Chapter Three: Rostova

When Katya went missing, my mother cried every night, convinced that one of our enemies had taken her. My grandfather had been a made man, tangled up in mafia business, and I had heard the stories many times.

My grandparents used to flee from one country to another, hoping the people hunting them would eventually give up. Over the years it looked like they had, because my parents had only ever relocated once, to settle among the elite in Russia.

I thought about all of this as the men parted for the one in the middle.

He stood there with an aura that was dangerous and deadly. Tattoos covered the backs of his hands, and a Rolex glinted on his wrist. The people decorating the room gasped and ducked toward the stairs where my family stood.

One of his men held a pistol openly, and none of them pretended as though they weren't here to kill.

They all wore dark shades. The man in the middle removed his, and another man stepped up beside him at once and took them from his hand.

His eyes were sharp and assessing, and the stillness around him made the whole room feel smaller. His face told me he took good care of how he looked, and I could not help noticing that he was handsome. The tattoos made him more alluring, if I dare say.

But who are these people?

Fillip stepped forward. Behind me, I heard my parents coming down the last of the stairs.

"How may we help you, gentlemen?" he asked politely. My father walked past me without a glance.

"Dad…" I called, trying to make him notice me, but he barely looked my way before he moved ahead.

I swallowed nothing. There was something more important to focus on.

"Naddy?"

I turned around and saw my mother staring at me in shock.

I forced a smile. "It is me, Mom."

"How can you be here?" Her voice was hard and in disbelief.

My stomach shuddered. "I was released."

She frowned. "By who?"

Before I could answer, Katya cut in. "She is not completely healed, Mom. I think bad luck follows her around. On the day I am supposed to meet my in-laws, she shows up, and now these people?"

She said it clearly and flatly with her displeasure on full display. My mother did not glance at me afterwards, she patted Katya's shoulder and told her not to fear that they were going to sort this out.

I stood there feeling out of place.

In-laws?

All of this decorating was for Katya's in-laws?

Strangely, the thought brought me relief. If she was getting married, she would leave this house, and my parents and my brother would be all mine again.

The thought had barely sunk in when a voice came from behind me.

"Your father took a ledger containing a list of the names of my enemies. That is what I came here to collect."

The man's voice was icy, and it carried through the room without being raised. I turned back and watched him speak to my father.

Fillip opened his mouth to say something, but my father raised a hand and stopped him.

Then he faced the man. "We do not know what..."

Bang!

Everyone shrieked as one of the men shot a random maid. My eyes went wide with horror, watching the maid dropped to the floor as she screamed in pain. I turned my head back to the man who looked unfazed by the screams.

"Decide which of your children goes next," he said coldly.

My eyes cut back to the maid. She was crying and wincing, and blood was pouring out of her shoulder. My heart slammed against my ribs. I had been a medical intern before I was sent to the Penitentiary, and the urge to help rushed through my veins before I could stop it.

"Please," my father pleaded, his voice shaking now. "Okay. I will give you the ledger. But can we ask what it is? We do not know what it looks like, or how to help you."

One of the men turned his gun toward us then, as if my father just gave the wrong answer, and my father's words broke apart with fear.

My eyes kept darting back to the maid. The blood would not stop. I could not stand there and watch. I rushed to her side, and that broke the moment, because every eye in the room followed me.

I crouched at once and the maid looked at me with wet, terrified eyes. I pressed my palm hard over the wound.

"You are going to breathe slowly for me. In through your nose, out through your mouth.”

She nodded between sobs, her body shaking.

"Somebody get the first aid box! Now!" I shouted over my shoulder.

"A black leather cover with the name ROSTOVA carved into it," I heard the man say behind me. I did not turn around. I kept my eyes on the maid.

"You are doing well," I told her, because her breathing had started to come in short, ragged gasps. "Stay with me. Do not close your eyes."

But the name Rostova was not one I had never heard before. They were one of the most powerful families in Russia, back in the day, but almost the entire family was dead, murdered, as people said. All that remained were two brothers leading the legacy. Rumor had it that the older brother had stepped away from the family's business, and the younger one was the one carrying it on.

"You cannot just come in here and bark orders!" Katya shouted across the room. "If you cannot calm down and have this conversation like a civil citizen, then we will have no choice but to involve the police."

Stupid girl.

The thought rang clear in my head.

The person who had gone for the first aid box came running back, and I tore it open at once. I pulled out gauze, packed it against the wound, and pressed down with both hands.

“You are fine. Keep breathing for me." I said to the maid.

"Stop."

I did not know if the word was meant for me. But the command in that voice made my hands stop on their own. I turned around, still crouched, and found the man looking straight at me.

My heart raced faster as I rose to my feet, shocked and confused. The gun that had been pointed at my family was now pointed at me, and I froze.

Nobody said anything.

The man turned his head to my father, walked forward and stopped one step away from him.

"I hate repeating myself, but I need to make this very clear," he gritted his teeth. "It has ROSTOVA carved in it. But before you lie to me, I know it is not in this house. Your father was not that stupid. He hid it in one of the numerous houses he keeps running to. Give me the address, or I order a bullet to be put between your little doctor's eyes."

His eyes did not move from my father's face.

"Please, we do not have what you need," Mom begged from behind, and my body locked in place.

Tears filled my eyes as I watched the man beside him cock the gun pointed at me. It looked like he was really going to shoot.

"Give us some time to find it, please!" Fillip begged, his palms pressed together. "We do not know where it is, but we can find it.”

My father stood paralyzed in front of the man, unable to speak.

The man finally turned his head toward Katya.

"Aside from repeating myself, I also do not do well with people, least of all a low life speaking to me in a defiant tone."

Right on cue, we heard cars rolling into the compound. A minute later, the front door was pushed open from outside.

People walked in, and I assumed they were Katya's in-laws, with her fiancé among them. They all stopped short, staring at the scene in shock.

The man who had been pointing the gun at me turned it around and shot one of them down without any hesitation, as if that was the plan.

I shuddered.

Katya screamed and rushed forward, running to the man who had just dropped dead.

The man in the middle remained unfazed.

"Enough to get you to work, and for the tone. Until we meet again," he said, jugging his chin in my direction. "She comes with me."

One of his men came forward and grabbed me.

"No, no, no! Let me go! Please, I beg you, do not hurt me! Fillip! Mom! Dad!”

The man threw me over his shoulder and carried me out. I screamed and begged for my family in terror.