Chapter 23 Nikolai
NIKOLAI
Ijumped when the balcony door slid open.
Lancelot held up his hands. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you.”
“It’s okay. Is anything wrong?”
“There’s a young woman who says she’s here to visit you.”
I frowned at him. “A woman?”
“Yes, she claims to be Ivanov’s daughter, but since none of us have seen her, we can’t confirm her identity.”
Was that really possible? “Alina is here?”
Lancelot shrugged. “So she says. Would you be willing to meet with her to confirm who she is?”
“Of course.”
A few moments later, someone knocked on the door. I stood, but Lancelot motioned me back.
When he opened the door, Lorenzo, his brothers, and a man I assumed was Remington Theriot stood there with Alina.
She was paler than she had been the last time I’d seen her, and she was dressed in clothes that looked much too large.
I doubted they were hers. Her father would never allow his daughter to wear torn jeans and a sweatshirt.
“Alina, are you all right? How did you get here?”
She started toward me, but Remington grabbed her arm and pulled her back.
I sucked in my breath. I couldn’t let him hurt her, but what was I going to do against Lorenzo and three other men?
I screamed when something jumped from Rafael’s hand and ran toward Lance. I realized it was a small monkey as it climbed up Lance’s leg.
“That’s Tony,” Rafael said. “He’s Lance’s.”
I was having trouble taking that in. “You have a pet monkey?”
Before Lance answered, Remington cleared his throat, and I turned to face him. “Nikolai, I’m Remington Theriot. It’s nice to meet you.”
“It’s nice to meet you too,” I said, unsure of how to handle the situation.
Remington Theriot’s reputation was terrifying. I’d always assumed if I ever met him, I wouldn’t live much longer. Yet here he was, claiming to be glad to meet me.
He gestured toward Alina. “The young woman claims to be Alina Ivanov. You know her?”
“Yes, sir, she is Alina, my former fiancée.”
“Do you trust her? Is she loyal to her father?”
Alina huffed. “I told you I ran away. And this isn’t the first time.”
I fought the urge to smile. It was good to see that Alina’s spirit hadn’t been broken. “That’s true. She’s tried to escape before, and she attempted to plot with me so that we could get out of our prospective marriage, but we were interrupted too soon.”
“I want to talk to Nikolai alone,” she insisted.
“I’d like to talk to her too,” I said, looking to Lorenzo for help.
“Lancelot will need to stay. We can’t leave you alone for your safety.”
“And ours,” Remington added.
Alina gave a curt nod. “I’ll accept that. We should have a guard. I don’t know how high a priority I am to my father right now.”
Remington scowled at her. “But you thought it was a good idea to lead him here?”
“My intention was to find Nikolai and make sure he was all right. If you’re taking care of him, then you can protect me as well.”
“Are you always this demanding?”
“My father says I must be the devil’s child that my mother conjured and not his at all.”
Remington rolled his eyes. “Terrific. We’ll strengthen our forces here.”
Tony chose that moment to jump down from Lancelot’s shoulder and run over to Lorenzo, who bent to pet him. Tony started playing with Lorenzo’s watch. I laughed, and Lorenzo looked up and smiled. “Lance will help you if you need anything, and I’ll be back later.”
Tony yanked his watch all the way off his arm and took off.
“Hey!” Lorenzo yelled. “That was my grandfather’s.”
“Tony, give that back,” Lance ordered, but Tony came running to me. He climbed up my leg and prodded my hand.
“He’s trying to put the watch on you,” Lance said.
“I’ll help him,” Lorenzo said. He slid the watch onto my wrist and smiled. “I like that.”
“No, you should take it back.”
Tony gave a little screech and wagged his finger. Lorenzo smiled. “We don’t want to upset him.” The monkey jumped onto his shoulder. “We better get going.”
“Yes,” Remington said. “If monkey playtime is over, it would be nice to work on our plans to save everyone.”
Lorenzo rolled his eyes, and I smiled as everyone but Lancelot and Alina headed out the door.
“He’s cute,” Alina said.
“Tony?”
“Yes, but I meant Lorenzo, and he’s so into you.”
“No, he’s not. Things aren’t…”
She stared at me with raised brows.
“Yes, he’s hot.”
“Better.” She patted my shoulder. “What happened to your arm?”
I sighed. “My father.”
“So they really haven’t hurt you here?” She glanced toward Lancelot. What did she plan to do if he was a threat? He could easily pick her up in one hand.
“No one has hurt me here. They’ve taken care of me. Lorenzo… He’s been really great.”
She narrowed her eyes. “Just how great has he been to you?”
Heat filled my face, and I knew my cheeks were turning red. “That’s not something we need to discuss.”
Lancelot chuckled, and I scowled at him. As big as he was, and as easily as he could kill me, he didn’t give off a threatening air. I was no more scared of him than I was of Lorenzo.
“How much do you have to pay them for protection?” Alina asked.
“We don’t charge victims for our services,” Lancelot said. “That’s another way we differ from Dimitri and your fucking father.”
If that were true, then my “bargain” with Lorenzo really was just a game. I didn’t want to think about that. I needed it to be something I had to do, or I’d be way too embarrassed to act like I had with him.
“I hope there are a lot more ways you differ from him,” Alina said.
“I have a husband I’m devoted to, and we’re thinking about adopting a baby.”
“Yeah, that would be different. My father would have preferred to create a few sons out of thin air and never have to marry. He’d never be loyal to one person. As soon as he tires of someone, he kills them.”
My eyes widened. “He kills them?”
He arranged to have my mother killed as soon as she had given him an heir, and he disposes of the boys he prefers as soon as he’s done with them.
He’s killed some of them. Some have died from injuries he’s given them, and others wish they were dead.
Why do you think I was working so hard to make sure you didn’t end up with him. ”
The room spun around me, and I had to sit on the bed. “So it is true that I wasn’t really being given to you. I was being given to your father.” I’d known that, and Lorenzo had believed it too, but somehow, hearing her say it made the horror of what I’d escaped that much more real.
“Yes, and you’re older than the boys he prefers. He would probably have killed you once I’d had a child to be another heir for him.”
I’d known Ivanov wanted me in his bed, and I’d been terrified of how rough he’d be, but I hadn’t thought he’d murder me once he was done.
Alina laid a hand on my shoulder. “It’s okay. He’s never going to touch you now.”
“We have to stop him from hurting anyone else,” I said. I’d never believed I had the power to stop someone like my father or Ivanov, but I didn’t care what it took. I was going to help Alina and the Theriots bring him down.
“Yes, we do. I think they’re downstairs, working on a plan for that now.”
Lancelot nodded.
“Good,” she said. “Now, let’s talk about this.” She laid her hand on the watch Lorenzo had slipped onto my wrist. “I think Tony may be a very smart little monkey.”