Chapter 6 Elena
ELENA
Anna and I were riding high on finding out we would be making a new life for ourselves in New York City, a place we knew only from movies.
We spent the summer practicing our English, so we would be prepared.
Unfortunately, in the middle of my last summer at home, my sister lost her battle with her drug addiction and was found dead from an overdose.
She was older than I was, so we weren’t close, and she battled demons for most of her life.
That was the turning point between my mother and me, the moment I told her that I wasn’t giving up my scholarship to Juilliard because of my sister’s untimely death.
And it was the moment my mother wanted nothing more to do with me.
I was so desperate to get out of my town, and maybe it was selfish of me not to stay and mourn with my mother, but we lost Alexandria a long time ago when she first started using drugs.
I had worked so hard to get this opportunity, to escape the bleak future that was waiting for me in Sochi.
I was so angry at my sister for being so selfish with her life, only caring about finding her next hit and not her family, and yet my mother wanted me to give up my bright future to sit and mourn my sister’s dark end.
I loved my sister, don’t get me wrong, but I couldn’t stay there any longer.
My future was in New York, I was destined to be someone more than I could ever be if I stayed at home.
I guess karma got me in the end. The bright future I thought I was choosing ended up being so much darker than any I would have had if I had stayed back in Sochi.
Who knew nearly one year to the day later, it would be my turn to die? It was the last time Elena Vasiliev and Anna Sokolov, Juilliard students, were ever seen alive.
“It’s an end-of-summer party in The Hamptons, Maxim.
Everyone is going. We will meet lots of celebrities and maybe one of them will put us in their videos,” I explain to my brother, who had called to check in with me and moan about Mom and Dad and their divorce.
Not long after I left for New York, the cracks in our parents’ marriage appeared, and six months later they were divorcing.
My mother had already moved on to a new man, a widower, who was rich and had an already inbuilt family who needed her compared to her own that didn’t.
“Do you know these people, Elena? You need to be careful,” he asks protectively.
“Maxim. This is America, it’s not like home,” I say, rolling my eyes at my overprotective brother.
“I know. I’ve been there before. Not everyone has your or Anna’s best interests at heart,” he answers sharply.
Maxim is being annoying, but I know he is only like this because he cares. “I promise Anna and I won’t put ourselves in any danger. We know how to look after ourselves. I promise we will stay together. No drinking. No drugs. Nothing, we will stay sober,” I promise him.
“I trust you, Elena. It is the others I don’t,” he grumbles.
“Max, Anna and I have been working every single day since we arrived here. We have spent the entire summer doing classes, this is literally our last weekend of freedom before we do it all again. We need this,” I tell him.
There’s a huff down the line. “You know it’s because I worry and …”
He doesn’t need to say it because he works for some of the biggest criminals in the world. Every day my brother and Sergei, Anna’s father, see the filth of this earth. Of course, he is going to see the world through a more tainted lens than we do.
“I love you, Maxim. I know if I ever needed you, you’d be there in an instant waging war for me. Please, trust me,” I ask him.
“Fine. Have fun. Text me as soon as you get there. Check in every day so I know you are okay. Otherwise, your brother will be crashing your weekend,” he warns.
“I promise,” I tell him, and with that, we end our call.
“It’s time to party, isn’t it?” Anna asks.
I nod and we both squeal with excitement.
Anna and I are at a college friend’s holiday home for the weekend. It’s this huge estate looking over the Atlantic Ocean. Never in my life have we seen anything so opulent. Who knew people grew up like this?
“It’s skinny-dipping time, ladies,” Taylor calls out, wiggling his dark brows at the two of us as a group of them stumble toward the ocean. It’s well past midnight, and we’ve all had too many bottles of beer.
“I don’t think this is a good idea,” I tell Anna.
“Look at the ocean, it’s calm. It’s a full moon. There’s nothing to worry about,” Anna reassures me.
“Except sharks?” I add with a giggle.
She waves my fear away. “There are no sharks. Please, will you do this? I’ve been trying to work up the courage to kiss Taylor all evening and this is my chance,” Anna pleads with me.
She’s been crushing on Taylor Lee all year since he broke up with bitchy Brooke, but she’s too shy to make a move.
It’s only fair I should help my girl out and give her this weekend of fun with a hot guy before we are back into grueling hours of training.
“Come on then.” I grin as we run through the sand toward the water’s edge.
“Anna, I bet I can beat you to that orange buoy,” Taylor says, giving my friend a wide grin.
“Are you challenging me, Lee?” Anna bites back as she slowly starts to kick off her shoes, then peels off her sundress and exposes her skimpy underwear. Taylor’s eyes widen to saucers as he takes in Anna’s near-naked body.
“Yeah, I am.” He grins, his eyes never leaving my friend.
“What do I get if I win?” she asks, placing her hands on her hips.
“Meet me at the buoy and you’ll find out.” Taylor smirks as he kicks off his shoes, removes his T-shirt and then board shorts and runs into the water naked.
“Bye.” Anna waves to me as she rushes after him.
“He’s been wanting Anna since the day you two arrived at school,” Niko Matthews states. He is Taylor’s best friend and my current crush.
“He was with Brooke.”
“And now he’s not,” Niko adds.
Oh, maybe my friend is going to get lucky tonight with the man of her dreams after all. “Guess we’ll see who is the first one to the buoy.”
“Pretty sure they are both going to win, Taylor did enter the water naked,” Niko says with a chuckle.
“Hey, my friend isn’t that easy,” I say, turning and pointing my finger at him in warning.
Niko holds up his hands in the air but gives me a lazy smirk. “True, the water is probably cold. Wouldn’t give the best first impression.”
That makes me laugh until yelling pulls my attention from my crush to the water.
It’s Taylor screaming. He’s standing on the buoy and he’s alone.
My stomach sinks as I desperately look around the ocean for Anna’s blonde head that seconds ago was bobbing along the inky black surface right beside Taylor.
I lost her when she went around the right-hand side of the buoy.
“Shit, Anna,” Niko curses as he begins to pull off his clothes.
I do the same. Where the hell are you, Anna?
You better not be messing around, now is not the time.
I kick off my shoes, peel off my dress, and jump into the dark water.
It’s a hell of a lot colder than the summer temperature would have you thinking.
My arms push through the current, every part of me aching as panic laces my skin.
I continue, seeing myself getting closer and closer to where Taylor and Niko are standing on the buoy and screaming out into the water for Anna.
Next thing I know, something grabs me, and I am pulled beneath the surface before I even have a chance to scream. A breathing apparatus is shoved over my face before something pinches me and everything turns dark.
I don’t know how long it has been when I wake up, but I am in a bright white, fluorescent, sterile booth. I’m in what appears to be a gray jumpsuit stuck in a glass box. What the hell is happening?
“Good to see you are awake, Miss Vasiliev.” A voice comes through in stereo into the room.
“Who are you? Where am I? Where’s Anna?” I scream into the white abyss.
“All questions that will be answered shortly. Please have something to eat and drink and we will take you to Anna,” the voice explains.
Am I high? Or is this heaven? Did I drown? I don’t understand what’s happening.
Moments later, a tray with a bread roll and a bottle of water is pushed through a slot.
Am I in jail? My stomach grumbles and it sounds like they want me to eat before bringing me to Anna.
I quickly shovel the roll into my mouth and throw back the bottle of water.
Once I place the empty bottle back on the tray, a loud buzz fills the room, and the door to my cage swings open.
Standing before me is a large man in a suit, looking like he’s stepped off the set of Men in Black, and a young woman who looks equally as blank.
“Thank you for following instructions so perfectly, Miss Vasiliev. You may now follow me,” the man states.
I hesitate for a moment, confused by what is happening, but they said they would take me to Anna, and I’ll do anything they say if it means we are reunited.
I follow them both down a long corridor.
We take a left and then a right, and we arrive at another glass room.
I can see Anna is in the box, she is curled up into a ball, crying.
My hand reaches out and touches the glass as tears fall down my cheeks seeing my best friend lying there broken.
The door to the room opens, and I don’t wait for the robotic people to tell me to enter, I rush toward my friend.
“Anna, it’s me. I’m here. You’re safe,” I say to her in Russian.
Anna screams when she sees me, then wraps her arms around me tightly. Her entire body is shaking with fear as I try to soothe her.
“I promise, I’ll get you out of here. Wherever we are.”