15. Rose
ROSE
Fuck.
For three days, I've been calling Mathew, and for three days, he's ignored me. No texts. No calls. Not even an email.
Radio silence.
I've barely slept since Kon let slip that he killed someone called Vasiliev and he's utterly blind to the significance of something like that.
One of the brothers is dead, which means Mathew will be on the warpath. My family is right in the middle of that path and without any word from Mathew, I have no idea if they're even still alive.
This carefully laid plan might already be over and I'll have no idea until Mathew turns up at the door, guns blazing.
I don't want Kon to get hurt, but I can't tell him who the Vasiliev brothers are without revealing that Mathew isn't my brother and this whole wedding has been a sham.
It's making me ill.
"Rose?" Kon's comforting voice cuts through my restless pacing across the patio and I nearly trip with how abruptly I stop.
"Mhm?"
"What is wrong?" He walks toward me with slow steps and the sun gleaming in his hair. "You have been off since the party. Is everything alright?"
A hundred excuses flash hotly through my mind as he reaches me, but they all fade into silence when he stops and places his hands gently on my shoulders.
I could tell him the truth and damn the consequences.
Those assholes already tried to kill him and he already has a plan to deal with them, I'm sure of it.
Maybe the info I have could help him and in exchange, he could rescue my family?
I gaze up into his eyes, wrestling with the possibility but ultimately, the uncertainty of my family's safety leads me back to excuses and all I can do is force a smile.
"I'm okay," I assure him. "I just have a really bad period right now, that's all. It helps me when I walk around like this."
Kon's concerned eyes glance down and he nods. "I understand. Is there anything you need?"
"No. This place is well stocked, so I'm just…" I slip from his grasp and resume walking. "Just easing some of the aches. When it gets into your muscles, it's really painful."
"I can only imagine," he says, watching me with more concern than I deserve. Suddenly, his expression lights up. "Would a spa trip help?"
I halt near the picnic tables. "A spa?"
"There is a spa I like to attend when old injuries carry aches. Would it help to ease your aches and pains?"
"It…" A spa. While the spa itself would be amazing, Kon is presenting me with an opportunity to leave the estate, which could make it easier for me to get in touch with Mathew. "That would actually be fantastic."
"Really?" His brows lift, and I dart toward him, enthusiastically throwing my arms around his neck.
"Yes!" I grin, dragging him down for a sweet kiss. "My back and thighs would be in utter bliss."
Kon smiles, a smile that's grown wider over our weeks together, and embraces me tightly. "I will have Calvin and some of my men take you. I would join you, but Ethan and I have a prior engagement."
"Next time?" I tease, running my fingers down his jaw. "You have to come next time."
"Next time," he promises and he kisses the tip of my nose. "I hope it helps you feel better."
An hour later, Calvin and I arrive at the Shady Palms spa and head inside.
I send a quick text to Mathew with the address, begging him to come and talk to me in person but as always, he doesn't respond.
With nothing else to do, I settle into a spa treatment and relax for 30 minutes with a facial massage and mud mask.
My skin has never felt better and Calvin jokes about getting one for himself.
The next treatment is a deep tissue massage, which only happens once Calvin is sure we can trust the masseuse.
Once he's sure, he leaves and waits outside while I strip down and lie on a bamboo table, then sink into utter bliss as the masseuse works over my shoulders and back.
"Oh honey," she murmurs as I groan beneath her. "You're carrying so much tension in your upper back. And in your lower. When was the last time you relaxed?"
"I have no idea," I murmur, lost in the darkness behind my eyes. "I don't know if I've ever been relaxed."
"Let's see if we can't work some of these knots out and have you feeling much better," the masseuse replies.
"After this massage, I'd like to give you a hot stone massage as well.
The heat will penetrate deeper into your muscles than I can reach with this oil and you will walk out of here feeling like jelly. "
I can only hum my agreement.
With every skilled stroke of her hands, my worries melt away.
I don't think of my family, Mathew or even Kon.
All I focus on is the deep tension easing in my chest, the scent of lavender and hibiscus, and the sound of water bubbling in the fountain nearby.
This is heaven.
I never want to leave.
"Alright honey, do you want to get dressed before I move onto your legs?" the masseuse asks.
I nod and groan as I prop myself up and grab my bra from the stool nearby. "Oh my god," I murmur. "I've never felt looser."
"It's amazing, isn't it?" the masseuse replies. "You're signed in under Belyaev, aren't you?"
I glance at her and nod while slipping into my t-shirt. "Is that a problem?"
"Not at all. The Belyaev account is extremely lucrative. I was just thinking that it might be worth booking you in for a regular session until you're knot fre—"
She stops abruptly as a voice rises up from outside the door and my blood runs cold.
"Isn't that funny?" booms Mathew's voice. "It's so funny that my sister's ended up at the same spa as me!"
"Sir—" Calvin tries but he's cut off.
"Is she in here?"
"Sir!"
The door barges open a moment later and Mathew sweeps in like a hurricane. "Rose! So fucking glad to see you! Could you give us a minute?"
As Calvin surges forward to grab Mathew, Mathew grabs the Belyaev masseuse by the arm and all but throws her into Calvin's hold instead, forcing him to stumble backward.
As they fall, Mathew slams the door shut and locks it, then he turns to me.
A single second passes where he just stares at me with white-hot anger burning in his eyes like an inferno.
Then he moves.
With speed like the lash of a whip, he tackles me with a growl and slams me into the opposite wall with one hand around my neck and the other grabbing my wrist.
"My baby brother," he hisses at me. "My fucking baby brother Daniil is dead. My little brother, do you understand? Your fucking monster of a husband killed my baby brother!"
I can't breathe. His hand locks around my throat like a familiar collar as my heart bursts to life like a frantic rabbit.
I claw at his forearm with my free hand and he lifts me away from the wall only to slam me back into it.
The force knocks my teeth together and I choke.
"This was supposed to be easy, you fucking little cunt. Instead, my baby brother is in the fucking ground because of you!"
Before I can even process everything, he drags me from the wall and punches me so hard in the gut that the force sends bile up the back of my throat, where it catches on the pressure of his hand. Then he throws me forward and I collide with the fountain.
"Mathew, wait—" I croak out as I drag in a breath.
He doesn't wait.
He grabs me by the air and plunges my head into the water while pressing his body up against me and holding me under with both hands.
Cold water closes over the top of my head, and the bubbling motor vibrates painfully close to my ear.
I can't breathe.
Panic surges through me, colliding with my racing heart and every muscle turns rigid.
My hands scrabble at the edge of the fountain, desperately seeking something to hold onto while my bare feet slip and slide in the water spilling over the fountain's edge.
I can't breathe.
My heart pounds like a drum in my chest.
Pressure builds in my chest with such force that it's a wonder my ribs don't crack, and he holds me under with such strength that my cheek rests against the base of the bowl.
I'm going to die here.
I'm going to die because whatever plan they had to kill Kon in the street failed and Daniil died instead.
I'm going to die here and I'll never see my family ever again.
Mathew suddenly drags me up out of the water by the hair and pulls me against his body while I gasp for air like a drowning fish.
"You're so fucking lucky I still need you," he hisses against my cheek. "Or I'd fucking kill you right now." He shoves me toward the sink and stalks away as if doing me a favor by restraining himself.
"Fuck… you," I gasp, panting heavily. "Are you insane? Calvin is right outside the door. How the hell would you explain this?"
As if hearing his name, Calvin suddenly pounds on the door in a rhythm that's so familiar, I think I might have heard it in the background while I was underwater.
"Rose!"
Mathew turns to me, eyes like daggers. "Unless you want me to kill him, tell him to fuck off." The anger pouring off him is smothering even from the other side of the room. Calvin's sweet. He's strong but I don't know if he's strong enough to take Mathew, and then what would I tell Kon?
"I'm fine!" I yell back, pouring all my frustration toward Mathew into my words with Calvin. "God, can't you leave me alone for five minutes?!"
Silence greets me and guilt knots in my chest.
Fuck.
"Here." Mathew digs a box out of his pocket and tosses it at me. Still disoriented, I fail to catch it, and it clatters to the floor. A pregnancy test.
"That's the only reason you're alive right now," he hisses. "So fucking take it and help me decide if it's even worth keeping you alive."
I pick it up slowly and clutch the counter for balance. "Where?" I shoot back as tears spring into my eyes. "There's no bathroom here."
"Piss in the fountain for all I care, just fucking take it."
Three minutes later, Mathew stands with the test in his hand. "You better be pregnant."
"I've been trying," I snap back. "It's not instant."
"Have you been trying hard enough?" His smirk turns cold. "You should be all over him like you were all over me."
My stomach rolls and bile warms the base of my throat. "I was never all over you," I whisper hoarsely. "You raped me, you son of a bitch."
"And Kon isn't?"
"No, I actually want him to fuck me and he's good at it."
Mathew's eyes narrow. "Potato potahto."
"You're fucking insane!" Tears leak down my cheeks. "I should go out there and tell Calvin everything, and watch him splatter your brains all over that fucking wall."
"Oh really?" His gaze turns dark. "Do you really think it's wise to leave Beatie alone with Lev?"
The thought of Mathew's other brother, the middle child, makes me shiver.
He wasn't so much into raping me like the others; he preferred to torment me because it made him laugh.
The thought of that happening to Beatie kills my momentum toward telling Calvin the truth.
"Exactly." Mathew sighs darkly and throws the test back at me. "Negative. You're fucking useless at the one thing you were fucking born for." His steps grow heavy as he approaches, and with nowhere to go, all I can do is shrink back against the counter.
"You have one more chance," he snarls. "Just one. And that's fucking generous considering my baby brother is dead because of you. If you're not pregnant by the next time I see you?" His chin lifts, and he smiles coldly. "The deal's off. And I'll kill Beatie first."