Chapter 3
LEV
The limo tears away from the curb before the door is even fully closed, and the woman lands hard against me as the vehicle lurches into traffic.
Her elbow catches me in the ribs and I grunt, grabbing her arms to keep her from flailing, but she twists in my grip with a strength that surprises me.
Her knee comes up fast, and I barely turn my hip in time to keep her from connecting with anything valuable.
"Let me go!" She thrashes against me, her dark hair whipping across my face. "Let me fucking go!"
"Hold her still," Yuri snaps, and he grabs for her legs as she kicks out toward the partition. His hands close around her ankles and she screams a raw, desperate sound that makes my ears ring.
"Help!" she shrieks, her voice climbing toward hysteria. "Someone help me!"
"Gag her," Yuri orders as he struggles to keep her legs pinned. "She keeps screaming and the driver's going to have a heart attack."
I reach into my coat pocket and pull out my handkerchief and shake it loose.
The woman sees what I'm holding and her eyes go wide, her body twisting so violently that Yuri loses his grip on one of her ankles.
Her boot connects with his shoulder and he swears, grabbing her leg again and pressing it down against the seat with his full weight.
"Please," she gasps as she writhes. "Please, I don't know what you want. I haven't done anything. Please let me go."
"Hold still," I say, and I shove the handkerchief between her lips while she's thrashing.
Her muffled screams continue as I tie the ends behind her head, and tears spill from her eyes and streak down her cheeks. The resemblance to Ana Veche is even more striking up close, those light green eyes blazing with fury.
For a moment, I wonder if we've made a terrible mistake, if this actually is Ana and we've somehow stumbled onto her hiding in plain sight.
"Zip ties," Yuri barks, nodding toward the pocket in the door. "Bind her hands before she claws someone's eyes out."
I grab the plastic ties from where they're stashed and loop one around her wrists, pulling it tight enough to hold but not so tight that it cuts off circulation. She stares up at me, but those green eyes that look so much like Ana's hold none of Ana's arrogance.
Ana would never beg or cry. She'd sit silently obsessing and planning and wait for her moment to strike, confident that whoever dared to touch her would pay with their lives. And Ana Veche would've had half a dozen men armed to the teeth around her protecting her.
This woman is genuinely terrified, trembling as sobs rack her chest. She has no idea why she's here or who we are. And she has no clue that she's a doppelganger for one of the most notorious Donnas in existence.
"You got her?" Yuri asks, slowly releasing his grip on her legs now that she's stopped kicking.
"Yeah, I got her…" I use the back of my wrist to mop my forehead that's damp with perspiration after that wrestling match.
He pulls back and scoots back to his seat while I drape my leg over hers to prevent her from kicking out at us again, but it appears she knows she's been bested. The fight has gone out of her now.
The woman whimpers against the handkerchief, bound hands coming up to press against her chest as she curls into herself on the seat between us.
Her eyes still dart around frantically, but the screaming has stopped too.
I almost feel bad for her, and maybe if I sit and think about it too long, I will.
But when lightning strikes, you don't question it.
Whoever she is, she presents the perfect opportunity to gain leverage over Yaros and his crooked schemes.
"Are you Ana Veche?"
She shakes her head no in a jerky motion that makes fresh tears spill down her cheeks.
Then the muffled shouting starts again as she lashes out with her words.
It doesn't matter what she's saying. With that gag in place, no one can understand her words.
But I get the point. She's not Ana, and she probably doesn’t even know who Ana is.
"Do you know who Ana Veche is? Nod if you understand me."
This time, her head shakes like she's trying to make sense of the name.
"Have you ever heard of the Veche family?"
She shakes her head again, and the confusion in her eyes is too raw to be faked. If the way she's shaking from fear continues, she'll never pass as Ana and my plan goes down the shitter. But with a little training and coaxing, maybe it can still work.
Yuri glowers at her and then turns to me and says, "You think this woman is going to pass for a Donna?" When he chuckles darkly, it reminds me how easily things like this can fail and how failure is not an option in this case.
"I think we have our work cut out for us, but I believe I can make it work.
" My uncle's a little older, a little wiser, but he's also not a risk taker like me. And I believe in my powers of persuasion. I look over our captive and scowl at her, already assessing how I’m going to get to her and make her cooperate with us.
He's right. If she fights me, it could take a while to mold her, but the best art comes from raw clay.
I reach for her purse, tangled around her jacket and arm from the struggle, and I pull out her wallet and ID.
Vivika Rozhkova stares back at me with wide eyes and a beautiful smile, not at all the mess seated in front of me with mascara streaks and red-rimmed eyes.
But I marvel at how God created her with such intense beauty. She'll do fine.
"You… not we. I'm not a part of this. You'll make it work on your own or you'll fail on your own, and I'll keep working on finding another way through to Romania.
" Yuri reaches into his pocket and pulls out his phone, signifying the end of our conversation, and I stare at Ms. Vivika Rozhkova, wondering where to start with her.
By the time we've arrived at Yuri's estate, Vivika's calmer.
Her tears have stopped, likely because I stopped questioning her and she understands I'm not here to kill her.
The car rolls to a stop by the front door, and I swing the door open without waiting for the driver to open for us.
Before I'm two steps out the door, Vivika is gone, racing down the driveway and sliding around in the slush.
Chasing a frantic woman down is the last thing I thought I'd be doing today, but I have to. She's our meal ticket and she's seen our faces. I bolt after her and snag her by the elbow, and she keeps fighting me until I heft her over my shoulder and pin her knees to my chest with one arm.
She kicks a shoe loose and I leave it, but the driver scurries to pick it up as I march toward the front door where Yuri has already disappeared into his home. Vivika is pounding my back, screaming against the gag until I set her down and glare at her, but I don’t let her go for a single second.
"Inside," I growl, and I guide her toward the door with a hand gripping her elbow.
Vivika whimpers, but she does as I say while we walk past Yuri's office on the left, his living room on the right, and down the hall to the room set aside for moments just like this. It isn’t the first time we've had to do something so extreme.
I guide her into the room and notice how awkwardly she's walking with one heel on and one off.
Never in my life have I felt something scrape across my conscience so painfully.
Vivika did nothing to deserve this. When we take drastic actions like this, it's always because the target is a threat to us in some way.
But she's innocent and has no clue what she's been dragged into.
"You'll stay here," I tell her softly, not enjoying the sting of guilt I feel. "I'll bring you food and water. If you need something, knock on the door."
I reach up and untie the handkerchief from behind her head and she gasps at the relief. Her mouth is red and dry from the silk and she opens it to speak, but I hold up a hand.
"Don't scream. There's no one to hear you, and it'll only make your throat sore."
She stares at me for a long moment with her chest heaving, but then she asks the question I've been waiting for. "Why am I here?"
"That's not for me to answer right now."
"Please." Her lip trembles and more tears slide down her cheeks. "I don't understand. I haven't done anything wrong. I'm just… I'm nobody. I'm a translator. I don't have money. Please, there's been some kind of mistake."
"There's no mistake, Vivika. You're here for a reason." I take a step back but I can see she won't let this go easily. Who would? We just snatched her off the street and tied her up. Of course she's shocked, angry, and scared shitless.
"Then why?" She steps toward me as I back away, and her bound hands rise to her chest like she's praying. "Why me? What do you want from me?"
I am not a soft man, but looking at her pleading eyes almost has me ready to turn her loose.
I think of the women in this family, my sister and a few of my cousins, and in the back of my mind, I hope to God Karma isn't a real thing.
But I can't answer her yet. I have to organize my thoughts and come up with a good way to convince her why she's here and how it can help without triggering her to rebel.
So I walk out and shut the door on her and hear her pounding after I've locked it and walked off.
Yuri's waiting for me in the study downstairs, a glass of vodka already in his hand. The fire in the hearth has been lit, and I gravitate toward it to warm my hands for a moment. Then I pour myself a glass from the bottle on the sideboard and settle into the chair across from my uncle.
"She's secure?" he asks.
"Yeah," I grumble, still stewing over why my conscience got so weak when she looked at me.
"Good." He swirls the vodka in his glass, watching the liquid catch the firelight. "Now we talk about how you're going to pull this off…"
"She has to be groomed," I say, cutting straight to the point.
"If we're gonna pass her off as Ana Veche, she needs to know how to walk, how to talk, how to carry herself.
She needs to know enough about the Veche family to answer basic questions without giving herself away.
Right now, she's a terrified woman who's never heard the name Ana Veche in her life. That's not gonna fool anyone."
"What do you need?"
"Information. Everything we have on Ana—photographs, recordings, reports on her habits and mannerisms. The more detail, the better.
" I take a sip of vodka, letting the burn settle in my throat.
"And I'll need things to convince her to cooperate.
She's not gonna play along willingly, not at first. I need to be able to offer her something that makes this worth her while. "
Yuri narrows his eyes and turns toward the fire to watch the flames dance and lick at the wood.
"Promise her whatever you need to promise.
Tell her she'll walk away from this richer than she's ever dreamed if that’s what it takes…
" He sips his vodka and then looks back at me as he continues.
"Tell her anything that gets her to cooperate. "
"So, I'm lying to her?" In situations like this, it's not often the captive survives.
I know how he thinks. If she's useful, she sticks around, but for how long?
She'll learn things about this family and our enemies that can be used against us.
Of course, if that's the case, it'll be easier to put an end to her when this is over.
I won't feel as guilty, at least. Or I hope I won’t.
"That depends on how useful she proves to be.
" He leans forward resting his elbows on his knees, his glass dangling between his fingers.
"But understand this, Lev. Right now, that woman upstairs is a tool.
Nothing more. She's useful to us only as long as she can serve our purposes.
The moment she becomes a liability instead of an asset, we wash our hands of her. "
He doesn't have to elaborate at all.
I know exactly what washing our hands means. If this goes wrong, there's only one way to ensure our safety.
"She won't be a liability," I say. "I'll make sure of it."
"See that you do." Yuri drains the rest of his vodka and sets the glass on the short side table next to him. "And don't let her out of your sight for a second. Until this is finished, she's your responsibility. If things go sideways, she's your problem to solve."
"I understand."
"Do you?" His gray eyes bore into mine, searching for any hint of weakness or hesitation. "Because I need you to understand this completely. There's too much riding on this for mistakes. Don't let me down."
"I won't," I say, and I mean it. "You have my word."
I watch as he rises and walks toward the door. I hear soft footsteps outside and then a brief flash of his wife's face as she smiles and wraps her arms around him when he exits. Then the door is shut and I'm alone with the crackling fire and my thoughts.
Vivika Rozhkova may prove to be one of the biggest challenges of my life, but I'm not backing away from it. Each member of this family has had their rite of passage, the moment when they had to choose family loyalty over conscience, and this will test me.
I rise and down the vodka as I pace in front of the fire. The first step will be to inform her of why she's here and what my plan is. Then depending on her response, we can proceed to training, or maybe it will take convincing.
Either way, I have a short time to work a small miracle.
And I'm not God.