Chapter Three
Gustov would not go to the city. Nor would he meet in any nightclubs or bars. Instead, they had to meet under the cover of a forest, off the beaten track, and she knew Bogdan was not a happy man.
Several of his men were guarding, and they climbed out of the car. She looked around the forest, trying to catch sight of Gustov. Her mother had told her on many occasions that Gustov had the ability to hide in plain sight. He was one of the best men to get in and out without being detected.
“What have I taught you about being unarmed?”
Gustov asked, stepping out behind some thick, dense bushes.
“Gustov,”
she said, and was about to head over to him, but Bogdan grabbed her arm, stopping her. “I’m not unarmed.”
“You have five men with you, four of which have no real connection to you, and would rather see you dead than alive. As for your husband, you can never be too sure.”
Anastasia looked at Bogdan and shook her head. “He doesn’t want me dead. Trust me, my dad told him to kill me and I am still alive.”
She chuckled. “Good times, huh?”
Gustov didn’t smile. She was not used to the man before her seeming so cold and aloof. This was an odd feeling for her. One she didn’t like.
“So, how are things?”
Gustov continued to stare at Bogdan. “I am in hiding.”
Finally, he looked toward her. “How are you, Princess?”
“Married and … attempting to survive.”
“Is he hurting you?”
“Watch your tongue,”
Bogdan said.
“I know what you do with wayward tongues, but I take care of her, not you.”
“She is not yours to worry about.”
“Evelyn asked me as her dying wish to keep an eye on her, and that is what I am doing.”
“And what were you doing for the three years since her death?”
Bogdan asked.
“Enough,”
Anastasia said. “There is no reason to fight or argue. Why are you hiding?”
“Why do you think?”
Gustov asked. He reached into his jacket and held out a letter. “Your mother gave this to me, and told me I was going to have to be careful. She knew what your father would try to do, and so far he’s failed. But trust me, Anastasia, he is a deadly man, and he is trying to kill me. You can only sign away your fortune if I am present, and I am the one with all the information.”
“My dad is trying to kill you?”
“Yes.”
“Because of that letter?”
“Yes, and because of everything I know Evelyn told me. She wrote the warning in here for you.”
“Can I …have it?”
she asked.
She hated her father, but even his level of deception was starting to give her whiplash. He was constantly making her life difficult.
“May I approach?”
Gustov asked.
“Yes.”
She rolled her eyes and waited. Gustov stepped closer and held out the envelope for her to take. Just as she was about to throw her arms around him and hug him, Bogdan pulled her close to his side. She missed Gustov.
“You do not have to fear me,”
Gustov said. “Anastasia is like a daughter to me.”
“A very wealthy daughter.”
“I did not care about Evelyn’s wealth, and I still don’t. I miss her every single day.”
“I do as well,”
Anastasia said.
“Your mother would want you to live your life.”
Tears filled her eyes. “Kind of hard to do when you’ve got a father who wants you dead.”
“But you have a husband who is willing to fight for you.”
Gustov looked toward Bogdan. “I will be around, Anastasia. Remember all I have taught you, and it is time you give her a gun, so if you are not around she can protect herself.”
Anastasia glanced down at the letter in her hand, seeing her mother’s cursive writing, and when she looked up, Gustov was gone. She didn’t expect him to stick around.
Bogdan led her back to the car, and she climbed inside.
“You know how to fire a gun?”
“Yes, Gustov taught me.”
“He did?”
“My mom thought it was important for me to learn self-defense, and I didn’t realize how important it was going to be until now. Even my father is trying to kill me. Good times.”
She let out a little laugh and held onto her letter.
“You will show me what you can do with a gun, and then I will see about granting you one.”
She smiled.
“Would you like me to read the letter to you?”
Bogdan asked.
She glanced down at it, and then looked up at him. “I don’t know.”
“You do not need to read it.”
She licked her suddenly dry lips.
This was not what she wanted. Turning the letter over, she wondered what her mother was like when she wrote this. Was she weak? Did she write this before she had gotten sick? Her mother hadn’t wanted her to care for her, but she refused to leave.
She tore into the envelope and unfolded the pages, but they blurred as tears filled her eyes. This was her mother’s handwriting. She used to love watching her write. The way her pen glided across the paper so smoothly, so effortlessly.
“Please, you read it,”
she said. She couldn’t focus.
Bogdan took the letter from her and began to read. “My darling daughter, Anastasia. If you are reading this, then I fear I am gone, and you are alone in this world. There are many things I wish, but the biggest right now is that I had taken you even further away from your father. He is circling. There are things you do not know.”
As Bogdan started to read, his voice in Anastasia’s head became that of her mother.
“Your father is poor. He had nothing. His family lived outside of their means, and the only thing they had going for them was Dante’s good looks. I did not want to marry him. This is the truth as I give it to you now. I know you think I loved Dante, but I didn’t. You would hear me cry each time he left, and I know you thought it was because I loved him, but the truth was, I hated him. I hated everything about him. My parents were fooled by him, but I was not. It was when you were ten and they could no longer deny their mistake, that they apologized to me. They promised they would find a way to free me from my marriage, but within a month, they were dead. Suspected carbon monoxide poisoning, but I know Dante did it. If he ended our marriage, it meant he would cease the supply to my fortune. My parents were incredibly wealthy. I had to sit back and watch as each of my brothers died, along with my sisters.”
Anastasia put a hand on his arm. “She believed he killed them?”
Bogdan didn’t say anything.
“Please continue,”
she said. She had no idea her mother had been living with this.
Her mother was such a strong woman. Tears filled her eyes, as she imagined her fighting, trying to figure out a way to protect her family.
“I became the last survivor in my family, and I knew there was a chance he would try to take you. So, I put in some protocols. I could not stop him, but on our last meeting together, I had gotten my cancer diagnosis, and he came to gloat. That was when I told him that if you died from anything but old age, all the money would revert to charity. He would not get anything. That day, I think he wanted to kill me. I do not know what held him back. Maybe it was Gustov, but he was not happy. I knew he was going to find a way to hurt you, my sweet girl. There are only two options—you die of natural causes, or he has someone kill you—but I have put protections in place. I will always look out for you. Your father is going to try to kill you, Anastasia. His only goal is to get the money. Do not give it to him. Do not give in to him. He does not deserve anything. He took my parents, my brothers, my sisters, my whole family, to get this. Please do not allow him to take you. I love you more than anything, my darling daughter. Trust no one but Gustov. He does not want my money. He never has. I love you, my sweet child. I wish I could be there to see you married. To watch you fall in love, have dozens of children, and fill the house with Christmas carols. I want the world for you, and I am so sorry I was not able to protect you from it. I must go now, my days are getting shorter. Know this, I love you, and I will protect you if I am able.”
****
Bogdan stood in the doorway of their bedroom that night. Anastasia was quieter, and more withdrawn than he’d ever seen her. At the end of the letter, she had burst into tears.
He never got the pleasure of meeting Evelyn, but he heard tales of her beauty and sweet nature. Even though he could not stand the family and all links to it. He heard people talk of her as a rare force to be reckoned with. He had a feeling Dante had to live with that daily.
That same woman helped to bring Anastasia into this world. She molded this woman in his bed. There was a fire in her eyes, and now he knew there was a great deal more to her.
Evelyn knew Dante would try to hurt her. She seemed to currently be one step ahead of the game, but she was wrong about one thing. Anastasia didn’t just need to trust Gustov. She had him and the Galkin Bratva.
“I got it so wrong,”
Anastasia said, sitting up in bed.
He folded his arms across his chest and waited.
She turned to look at him. “I thought she loved my dad.”
“Does it bother you that she didn’t?”
She shook her head. “No.”
She sniffled. “But I could have done something, couldn’t I?”
“Like what?”
“I don’t know. She could have talked to me.”
“But what good would that have done?”
“Talking can help.”
He smiled. “In my experience, sometimes only violence and death are the answers.”
“I can’t believe that. I don’t believe that.”
“Your father has already given me permission on several occasions to kill you. He will not be persuaded otherwise.”
Anastasia blew out a breath. “Then what do I do? Should I just sign the wealth over to him?”
“Your mother doesn’t want that.”
“Do you want it?”
“No. I don’t need it.”
He had his own money.
She pressed her hands against her face. “What should I do?”
“Exactly what your mother trained you to do,”
Bogdan said.
“She didn’t train me to do anything. To be anything.”
He raised a brow and stepped inside the bedroom.
“It’s not like I even know how to be a wife. Unless you send me to your country home and leave me there.”
She groaned. “That makes me sound so awful.”
“Your mother trained you to be a strong woman. You know how to fight. She made sure you were not afraid.”
She dropped her hands and looked at him over the tip of her fingers. “You’re joking, right? I’ve been living in fear of you killing me.”
“Ah, but you see, you also knew your father wanted to kill you.”
“I can’t even believe we’re having this conversation. For three months, you have given me one-word orders. Now, we’re talking.”
“You didn’t want to talk. And you responded to those commands. If you wanted me to talk, you should have said so.”
She growled. “You’re so frustrating. Of course I was going to do as I was told. I know who you are and what you’re capable of.”
“And yet, you’re yelling at me right now. Would that make you a foolish person?” he asked.
“Probably.”
She sighed. “I don’t even know why I am yelling.”
“You have learned some truths about your family, and it is scary.”
She shook her head. “It shouldn’t be scary. Family shouldn’t be that way. It doesn’t matter.”
“It matters to you,” he said.
“But I can’t change it. I can’t change the way my father is. I don’t know how my mom put up with it. All this time, I thought it was because she was in love with him, but that was all lies. She hated him. I don’t know how my grandparents allowed this to happen. How it all happened.”
Anastasia climbed off the bed and began to pace. He watched her move back and forth.
“Marriages are like this,”
Bogdan said. “They always have been. It is a business contract, however, in your parents’ case, it looks like they allowed most of the wealth to remain in your mother’s name. That is rare.”
“Could he have given her cancer?”
she asked.
Bogdan looked at her. “No. He didn’t give her cancer.”
“He killed everyone else. Why not kill my mother?”
This had gone on long enough. Bogdan stepped into her path, grabbed her arms, and forced her to look at him. “He probably had every intention of killing your mother. We know he is willing to go to extreme lengths to kill you.”
“I hate him.”
“Good. Allow that to feed you, to drive you.”
She nodded her head.
He didn’t let her go. At this time, he didn’t think he could. It felt important to keep a hold of her.
“Will you kill me?”
she asked.
“No.”
He watched tears fill her eyes.
“How can you be so sure?”
“You’re not going to do anything that will warrant me killing you.”
“What if Galkin asks you to do it?”
Anastasia asked.
“He won’t.”
She tried to pull out of his arms, but he knew she wasn’t ready to be let go.
“Let me go.”
“No. I won’t let you go. Galkin is a lot of things, but he wanted this marriage, and unless you—not your father, not anyone else, you—do something that changes it, you’re going to remain my wife until we die.”
Anastasia stared at him, and he looked right back.
“Don’t you have a problem with that?”
she asked, her voice just an octave above a whisper.
“No, I don’t.”
He saw the frown on her face. There was so much he wanted to say in that moment, but he let her go.
“Dinner is outside,”
he said. With that, he left her alone.
Galkin was not going to force him to kill her. For one, for some odd reason, it amused Galkin to keep her alive. The other reason, he was owed a favor, and seeing as his reputation was accurate, he and Galkin knew that killing her would cause an all-out war.
He was loyal to the Galkin Bratva. It was in his blood, but it was because he earned his place. At the ripe age of thirteen, he made his first kill. His own father had been training him long before then. From what he remembered, like his father, it was claimed they both came from the Devil. Fighting and death was in their blood. Without a mother, from the age of five, he’d been training.
No one could best him, as there simply wasn’t anyone else in the world quite like him. He could kill entire mafia families within a matter of hours. There was no number to his death kill, because he simply didn’t know it. He’d killed that many people in a short space of time. There was no time to count.
He sat at the head of his table.
Anastasia belonged to him, and to keep the monster at bay, Galkin would make sure he could keep her.
At first, when Galkin suggested marriage, he didn’t want it. From looking at her picture, he’d known Anastasia was going to be a problem. He just couldn’t quite grasp why she would be a problem, and now he didn’t need to take the time to grasp it. She was a problem inside his head. He couldn’t get her out of it.
He wanted to fix everything around her, and that wasn’t good. On their wedding night, tearing into her virginity, she didn’t know this, but he had made a vow to protect her. No one had ever given him anything so precious. Even if she hadn’t been a virgin, he had no intention of killing her. No one but Galkin told him who to kill.
Anastasia walked into the dining room. He’d ordered from his favorite restaurant, cheeseburger with cheese fries. A rare treat he allowed himself. He pointed toward the chair beside him, and Anastasia sat down in it and sighed.
“I’m sorry,” she said.
“You’ve got nothing to apologize for.”
“This looks good.”
“Then start eating.”
He watched as she picked up a heavily laden cheese fry and stuck it into her mouth. She nodded her head. “It’s good.”
With that, he started to eat his own food.
“I want to kill my father and his whole family,”
Anastasia said.
And this did surprise him, but it also delighted him.