Total pages in book: 95
Estimated words: 89090 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 445(@200wpm)___ 356(@250wpm)___ 297(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 89090 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 445(@200wpm)___ 356(@250wpm)___ 297(@300wpm)
I knew Feodor, but nowhere near as well as I do Yev. When their mother shipped herself off to rehab, Feo was sent to live with his father. Yev was dumped in front of a boys’ home. I only caught part of his story in the lead-up to him moving abroad with Ana, but from what I heard, Yev didn’t know the boys’ home was his implied destination. His mother made out his breathing was too noisy, so she told him to get out and walk home.
It was pouring rain, and he was miles from town, so he sought shelter under the awning of a dated mansion.
The nuns were expecting him.
He gave trouble a run for its money his first couple of weeks until they called in one of their star recruits. Alek told Yev to either pull his head in or ship out.
Stubborn as ever, Yev shipped out.
That’s how he met Ana, and although I wish I could continue with my trip down memory lane, Nat’s shoulder is propped on the doorframe of the storage closet, and she’s staring at me with the same suspicious glare she hits me with anytime Vasily is in my presence.
She knows there is more to our budding relationship than I’m letting on, but since I’ve been struggling to determine who I can and cannot trust, I act as if her intuition is phony.
Upon noticing her watch has been busted, Nat asks, “You were thinking about him again, weren’t you?”
I brush off her assumption with a huff before standing and wiping the dust the boxes coated my dress with. “If you’re talking about my boyfriend, of course. He’s always on my mind.”
The lights in the main part of the boutique shine brighter than her maturity when she sings, “Liar, liar, pants on fire.” She watches me add the belt to the suit package a customer ordered last week. “The only time your face gleams like it did in the storage room is when you’re thinking about Yev. You loved him.”
“I did not.”
She’s right. I am a liar.
Being with Yev scared the shit out of me. He was too young for me. Too cocky. Yet I couldn’t seem to stay away. Take the last night I saw him as an example. I should have been so angry, the adrenaline alone would have kept me awake for a week, but within minutes of him leaving me tied to his bed, I snuggled up to his aftershave-scented pillow and fell asleep.
I was a lovesick idiot who thought handing control to a man who had his stripped so cruelly early in life would cure world hunger.
I’ve been paying for the consequences of my stupidity for months on end.
I can’t afford to make the same mistake twice. Hence my face not lighting up when my newly forming relationship enters my thoughts.
Vasily is a prop to fix my crumbling heart. Nothing more.
Tired and ready for bed, I ask, “Is that everything? My bed is calling me.”
Our ratio of staff to orders means we’re busy, but it is nothing compared to how run off our feet we were when we clothed the Bobrov “stock.”
Dressing trafficked women didn’t sit well with me, but when presented with either closing the boutique or letting beaten women feel like a princess for a day, I went with the latter.
I wouldn’t have accepted a dime for services if it were taken from the women, but the money we siphoned from their owners with overpriced gowns was donated to charity for the victims and families of the trafficking trade, so I charged high and often.
I love my brother, and I want to see him succeed, but after everything I’d faced in my life, I refuse to profit from trafficked women.
Nat steals me from my thoughts for the second time tonight. “That’s everything.” She alters my relieved expression with five sharp words. “But you’re not going home.” She stomps her foot like I would if I were once again twenty-two without a single matter holding me back. “You promised you’d come out with me tonight.”
“I didn’t promise anything.” I move throughout the store, switching off the non-emergency lights and making sure the deadbolts are in place. Things haven’t been the same since the Bobrovs left town. Many entities are vying to take their spot, clueless that Kronstadt will always be Alek and Ghost’s home. They’ll eventually come back, just not until everything is settled stateside first. “I said I might come out with you.”
“Might and yes are the same thing.” When I glare at her in disbelief, Nat throws her hands in the air. “It is. When you ask your mother for something and she says maybe, what does that mean?”
In my house, that meant no chance in hell, but clearly Nat grew up in a different environment than me.