Chapter 8
Chapter
Eight
AVA
“ N ikolai, where’s my mom?” I repeat, frantically looking between him and the blood stain on the ground.
“I … don’t know,” he admits, which frightens me more than anything. If there’s one thing I can count on when it comes to Nikolai, it’s that he’s a powerful man, and powerful men know everything.
“I thought you did a background check on me. Wouldn’t you have figured out what happened to my mom’s body?”
“I did a check on you. Not your mother. I didn’t know your father shot her. I wasn’t there when it happened. I didn’t have any of my men watching when it happened. I don’t know what happened here, but I can find out.”
“You will?” I ask slowly.
“You don’t believe me.”
“Can you blame me?”
He turns to face me fully. “I will find out what happened to your mother, Ava. That, I can do.”
I have to look away from his intense stare. “Why are you helping me? You’ve only hurt me before and now you’re helping.” A thought enters my mind and makes me shiver. “Are you rewarding me for what we did in the bathroom?”
“I’m not rewarding you.” He doesn’t explain further, and I don’t ask for more.
“Who could have taken her body?” The minute I ask, I know. “My father. He had to have taken her. He’s the only one who knew what happened to her.”
“I’ll ask him. But, Ava, we should leave. A murder was committed here, no matter what happened to your mother’s body. I’ll send someone to clean up the blood. But we can’t be found here.”
“Are you worried about getting into trouble? I feel like you’re someone who the police wouldn’t even touch.”
A subtle smirk crosses his lips before he returns to usual stoic expression. “You’re right. But I’m not invincible. We need to leave. Now.”
I plant my feet into the ground. “No. I need to talk to my father.”
“ I will talk to him.”
“No. He needs to hear it from me. He did this to me. He should see my face as I question him about my mom.”
Nikolai sighs deeply and runs a hand down his face. “Ava, you’re not thinking straight. You’re not going to see your father. He cannot be trusted.”
“Why? Because he sold me to you?”
“Exactly.”
That pulls me up short. “Did you really buy me from him because you wanted to keep me safe from anyone else he might have sold me to?” A part of me desperately hopes this is true.
And then Nikolai speaks. “You can pretend I’m a good man, but I’m not. Now, we need to leave.”
His words send a dagger straight into my heart. Nikolai has proven time and again that I cannot trust him. So, why do I keep holding out hope?
“I’m staying,” I say. “You’ll need to drag me out of here if you expect me to leave.”
“That can be arranged.”
I swallow hard. He’s standing so close to me, and I can smell his warm scent, and all I can think about is what we did in the bathroom. How I touched myself and how he looked at me as I did it.
I cannot lose my nerve with him. If I’m not careful, Nikolai will consume all of me, and I need to stay focused and find my mom.
“I’m not leaving,” I repeat.
“Fine.” He grabs me around the waist and hoists me over his shoulder. Suddenly, my world is upside down.
“What are you going?” I gasp.
“Getting you out of here since you refuse to do as I say.” Then he carries me out of the room, and I only get one last glimpse at the blood stain on the ground before we’re gone.
“Nikolai, please. I need to find my mom. Give me this, at least.”
His arm is over my lower back, so close to my lower body. If he just moved his arm down … I don’t go there. I’m very aware of the fact my dress has ridden up and exposed more of my legs and that Nikolai has to see it. He just has to.
And then he’s setting me down beside the car. Without a look at me, he gets in and orders me to do the same.
With one last look at the apartment, I do as he says. The truth is—my father lives in New York, not New Haven. I need to get back to New York to talk to him.
That’s the only reason I’m going along with what Nikolai wants.
The image of the bloodstain on the floor fills my mind. It doesn’t go away when I sleep. It doesn’t go away when I’m awake. It’s still there when Claude makes snide comments to me about how much I haven’t been eating. It’s also there when Mrs. Brown tries to comfort me.
None of it works.
My mom’s body was just … gone. So, what happened to her?
I can’t wait for Nikolai to ask questions—if he even will.
I need to do it myself. My father is my problem. He killed my mother. It’s only fair that I’m the one to confront him about this.
He lives not too far from Nikolai actually. It shouldn’t take long to get to him—I just need to get past Nikolai’s guards. The moment I leave the house, they’ll see me. Or Edmund will alert Nikolai. Nothing is binding me to the house, and yet I’m a prisoner.
The only time that makes sense is at night when I can use the cover of darkness to help protect me against the guards Nikolai has stationed across the street.
So, that’s what I do. I wait and wait and wait until it’s time.
Edmund leaves his post around ten at night. Mrs. Brown and Edmund both live within the large house. I keep my eye on him—hidden in the living room—as he heads to the staff quarters, and then I make my way to the front door. I made sure to wear a long shirt and a long skirt since there wasn’t any pants in the closet, and I put the hood up on my jacket for good measure.
Nikolai doesn’t stop me as I leave the house. Once more, I wonder why he doesn’t just lock me up. Why does he keep allowing me to escape? Does he hope I’ll return of my own accord?
Never.
Now that I know where Nikolai’s guards are stationed, I see them immediately. They’re in the car across the street. Because I see them, they must see me, too, which means I only have a few minutes at most to make my escape and try to lose them.
After a few minutes of walking, I glance behind me and spy one of the guards, keeping his distance, following me. I turn the corner then another and another, but each time, he’s still behind me.
I head down to the subway. Earlier today, I made sure to sneak some money out of Mrs. Brown’s purse. Was it wrong of me to steal from her? Yes. But I need answers about my mother, and my father is the only one who knows. He has to since he’s the one who killed her. This world is a dark place, and slowly, it’s turning me into a different person—one who steals without remorse.
I buy a ticket and hurry through to the platform where a train has just pulled up. I jump on board. When I glance back, I see the guard on the platform, his cell phone raised to his ear. Calling Nikolai, I’m sure.
But I’m free of him.
I wait a few stops before getting off the subway and hurrying to the street above. My father’s house is farther away now, and I have no choice but to go down to a different subway station and take another train back to where he lives. All in all, it takes me about an hour. Nikolai will know I’m gone by now.
I just need to talk to my father first, and then I’ll return with Nikolai when he inevitably finds me.
My father’s apartment is in a large, Gothic-looking building. The gargoyles above always creeped me out as a child. When my mother and I left this place in the middle of the night five years ago, I remember staring at those gargoyles as we went. They stared back at me, almost judging me for choosing my mom over my father.
Now, they’re judging me again.
I hurry up to his apartment and knock on the door. It takes me knocking multiple times for him to answer.
His eyes widen when he sees me. “Ava?” My father looks just as bad as he did the night he killed my mother and kidnapped me. All leathery skin and greasy hair. “You shouldn’t be here.”
“Why shouldn’t I be? Oh. That’s right. Because you sold me to Nikolai Petrov.”
His shock turns into annoyance. “That’s right. I did. So, you need to go back to him right now.” He starts to shut the door on me, but I slam my hand against it and shove it open, making him stumble back. It’s satisfying seeing him look afraid.
I was afraid, too.
Now, I see my father for who he really is. I’m not afraid of him any longer because he already did the worst thing he could to me.
“I’m not going back to my husband,” I seethe, “until you tell me what happened to my mom.”
He frowns. “Your mom?”
“Yes, my mom!” My voice echoes through the apartment. The reason it’s so echo-y is because there’s barely any furniture inside. “Where is everything?” I ask, the shock distracting me from my purpose.
“I … had to sell it.”
“What?”
He scratches the back of his neck. “I needed the money.”
“But you have money. Nikolai paid you five million dollars for me. He paid off your debt.”
“Well, you know, five million dollars doesn’t get you very far in New York these days.”
I stare at him, slowly realizing what he’s saying. “You … you lost it all. Already? It’s only been a couple of weeks since you sold me to Nikolai.”
“Well, as I said, five million really isn’t much these days.”
“You’ve got to be kidding. Are you serious? Are you serious!”
He flinches before quickly turning to anger. It’s the same expression he had on the day he killed my mom. “Who are you to come in here and judge me? I gave you everything growing up. You should be fucking grateful.”
“I should be grateful you sold me to a Bratva man because you were so far in debt? I should be grateful for that?”
“Yes,” he says without any shame. “I gave you a good life, Ava. Now, you’re married to a powerful man. You don’t have to worry about money. Most women would kill to be in your shoes.”
“I didn’t get a choice. You stole it from me!”
And then comes the slap. The sudden, hot pain that crosses my face makes me stumble back.
“Just shut up,” he hisses. “I saved you, you little slut. And look where that got me? I’m out of money again. I have nothing.”
“You killed my mother,” I sob, clutching my cheek. “What happened to her?”
“What do you mean?”
“I went to bury her, and her body wasn’t there. What happened to her? Did you bury her somewhere?”
He slowly shakes his head, frowning. “I didn’t bury her. I haven’t been back to see her since …”
“Since you killed her.”
There’s that flinch again. “I didn’t mean to. She just got in the way.”
“What happened to her?”
“I have no idea what you mean.”
“You shot her! You killed her! When you took me and gave me away to that auction, did you not go back to check on her?”
From his expression, it’s clear he didn’t. He can’t even look me in the eye.
“So, you haven’t been back to see her?” I ask more slowly.
“No. I haven’t.”
“So, then, what happened to her body?”
“I don’t know. I just don’t know.”
I scoff. “And you didn’t care to know?”
The look he gives me is hard and flat. “She made her choices. She left me. What happened to her after that was on her.”
“Her body is gone,” I whisper. “Who took it? The police?”
“I haven’t heard anything. No police have shown up to ask me questions.”
“Then who?”
He opens his mouth to speak then shakes his head and grabs my shoulders. “I’m taking you back to your husband. He’ll pay me even more now for you.”
“You already got your money from him, and you wasted it. On what?” I notice the empty alcohol bottles everywhere. “Could you be even more of a cliché?”
Before I can react, he slaps me again. I jerk back, clutching my face. I wonder if I’ll bruise, and I wonder what Nikolai will do about it. Will he kill my father? Would he do it if I asked him to?
Do I even want my father dead?
“I’m taking you back,” he says, no emotion in his voice. He was always good about shutting down when he needed to. I was always envious of that. Still am. If I could just shut down my emotions, the world would be an easier place to handle.
“No. I won’t allow you to look like some hero to Nikolai. You won’t get another cent from him.”
He comes at me so fast that it’s barely a blink before he’s leaning over me, grabbing my shoulders, and forcing me toward the door.
Someone knocks. We both freeze.
Someone knocks again. “Charles, I know you’re in there.”
It’s not Nikolai. It’s another man. His voice is oddly familiar, but I can’t place it.
“Shit,” my father mutters. “Shit, shit, shit.” He lets me go and begins pacing around the room.
“What’s going on?” I ask.
He runs his hands over his hair and face. “Shit!”
“Charles,” the man on the other side speaks. “Let me in. You owe me. I’ve come to collect.”
This isn’t good. Not one bit.
My father finally walks over to the door and cracks it open. “Hi … Maxim. Uh, listen, now is not a good time. But if you came back tomorrow, I swear I’ll have the money for you and?—”
Maxim pushes the door open and steps inside. Two other men follow him. They’re all wearing biker jackets. The Knights is written on the back.
I instantly know where I recognize this man. He came to my wedding and threatened Nikolai.
Maxim is an intimidating figure, with his height, broad shoulders, and dark eyes. If I wasn’t so scared, I’d think he was handsome.
I ease back toward the nearest room—a bathroom—to seek cover but Maxim sees me and holds me in place with his intense gaze.
“Who is this?” he asks.
I let out a slow breath. He doesn’t recognize me. Nikolai did push me behind him when Maxim showed up at the church, so maybe he didn’t get a good look at me. My hood is still covering my hair and half my face.
“My daughter,” Father answers for me. “Listen, Maxim, I can get you the money, but?—”
Maxim holds up a hand. “Just shut the fuck up. You came into our clubhouse and gambled away tons of money. You gambled so much of it away that, now, you owe us. You need to come work for us to pay it off.”
“And if I refuse?”
Maxim pulls out a gun, and the air in the room changes. “Then I’ll kill you. I don’t need weasel-y men causing issues. Now, pay me the money you owe us.”
The two men behind Maxim crack their knuckles at the same time. These men will hurt my father if he doesn’t pay up. That much is obvious.
I won’t stop them from hurting him. But what if they try and hurt me? Despite how I feel for Nikolai, I know he doesn’t want me dead or … worse. My father will help take me back to him.
There’s only one way out of this—help my father.
“How much does he owe?” I ask, my voice quiet and reedy.
Maxim barely spares me a glance. “Five hundred grand.”
I turn to my father. “Do you not have anything to pay them back? Money stashed anywhere?”
He shakes his head.
“I’d listen to your daughter,” Maxim says.
“Just give me until tomorrow,” Father begs, “and I’ll have the money.”
“How? What’s going to change between today and tomorrow to magically give you five hundred grand?”
He flicks his gaze to me. I get it. He’s hoping to re-sell me to Nikolai and get the money to pay Maxim.
Maxim notices the look and turns to me, giving me a new, curious look. “What am I not understanding?”
I open my mouth to explain, but then my father cuts me off. “You can have her. You can have my daughter.”
My entire body tenses, and everything goes numb again. Maybe that’s for the best. If I can’t feel anything, then nothing can hurt.
Maxim’s entire demeanor changes. He went from looking annoyed to now looking lethal as he leans over my father. “You would give me your daughter?”
No. I can’t be given to anyone else. I’m not sure I’ll survive it.
“Yes,” my father replies. “She’s easily worth five hundred grand.” From five million down to five hundred. I see my worth in my father’s eyes, and it’s zero.
Maxim glares down at my father for the longest moment until he stands back and laughs. Actually laughs like he’s watching a comedy. I see nothing funny in it. “I’m not going to take your daughter, you fucktard.”
I gasp.
“I don’t buy women,” Maxim continues. “I have no use for her. It’s you I need.” He presses his gun to my father’s head. “I need you to pay me the money you owe us. And I need you to pay up right now. Or I’ll put a bullet in your fucking head.”
My father catches my gaze. “Ava, help me.”
I don’t say a word. Maxim doesn’t intend to buy me, which makes me feel like I can trust him. I know my father doesn’t have my back.
I take a step farther away.
“Please!” he begs.
“Your daughter can’t help you now,” Maxim says. “I’ll give you thirty seconds to tell me where you have the money hidden. If you can’t, you’re dead.”
“I …”
“Think. Hard.”
Father scrunches his face up and pretends to think, but everyone in this room knows he doesn’t have the money.
“Thirty seconds are up,” Maxim says.
“Wait. Wait! There’s something you don’t know. Ava, my daughter, she’s married to Nikolai Petrov. You can use her.”
My heart drops right into my stomach. Maxim hates Nikolai. I’m not sure what happened between them, but I know if you show up to someone’s wedding and threaten them, you’re not friends.
My father just put me into even more danger.
Maxim lowers his gun and turns to me. “Is that true?”
I don’t speak.
“Answer me. Are you really Nikolai Petrov’s wife?”
“It doesn’t matter what I say,” I speak, surprising myself. “You can find out that information for yourself.”
Maxim approaches me and reaches for my face. I flinch, but he only grabs my hood and pushes it off me. “Huh. It really is you. I was at your wedding.”
“I know.” I gulp. “Are you going to kill me?”
“Why would I kill you?”
“Because you want to hurt Nikolai for some reason. Why else threaten him? How better to hurt him than to use his own wife against him.”
Maxim rocks back on his heels. “That’s a good point. You’re a smart girl.”
“That’s what everyone tells me.”
“Do you know what he did to me? To us?” He nods at his two friends.
“No.”
“He killed our president. Just shot him in cold blood, all because he could. He then made me president of The Knights. He wanted me to be a good little dog to him. I came to your wedding to tell him I wouldn’t be that for him. But you see, I’m not a dog. I’m a man, and I have the ability for rational thought. I could hurt you. I could make Nikolai regret how he treated The Knights.”
I stare at the floor, waiting for Maxim to grab me. Waiting for him to hurt me.
But it never comes.
“I’m not going to use you to hurt Nikolai,” Maxim continues. “I’m going to use you as an opportunity.”
“An … opportunity?” I ask.
“For peace. I’ll deliver you back to your husband as a gesture of good will. And in return, he leaves The Knights alone. No more deals. No more working together. We part ways and don’t step on each other’s toes. I see a good opportunity before me. What’s your name again?”
I clear my throat. “Ava.”
“Right. Ava. I’m taking you back to your husband. Nikolai better appreciate my gesture of good will.”
I hope so, too.
I nod at my father. “What about him?”
Maxim stares at me for a moment before turning to my father and firing. The bullet lands in his leg. My father screams and falls to the floor.
“If he can crawl himself to safety,” Maxim says, “then he can live. Now, let’s go.”
“But your money,” I say.
“Making peace is more important than money.” He gently grabs my arm and leads me from the apartment. My father’s screams follow us.
When we reach Maxim’s motorcycle, I hesitate. Is he just pretending to be nice, and when I get on, he’ll actually kidnap me to send me back into a sex trafficking ring?
Maxim notices. “I won’t hurt you. I really do want peace with your husband.”
All I can do is take him at his word; though I took Dimitri at his word, too, and he screwed me over. But I can tell Maxim isn’t Dimitri. There’s an honesty to his expression I trust.
After we get on the motorcycle, he has me wrap my arms around his back. Nikolai won’t like this.
Maxim drives me back to Nikolai’s house. The wind whips through my hair, and the intensity scares me. The motorcycle life is not for me.
The moment we arrive at Nikolai’s house, Edmund comes running outside. “Ava. Thank god you’re all right. Get away from her.” He tries shooing Maxim away, but Maxim walks right past him up to the house.
“Mr. Petrov isn’t here,” Edmund explains.
“Then I can wait.”
“Where is he?” I ask Edmund.
“Out looking for you. I’ll call him and let him know you’re back.”
Why does the idea of Nikolai searching for me make my stomach flutter? It’s not from fear.
It’s from that word I can barely make myself admit. Arousal .
After Edmund calls Nikolai, it takes less then fifteen minutes for Nikolai to pull up to the sidewalk. Edmund, Maxim, and I all stand on the front steps. Maxim’s two men stay on their bikes, but I can tell they’re watching.
The air is tense as Nikolai slowly approaches. Without a word to me, he positions his body between me and Maxim. “What the fuck are you doing here?”
Maxim nods at me. “I brought her back to you. Her father was trying to sell her to me.”
Nikolai tenses and glances at me. I can feel the heat on my face. Eventually, he turns back to Maxim. “So … you’re saying you saved my wife?”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying.” Maxim crosses his arms. “Look, Nikolai, I want peace. I don’t want to fight. I just don’t want to be treated like a fucking dog. Take this as a peace offering. I didn’t harm your wife. She can tell you. I don’t want to be owned by you. This is me saying The Knights will no longer be working for you.”
“You just made that decision all on your own?” Nikolai asks in a low voice.
“I did. Because you made me the president of The Knights. Take the win, Nikolai. I won’t come for you. Don’t come for me.” He doesn’t wait for Nikolai to respond as he gets on his bike and rides away.
Edmund, Nikolai, and I are all quiet.
When I finally try to speak, he walks into the house without even looking at me. The fact he didn’t even check in to see if I’m ok hurts. But then again, Nikolai and I don’t have a real marriage. A real one is built on love and respect.
So, why should it matter how he treats me?
NIKOLAI
Dimitri is dancing with a pretty redhead at his fucking loud club as I storm up to him. After he takes one look at me, he apologizes to the girl, and we head up to his private booth.
“What’s up, Nik?” he asks.
I don’t bother correcting him this time. I have other things to worry about. Mostly, that Maxim thought he could use my own wife as a bargaining chip against me. He wants peace.
But he just declared an act of war by even going near Ava in the first place.
“I want Maxim Baranov dead. And I want it to be bloody.”
Dimitri slowly smiles, telling me everything I need to know.