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“He’s still loaded,” I say. “Probably richer than Grigoriy.” I shouldn’t gloat.

“I doubt that,” Mirdza says. “Or at least, not for long. We’re making money hand over fist on the—”

“We?” I smile, because I’ve got her now.

“You know what I mean.”

“I do. You already consider him yours. You already trust him. Now throw the poor man a bone and just agree to marry him.”

“You think I should? I actually wondered whether you’d back out.”

“I won’t,” I say. “And. . .” I get ready to run. “I bet I get married before you do, and with a nicer wedding ceremony.” As I jog away, I see her face—jaw dropped, eyes wide, competitive nature clearly activated.

Once I reach the boys, I slow a little, grab Alexei’s arm, and start to jog toward the side entrance of the house.

“What’s going on?” Alexei asks.

“There aren’t many decent venues in Latvia,” I say. “And I mean to book ours before Mirdza can.”

Alexei’s laughing as we head back inside, and he’s not avoiding me anymore. Turns out, my lame horse just needed a little tap on the butt with the crop, and now he’s on the bit again.

I can’t believe I was worried about saving that palomino mare. I haven’t even seen her since we came back. All she does is hide in her room. I’m not sure why she even wanted to get away if that’s all she was going to do.

“How’d you like to go for a ride?” Alexei says. “It’s a glorious day.”

“Oh, sure,” I say. “Let me go change my pants.”

“I didn’t mean that kind of ride.” His eyes are as devilish as his tone, and I’ve never loved him more.

“Now you’re speaking my language.”

But as we get closer to our rooms, I hear Mirdza coming from the other direction. “No, I don’t think we could get flowers together that fast. But the next available option, maybe.”

I freeze and turn toward Alexei.

“We’re about to spend the next four hours on the phone, aren’t we?”

Boy, does he know me.

“This is going to be the nicest wedding Daugavpils has ever seen. And I’m going to invite every single person I hate and they’re going to be so jealous.”

“Don’t you want to invite your friends?” Alexei looks confused.

“You really don’t know women.” I pat his arm. “That’s okay. I love you anyway.”

33

Katerina

I think everyone does something stupid when they’re young. They might spend all their money on something they don’t even like. Or perhaps they kiss the wrong guy. Maybe they make a stupid promise or trust the wrong friend.

For me, my dumb thing was falling for the wrong guy.

It wasn’t long before I saw where I went wrong. He was clearly less in love with me than he was with the power my family held. That, and he was a sociopath. But as a result of that stupid fling, I lost the only man I ever really did care about.

Alexei Romanov.

I’ve been patiently waiting for months since I woke up, for Alexei to save me. We were friends. I know he was cursed, too. And above all else, he’s always been a shining white knight.