2. Chapter Two #2
“No. I was there. We all were. We all saw you push her. You made her fall and break her ankle. Right?” She looks at the other girls.
Some of them quickly nod while a few others are slower to do so.
“See?” Ana gives me a smug grin. So similar to Claudia.
“So even if Claudia did hire someone to kill you – which she didn’t as she’s too good of a person – you would have deserved it.
You should have had your throat slit.” Ana makes the motion of cutting her throat.
“It would have been satisfying seeing your blood fall all over your white dress. You never should have been Claudia’s understudy. ”
“Let me guess… you should have been?” I stand up, looking down at Ana.
That’s one good thing I’ve always had working for me as a ballerina: my height.
At five seven, I’ve always been on the taller side.
Ana is much shorter than me and it feels good to have this advantage.
“I’ve been working hard my entire life to get where I am. ”
“No. You’ve been working hard using daddy’s money to get where you are.”
“Girls, enough,” Camille says, entering the room. “The show has been canceled for tonight. Go home. Lana, you should go to the hospital.”
My heart skips a beat. “The show’s been canceled? But I’m fine. I can still perform.”
“Not covered in blood. Fortunately, you only have a small cut on your neck but you should still get it looked at. Now, everyone go home. The police need to investigate the crime scene. We can’t be back here.
Just grab your clothes and leave. Change at your own house.
” Camille sighs as the girls pack up their belongings and leave one by one.
I remain behind. I can’t get my body to move.
This was my one chance to take the stage as the main dancer and I can’t lose that.
“Go home, Lana. Now.”
I finally get my legs to move but instead of leaving the theater, I head around the backstage area so I can enter the main stage. The theater is empty. It’s eerie, like out of a horror movie.
I’m still in my white costume and pointe shoes. My makeup is done. The only thing that isn’t perfect are the blood stains on my dress.
That doesn’t stop me though. I begin to dance. There’s no music but I don’t care. I just need to dance. I need to perform. I need this as badly as I need to breathe.
I move around the stage like magic is coursing through me. For once, I don’t hold myself back. I let myself go like Camille said. The fear coursing through me tonight wills me into dancing.
I spin faster and faster and faster until the world becomes a blur.
Then I take my bow, breathing heavy. I put on the best performance of my life and no one was here to see it.
Clapping. Someone is clapping for me.
With a gasp, I look up to see Nikolai descending the aisle between the seats, getting closer to the stage. We’re the only two people in the room.
I hold myself still as he walks onto the stage. The sound of his footsteps echoes through the large theater. He reaches me and stops.
“That was beautiful,” he murmurs.
I blink. “You saw me?”
“I did see you. Why do you not dance like this at the other shows I’ve seen? Do you only reserve it for yourself? If so, that’s a shame. You’re a wonderful dancer, Lana. You should show it more.”
“What are you doing here? I thought you left for more police questioning.”
He waves a dismissive hand. “The police are not my problem. I stayed back to speak with you. Your neck is still bleeding.” He gently swipes his thumb over the cut on my neck. Goosebumps break out on my skin.
“My cut must have opened back up as I danced.”
“It must have.” He keeps his hand hovering near my neck. I’m not sure if he’s going to touch me like a lover or strangle me like an attacker.
“Who are you exactly?” My voice sounds tiny in the large theater.
“I already told you. Nikolai Smirnoff.”
“I know. I meant…” I shake my head. “Never mind.” I can’t get the words out to ask him if he’s part of the mafia or not. If he’s not, I’ll look like a fool. And if he is… then I need to be far away from this man.
My father made it clear that I wasn’t allowed to be alone with other mafia men. That they were the worst of the worst. I would remind my father that he’s a mafia man and he said that’s how he knows.
“Why are you interested in me?” I ask instead.
“A very forward question. I expected you to be more demure.”
I frown. “How could you expect anything from me? You don’t know me.”
“I’ve watched you dance at every show for the past month now.
And you have captivated me every time. I do know you, Lana.
You’re a dancer who deserves to be the lead instead of always regulated to the back.
You had a your shot tonight and that fucker took that from you.
” The anger in his voice shocks me. Nikolai speaks in a way like he’s personally wronged by what the attacker did.
But that’s ridiculous. How can he be wronged when I’m the one who was attacked?
“I still don’t know why that man attacked me. Who sent him after me? That’s all I know. Someone paid him.”
“I’ll figure that out for you. Don’t you worry.”
I suck in a breath. I really don’t like the way Nikolai just said that.
Like he knows exactly how to take control of a bad situation.
The only men I have ever met who knew how to do that were mafia men.
I observed my father clean up a lot of messes over the phone or in his office when he didn’t know I was watching.
I would see the way he commanded men to do what he wanted. The problem solver.
“How will you figure that out?” I ask, swallowing hard.
“I just will. Trust me on that.”
“How can I trust a man I don’t know?”
His lips quirk up into a small smile. It only makes his handsome face even more handsome. He has the kind of face that doesn’t have any bad angles. “You’ll know me better in time.”
I frown. What does he mean by that?
His eyes flick back down to my neck and his finger gently caresses my skin.
Just for a moment before he steps back. “I’m glad you didn’t die.
If I had shown up a second later, you would have been.
Call it divine intervention. But don’t spend time in a private dressing room from now on.
Only go where you’re surrounded by other people.
I may not get to you as fast next time.”
“Next time? You think that man is going to come back for me?”
“If someone paid him, then that someone can hire someone else to kill you. Just be safe, Lana. I would hate to lose you.” There’s an unspoken sentence there but I’m not sure what exactly.
“Who are you exactly?” I ask again.
“I think you know deep down.” He bows his head before walking off the stage. I shiver with every sound of his footsteps.
My mom is outraged over what happened. “You lost your chance to perform tonight. Finally, as the lead. And your neck. Oh. It’s ruined. But at least your face is still intact.”
I sit at the dining table, still in my costume and blood. My mother paces around the room while Father sits at the head of the table, stoic. Adriana is intently looking at my neck while Elena is intently looking at the table.
“Would you stop?” I snap at Adriana. “Stop looking at me. My cut isn’t going to change the more you look at it. And it’s only a cut.”
“It could have been worse,” Mom snaps. “You could have died.”
“I think she knows that, Masha,” Father says. “The girl almost died tonight. If it weren’t for Nikolai, she would have been.”
I startle at my father’s words. “Nikolai? Do you know him?”
Father gazes back at me without any emotion on his face. You wouldn’t know his daughter was almost killed tonight. “You told me his name.”
“That’s not an answer.”
He pulls out his phone and texts someone. Always the problem solver. “Nikolai shouldn’t be snooping around you. Not without my permission,” he mutters.
“What does that mean?”
He gazes back at me. “It means that I am not done finalizing a deal with him and he is taking liberties with you.”
I sit up straighter. “A deal? Does that mean… is Nikolai part of the Bratva?”
“Why would you ask me that?” He sets his phone down and steeples his fingers together.
“Because you just said –,”
“I know what I said. Now, you’ve been through a lot tonight, Lana. It’s a shame the show has been canceled. It would have been great to finally see you perform as the lead. But alas, it didn’t happen.”
I frown. “You sound… almost disappointed in me.”
“Well, yes. Because if you had just let me convince that teacher of yours to give you the main roles sooner, I could have seen you dance as the lead sooner. But now that’s not going to happen.”
For the first time that night, I feel the prick of tears hit my eyes. “I want to earn my place.”
“But did you really earn it tonight? That other girl got her ankle broken. You’re the understudy. You didn’t really earn it. Now, go to bed. I’m tired of looking at you.”
Adriana’s eyes widen from our father’s words but she knows better than to comment. Elena only sinks deeper into her seat. At least Mother as stopped pacing.
I go to my room, keeping my head high, but the moment I shut the door behind me, I let the tears come.
The sight of myself in the mirror, crying ugly tears with the bloodstains on my neck and dress, make me look utterly pathetic.
And I despise it.
When I arrive at dance practice a few days later, I’m confronted with the sight of all the girls in my troupe huddled together, whispering. Something in my gut tells me I should be worried.
Ana is the first one to spot me and she storms over and smacks me across the face before I have time to blink.
“What the hell?” I ask, clasping my face.
Ana goes to hit me again but I shove her back. “Are you trying to get me to break my ankle too?”
“I’m trying to get you to stop hitting me. What are you doing?”
“Don’t act so innocent with me.” She lunges for me again but I step out of the way. Where is Camille when I need her?
“Did you not hear?” Maria asks.
“Hear what?”