6. Elanee
6
ELANEE
N ow
Connor points a gun to the back of Dmitri’s head. I thought warning him away one week ago at the event was enough. I should’ve known better. Dmitri always has and always will do what he wants. The problem being is that he’s fallen into their trap.
I can tell for once Dmitri is caught off guard as well, most likely because his attention was solely on me as he pushed me against the kitchen bench and the gun in my hand away. We were so absorbed in one another that neither of us noticed Connor entering the same way Dmitri had, over the balcony and through the back patio screen door.
The threat in Dmitri’s gaze returns. “And who the fuck are you?” he asks as he turns, his frame intentionally blocking me out of sight and most likely harm’s way. He’s quiet and calm, and I know that’s the most terrifying version of Dmitri.
When Dmitri fully turns, a flash of recognition crosses his features. Most likely because he saw Connor at the event. Even if Dmitri had done research on him after the party, it certainly wouldn’t advertise his underworld dealings.
I, however, know exactly who he is and what he’s capable of. He’s my keeper. The man tasked to ensure I do precisely what I’ve been told and when. I fight against receding into my shell, frightened by what’s going to become of tonight.
“Looks like you fell for The Lion’s trap, boy,” Connor enthuses, and he seems like he’s on something right now. Adrenaline. Drugs. Most likely both.
The mere mention of ‘The Lion,’ Dmitri’s father, has him stapled to the floor for different reasons now than simply protecting me. I can’t see his eyes, but I know a rage-fueled storm brews within them. Although he might despise his father for being a part of the Bratva, in moments like this… that palpable tension that surrounds him reminds me that they could be one and the same.
“Please go,” I beg as I pull on Dmitri’s arm because he will never see reason in moments like this. He doesn’t budge.
“And what connection do you have with The Lion?” Dmitri asks Connor, and it’s as calm as it is chilling.
I don’t want Dmitri to know the truth because I know he’ll try to save me. It’s exactly why I’ve cut off all ties with my friends and family. Anyone associated with me will only get hurt or killed.
Connor chuckles as if in on some inside joke—one I suddenly realize I’m in on. I’d suspected the reason why The Lion permitted my return to New York was to haunt his son. It was the only reason that I could come up with to explain him letting me come back. I’d been nothing but a toy to him these past few years, disposable even. And now he found a use for me—to demean the son he abandoned.
“I’m just the messenger.” Connor charms delightfully. “I was simply ordered to intervene the moment you two made contact. And it looks like you fell for the bait. Although I must confess, you made me wait a whole week.”
Dmitri makes no effort to move, most likely because he doesn’t want to expose me, but his cutting glare lands on me over his shoulder only for a second, and it’s enough to force me to want to retract back into myself.
The stare is cold.
Calculated.
Vexed.
I’m sorry. But the words fall short on my tongue. Why am I apologizing? Why can his gaze alone make me feel guilty for being caught in his father’s web?
He shouldn’t be looking at me as if I betrayed him. Wasn’t it because of my association with Dmitri Volkov that I met his father in the first place? Not that Dmitri ever knew that, and at the time, either did I until I was caged by The Lion after moving to Russia.
Everything after that happened absolutely destroyed me. Now, I was nothing but a broken dancer, held captive by his father. Caged and not allowed to have any association with my family and especially him.
People around me go missing.
Friends around me die.
Dmitri’s gaze has returned to Connor. And although his gaze was on me for only a moment, I’m rattled with a fiery vengeance as to how I ended up as a caged bird in the first place. Even though I might revolt Dmitri, or he doesn’t feel like he can trust me, he slowly nudges me toward my bedroom, making sure his body covers mine.
Tears well in my eyes as he makes no point to take the gun out of my hand because it’s the only item of defense I have on me.
It was only moments ago, he looked at me as if I’d betrayed him, yet Dmitri in every way is still acting the hero, ensuring I’m safe.
But it’s too late.
Has been for too many years now.
“Didn’t check who she belongs to, huh?” Connor queries joyfully. I suspected I was being watched in this apartment the moment I landed, but I didn’t think they’d be so responsive. So quick on the scene. It’s why I didn’t risk telling anyone I’d returned to New York, although I’d received a few messages since last week’s event. I ignored them.
“You have to leave.” I try my hardest to keep an even tone but fail. Because I know firsthand what his father is capable of.
“We have a problem if my father thinks he has any ownership over this woman.” Dmitri’s’ voice slices through the air and goosebumps erupt over my skin. The tension and energy shift with a lethal edge. “Stay in the room, Cricket.”
Tears spill over my cheeks with the use of the uncouth nickname he gave me in college when he first saw one of my ballet performances. It’s entirely not welcome in the current circumstances.
“I don’t think there will be a problem for much longer.” Connor smiles, and it’s like he’s been waiting for this moment as he cocks the gun.
Bang. Dmitri takes a shot to the shoulder but is unflinching as he pounces on Connor and wrestles him to the ground. I step out of the safety of the room and point my gun at them, rolling on the floor. It’s the same gun I pointed at Dmitri only minutes ago, but now I aim at Connor.
But if I shoot Connor, won’t The Lion punish me?
Won’t he punish my family?
My hands are shakier than they were only minutes ago when I first raised them.
Blood is seeping onto the wooden floorboards, and Dmitri grapples the freed gun and flicks it to the side. And then he’s punching.
Wildly.
Violently.
Unrelenting.
It strikes fear in me and resurfaces every brutal act I’ve witnessed in the last five years that I try to shove back down. But bile rises in my throat, nonetheless manifesting from the terror. This untapped and murderous intent is closer to his father than he realizes.
I can’t help but be taken aback into the abyss of all I’d learned and seen in Russia. How—
Snap. My mind goes blank. Silence. My hand goes to my mouth as Connor’s body goes limp on the floor. I stare at the body wide-eyed as Dmitri stands up and looms over his prey. “Did you just break his neck?” My voice is minuscule. Tiny in comparison to the insufferable tension circulating the room.
Trepidation trembles through my body as he approaches me. I limply lift the gun again, but he’s already caught my wrist, pushing it away. His gaze is a raging, living, tangible thing as it lands on the rose gold amethyst bracelet I wear. His father’s mark and branding. Something he didn’t notice last time because I hid it beneath the cuff of my long red dress.
“When did you get this?” He seethes. So much hate fills his stare. Bile rises in my throat, but I push it down. “Did he trap you? Did he hurt you? ”
“You need to leave.” My trembling voice doesn’t sound like my own. I’d kept it together for so long that I wasn’t willing to let myself fall apart now. “He’s going to come after you and everyone else.”
The truth.
The fear.
The monster would come.
He always did.
“Why didn’t you tell me sooner!” he snaps. “I can protect you.”
“You can’t!” I scream as I yank my wrist from his. “No one can stop him. He’ll kill us all.”
He winces under what he probably imagines to be an insult to his ability to protect me. Dmitri has heard stories of his father, but he’s never had to deal with him. He’s never seen his cruelty close up. After all, he was only five when his father cast out Dmitri and his mother.
“Over my dead body. You’re coming with me,” Dmitri snarls. His violent rage tightens his expression. His dress shirt spreads with red as if he still doesn’t register his own wound.
I step away from him and out of his grasp.
This is a test.
If I go with him, The Lion will kill my family.
Coming for me was the least of my worries.
But my family I would always protect.
So, I would remain as The Lion’s pet, even if only to patronize his son by simply living in the same city.
I just hope Dmitri wasn’t stupid enough to fall for the trap. Again.
“No! Listen to me, Dmitri.” Because as much as I hate him and I hate myself, I can’t put anyone else at risk. I rein in my nerves until a chilling ring echoes from the landline. Our heads snap toward its direction. My throat constricts as I glance at Connor’s dead body. I didn’t even know that phone worked.
Dmitri and I look at one another before he takes two steps back, his gaze never leaving mine, and he picks up the phone. It’s silent for a moment. Leaving me to grapple with a wild imagination of what consequence I might deal with for all of this.
Dmitri was never meant to be here tonight. I’d prayed that he’d never come.
A thick Russian accent coming from the phone breaks the silence, and I can hear The Lion clearly, even over the sound of my pounding heart in my ears. The room is so silent that his voice carries as if it were placed on speaker.
“It’s poor manners to touch what doesn’t belong to you.” My body laces with a crippling fear.
Dmitri’s hand tightens on the phone as he licks his lips. Was this the first time he’d spoken to him since he was five? “I’m taking her with me.”
A dark laugh follows through the other end of the line. “Not if she wants her sister and parents to live as well. Or maybe you can protect them, but what about her friends or previous colleagues? I know, what about the ballet school she taught for six months? What was the age group again… four to ten, I think it was? It’d be awfully sad for them to go missing one by one until she’s returned to me, wouldn’t you say?
You might have significant power and influence there, boy, but you can’t be in all places simultaneously. Maybe I’ll even start with the pretty friends she left behind here in Russia. It’d be sad to see such faces go to waste. Perhaps they’ll do well to service my men.”
My throat constricts as all of their faces come to mind. Anyone who’s held any value in my life is in danger.
“Dmitri. Please,” I beg .
“You have no right or claim in this city. Do you understand? And especially her. ” Dmitri seethes. He sounds just as lethal and has as little regard for the others’ lives as The Lion.
“No thanks to you, right? Plucking my businesses off one by one over the years? You were the one who made this personal. I just waited out a few more years to return her. You’ve done well so far to undermine my business, though. I’m impressed, son.”
“Don’t call me that.”
“Either way. That little bird belongs to me. It appears that I have to place her in a sturdier cage she can’t escape. And perhaps hire more effective men.” He sighs, and I imagine him looking down his nose at Connor’s corpse. “You passed my test, though. I was curious if you could at least handle this much.”
He did all of this as a test for Dmitri?
It had nothing to do with me. I was simply the bait.
“What do you want?” Dmitri grits.
“Nothing you’ve ever been able to offer. You have two minutes to leave the complex, or I start with her sister. By now, you should have a nice photo sent to your phone. You are not to speak. Touch. Or even be in the same room as one another. Do you hear me, boy ? If you do, I’m happy to show you the consequence. But maybe you should look at your mother as a reminder of that. Oh, and don’t worry about Connor’s body; I’ll have someone deal with the clean-up. Consider it a parting gift.”
Dmitri’s hand grips the phone so tightly that it might crumble into pieces—the line cuts. Nothing but slow beeping fills the room. Dmitri rips the phone off the wall and throws it across the room. It smashes into a thousand pieces against the wall, and I jump. He winces, suddenly reminded for the first time that he’d taken a shot to the shoulder. He stumbles a step back in surprise as he touches it and looks down at the blood on his fingers, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion. His white dress shirt is spreading further into a deep red.
“You have to leave,” I say shakily.
His gaze narrows. “I’m not leaving you.”
“You have to,” I plead. “You heard him, Dmitri; he’ll kill everyone around me. I won’t endanger other people. Not for you and not for me.”
He goes to say something, but a loud buzz erupts from Dmitri’s pocket. My mouth is dry and my hands are clammy as he fishes his phone out of his pocket. The screen opens to a photo of my sister sitting at a bar casually, talking to the bartender. My eyes soften at the sight of her smile. Of how much she’s grown and how similar we still look, like twins. The difference is that she lives in the real world, and I live only in the parts I’m permitted.
With tightened resolve, I point the gun at Dmitri’s head again. “Leave.”
I won’t risk my family.
Not for him or anyone.
“I don’t want to ever hear from or see you, ever again. I mean it, Dmitri, don’t come for me.”
“I’m not leaving you here,” he grits, but I notice his hesitation. Most likely because my sister and he are still good friends; they always have been. Risking her life wasn’t an option.
“You can’t protect all of us, Dmitri. What I said then and now is still true. I never want to see you again. I despise everything about your existence, and had it not been for you, I wouldn’t be caught up in this mess in the first place.” Partly truth and lie.
If I had never met Dmitri, I most likely would have never drawn the attention of his father.
I wanted to blame him for all of this, to make it easier on myself, but deep down, I knew that wasn’t true. But it was effortless for me to unleash my hurt and frustration elsewhere.
If there’s no Dmitri, there’s no problem, right?
The gun shakes in my hand as I lick my lips and tears stream down my face.
His gaze is almost daring me to shoot him and I’m conscious of the time ticking.
“After you make sure my sister is okay, stay the fuck away from her and my family. Anything associated with you is bound to go up in flames, and I won’t put them in any further danger.”
A cold storm rages in his gaze. It’s unsaid, but until this point, we both know The Lion has use for me yet. And that’s the only leverage I have to stay alive for another day. But for my sister, the decision will be made in less than a minute.
He makes no indication of moving. So, I aim my gun and fire, hitting another potted plant nearby.
“You won’t shoot me,” he says matter of fact.
“It’ll be a hell of a lot easier if I do,” I admit. I don’t know if that’s entirely true. If I were to kill Dmitri, then maybe The Lion would retaliate and kill me and my family anyway. Maybe he actually doesn’t want his son dead but just to torment him because he has the time to play a sick and twisted game.
Dmitri kicks up an arrogant half-smile. “If it’ll set you free, then I give you permission to pull the trigger.”
My bottom lip trembles; how the fuck can this asshole be smiling as I point a gun in his direction?
How the fuck is our twisted fate intertwined again?
Dmitri has no care factor for his safety. He never has. But there’s one thing I’m certain of and the only reason he might leave this room.
I point the gun at my own head and he goes to step forward but stops himself. “Elanee…” he growls out in warning.
“I won’t come with you, Dmitri. I won’t risk anyone else’s lives. They might not mean much to you, but they are everything to me.” In the way he’s looking at me, I can tell he wants to throw me over his shoulder and storm out. So I add. “I’m not the only one whose family is at risk.” What about his mother and grandfather? What if he didn’t make it to them in time? What if they are on The Lion’s list as well?
A tic runs through his jaw as he looks at his phone, at the time, and then me. “I’ll kill him and set you free. I’ll come back for you,” he promises as he goes to leave.
“I’d rather you not.”