Chapter Three
In which Caroline asks, “Why are the pretty ones always so bad for you?”
Caroline…
A week later…
"How much did you win again?" Liria asks.
We're both sprawled on the floor of the twins' nursery, which is a wildly magical place. She and Alexsey had knocked out the two bedrooms across the hall from theirs to create the space for their twins Vasily and Anya.
There is a landscape of an enchanted forest that spreads across one wall, drawn in long, swooping details, slightly distorted, a vision created by Alexsey's right hand.
He was an extremely talented artist, but he lost his dominant hand in a gun battle last year.
However, with his new neuroprosthetic, he's managed to use both hands to create art that's entirely different from what he had before.
To my untrained eye, it's equally as beautiful.
"It was a little over twenty-five million," I say, shaking my head. "I'm still not sure what to do with it. My estate attorney back in Boston, of course, would have a completely different opinion about that."
"Yeah, he'd be freaking out right now if he knew you had it in a savings account instead of in the stock market." Liria laughs helplessly as Anya rolls on to her chest, sort of gnawing toothlessly at her shoulder.
"I swear to God that one's half vampire." I chuckle, stroking Vasily's downy head.
"You could start buying shares in the Morozov hospitality division," she says with a slight smile. "Or, part ownership in the Hotel Lyric?"
"Or," I say lofty, pretending to admire my manicure over Vasily's thrashing limbs, "I could retire and become a lady of leisure."
We glance at each other and burst out laughing. "Oh my God, you'd be so bored in about ten minutes," she says, trying to catch her breath. "The worst possible thing would be you having free time. As you recall clearly from our misspent youth, nothing good ever came of it."
"What are you talking about?" I protest. "I talked our way out of three different arrests!"
"Uh, huh," she says. unconvinced. She plays with Anya's little starfish hands for a moment before glancing back at me.
"So, what did you think of Nikandr? You should've seen him when you kicked his ass in the poker finals.
A Royal Flush! I don't think I've ever seen one before, not in person anyway. "
"I have only had six Royal Flush hands in my entire poker history," I admit. "It was incredibly good fortune that one of them happened to be that night."
"Be honest with me," she says. "Were you happier about winning the twenty-five million or about kicking the ass of every Morozov man in the room?"
It's a good question. Liria and I both come from wealthy families, and I've never wanted for anything. A good education from Boston University in Finance and Marketing, cars, a beautiful apartment. Every possible opportunity.
When my parents died, it became harder and harder to control my brothers. Without my father to oversee their "business" ventures, they grew more brazen.
I wish they had never come to New York to ask Alexsey for positions in the Morozov Bratva. If they'd stayed home, they would have been all right dabbling in minor drug sales and stolen weapons.
Every day, that shard of pain slices like glass, digging deeper into my heart when I think about what they had turned into in the end. Men who would betray their own cousin.
Forcing myself out of a dark round of rumination that never leads to anything good, I kiss Vasily's soft cheek.
"I'm never going to complain about the money," I say.
"Just out of spite, I'm happy to have kicked the feet out from under a couple of those guys.
I have felt the distance from all the Morozov men. "
Liria sits up, looking stricken. "You know Alexsey loves you! He was really happy that you would move here to be closer to us."
"I don't mean Alexsey," I say. To be honest, he's probably the only reason I haven't conveniently disappeared and ended up in the Hudson River.
"I understand why they're suspicious, but being expected to prove myself every day is wearing on me.
So yeah, kicking their ass in poker was completely delightful. "
"Okay," she says, getting up to put Anya in the crib, settling her in her little sleep sack.
"Back to the subject of Nikandr. I know he seems cold and extremely haughty.
However, the man is smoking hot and he's talented as hell.
Alexsey was telling me how happy the family has been with his job as Sovietnik since he's taken over from Uncle Yuri. .."
"So?" I shrug, handing her Vasily and helping wrestle him into his sleep sack.
"There was something there," she says, watching me carefully. "A spark between you and him. I could see it."
"That was in your imagination," I say sharply. "I met him earlier that night and he'd already politely dismissed me as someone not really important enough to talk to. Then his brother Andrey came over and pretty much cemented the fact that I am an untouchable."
Her brows draw together, always ready to do battle on behalf of her people, which I find deeply endearing.
"Why, what did Andrey say?" she asks indignantly.
"That man is the closest version of AI that a human can be, so don't let anything he says hurt your feelings.
I don't think he's aware that a concept such as emotion actually exists, much less good manners. "
"Oh, he was just careful to remind Nikandr of my brothers and what they'd done," I say, feeling that flush of humiliation again.
"Damn, I'm sorry," she says, enveloping me in her arms. "I know it cuts you every time you think about it, much less when someone brings it up."
I slump, appreciating the hug for a moment before we give the babies one last kiss each on their sleepy little faces and watch them curl around each other like Ying and Yang in the crib. Liria lowers the lights and we tiptoe out.
"You know," she says as we head downstairs, "maybe the idea of you buying a partnership in Hotel Lyric isn't such a bad idea? Didn't you say the hotel was already running in the black and the occupancy rate was insanely high?"
"It is," I agree happily. In fact, the Hotel Lyric was how Liria and Alexsey lured me here to New York in the first place.
***
On a visit six months ago, they insisted on taking me on a hardhat tour of the Morozov Bratva's newest boutique hotel.
It was a beautiful ten-story brownstone with a rooftop garden and reception area that would be perfect for parties and weddings.
As we walked through, I could see how well the designers had worked with the construction crew.
There were so many exquisite details, like the enormous, framed music scrolls used as art, antique instruments mounted in shadow boxes and, most magically to me, even the bathrooms "sang." The rainfall showerheads created a musical pattern as the water fell on strategically placed tile flooring.
I'm not the musician Liria is, but it was the most beautiful tribute that Alexsey could have created for her.
When I returned two months ago, they had insisted on walking me through again, taking me to dinner at the hotel's restaurant, asking me questions about what I would improve, or what I thought could work better.
I'd gotten so excited that I almost scribbled some notes out on the linen tablecloth before reaching for my phone instead.
I'd looked up to see them both smiling meaningfully.
"What?" I asked, looking between them.
"The job as General Manager is yours if you want it," Alexsey said, leaning forward blue eyes warm in the candlelight. "We have two assistant managers who have stepped up, but none of the candidates for GM have been right."
Leaning back, I'd raised a suspicious brow. "They haven't been right, or you didn't want them to fit?"
"This hotel is yours," Liria said, eagerly grabbing my hand.
"Alexsey may have designed it with me in mind.
But it has all the elements that I know you love; small, but not too small.
Elegant, but not stuffy. You were meant for this challenge and besides…
" She'd ruthlessly laid on the pressure.
"We want you here. I miss you every day. "
"Don't you put that fake quiver in your lip," I said sternly. "Really, you have no shame."
Then, she delivered the killing blow. "The babies need to see their aunt Caroline. You're their godmother. I don't want them growing up without you."
"Oh, that was low," I said, deeply impressed. "You punched me right in the heart with that one."
She perked up instantly. "Yeah, I could hear you let out this little 'oof!' of air. It was majestic. Did it work?"
I looked at her. I looked at Alexsey. Then, around the beautiful dining room with a ribbon of music painted in gold that ran around the top of the room. It really did need to be centered about two-thirds of the way up the wall, though, for better viewing and the placement of the tables was…
Well, goddammit, they did have me. "This is nepotism," I said weakly.
"Yeah, that's how New York City was built," Alexsey said unrepentantly. "But it doesn't mean you're not qualified. Say yes."
Groaning, I'd buried my face in my hands for a minute. But what was waiting for me in Boston? My family was gone. I'd resigned from my position at the Four Seasons after my brothers were killed. Then there was the case of that fucking Johann. I flinched away from that thought and smiled.
"I would be honored," I said, a bit giddy but who wouldn't be? "It would be the challenge of a lifetime."
"Good," Alexsey said warmly.
Liria applauded madly and called for champagne.
"You think you're the boss of me now, don't you?" I asked.
"I am the boss of you," she said.
"No, you're just profoundly manipulative and may I say I find that to be one of your most attractive qualities?"
"Thank you honey," she said, "I know you do."
***
We talk about the idea of buying into the hotel for a little while before I check the time and groan. "I have two meetings this afternoon, I've got to get moving."
"Think about the partnership," she says, hugging me goodbye.
I snort inelegantly. "Yeah, that's more like ten percent of the value, but still."
"No matter what you decide, you know I will be there, supporting you as hard as your underwire bra.”
That makes me crack up.
“And maybe think about Nikander?" She smiles diabolically. "I know he was attracted as hell to you."
"Seeing Nikandr again is about as desirable an anal bleaching," I say bluntly.
"Okay then," she laughs.
***
I run back to the hotel; it's about two miles from Liria and Alexsey's house.
I haven't even bothered looking for a place yet in New York because it's easier to stay on-site during this first, crucial year.
I have one of the corner suites on the ninth floor, just below the exalted Morozov section on the tenth.
Mine is one of my favorite suites in the entire hotel, with a carved cherrywood bed that curves and swoops like the ocean and piles of cream-colored bedding and pale curtains.
I have my own little kitchen, along with an enormous sitting room, and a bathroom which is essentially architectural porn.
It's all white marble within an enormous clawfoot tub.
I'd personally scavenged that tub out of a demolished mansion up in Rochester.
Thanks to a certain Bratva's connections, the designer and I had first crack at the estate sale.
I'd bought nearly all the bathroom fixtures and furniture for the hotel.
Now that I have that twenty-five million though, I should probably do something with it. Invest in some real estate, maybe, buy an apartment. Just the thought of it is exhausting. I have to guide this hotel through its first year.
I've always been a tub girl, which is one of the reasons I pilfered this suite as my own. I lay back in the water, swishing my hands as I think about her question about Nikander.
He's a pompous asshole.
Why does he have to be so goddamn beautiful?
Why are the pretty ones always so bad for you?
Nikandr would definitely be bad for me. In the way that consuming an entire Red Velvet cake would be delicious and utterly satisfying, then leaving you sick to your stomach and filled with self-loathing afterwards. I didn't need any of that. I had plenty of self-loathing as it is.
I have two dead brothers who committed themselves to the enemy. And I’m scared that I will never understand why.