hires the one I choose without questioning it.
I settle on the perfect woman: Alice. She’s in her forties, so still young enough to need a job but old enough that she has a trusting face.
“So, Alice,” I say after I invite her to my home. She was once a teacher who lost her job and is in desperate need of money. “You need a job, do you not?”
“Who are you, exactly?” she asks, looking around my living room. I had put an ad up on every job site and waited to see who would bite. Alice was the first one which tells me just how desperate she is. It wasn’t hard to look into her and have her come over to my home.
“I’m the one who’s going to make you a ton of money. I have a job for you. One of my colleagues is looking for a housekeeper and you’re going to have an interview for it. And you’re going to get that job like your life depends on it. Because it does depend on it. Is that clear?”
Her eyes widen and she slowly nods. I won’t actually kill the woman but a threat is a threat and she doesn’t know what I know.
“You’re going to get a job working for Dimitri Ivanov. And once you have that job, you’re going to do another favor for me.”
“Why would I do any of this in the first place?”
“Because I’ll pay you a lot of money to make this happen. How does a million dollars sound?”
All the breath leaves her body. “A million dollars sounds perfect. Too good to be true.”
“Because it is. The favor I need of you isn’t exactly… legal.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’ll tell you once you get the job. But if you agree to do this, then there’s no going back. Or I won’t just take your money away. I’ll take your life away. Is that understood?”
She gulps. “Yes.”
“Good. So get the job, Alice. Get the job.”
She agrees to do as I say and practically runs from my house. After she gets the job, I’ll explain to her what else I need. How I need her to find Dimitri’s elusive sister and kidnap her for me. Dimitri won’t suspect his own housekeeper.
Alice will have to gain Dimitri’s sister’s trust to get her to leave but I have faith in Alice because Alice is desperate enough for money to do anything I ask of her.
The more I think about Dimitri’s sister, the more I realize I don’t even know anything about her. Well that will be changed soon enough.
When she becomes my prisoner. When I have beaten Dimitri down and I have won.