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Prologue – Olya
I tossed my head back, the beat of the music throbbing through every inch of my body, and threw my arms over my head. If this was going to be my last night in Budapest, I was going to make sure it counted.
I wasn’t sure how long I had been out for – it must have been past midnight now. My friends and I, the girls I’d been on that English Lit course with, had headed out to the Ruin Bars for a few hours, toasting to the fact that our degrees were finally, well and truly, behind us. We were officially finished, our final projects turned in. I wouldn’t be sticking around for graduation, receiving my degree once I arrived back in America with my father, but I didn’t care. Tonight wasn’t about what came next – no, it was about this moment, right here, and letting myself get entirely and completely lost to it.
"I need another drink!” Kara called to me, as she grabbed my hand and tugged me towards the bar. I opened my eyes, grinning, the alcohol already filling my head, making me tipsy and giggly.
"Hell, yes!" I agreed, looping my arm through hers and letting her lead me down to the packed-out bar. Being two young women, it didn’t take long for us to get in, a couple of guys stepping aside to make sure we didn’t have to wait. One of them was eyeing Kara with an open appreciation, and she cocked an eyebrow at him, as though daring him to talk to us.
"Can I get you a drink?" he yelled to her, over the music. She put her arm around me.
"Only if you get one for her, too!” she called back, and he shrugged, nodding, clearly willing to do whatever it took to get Kara to pay attention to him right now. His friend, the guy standing next to him, flashed me a smile, and I returned it. He wasn’t exactly my type, but I wasn’t going to go stepping on Kara’s toes when she was just trying to have some fun, right?
The rest of our friends were off dancing or making out with the guys they had met over the course of the night, and I was pretty sure I would be the only one going home alone. Not that it bothered me. No, I had waited this long to find a guy I wanted to hook up with, and I wasn’t going to throw it away on some random dude at a Budapest nightclub who wasn’t even that hot.
The guys got us our drinks, and Kara leaned in to her new conquest, laughing at something he said. His friend tried to rest his hand on the small of my back casually, but I pulled away, smiling at him politely, hoping he got the message. I wasn’t out here trying to have some guy feeling me up or acting way too friendly; I was here to celebrate my last night in Hungary, before I returned home to my father once more.
It was hard to believe it had been a whole year since I had arrived here when my grades had been good enough to allow me a study abroad opportunity. My dad hadn’t exactly been enthused about the idea, but I had convinced him it would do me good to get out of the country and see a little more of the world. I didn’t want to sit around in my dorm room and just wait for my degree to be over. I wanted to have some fun.
Kara and her new man were already huddled up together in a corner, sipping on the drinks he had just brought, and his friend leaned over to speak into my ear.
"You want to dance?" he called to me. I sighed, glad he couldn’t hear me over the music. I mean, yeah, he seemed nice enough, but I wasn’t here to focus on anyone else. I was here to drink, dance, and have fun, without some guy trying to get his hands on me in the process.
"I’m good," I replied, and his face darkened for a brief moment before I pulled away and headed back to the dancefloor. I didn’t care. Let him be mad at me – this time tomorrow, I was going to be on a plane back to America, and none of this was going to matter.
The song shifted to something slower, sultrier, and I moved slowly in time with the beat, letting it wash through me again. I could feel eyes on me, but I didn’t care. Hell, maybe I liked being the center of attention like this – maybe I liked to feel them looking at me. I grinned as I lifted my hands up again, swaying my hips this way and that. One last night of fun before I went home and picked up where I had left off – and I was going to make damn sure I enjoyed every second of it.
And, if I’d known what was waiting for me when I returned to the USA, I would probably never have left at all.
Chapter One – Olya
"Dad, you have to be kidding me!” I protested, as I followed him out of his office and into the living room of his penthouse apartment.
"I’m not, and that’s final," he told me firmly. He wouldn’t even look at me. God, this was driving me insane! I had barely gotten back through the door and he was already telling me what to do. Well, I wasn’t the girl who had done everything she had been told when she was growing up – no, I was ready to put up a fight, if he thought he was going to have a say in how my life was going to go now I was back here.
"Please, just listen to me," I begged him, grabbing his shoulder and forcing him to turn around and face me. "I don’t need anyone watching over me. I can handle myself."
"You have no idea what goes on in this city," he replied, his voice dropping slightly, as though the mere thought of it was enough to throw him off his game. "You’re not going to just walk about out there without anyone watching over you. You’re an Antonov. That means you’re always going to be a target."
I rolled my eyes skyward.
"I’ve been an Antonov my whole life," I reminded him. "And nothing has ever come of it! Why are you so worried all of a sudden? What happened?"
His face darkened for a moment. I eyed him. Something had changed in the time I had been away, I was sure of it – something about the way he carried himself, as though he was more cautious than before. I had assumed it was something to do with the business, the business he ran with his stepbrother Damyan, but I had no idea. Maybe something to do with that girl I’d met when I had first arrived back in the city, Mina, though he hadn’t gone into too much detail about what was actually happening there.
"You don’t know how dark this city can get," he replied, as though it should have been obvious. "Be grateful for that."
"I don’t know because nobody has ever bothered with me," I pointed out. "Why do I need to start assuming they will?"
"The bodyguards are going to arrive at your place next week," he replied. "That’s the end of it. I don’t want to hear any more about it."
"Dad, I-"
"I’ve said what I need to say," he snapped back, clearly annoyed that I wasn’t just rolling over and taking it like he had expected me to. "I’ve got nothing else to discuss with you, Olya."
And, with that, he closed his bedroom door behind him, leaving me standing there in the middle of the living room, beyond frustrated at what had just happened.
Bodyguards. He wanted bodyguards watching over me. And not just when there was something happening with the business, no – he was bringing in two guys to keep watch on me twenty-four-seven, moving in to the new apartment he’d set me up with a few blocks over from the Flood. I couldn’t believe it. He had always been protective of me, but this? This was beyond anything he’d ever done before, and I hated the very thought of it.
