AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter Two
Aleksei
This day absolutely sucks.
First, I’m stood up by a firm that unconditionally knows better than to treat a member of the Ivanov family with such disrespect, and then I’m abandoned by a woman whose face will haunt me the rest of my days. A face I absolutely know I’ve seen before. I would swear it.
But now she too has left me. I watch the dark-haired beauty with the enormous eyes as she dashes off, still stunned at the assault—both physically and mentally. I’ve never been awestruck by a woman before, not in all my thirty-five years. Yet this one, she assaults me in all the right ways.
Taking my time, I reach down to retrieve my phone and tuck it into my shirt pocket. The escort I hired to accompany me to my cousin’s wedding thought she could cancel via text? Nyet. No one cancels on Aleksei Ivanov, especially via text, which is why I called the owner to let her know my family would no longer be using her high-end agency for any of the services they offer as I strode up the steps of the very church entryway where we were supposed to meet.
But it’s probably for the best. Though I’m furious to attend a wedding alone, it’ll be easy enough for me to explain away. Plus, I have far too much work to do for me to spend time at the reception. I’ll attend the ceremony, make an appearance at the reception to wish the bride and groom well, then return to the lakefront penthouse overlooking Millennium Park. It’s where I stay while I’m in Chicago, and I’ll soon call it my permanent residence. The space is a vast improvement over the smaller version two floors lower, the one I gutted and couldn’t make work before I convinced the occupants of the penthouse to sell.
Once this wedding is over and my cousin and his new bride are on their honeymoon, I can return my focus to why I’m really in Chicago. We Ivanovs, one of the larger organized crime families here in the U.S., need to branch out, grow the business outside of New York. I suggested the Windy City as an excellent location for our expansion, and my father agreed. The real estate market is ripe here, and the family needs more legitimate businesses on the books to keep the feds happy.
“Mr. Ivanov?”
I glance over my shoulder at an usher standing at the double doors leading into the great church. Someone must have given him my name, which pleases me. My presence here has been noted, as it should be. “Da?”
“We’re about to start, sir.” He gestures to the shadowy entryway to the church. It’s empty, where only a few moments before it was clogged with people. I nod and take the last few steps to enter the church doors, scanning the nearly full space. Several people nod and smile at me, all of them looking back in anticipation for the bride’s arrival, and I move to the side of the church, where there are still empty pews. Once more, I see the satisfaction on many faces. It’s good that I’m here, no matter how busy I am.
My phone chirps and I remove it from my pocket to set it on silent…then scowl down at it, surprised. I don’t remember my phone ever making that noise before.
I stare more closely at the screen. Where’s the spiderweb crack in the upper right corner? There’s no way dropping my phone on concrete steps uncracked the screen. I turn it over and my scowl deepens. Why the hell is there a Hello Kitty sticker on my case?
“Mr. Ivanov?” The usher nods for me to take my seat. I didn’t realize he was still shadowing me, and I rivet my stony glare on him. He, of course, immediately backs down. I don’t take orders, I give them. As next in line to the Ivanov empire, I have an endless line of operatives loyal to the family who are willing to carry out any order I give. A snap of my fingers and this usher will cease to exist. Clearly, he has forgotten his place.
If he wasn’t a member of the wedding party, I would make a point of reminding him of that. Today is not a good day to cross me.
I step into an empty pew, then return my attention to the phone. I almost touch the home button then stop. This isn’t my phone, that much I know, which means it must belong to the beautiful woman who assaulted me on the church steps. What I wouldn’t give to have her assault me again. Those eyes…that face. I am absolutely certain I’ve seen her before.
But I need my phone back, immediately. And the easiest way to get it…
I grin. Chances are, my beautiful assailant’s print is still on the home button. An older woman with a heavily powdered face is now turned around and facing the back of the church, and I easily catch her eye. “Excuse me,” I murmur. “You have makeup in your purse? Powder?”
Her eyes widen—she recognizes me too, I think, and that recognition prompts her to quick action. She pulls a compact from her large purse and hands it to me, then does me the favor of trying not to stare as I dust the button of the phone. I glance around for something to cover the button, and nod with satisfaction when I spot the tape holding the hymn book cover together. Once I secure a clean piece, I thank the woman and return her powder to her, but am saved an explanation of what I’m doing as the music swells to signal the start of the wedding.
I bide my time until everyone’s attention is focused back on the front of the church, then press the home button. The phone unlocks—and I freeze.
The background image beneath the phone’s icons is so familiar that even fragmented, I recognize it immediately. With no thought to her privacy, I immediately hit the woman’s photos and find the image—not just once, but dozens of times, from different angles. A painting of a beautiful young woman all in white, her head adorned with a stunning tiara of precious stones, her gown a flowing cape of feathers, so real they make her seem like she’s flying.
The Swan Princess, by the brilliant Russian artist, Mikhail Vrubel.
A painting I know so well, I see it in my dreams.
And a likeness of the young woman from the church steps so close, she could have been the artist’s model…if she’d been alive in Russia in 1900.
I stand motionless in the church, my mind thrown back to the first time I saw the extraordinary painting in a Moscow gallery. The large, haunted eyes of the princess had stopped me in my tracks even as a young boy, and have called to me ever since. Unconsciously, I’d searched for such a rare beauty as Vrubel had captured in all the women I’ve ever met, resigning myself to never finding her.
Until today, when she nearly knocked me over.
Who is this woman?
Suddenly desperate to know, I search the woman’s phone long enough to secure her name—Raina Darcy. It’s all I can do not to invade her privacy further, but I resist the temptation. I want to know everything about her, every detail of her life, but it’s suddenly tremendously important that my beautiful swan princess shares her world with me willingly. But how…?
I return to my original plan. My phone is designed to reset to factory settings should someone attempt to break into it. I’d better text her and give her the passcode to unlock it before she does that, or I may never see her again. Now that I realize why I know her face, I must see her again. I send a quick, simple text: Open me. Passcode: 072807.
For a long time, there is no response, and I find myself searching the crowd during the wedding ceremony, wondering if she’s here. She had to deliver rings, she said. Most likely, she wouldn’t stay for the wedding, and yet—I can’t help but think she’s here. My beautiful swan princess would love the music and pageantry of a wedding such as this.
