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PROLOGUE
EKATERINA
eighteen years old
My first week in New York was uneventful. It was boring. Almost as boring as it had been in the tower my father kept locking me in. Aleksei was too busy with work and trying to find a solution for how to make his soon-to-be wife hate him less.
Davina Michaelis was three years older than me and in med school. From what I’d found out about her, she was extremely intelligent. She’d skipped a few grades and would be finishing university soon. Her father, on the other hand, wasn’t as smart.
Samuel Michaelis was a businessman whose interest was money and money only. When Davina turned eighteen, he tried selling her to the highest bidder without her knowledge. Considering that Aleksei ran a company and had the same circle of acquaintances, he’d offered to marry her instead.
Davina’s situation reminded him of my own from two years ago.
However, unlike my future sister-in-law, I was well aware of the arrangements my father had made for me. Did I consent to any of them? No, and he did not care. All he cared about was getting rid of me and passing me onto a man who was more than twice my age, to be his problem and no longer belong to the Kalashnik family.
I liked Davina. She was a woman who knew exactly what she wanted, and getting married to my brother was not a part of her plans. For now, she saw Aleksei as a solution to escape her father’s claws. But in the long run, she had no intention of marrying him.
“How long will I have to wait?” I grunted.
Instead of taking me with him whilst he was doing business, to teach me all that I needed to know, he brought me to the awful neighborhood where Davina lived. The moment she got wind of her father’s plans, she snapped all of his credit cards in half and found a place and a job. However, the current place was more of a rat’s nest than a home.
“I won’t take too long,” Aleksei responded, voice as stern as always. “I just need to drop off something for her and then I’ll be back.”
I snorted but bit my tongue to prevent a sarcastic response from slipping. Right, because showering her in gifts was going to make her hate him less.
I leaned my head against the window. It was barely past ten in the evening and if it weren’t for the fact that I’d struggled to sleep lately, I wouldn’t have come. I couldn’t help but think how envious on some levels I was of Davina.
Her life wasn’t perfect, but she’d cut off her father completely the moment she’d heard of his plans for her. Granted, it wasn’t easy, and she was likely scared shitless. Nonetheless, she took a step, rejected her legacy, and tried to live her life.
And as brave as she was, she was stupid, too. She’d gotten entangled with the devil himself. Aleksei was a little softer towards me because, to put it plainly, I hated his guts. He blamed himself for what had happened, and it was his fault.
He promised he’d spend the rest of his life making it up to me.
It sounded fun.
A scream broke my train of thought. Immediately, I reached for the gun that was safely tucked underneath the car seat. As I pulled it out and removed the safety, my eyes narrowed as I tried to distinguish where the sound was coming from.
Not once did I stop to think about the consequences. I was way too impulsive, and my intrusive thoughts always won. Slowly, I unbuckled myself and left the vehicle. I was certain that the sound was coming from across the street, from a dark alley.
I wasn’t stupid enough to go straight into the alley, into the unknown. I approached the situation as carefully as I was able to. The screams had died out, but the curiosity was still lingering in the air. Perhaps it was just me, and I was being overly nosy and had to know everything.
Another scream. This time it came from a woman, making me freeze. It only lasted for a couple of seconds before I continued to walk towards the sound. All of my instincts were heightened, my breathing slow and steady and every step calculated. Well, as much as that was possible.
I hid behind a dumpster. The stench made me gag. It smelled like a rotten body was covered with food that had gone bad years ago. Not a smell I’d wish to have anywhere near me again.
The first thing that caught my attention was the graffiti on the wall above the dumpster. A golden butterfly and a golden crow. It seemed as if they’d been battling, with one of the feathers falling off the crow, whilst one of the butterfly’s wings were chipped.
Something inside of me awakened at the sight of the butterfly. I wanted to fix its beautiful wing, and the picture of it was forever embedded into my head.
I peeked my head to the side, and, although it was almost pitch black, I was able to see a silhouette.
It was a very tall man. His back was turned to me, his white shirt the only thing I was able to see well. The shirt hugged his toned muscles perfectly. He moved ever so slightly, just enough for me to catch a glimpse of the sharp blade in his hand.
The blood dripped from the knife, the crimson shade transferring onto his shirt. The man bent down, slowly, and it was then that it hit me that he was crouching down over a dead body.
Then, he slightly switched his position, and it allowed me to see another body.
My mouth opened slightly, and my eyes widened. It wasn’t fear. It was pure excitement. Something awoke deep inside of me. It was like a part of me had been unlocked, a part that I never knew existed.
