18. DANYA

Sutton hadn't tried to contact me, which either meant he'd been taken by them, or he escaped and was laying low. Probably feeling smug that he'd managed to escape. But these men were trained in capture, they wouldn't let him slip away as easily as he'd slipped away from me that first time.

I knew it was only a matter of time before the Sokolov family came to New York. The head of the Sokolov family had been found dead this morning, which is why I'd been pulled into a meeting by my uncle at the ass crack of dawn.

My mother had a bottle of strong Russian vodka waiting on the dining room table. She poured a shot for both my brother and me. "They're upstairs," she said. "You're gonna need this."

"He'll need both," Grigory said. "He's the one going down."

Mother marched over and gave him a backhanded slap across the face. "We're family," she said. "You do not wish that type of thing on family. Your brother might have done something foolish or even stupid, but we do not wish death on each other. We're not animals. This is not the wilderness. We do not have to sacrifice to survive the winter."

Grigory held firm, holding the side of his face he'd been slapped on.

I took my vodka shot and passed the other to him. He would need it after that whack. "To getting through this," I said.

He rolled his eyes, taking the shot and then pouring himself another. "We're still waiting on one more."

"Your fiancé," my mother said. "I got a call. I don't think he was at the apartment."

Relieved, oddly, by the news. "I don't know where he'd be."

"Call him," Grigory said. "Get him to come here. Surely, you have sway over him. Unless he's the one who gives the orders." He snorted before taking another shot.

I took my shot, slamming it on the table for another. Of course, they'd need me to call him in. But that meant the rouse was up. They must've known he was Sutton. "Sure," I said. Fumbling with my phone in hand. I changed his contact in my phone.

"Call him."

I went to a deadline. Thankfully. "Disconnected line."

"Well, my theory is winning out then," he snickered, pouring me another shot. "I guess we're not waiting."

Maybe I was shortsighted in that move. Fuck.

In a room on the upper floor of the house, my father, my uncle, and my sister's husband were sat with their backs to the wall. Two people, a man and a woman, in grand fur coats stood with their backs to me and Grigory as we arrived.

"You took your time," my father snapped.

The man turned, a big smile on his face. He was over six foot, but a touch shorter than me. "I'm Mikhail," he said, his hand leaving the hold it had of the fur on his shoulder, pushed out to shake my hand. "I'm assuming you're the one who lost my family all their money. Huh?"

Firming my brow and clearing my throat, I nodded. "I'm getting it back." I shook his hand.

"Nice to formally meet you," he said, his grip becoming tense on my hand. "It's not every day we get to meet someone who screwed us over." He snarled.

"I'm Anastasia," the woman said.

"Your wife?" I asked.

"Sister," he grumbled, squeezing my hand. It didn't bother me. My hand had training with all the ropes I'd wrapped and wrangled. "And we're here to get to the bottom of our stolen money. Since our father is dead, and may he rest at the bottom of an ice lake, we have taken over all the Sokolov interests."

"We want the money back, with interest," she said. "You've been washing money for our family here in America for over ten years now. Your deal with our father is dead, like he is right now. Dead." She giggled.

Glancing at my father as he placed his head in his hands. It felt like I was the one who'd royally screwed up, even though I was being framed.

"You said on the phone that you'd honor your father's deal," Arkady added. "Do you wish to go back on that deal?"

Mikhail turned to the men at the wall, his fur cape whipping the air as he moved swiftly. "You operated in bad faith first," he said. "By allowing our money to be stolen, you've shown us that you cannot be trusted."

"So, we're moving to America," Anastacia said. "And we're cutting out the middleman. That's what you say, right? Middleman." She continued to giggle. "In fact, I'm looking for a husband to seal the deal." She glanced over at both me and Grigory.

"I'm engaged," I proclaimed. "And I'm gay."

"I didn't ask for children," she grumbled, rolling her eyes. "And as it turns out, you're the only one in this family born on American soil."

Everyone stared in my direction, almost expecting me to do or say something else.

"I'm not marrying you," I said.

"As it appears, you don't have a choice," Mikhail said. "In fact, I think you should be grateful. My sister's hand in marriage would stop us from killing you."

"He'll do it," my father said.

It was rare to see the side of my father that looked almost scared. I wondered if he was stuck in a stone-like state after so long of not expressing a real emotion. I didn't anticipate anyone in my corner. If anything, this was what they might've considered something I deserved.

Evelina walked into the room.

"Baby, this is no place for a woman," my father said.

Anastasia snapped her fingers at him. "I'm here," she said. "Your daughter can be here if she wishes. She's family."

Evelina chuckled. "I overhead that. I was coming to say that Danya isn't even engaged. The boy he brought to the house earlier. That was Sutton. The name on the account where your money was moved to."

"Shut up."

"Son."

"Danya, jeez," Arkady let out. "I knew it. I told you it would've been someone you had been fucking."

"It's not him," I told them. "Whatever it is, or whoever, they're framing him, and me. They want to see us both attacked. I promise."

Mikhail mocked me. "I promise." His sister joined in.

"Listen, I'm being serious, someone, maybe the Winch family, they want to see us crumble, whacked from the knees up," I said. "Remember how they sent over someone for you to take care of. They planted him in your lap. They're not friends of the family."

"Winch," Mikhail said, he paced, whipping his fur coat from side-to-side. "That name." He smacked his tongue, almost tasting it. "Ah. Winch. We got a call from someone. They told us you'd lost our money and were scrambling to find it."

My father grumbled. "That's not information we want getting out."

"It looks like we arrived in time," Anastasia said. "And I'm thinking we'll need to do some redecorating too. And of course, we'll have to get some of the decorators from Russia, you know, the ones with taste."

"Marry Grigory," I said. "That way you have some chance at combining the families."

"Combining," she laughed.

"No," Mikhail said. "We're not combining. We're taking over. Just like we did with father. That man was on his last legs."

"We gave him the push to ending it all."

My father let out a cough. "You killed Ivan?"

The brother and sister laughed.

"Well, he wouldn't kill himself," she said. "And once we're married, you can consider the money you had stolen from us no longer an issue."

I looked for someone to have my corner. Someone to tell these psycho siblings that I wasn't being married off. I didn't care how much of their money was stolen and my name used as their bait. "Grigory has American citizenship," I said. "If that's the whole reason you want to marry me, to give you some legitimacy, then marry him, you'll get your Green Card."

"Listen," she said, swishing her fur coat in her approach to me. "If this was about me marrying some American, I would've done it." She placed a finger under my chin. "But since this goes much deeper, connecting our families by the root, I'll marry you." She smacked her cherry red lips. "You're the scapegoat. I can feel it from you. The way the money was taken under your name, and the way they all look to pass the blame to you. I know, I know, that unfortunate habit you have probably makes them do that."

"Unfortunate habit?" I repeated, my lips barely moving.

"You like men," she said. "It's ok. I like men too. In fact, in Russia, I have a man for every single day of the week. How about, when we get married, you can have a man for every day of the week as well."

I glanced at my father, uncle, and brother-in-law as they remained with their backs to the wall. I wondered what was going on in everyone's minds. "I don't get what either of us is getting from this."

She placed a finger on my mouth.

"Take the deal," Evelina said, strutting forward on the clack of her heels. "If you don't take the deal. They'll kill all of us."

Anastasia giggled. "She's right. Our men, and even your men will turn on you. They're loyal to those with the deepest pockets."

"And our pockets are freshly deep," Mikhail added. "The money you lost was a drop in the ocean. But we know better than to let any of your rats think it's ok to get away with that."

Arkady cussed them out in Russian. I didn't understand the last part of it as his Russian grew thicker after insulting his mother and insinuating, she was a farm animal.

Mikhail laughed, stomping forward to my uncle. He pulled out a knife and held it to his face. "I've heard tales of you. You're a great bookkeeper, you're the one we might let live. You know where all the money is hiding in this house." He pulled the blade away and danced around in a circle, staring at the ceiling with a smile. "So, I hope you're all ready to welcome me in as your new boss. And we'll start it with the wedding. Ana, go put on the gown."

"This is no day to get married," I said. "We don't have guests, or a cake, or even a marriage license."

He waved a hand at me. "That is not important. What is important, is that we have a wedding hunt."

My father and uncle seemed to know what he'd meant by this. I stared at them. Hoping for some information. They seemed to have grown quiet.

"Sister-in-law," Anastacia said, grabbing my sister's arm. "Would you help me into my gown?" she asked. "It has a lot of buttons and there's an entire lace bodice that needs tying."

"I can't do it," I said, once more, my protest falling short of them taking me seriously. "This isn't right. You can't expect me to go along with this. You—you—you can't seriously think this will work."

Anastacia left, laughing with my sister. Her voice still going off in a high-pinched excitement, talking about all the things she was excited for about bringing our families together.

Of course, nobody would bat for me. Not a single person was sticking their neck out and telling them I wasn't a bargaining chip.

"Unfortunate for you," Mikhail said. "This was already decided on the flight over here. You're the one who was responsible, so you must marry my sister. If your sister wasn't already married to that over there, I might've changed my mind."

Lev glared. He knew that any sudden move or attack against Mikhail would have a hail of bullets from his armed guards coming down on him.

"Your mother is pressing a suit for you," my father said.

"She knew?" I asked.

"She knew," he answered, looking away.

Mikhail gestured wildly like some type of circus performer with his knife precariously in the tips of his fingers. "Your mother sold us the idea. We were coming here to kill you and take over, but there wouldn't be any foundation if we did that. Instead, we come here, take over, but nobody has to die, except for the one who stole, you know, the one you've been protecting."

Grigory let out a grumble. "Have you found him?"

"Sutton." His name rolled off my tongue. "He has nothing to do with this. This is all a huge set up. He didn't do it. I didn't do it. He's a kid."

"A kid who hacks," Mikhail snorted. "We will start with his fingers. Make it slow. One finger, and then wait, another finger, then wait. Make sure the pain lasts."

My jaw clenched, almost aching my face.

"They're gonna make you do it," Arkady announced. "I told you. You weren't careful." He sucked back on his teeth before spitting on the wood panel floor. "Sloppy. It's what you deserve."

I nodded. There was no escaping this. My only hope was that Sutton had cracked the code on the drive and taken the money somewhere far.