Page 7

“I don't want to go out there." I smile at the kid and say, "Thanks, you can go now." He turns and bolts out the door, darting up the street in a flash, and then he’s gone.

Part of me actually wants to see who it is and how they can help, but going somewhere alone is what landed me in the position I was in with Ivan. Natalia's lucky I even came out here with her today.

“Alana, it's right across the street. Go and I'll be here when you get back. It'll take five minutes.”

The thought of sitting here listening to her go on about wedding announcements for one more second is inevitably what pushes me out of this chair. If I have to drag her with me out there to meet whatever stranger is waiting, she'll just tell Batya what I'm doing and it'll ruin everything, anyway. I have to do this alone, if for no other reason than to fight for myself when no one else will.

“Fine, I'll go. But if he's creepy, I'm coming right back.”

Natalia nods. “Go.”

I walk out of the salon and into the warm sunlight, unseasonable for October, but I still can't tell who the guy is. His back is toward me as I cross the street and walk up on the outdoor dining tables. When I'm just a few strides from where sits, he turns over his shoulder and I get a shock.

Dimitri Sokolov.

My body goes cold and I stop a few feet from the table and stare at him. Never in a million years did I suspect he'd come to me. I mean, I saw his outrage at that meeting and knew how he felt about the wedding coming up, but why would he contact me?

“Sit down,” he says, nodding at the seat across from him. I glance at it, but I'm in no mood to play nice with any Sokolov, not even one who has the same goal as me. His brother raped me. It's not something I can ever forgive.

“No," I say plainly, taking a step backward. I'm already poised to go back to the street into the torture chamber of that salon and Natalia's prattling, but he sighs and licks his lips, and I pause to see what he might say.

“Then stand, but listen.”

I shake my head at him and glance at the salon that seems too far away now. Things aren't adding up. “How did you know where I was?”

“Look, that doesn’t matter right now. I know what my brother did." He turns more toward me as I take another step backward and curl my hands into fists as anger flushes up from my chest into my throat and face. “And I'm not here to defend him or my family. What he did was unforgivable. There's no excuse for it.”

This is rich. A softhearted Sokolov? What good is that now? “Then why are you sitting here? Why contact me at all?”

“Because I intend to stop the wedding.”

That sentence makes my breath catch. I feel my heart racing disproportionately for the mild interaction I’m having and realize how scared I am. I'm in broad daylight on a busy street. He's not going to hurt me here, at least, but that's what his brother did to me. I can't even go anywhere in public alone without my nervous system telling me I'm in danger. That's why this wedding can't move forward.

“You can't stop it,” I say. “The council already voted. It's basically done."

“I can try, and I will. But I can't do it alone. The only way to expose the truth is if we work together.”

This sounds so sketchy. That suddenly after five years, Ivan's brother might want to step in and fix this? Clearly, he doesn't see eye to eye with his father, but why? All Sokolov men are just like Ivan. Dimitri has no good reason to not want this alliance.

“You expect me to trust you? After what your brother did? Your family covered it up."

“I'm not asking you to trust my family. I'm asking you to trust that I want the same thing you want. That wedding cannot happen."

The cafe noise fades into the background as I get my first taste of what might potentially be hope that I could actually stop this wedding from happening.

“How do I know you won't turn around and use whatever I tell you against my family?”

“You don't. But I'm not defending what Ivan or my father did. And I won't sit quietly while they force this alliance through.”

I open my mouth to answer, but movement across the street catches my eye. Natalia's standing on the sidewalk across the street, looking toward the café. She raises one hand as if she's about to come over.

Dimitri sees her too and reaches into his coat, pulling out a small card and pressing it into my hand. “My number,” he says. “If you decide you want to talk.”

Then he turns and walks toward the back of the café down the alley, and by the time I glance over to see where my sister is and then look again for him, he's gone.

Natalia struts up a few seconds later, and there's a massive grin on her face. “Who was that? I could not see from outside.”

I close my fingers around the card. “No one. Just a handsome stranger." My heart is hammering now, adrenaline and anticipation mingling until I feel a bit dizzy.