Chapter 24 - Elena

I haven't heard from Arseny in two days, even though I have a burner cellphone I can use to contact him. He just isn't responding to my messages. It stresses me out, and I need to know he's okay after the burning of his laundromat. I caught that on the news. They're blaming a faulty dryer, but I know Arseny will suspect it is more than that. Heck, I suspect it's more than that.

What if someone saw us in public? What if it's someone acting on my father's orders? I don't think I could stand myself if it were my fault.

I'm ready to get in my car and look for Arseny when my phone finally rings. Luckily, I'm alone in my bedroom.

"Where have you been? I've been texting." I pace my bedroom as I speak. "I thought you'd been hurt."

"I was looking for someone connected to the fire and finally found someone. I'm busy interrogating him now," Arseny says. "It sounds like he works for your father."

"Are you at the butchers?" I ask. "I can be there in twenty minutes."

"Elena…" he starts to say.

"Are you at the butchers?" I ask again, stopping my pacing.

He sighs. "Yes, we are. I'm with my brother Luka. Come around the back. I'll leave it open for you."

"I'll be there soon," I say and hang up. I grab my purse and car keys and hurry downstairs.

"Elena, where are you off to in such a hurry?" Ethan asks as he walks out of the living room.

"I am meeting a friend. She's got a crisis." The lie comes so naturally.

"Oh, okay. Do you want a ride?" he asks.

"No, I'm okay. I'll be safe." I give him a hug before I leave. I get in my car, join the traffic, and drive toward the butchers. If it's someone who works for my father, I'll know. I'm sure I'll know.

And he'll answer to me.

I park around the back, where Luka's Mustang is parked, and walk in. A man cries out as I round the corner. Arseny has a man tied to a chair and is carving up his face while his brother holds the man"s head.

"Arseny." I breathe.

Luka turns around and looks at me. "You must be Elena."

"You must be Luka," I say.

Arseny stands straight. "Glad you two have met. Now, we're busy with an interrogation. Elena, why did you come down here?"

"First…" I say, not caring that Luka is there. I kiss Arseny. "Secondly, I came to see who it is myself."

I look down at the man whose face is bleeding from multiple cuts. "I know you. Kristoff. Your family lives in Boston, don't they?"

"They moved there for my daughter"s special school. She's gifted." He looks at me fearfully. "You have betrayed the family and joined the Milovs."

"It's not true," I say. I take out a handkerchief and dab at his cuts. I turn to Arseny. "Please, let him go."

"You can let me go. You can kill me. There are more hits planned. More than just burning down one stupid laundromat. This place could be next." He spits on the floor at my feet.

Arseny smacks him. "Respect her," he growls.

The man looks up at me. "It was your family that ordered me to do these things, and now they are nowhere to protect me, and you stand with the Milovs."

"Who gave you the order?" I ask, leaning in. "Was it my father?"

"It comes through on my email. No name attached. It"s all sent from one central email point. It could be anyone from your family." He swallows hard. "If you let me go, I won't tell them that you're together with this guy. I swear it."

I look at Arseny. "He was just following orders. Please, let him go and banish him to Boston, where his family is. We'll figure out who sent the emails and where the next hits are. Please, my… Arseny."

He looks down at me and then at the man. "You have two hours to get out of the city, and then I'm coming for you again. You can thank Elena that I don't cut your throat right now."

"Thank you. Thank you." Luka frees him, and he rubs his wrists before getting up and hurrying out the back.

"I hope you know what you're doing," Luka says. "Cause if he rats you out to your father, we're all dead."

"He won't. He loves his family very much. He doesn't want to lose them." I look up at Arseny. "Thank you. You have my word that I will figure out who's giving the orders."

We talk for a little while before I leave, going straight home. At first, I worry the guy has called my father, but nobody says anything when I'm home. Nobody questions where I was and what I was doing.

The days pass like that. I secretly meet Arseny sometimes with Luka, most times without, and we discuss who might be behind the hits on the Milov properties. When I'm alone with Arseny, he does things to me that drive me mad. We might as well put a bed in the knife shop at the rate we have sex there.

I try to pry from my brothers if either of them has been ordering hits on anyone, but they blow me off. My father also says he hasn't got anyone on his radar, but I don't know if they're lying to me to keep me out of it.

One Saturday afternoon, Arseny and I have just finished dressing, when he pulls me to him. "Any more news on the hits?"

"Nothing," I say with a sigh. "I just don't know how to get it out of them."

"Maybe you should let me try," he suggests.

"No. I don't want my brothers dead, not yet, at least," I say with a smile. "I promise I'm doing everything I can."

"Okay, well, you leave out front, I'll leave out back. I have some business to attend to." He kisses me deeply, and I return the kiss. "Love you."

"Love you," I respond.

I walk out of the store and head up the street. As I'm walking, someone suddenly grabs my wrist and drags me into an alley nearby.

I turn around to attack them, but it's Darius.

"What are you doing?" I hiss. "You gave me a heart attack."

"I gave you a heart attack? I know who's store that is and…" He sniffs the air around me. "You smell like sex again."

I blush crimson. "I do not. And I was just browsing a knife shop."

"A knife shop that isn't open yet," he growls. "You've betrayed the family. You're fucking Arseny Milov."

"Don't be ridiculous, Darius," I plead with him. "Why would I do that?"

"Why would you do that? That man will kill babies to get the information he wants. You know that, don't you? That he's probably killed people"s babies to extract information from them. The Milovs are fucking blood traitors. They don't hold anything sacred. They are not people of their word, Elena. If you think Arseny is going to marry you or do right by you, he won't. He'll abandon you the first opportunity he gets."

I stare at him for a moment, and then I realize that Darius also has access to that email address. It could be him sending the hit requests. My father would be none the wiser.

"Darius, I hear what you're saying, but I'm not sleeping with any of the Milovs." I touch his arm. "You have to believe me."

"I don't though. I don't even think you were kidnapped now. You probably just went along with him of your own free will." He glares at me.

"How do you know I was kidnapped?" I ask curiously.

He takes me by the shoulders. "It doesn't matter. What matters is that you come with me now and stop seeing Arseny if you know what's good for you."

I hold his arms and gently move him off of me. "I hear you. I'm sorry, Darius, I was just confused. I'll go home now, and I won't see Arseny again, I promise."

He sizes me up for a moment, and I briefly consider that he's going to let me go when he grabs my wrist suddenly and starts to drag me away. "I can't trust you. That Milov has to pay for tainting our family again."

"Darius!" I try to pull away from him. "Get off me. I'm a grown-ass woman. I can make my own decisions."

He pulls me against him. "This is why you'll never be head of the family. You don't have what it takes to make the tough decisions. None of you do."

"My brother is next in line," I snap. "Not you."

"We'll see about that," Darius snarls as he drags me toward his car. I reach under my skirt and pull out my knife, slicing him across his hand. He yells and releases me, and I nearly fall to the ground. I steady my footing and take off toward my own car.

"You bitch," he yells after me. "Your father will never let you back home."

My heart is beating outside my chest as I realize he's probably going to order another hit on Arseny now. I need to warn him before it's too late.

I drive over to the butchers, hoping Arseny is there. I keep checking my rearview mirror to see if Darius is following me, but he must have gone directly to my father.

I won't be able to go home, and that stings. I'm still clutching the knife while I'm clutching the steering wheel. I must look like a possessed woman.

I pull up to the butchers and hurry in. Roger is standing at the front counter.

"Is Arseny here?" I ask.

"He was in the back with Luka," Roger says. "I don't know if he's still there."

I hurry to the back, where I find Luka walking toward the back door. "Luka. Where's Arseny?"

"Oh, hi, Elena. He left a while ago. He said he had an important meeting. Is something wrong?" Luka looks at me. "I assumed the meeting would be with you."

I take out my phone and phone him, but he doesn't answer.

"Elena, what's wrong?" Luka asks, taking me by the shoulders. "Is Arseny in trouble?"

I shake my head and then pull away from him, pacing up and down. "Probably not. I mean, he's probably just doing business somewhere."

Luka takes me by my shoulders again and shakes me. "Elena, tell me what happened."

"My cousin Darius is the one who is ordering the hits," I say.

Luka looks at me, panicked. "We need to go now. Come with me."

"Where are we going?" I ask as I follow him.

"To my mother"s house, where Kervyn is," he says. Arseny didn't want to tell anyone, but your father contacted him to arrange a meeting, and he was going to be honest and deal with everything up front."

He opens the door, and I climb into his car. He dashes around to the driver"s side. "If what you're saying is true," Luka says. "Then it must not have been Emery Sokolov who contacted Arseny via email."

"No, my father would never. My father would send someone with a message, not just email a total stranger and ask them to meet somewhere to do business. I know how my father operates." I remember the look in Darius" eye.

"Arseny is going to be ambushed, and I have no way to warn him," I say, tears filling my eyes.

"It's going to be okay. Kervyn will know how to track Arseny down, and we'll get him for you. You'll be safe at my mama's house while we go."

"I'm going with you," I say. "If anything happens to Arseny, I'll never forgive myself."