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“Who are you?”
“Not so much Henri as Andriy,” he says, grinning as dread starts to sink in. “Would it be terribly cliché if I said surprise?” He chuckles.
“Andriy died with Anton that day, I saw it with my own eyes. It’s impossible,” I say, my teeth chattering now.
“Almostdied. As you can see, I’m very much alive, albeit missing my spleen which I want to thank your father for personally.”
“You don’t even look like you,” I say, horrified. “You’re not Andriy, you can’t be!”
“Well, daddy dearest did put four bullets in my face and several more in my body, so I was nearly dead. It took a helluva a lot of facial reconstruction, physiotherapy, and even speech therapy to be functional. Do you know how fucking hard it is to learn everything from scratch again? How painfully slow it was to even get me up and running? Still, in that time, everything came into focus despite our original plan being fucked up beyond comprehension.”
“Plan?”
“Of course, there was a plan, Sophia.” he says impatiently, shaking his head. “Did you think it was a coincidence that you and Anton met? Did you think that out of every single fucking man in New York, you would be acquainted with the son of your father’s rival? It was planned. Anton reeled you in like a fish on a hook. He said all the right things, and you fell for it like we knew you would. If everything went to plan, you wouldn’t have made it to the honeymoon, sweetheart, but your father had to ruin it all,” he says bitterly.
“You’re wrong,” I say, shaking my head.
“No, you’re just stupid.”
“You were meant to die that night in Chicago. It was all a set-up. Anton told your father where you were, it was meant to be an ambush, but we were outgunned. My idiot brother underestimated the cunning fox Paolo Falcone and the rest is unfortunately history. But I’m here to re-write it, wrongs will be righted Sophia, starting with you.” He says venomously.
“It was you who attacked me in Capri and slashed my tires in New York,” I say, my voice shaking. “You even asked my father for my hand in marriage, you’re sick!” I say starting to shake.
“I had no intention of hurting you just yet, but the marriage part would have been an easier way to kill you. Honestly, I just wanted to fuck with you. I wanted to see how invested you were in your husband.” He says spitefully.
“It was you who told Rocco about Anton, wasn’t it?” I say to Andriy.
“No, I made sure my useless uncle failed in killing him so he would get caught and relay the message back to your dear husband. I just gave him the information and planted a seed of doubt in his head. If darling Sophia lied to you about this, what else is she lying to you about? His ego would not allow himself to be made a fool of. I watched him closely these last months and he thought he had been winning the war when I was in control the whole time.”
“What do you want from me?” I say hollowly.
“I want you to die, of course,” Andriy says, chuckling.
“I have killed no men, that, in the first place, didn’t deserve killing.”
—Mickey Cohen
ADRENALINE KICKS IN, AS I CONTEMPLATE A WAY TO GET MYSELF OUT OF THIS MESS.
Exit strategies seem to formulate in my head but I know none of them will work work.
Artem smiles at me in victory, as if reading my mind. His men crack their knuckles menacingly as Keira smiles gleefully at me.
“This is where you fill me in on everything,” I say, trying to keep my composure but well aware of the threat hanging over me.
“Get dressed and meet me in the living room. I’m not discussing business in women’s quarters,” Artem says disgustedly, looking at Keira’s discarded clothes on the floor.
“Where areyougoing?” he says to Keira, who is about to follow him.
“I’m joining the conversation,” she says, looking at him blankly.
“I only speak to men. Are you a man?” He says in a thick Russian accent before walking out. She tries to follow him, but his men stop her before they leave the room.
“Whatever you did, you’re going to fucking regret it,” I say to her, buckling my pants.
“I can say the same thing to you,” she hisses. “You made a fool out of me, and you’re going to die tonight.”
“And you think you won’t be joining me if I do? The Romanov’s don’t do loose ends, no matter who your father once was.”
