32. Emily
32
EMILY
The horses in the stable snort as we approach. They sense our panic, and how can they not? It’s coming off me in sticky waves.
We almost died back there!
Konstantin slows Midas to a trot and then hops off to guide him into the stable. I follow him to the ground. The second Midas is safely encased inside a stall, I grab Konstantin’s shoulders from behind and force him to face me.
“What just happened?”
He pulls out his phone, and reads something on the screen. “I didn’t think the Ferrata could move this fast.”
“The Ferrata?” I ask, recalling our conversation when I first guessed that he was a mob boss. “Are they the ones who took your sister?”
“Yes.” He should be looking down in shame, but instead, he holds my gaze as he shoves his phone away and leans against the stable wall.
“No more secrets, Konstantin,” I tell him. “Tell me the whole truth. Everything, from the moment we met until this point. You owe me that much.”
He looks at me, his icy-blue eyes shifting as if he’s annoyed that he has to explain everything. But to my surprise, he sighs and starts talking.
“Like I told you when we met in Italy, I was there for work,” he says, and before I can interrupt, he holds up his hand. “Augusto, the Don of the Ferrata Mafia, invited me to the Zebra Club to discuss terms of peace after fifteen years of war.”
My jaw drops. “Is that why you said you happen to know the owner of almost every establishment in the Amalfi Coast?”
“Yes.” He nods. “The entirety of southwestern Italy, from Naples down to the Amalfi Coast, is Ferrata Mafia territory.”
Hackles rise up on my neck, and my heart starts racing as I slowly start connecting the dots. “Was I in danger when I met you there?”
“That night?” He closes his eyes and shakes his head. “No. You were safe. It wasn’t until morning that everything went to shit.”
“The shoot-out.”
“That was when Augusto tried to kill me.” He nods.
“And when you said you had to leave …” I start. “It was because you found out about your sister, wasn’t it?”
“Yes.” He nods again. “My little sister Alisa was kidnapped in New York, about a week before the meeting took place in Italy.”
A week before the meeting took place in Italy.
Suddenly, I recall what Mom told me as I waited for Konstantin alone on the balcony under the brightening sky.
That junkie is dead. She killed herself a week ago.
Could the two events be related? I fight to keep myself from shivering.
I don’t see why not.
After all, someone tried to kill me as well, and all I did was be in Olivia’s apartment.
“So when we met again in New York,” I force myself to speak. “In that apartment …”
“That was the last place that Alisa was taken to before her trail disappeared entirely.”
I gasp, not because of what he says about his sister, but because of the thought that suddenly appears in my head about mine.
Oh Olivia … Dread coils around my heart and begins to squeeze. How did you get yourself involved in this?
“Imagine my surprise when I found you in that apartment.” He pushes off the stable wall and takes a step towards me, hay crunching beneath his feet. “The girl who allegedly grabbed my bag by accident, almost charmed her way into my bed, and then left without so much as a good-bye.”
“That’s why you took me with you …” I say slowly. “It wasn’t because you couldn’t get me out of your mind like you told me on the plane. It’s because you wanted answers from me!”
Somehow, despite the fact that the two of us nearly died, despite the fact that I knew he was using me from the beginning, the realization that he was only ever interested in me because of his own curiosity cuts me deeper than any words from Alla ever could.
He doesn’t care about me.
“No, Kitty Cat,” he corrects me. “I told you the truth. I couldn’t get you out of my mind. As much as I wanted answers, I wanted so badly to return that morning to find you back in my bed.”
“This inheritance,” I start, almost afraid to hear his answer. “What is it? Because when I spoke with your grandmother, she didn’t make it seem like it’s money.”
Finally, he looks away, and I feel my heart slowly cracking in fear of what I might hear.
“It’s the family signet ring,” he answers. “Whoever holds that ring holds the fate of the bratva in their hands.”
“But, why does did she have it?”
He turns and looks at me sharply, and I know that I’ve just asked a question that I have no right to ask.
No, I think. I nearly died just now. The least he can do is answer my question.
And to my surprise, he starts talking again.
“When I was sixteen, I got into a fight with Augusto’s son, Domenico.” He looks away, his jaw working. “And when it was over, I broke both his legs. My father Yuri commended me for not backing down.”
I keep silent, watching as he rubs his face with his hand as an ocean of turmoil play out across his handsome features.
“But my grandmother didn’t share my father’s views,” he says. “She told me that I was reckless, that I was a fool, and more importantly, that I did something that no boss would ever forgive.”
He closes his eyes and sighs. When he opens them again, his ice-blue pupils are shimmering. He blinks rapidly as he takes a deep breath to calm himself.
“She was right,” he says. “Augusto’s retribution came quickly. And it was only by luck that Alla convinced my father to give the signet ring to her for safekeeping on the same night Augusto had him and my mother murdered. For fifteen years, she’s held onto it. Even though she allowed me to sit in the chair my father once sat, it’s her who still holds the bratva in her hands.”
My jaw drops, but Konstantin isn’t finished.
“For fifteen years,” he says. “She told me that the only way she’ll allow me to have that signet ring is if I present her a bride. Without it, I may wear the title of pakhan, but I can’t muster the full might of the bratva to save my sister.”
“So that’s why you needed to marry me,” I say quietly.
“Yes.” He steps even closer, and the smell of soap and aftershave mixes with the scent of hay and horses. “I should’ve told you the truth earlier.”
“I don’t know what I expected.” I close my eyes, scoffing softly. “You told me that you were going to use me. And yet here I am, feeling sorry for myself when I knew what I was getting myself into.” I open my eyes and glance up at him. “Since we’re both here to tell each other the truths, I might as well tell you mine.”
Alarm flits across his beautiful face, and his icy-blue eyes narrow ever so slightly. The beauty mark by his eye shifts. I expect him to say something. But he doesn’t.
He’s waiting for me.
“That apartment you found me in?” I start. “It belonged to my sister Olivia.”
Now, it’s Konstantin’s turn to drop his jaw. He steps closer to me, and his large hand takes hold of my arm even though he stays silent, urging me to say more.
“The reason I left that day in Italy was because I learned that my sister died a week ago.” I confess. “The police said it was a suicide by overdose. My parents believed that. But they didn’t bother to check, and asked me to follow up instead.”
His brows furrow, and confusion fills his gorgeous eyes. “Why?”
“Because they didn’t care about her,” I answer, not wanting to mention Mom asking about Olivia’s life insurance. “Because she was always a failure in their minds.”
Junkie. Junkie. Junkie.
“But the moment I stepped inside of her apartment …” I hang my head lower as I speak. “I felt in my heart that Olivia didn’t commit suicide. And when that man tried to kill me, I knew that she had to have been murdered. And now … after everything you’ve told me. I’m surer than ever that my sister’s death and your sister’s kidnapping are connected. I don’t know how they’re connected, but they are. There are too many coincidences for them not to be.”
He tips my chin up so that he’s the only thing I can see. He looks at me with a deep sadness that makes me tremble.
I’ve never seen him look so vulnerable before.
And there’s one more truth left to tell him.
“Do you remember what you said to me on the plane?” I ask softly.
My nose is stinging again, and I know it’ll only be a matter of time before the tears come. But I don’t care anymore.
I need to say it out loud.
“You promised me that when this is all over, I can have whatever I want.” I place my hand on his chest and feel the steady drumming of his heart speeding up. “And what I want more than anything in the world is to have my sister back. But I know that’s impossible. So I want the next best thing.”
I blink, and the world turns hazy with tears that start running down my cheeks. Konstantin reaches up gently and wipes them away, but each one he wipes away is followed by another.
“If I can’t have her back.” I sniffle. “Then I want to avenge her death.”
“Emily …”
“I know.” I turn away from him. “I agreed to this marriage because I wanted to use you the same way you’re using me. But somewhere along the way, I did something stupid.” Keeping my hand against my chest, I lean toward him. “I started to believe that you actually wanted me here with you.”
“Emily.” The corners of his nose wrinkle, and he bends forward to take my hand in his, pouring his warmth into me as he speaks in a gruff baritone. “I do want you here with me.”
I gasp at his words. Not because it shocks me, but because I know there’s no lie there. Because I know he’s serious about what he just said.
I smooth my tongue over my bottom lip as tears well up in my eyes.
“That’s why I’m making you a new deal,” he continues.
“Which is?”
“Stay here with me,” he says. “Be my wife. My real wife. Help me take control of this bratva. Help me get my sister back, and I will avenge your sister’s death.”
The moonlight is glowing through the windows of the stable now, casting light along his strong jaw. In the moonlight, he looks like a fierce angel of vengeance.
He told me that he was a monster.
But he’s much more than that.
He’s my monster.
Slowly, I nod my head as my heart starts beating faster than it ever has in my whole life.
“Do you promise?” I ask.
“I do.”
Then he wraps his fingers deep in my hair and kisses me.