Page 1 of No Longer Mine

Prologue

Dimitri

Cassieand I managed to keep our relationship a secret for the most part. We were careful. She was one of the dancers at Alexei’s strip club. Somehow, overnight, she’d become everything to me. We were almost inseparable. Tonight, I thought about popping the question, asking her to marry me. We could run off and elope somewhere. It didn’t have to be a big show or anything. Just the two of us. That was all that mattered. The velvet box with the custom ring remained in my coat pocket these days. I didn’t know when I was going to ask her but it was going to be perfect. Tonight seemed right. Snow was falling around us, and we had a great time at a Broadway show. I had a private box; it was just us, and we were careful.

She spun in a slow, graceful circle, the lights reflecting off her hair, and then—time stopped. A soft, almost inaudible pop sounded from a nearby car.

Her face froze in a mask of shock as her body jerked forward, the bullet ripping through her back. Blood bloomed like a crimson rose against her chest before she crumpled into the snow, lifeless, right in front of me.

Cassie.MyCassie.

The love of my life. Gone in an instant.

Her golden brown eyes stared up at me, wide and vacant, fixed on a void I couldn’t reach. Her blood, warm at first, seeped onto my hands as I carried her, numb and desperate, through the snow. Each step pounded the truth into me. She was gone. I knew it long before the coroner confirmed it.

That was my father for you. He loved guns and hired hands. It was easy to take care of your target. I’d been so consumed in my grief that I hadn’t thought to go after the ones who actually did his dealing. I was frantic in trying to save what was already gone. There were so many things I should have done.So many things I could have done. I should have been more careful. I shouldn’t have thought I was so untouchable.

The folder of eligible bachelorettes showed up under my apartment door one evening, just as my brother Alexei had received one the previous year. We all thought our father would have learned from it— and thinking my ignoring the women would make him leave me alone. I should have known better. He didn’t even threaten me. Like the idiot I was, I thought I was good. I thought I was special. I thought I was smart. I’d never been so wrong. I should have known that only two Cristof sons would get away with surprising our father. He would never let that happen again. He made it his business to know absolutely everything there was to know about us. He would never slip up again. Neither would I.

In an instant, he took everything from me and I vowed I would take everything from him.

Chapter One

Dimitri

The dining roomtable felt like a tomb.

Alexei and Audrey were absent, as always. Alexei had been cut off after defying our father and now made his own way in the world. I didn’t blame him for staying away, not after what our father had pulled.

I sat at the table, surrounded by my so-called family, the air thick with tension I couldn’t cut through. My mother tried to maintain appearances by chatting with Carina, Ace’s wife. Her laugh stood out in this desolate wasteland we called home. She wasn’t born with a silver spoon lodged in her ass, and it showed. She brought life to the table, even if I hated her husband. I hadn’t always hated Ace. It was a recent occurrence when he didn’t stand up to our asshole of a father.

She gave him something none of us brothers had ever been allowed: a heart.

My gaze drifted to our father. He sat at the head of the table, a newspaper obscuring his face. His phone lay beside his plate, glowing faintly. He didn’t join the conversation unless he had a point to make, and tonight, he was silent. Listening. Calculating.

That was the problem with Sinclair Cristof. He didn’t need to speak to wield control. His silence was enough to remind us who held the reins.

I stared at my half-eaten plate. The conversation blurred, and the food tasted like ash. It had only been a few months, but it felt like a lifetime. Everywhere I turned, I saw Cassie. Her laughter in the corners of my mind, her warmth in memories that cut deeper than any blade.

The truth burned: if she’d never met me, she would still be alive.

“Dimitri.” My mother’s voice sliced through my thoughts—sharp and concerned.

I looked up, meeting her sad and searching eyes.

“You seem... far away these days.”

“I’m fine.” The words were hollow.

She didn’t push. She never did. She didn’t know how to. No one had—not until Cassie. Now she was gone, and the part of me capable of being reached had died with her.

I forced myself to eat another bite, chewing mechanically. I’d lost fifteen pounds since that night. I stopped going to the gym. Some mornings, I wondered why I even bothered to get up.

Then I remembered. I was still alive because of spite. Spite for my father. Spite for the empire he thought he could control forever.

“I’ve had a lot on my mind,” I said, breaking the silence. “Some new clubs and restaurants are being proposed in the area.” My father’s attention snapped to me.

I knew the mention of my recent ventures would get his attention. Since Cassie’s death, I’d been busy. Quietly and methodically busy.