“We’ve been driving for more than twenty minutes. I’m officially calling this a kidnapping.”
Alexei chuckled as he turned the car right on the next stoplight. “You don’t go out of Manhattan much, do you?”
On a cold, gray afternoon, Dani stood in front of a coffin.The funeral of Alfie Moretti, the bodyguard shot protecting Dani’s father, was a small event attended by only close family and friends. Dani fondly knew Alfie as a child and sat on his
Mariella was checked into a rehabilitation center upstate. It didn’t take much convincing to prove her lack of sobriety, since Mariella faced the doctor standing barely upright, either from the alcohol or her grogginess from oversleeping.Dani p
When Dani moved in to Alexei’s apartment, he was already back in Moscow.It was a relief not having to deal with the awkwardness of moving her things in, which Marta was happy to help her with. In truth, she didn’t have much to bring with
It was still snowing when Dani woke up the following morning.Being nestled in the warm, thick sheets of a soft bed on a cold winter day, it was difficult to get up. It wasn’t until the smell of something delicious—pancakes—wafted to
Dani stepped out of the elevator doors and down the hallway towards her father’s room. Save for the nurses’ station at the center, most lights were already dim at half past ten in the evening. The nurses immediately recognized her, waiving the visiting hours rule with a nod. Her father had just woken up from a long coma. They could look the other way just this once.
Not once in a million years did Dani think she would be on a plane back to Russia.It would’ve been over her dead body, and yet here she was now on a business class flight to Moscow, with Alexei quietly sleeping in the seat next to her.
Dani remained wide awake past midnight.Perhaps it was the time difference, but even as fatigue from the jet lag left a heaviness in her body, she couldn’t fall asleep.
The Nikolin estate was an hour’s drive from the city.Buildings from the bustling capital became sparser the farther they drove from the Kremlin, entering suburbia until more greenery dominated the landscape. Well, it was more white than green,