Chapter 27
ANYA
I wander the grounds, navigating my way as quietly as I can through the areas least likely to be under surveillance. Zoya taught me. While they have guards and cameras everywhere, the service entrance by the kitchen used for staff and deliveries doesn’t have the same heavy guard presence as the main entrances. The perimeter fencing near dense shrubbery leads to hidden pathways only Zoya seems to know about. It seems the youngest sister has had reason to want privacy and found a way to make it happen.
Ophelia has to talk to me, and if it has anything to do with my brother—I can’t risk the Kopolov family finding out.
I never wanted this to be a choice between my family and theirs. I close my eyes as a rush of heat floods me. I need to stay awake, sober and ready, but my strength feels like it’s at an all-time low .
I know the danger, but my friend needs me, and I don't feel like I can trust myself right now.
I call Ophelia, but her phone rings and rings, and she doesn't answer. I text her, but there's no response.
What the hell?
I stare at the gate and mentally go through the motions. I know exactly how to get out of here if I have to, but I can't leave my little brother. My throat catches.
I've just started to feel like I have a family.
I text Ophelia again.
I’m here. Where are you?
Why does Ophelia have news about my brother?
"There she is."
The low, dark Irish drawl behind me sends shivers down my spine.
I spin around to see a man wearing a mask, sitting on a bench, and someone is bound to him. I can't see in the moonlight. I take a step forward.
"Ophelia!" I yell into the darkness, but the man sitting there shakes his head and chuckles. His laughter sends a shiver down my spine.
"What did you do with Ophelia?" I put steel in my voice but can't help that it shakes.
"Your friend is safe and sound in her bed," he says with a smile I can see through the mask. "She did what she was told, like a good little girl. Unlike some other people I know."
I glare at him and take another step closer, even as everything in me tells me not to.
"Don't worry, your husband isn't coming to get you. He has no idea where you are. He's probably running around looking for you.” The man leans forward on his forearms, his eyes meeting mine.
"And your brother is going to fucking love watching that footage I got from the bakery."
My stomach twists into knots.
"You're disgusting," I gasp, covering my mouth with my hand when I realize it is my brother sitting next to him. He's unconscious, his head tilted to the side.
Is he dead?
"What did you do to my brother?"
"He's been sedated," the man drawls. He laughs. "You recognize him, don’t you?"
I stare, disbelieving.
Why is my brother here?
"You see, lass," he continues, "your brother and your father had a lot more to do with this than you thought, didn't they?"
He shakes his head.
"Your father signed you away as easily as he signed off your mother's diamond ring. Tragic what people will do for money, isn’t it?”
We've all been played. Every fucking one of us.
"What do you want from me?" I demand.
“Oh, just the same thing your brother and father gave me," he says with a smile. "You're gonna go back to your man," he says in that drawl. "You’ll pretend that none of this ever happened. You’ll run in crying for help and say that your brother is here.” He leans forward, his eyes glittering. “Aren't you, lass?"
I stare, unblinking. He wants me to spy?
They’ll kill me.
"And then when I ask questions, you give me answers."
“I am not going to be a spy for you!" I shake my head. There has to be another way.
The man clicks his tongue and takes out a gun. He points it at my brother's head.
"That's a shame now, isn't it?" he says. "I would've thought your loyalty lay with your family. After all, isn't that what you promised your mother?"
My heart beats so fast I’m dizzy. He wants me to go back as if nothing happened, spy on my husband, and then feed him information in exchange for my brother?
Why do I have to make a choice? I don't know what to do.
Wait .
“How do you know what conversation I had with my mother?"
"Lass," he says with a wicked grin, "I know a lot more about your family than you think I do. Now tell me. Are you going back and playing the spy, and all will be as it was before? I'll step away, and you’ll give me what I need, and no one—not Eli or Stefan or even your precious husband will be harmed.”
A shiver races down my spine. Yet. No one will be harmed yet.
"Then you go back to your man. Pretend everything is normal. Should come naturally to you, shouldn't it?"
I shake my head.
"You're gonna run in and say that Ophelia texted you, and when you came out here, she was nowhere to be found. But surprise! Here's Eli—the fucking traitor. Come back to haunt you." He cocks his head to the side. "Now, do we have a deal, darlin’?” he drawls.
He wags a finger in my direction.
"I can already see the wheels turning. You're thinking you can give me lip service, go back inside, and take your brother with you, aren’t you? And you won't answer to me."
He pulls up a tablet and smashes at the screen with one long, inked finger.
"But you see this, lass? That is your bestie, sleeping like a baby.” An image of Ophelia in bed, her hands under her chin, fills the screen. “Whatever will happen to her if you dream of defying me? Don't think I have it in me? Maybe you haven’t heard of my reputation.”
Oh god.
I have no choice, do I?
I have to go back… I have to go back and pretend that everything's fine and then feed him information.
I need to stall to get my bearings. “What kind of information do you want?" I ask him. "It's not like I'm privy to everything?—"
He chuckles low.
“Course y’are. The Kopolov family aren’t sexists, now, are they? They share their info freely with men and women alike. It’s a feather in Rafail’s cap he taught his sisters how to fight.”
When I don’t deny it, he chuckles again. “I’ll use your pretty little friend to give me the directions I need. I’ll hack her phone. You'll be receiving text messages from me.” I stare. So that’s how he did it. “Now, darlin’. Do you see this video here?" he says.
The first flash of the screen shows me on the steel table in the bakery, Semyon in between my legs.
My cheeks flame.
"Now, now," he says, shaking his head, hitting pause. "I haven't watched the whole thing. I’m a gentleman, don't you know?"
Sure he is .
"You agree, like a good little girl, and I'll delete this right now and every record I have of it. Now, darlin’, do we have a deal?"
"What's in this for me?"
"For you?" He gets to his feet, all trace of humor gone from his face. He spreads his hands wide, a mockery of generosity. "I'll let you live. And your father. And your brothers.”
I stare into the darkness, torn. There has to be a way out of this. There has to be.
I want to scream. I'm silently begging for someone to come—Semyon, Rafail, Yana, anybody—but I was the one who got myself out here. I was the one who hid from all of them. And no one's coming to save me.
Maybe that's the crux of it, isn't it? No one's coming to save me.
I have to save myself. I have to save my family. And I'm not going to betray the Kopolov.
"Three," he says with a wicked grin, cocking his gun.
"Two."
He whistles low under his breath as if he can't wait to pull the trigger and end my brother's life.
"Okay, okay! I'll do what you say. Please, don't hurt him."
His low, dark chuckle fades into the night. And then—he's gone. Vanished. As if he waved a wand and teleported magically.
I'm alone. My brother is slumped against a bench. And I have to get help .
I run to Eli. I want to shake him and hug him, but the first thing I do is check his pulse to make sure he's breathing. My fingers find his wrist, and I hold my breath until the flutter of his heartbeat beneath them makes me cry out.
"Eli! Oh my god, Eli, what happened?"
If my mother could see him now…
"Wake up," I say, shaking him, but he doesn't budge. "Please, Eli. Please—wake up."
Still nothing.
I hold him to my chest, lift my face to the heavens, and scream. "Somebody help me! Help!" I scream at the top of my lungs.
Floodlights blind me, and I blink, turning my head to the side. Voices. Heavy footsteps.
Semyon's men come running to me.
"I found her! Who does she have? What is it?"
"Semyon, call Rafail! Lock the gate!"
My phone buzzes with a text.
Ophelia
If you reveal anything to them, your lover boy is dead—along with your brother.
I realize, with chilling accuracy, that there is no escape.
His guards surround us, weapons raised.
"Who was here?" They surround me in a circle. My heart aches .
“I told Zoya I needed fresh air. I came outside for a bit of a walk to clear my head. Someone screamed my name and scared the hell out of me. Then—” My voice catches. “Eli.”
My brother’s back. He’s back, and he’s alright. I haven’t given myself space to process this yet.
They'll have questions. So do I.
I can still hear his cold, bitter voice.
“Eli's here. I heard someone out here yelling, and I came running. And I saw him. I don't know if he's alive," I lie. I better get good at it. "Please, let's get him inside."
I scan the men and don’t see Semyon. My heart beats faster. Where is he? I want him, his strong, reassuring presence, but at the same time, I fear one look in his eyes and he’ll know what I’m hiding.