“My parents died in a car accident when I was twelve.” I cleared my throat. “Which was fourteen years ago. After they were gone, my brother Erik declared himself my official guardian. He was eighteen and legally able to do so. He pulled me out of school, he got us evicted from our family home, and he began to move me around as his friend Yusef trained me.”
“Yusef Kashinan,” he said with a nod. “We’re aware of what kind of a person he is. And your brother.”
I frowned. I wanted to know what thatwemeant. Him and his family members?
“Before you go any further, please understand that your cousin, Raisa, was worried about you. She asked for us to look for you and make sure you were safe. It was impossible to find any record of you since you were twelve.”
I blinked, filing away this news that Raisa had been looking for me. “Because he moved me. Erik and Yusef moved me often so no one would notice me not going to school and being trapped in apartments. I think they were always on the move to escape the law as well.”
Again, he nodded. “They were. Are. For several charges against them.”
“Raisa asked me to head up an investigation to find you. The only tip we ever had was a call to her old number. It was traced to Central Park, and a homeless woman directed us to where you were lying on a bench.” He furrowed his brow, looking mad, but not at me. “Not clothed for the cold, covered in bruises.”
“He beat me,” I said simply, somehow gathering more strength to continue. It seemed he was already familiar with Erik and Yusef, and it felt fitting to complete the picture. “Yusef, mostly. But when they talked about selling me to a Rivera man soon, and that they would be able to… to…”
Images of the horrors flitted through my mind. Nightmares of being beaten and silenced. Raped and abused.
“Don’t,” Alexsei advised. “If it’s too much, please don’t.”
I shook my head, determined to keep pushing against this defense mechanism of a shell that had blanketed my mind for too long. I had to keep trying. To resist and fight. To shove harder and break through to something better on the other side of this hell in my head.
“They would sell me. Share me.” I swallowed hard, too numb to be embarrassed to share this with him, but determined to finish. “I was terrified of it finally coming true. Since my parents died, Erik said that he was preparing me—training me—to be a wife for my husband. All those years, he said he wanted to condition me for my marriage, and he made it sound like I would be married in weeks.”
“To a Rivera?” he asked.
I shrugged, then nodded. “I don’t know what that means. But that is what he said. That was why after the last time Yusef beat me for walking too slowly when I was blindfolded to enter my bedroom, that I had to escape. When they were hung over, I ran out of the building. I didn’t stop until I was in the park. That woman saw me and somehow understood that I wanted to call for help. I hadn’t seen Raisa in years, but I remembered her number. It was the only tool I had to hope to count on.”
“Well, it worked. That call was noticed and I hurried out there to find you.”
The obvious words ofthank youburned on my lips, but I feared that if I crumbled to express direct gratitude to him, I would break. That it would be too big of a show of lowering my guard, of vulnerability, and I was simply too scared to trust him fully yet. Not with this story.
Mystory, the one that probably wouldn’t ever qualify for a happily-ever-after.
“I couldn’t bear it if they found me,” I admitted.
“Erik and Yusef?” He raised his brows. “No. That’s not happening.”
“Is that why you brought me to that other house?” I asked.
“I brought you there because it was where I could count on the best resources to keep you alive and safe. To start healing. With the doctors and nurses.”
“And to hide me?”
He shrugged. “There’s no need tohideyou. I dare Erik and Yusef to ever come after you again.” He sat up, lowering his feet and resting his elbows on his knees. “Raisa married Ivan Dubinin, Kalina. My cousin. I am Alexsei Dubinin. We are all members of one of the strongest Mafia families in the world. So long as you are Raisa’s concern, as Raisa’s family, you are underourprotection.”
I tried to keep up, to understand the big picture of what he said.
“And that means…”
He raised his brows, and I hated that I was sluggish to piece it together. “Does that mean that I’m married off to your family now? Instead of the Riveras?”
He shook his head, still not judging or smirking like he was annoyed with my confusion. “No.”
“Does it mean I am expected to?—”
He lifted one hand. “You are not expected to do anything, Kalina. You are not expected to do anything you don’t want to do. There is no burden, no obligation, no debt to repay. In my opinion, all you should focus on is healing and recovering from what they did to you.”
It sounded too good to be true.
