Page 6 of Cinder (MC Fables #2)

E lla

His name is Viktor Olicheckoff, and he is a coldhearted pakhan of the Olicheckoff Bratva.

He is twice my age, with deep bags under his icy blue eyes and wet, droopy lips.

He looks cruel and capable of great pain, and he just paid my brother ten million dollars to marry me.

In a few days he will arrive in the country, and we will be married.

I stare at the photo on my brother’s laptop, bile rising in my throat and my stomach churning with fear.

I know exactly who Viktor Olicheckoff is. He’s a tyrant. Cruel and heartless.

Inside I’m screaming. But outwardly I remain calm, determined to not show Luca an ounce of fear. I won’t give him the satisfaction of knowing I’d rather die than marry a man like that.

I can’t marry him.

But if I don’t, Luca will make our younger sister pay for my disobedience.

Of course, I could grab my sister, and we could run away. But Luca’s reach is far and wide. He might not be well liked. But his name still means something. And the last time we tried to run, we were found within the day and brought back to Luca.

Lucretia was spared. I was not.

Absentmindedly, I run my hand along my thigh where the six-inch scar has puckered the skin.

I can’t risk another attempt without a plan. Without help. Because I don’t doubt it when Luca says he’d let his men have their way with me.

If my virginity isn’t going to earn him the money he desires, he’ll make sure my suffering at the hands of his violent soldiers will give him the satisfaction he craves.

And that is nothing compared to what Viktor will do. Men like him let their deepest depravities out to play when they feel slighted.

I stare at the man who will soon become my husband, and goosebumps pebble the skin on my arms.

“What do you think, dear sister?” Luca asks, turning his chair to face me, a gleam in his eye and a smug smile on his lips .

The letter opener is on the desk , a little voice whispers. It’s my self-preservation begging me to do something to stop this marriage. Pick it up and show your evil brother what you think about this proposed marriage.

But I don’t. Because if I try and fail, Luca will make sure Lucretia pays for it, and I’d die a thousand deaths to prevent that from happening.

“Does it matter what I think?” I say with detachment.

“No, I suppose it doesn’t.” He tilts his head, still smiling. “You will be a good wife to him. Do as he says.”

I look away, my jaw set as I bite my tongue. Because if I say what I want to say, then he will hurt me.

He rises slowly from his chair to stand mere inches from me. His cold eyes roaming my face. “Do you have nothing to say?”

I bring my gaze back to him. “I won’t disappoint you.”

He smiles, but it lacks warmth. “No, you won’t.” He reaches up and drags his knuckles down my cheek. “Otherwise, I’ll make sure Lucretia learns first-hand what happens to those who disobey me.”

Viktor Olicheckoff’s picture didn’t do him justice.

He’s even worse in person.

Cold. Apathetic. Unfeeling. At sixty years old, his body has softened and his renowned love for vodka has given him spider veins and ruddy jowls, and a heavy middle-age spread.

But it’s not his physical appearance that repulses me the most. It’s the fact that his mere presence feels like a smothering black shadow.

The moment I lay eyes on him in my brother’s den, a shiver rolls down my back and goosebumps crawl across my skin.

I’ve just walked into hell.

Across the room, Viktor’s cold blue eyes sweep up and down my body, but his expression doesn’t change. He rises to his feet and walks over to me and silently walks around me like a shark circling its prey. I try to swallow, but my throat is too dry. Up close, he’s even more terrifying.

I keep my expression neutral. I’m not going to give either of these men the satisfaction of seeing my fear. But inwardly, I am screaming and shaking and begging God to help me escape this terrible fate.

Viktor completes his circling and directs his unsettling gaze on my brother. “She is good,” he says in a thick Russian accent.

Behind his desk, my brother looks proud of himself. “Of course she is, Viktor; she is from Moretti stock.”

Viktor brings his gaze back to me, but I refuse to meet his eyes.

“And you are a virgin, girl?” he asks me.

I want to scream at him to go fuck himself. But now is not the time to make moves. Not when I don’t have a clear plan out, one that involves taking my sister with me, and one that involves getting out with both our heads attached to our necks.

“She is,” my brother answers for me. “She’s never been in a position not to be.”

Unfortunately, that is true. My father was strict, but his strictness was out of love. My brother has been even stricter, but it is out of greed.

“Then I have one more task to see if you will make a good pakhan’s wife. A test to see if you are smart enough and strong enough to carry the Olicheckoff name. If you do this successfully, then you will become my wife.”

Across the room, Luca clears his throat. “Not before you pay me the ten million dollars.”

Viktor pins Luca with a glare. “She passes this test, and you will get your money. But if she fails, then you will not get a penny from me, Mr. Moretti.”

“Now hold on a minute?—”

“They are my terms. You want the ten million, or you don’t. If you do, there is only one way to get it. She completes this task successfully.”

Luca looks like he wants to throw a tantrum, but he is weak and no match for the head of the Olicheckoff Bratva, and he knows it. As much as he likes to think he is the alpha dog in every situation, he simply isn’t.

“What is the task?” he asks with an edge to his voice.

“Have you heard of the Knights of St. Boniface?” Viktor asks .

Luca scoffs. “Everyone has heard of them.”

“Tomorrow night there is a party. The girl is to attend.”

The girl being me.

“For what purpose?” Luca demands to know. He has never let me out of his sight to attend anything, let alone a party at the legendary Knights of St. Boniface clubhouse. He has no control there.

“The club runs a multimillion-dollar Fantasia trade. I plan to take control of it and turn it into a billion-dollar trade.”

Again, Luca scoffs. “That trade is closely guarded. People have tried to take it over in the past but have failed.”

“The Olicheckoff do not fail,” Viktor drawls.

“Of course they don’t. I mean no disrespect. But everyone knows the Fantasia berries are protected. The recipe is a century-old secret.”

“All these things you say are things I already know. That is why my future bride is going to attend the party and find me that recipe. Rumor has it the original recipe is in an old book in the library. Scribbled on the inner cover.”

I frown. He wants me to break into a library?

“The recipe is useless without the berries, and the only surviving crop is within the guarded grounds of the clubhouse,” Luca tells him.

Viktor looks unimpressed at being told something he clearly already knows. “I see you have familiarized yourself with the Knights of St. Boniface Fantasia trade. ”

“Of course, it is something I have considered myself,” Luca says with bravado.

“Hmmm,” Viktor says. “But you never did anything about it.”

“Well, there were other matters that needed my attention.”

“Like taking over your father’s empire,” Viktor adds.

I can tell by the look on Luca’s face that Viktor’s words landed exactly where he intended them to. Right in the middle of Luca’s pride.

Luca bristles. He knows Viktor meant it as an insult, but with ten million dollars at stake, he isn’t going to take the bait.

He clears his throat and squares his shoulders. “Yes, taking the business my father built to the next level has taken up a lot of my time.”

Viktor smiles, but it’s empty. He doesn’t believe him. Or he doesn’t care. I get the feeling he doesn’t think much of my brother.

“I have someone inside the clubhouse who will get me access to the berries.” He plays with a giant gold ring on his pinky finger. “Then I have a man in a white coat who will do the rest for me.”

“If you have a man on the inside, why don’t they get the recipe for you?” I ask.

“Only the president and the club alchemist know the recipe. My insider isn’t privy to such information.

The only way for us to get it is to find that recipe, and my insider has no reason to access the library.

It would arouse suspicion, and I don’t want to risk them getting caught.

It takes time and effort to prime an insider. ”

I don’t bother to ask how he managed to get a man inside the Knights of St. Boniface clubhouse. Because I suspect Viktor Olicheckoff always gets what he wants through any means he sees fit. He is not a man who asks. He is a man who takes.

Which is exactly what will happen on our wedding night.

Repulsion tightens in my stomach as a vision of this man forcing me onto the bed and climbing on top of me makes bile rise in my throat. My pulse races in my throat; my heart pounds against my rib cage.

Luca’s voice pulls me back to the present. “You, on the other hand…finding you in the library won’t raise suspicions. After all, you do love your books.” His lips curl into a snarl. “Just like your slut mother.”

I keep my expression neutral, so he doesn’t see the anger roaring inside me.

I won’t give him the satisfaction.

But our eyes remain locked for a moment longer.

One day I will kill you.

Luca rips his gaze from me to return his attention to Viktor. “It all seems like a lot of risk. Why don’t we simply take it by force?”

“You talk as if someone hasn’t tried that before.

” Viktor’s arctic eyes don’t blink as he stares at my brother with disdain.

He doesn’t like being second guessed, and it’s obvious Luca has offended him.

“And since you clearly think I haven’t taken this into consideration, let me explain some things to you.

In 1941, two desperados kidnapped the Knights’ alchemist and tortured him until he told them the recipe.

They died before they could try it because the Knights found them, tortured them and made them eat their own tongues before they threw them off the cliffs that fringe St. Boniface. ”

I audibly swallow.

“In 1967, the wife of the then club president was held for ransom by a rival club. When she was killed, the president brought hell down on the rival club until it was decimated and burned to the ground. He then hung the bodies of the perpetrators from Deadman’s Bridge as a warning to anyone else who wanted to try. ”

Oh God.

“In 1975 and 1996, two crime syndicates started a war with the club and each time the club fought back with great power and a relentlessness neither could have predicted, until nothing was left of either family.”

These men are nothing like what I thought they were.

“The last attempt was fifteen years ago. Another rival club. Another attempt. Another trail of bodies. Do you need any further reasons, or have I made my point?”

Luca looks more affected by Viktor’s fierce glare than the gruesome details he just heard.

Viktor slides his gaze to me and I’m sure he’s expecting to see fear on my face .

But I’m my father’s daughter.

It takes a lot more than stories around a campfire to rattle my cage.

Although, I’m surprised. I always thought the Knights of St. Boniface were modern-day Robin Hoods. But Viktor makes them out to be monsters.

“Of course, your idea is sound, Pakhan. You can trust Ella to help you,” Luca says, bringing his gaze to me. “She knows what is at stake if she doesn’t.”

Viktor ignores him and picks up a large box from the desk and hands it to me. “This is what you will wear tonight. You will be my contact’s date to the party.”

“Is he your inside man?”

“No, he is a contact who can get you in. My inside man has gone rogue on me. He’s become a little complacent, so I’ve resorted to other means in order to get you in.”

I don’t bother to ask what these other means are because I have been around men like Viktor my whole life. Men who will blackmail, bait or bludgeon another to get what they want.

But I do want to know who the inside man is.

“Does this inside man have a name?” I ask.

“The best way to keep an inside man effective is to keep his identity hidden.”

“He’s not very effective if you’ve had to resort to other means to get me in. ”

Sometimes I can’t help my smart mouth.

Luca’s face darkens, and I wait for him to start yelling at me for talking back before threatening me with punishment. After all, I’ve been locked away in my room for a lot less.

But a small curl of amusement touches Viktor’s lips, and those dead eyes gleam with appreciation.

“You are as smart as they say you are. I like that.” He looks at Luca. “I think this is going to be a very successful union.”

Luca looks pleased with himself.

“Does this contact know I’m there to find the book?” I ask.

“No, he’s an idiot who is on a need-to-know basis. The less you tell him, the better.”

Visiting the Knights’ clubhouse might be my way out.

Maybe I could talk to the Knights. Ask them for help. Their reputation for protecting the vulnerable is legendary.

But what if they don’t want to get involved because crossing Viktor Olicheckoff would make them an enemy of a very powerful man? Why on earth would they put themselves in that position for me?

Still, my gut is telling me the party at the clubhouse is going to help me somehow. It has to, because I don’t have the stomach to marry this man. And if I’m forced to, then I will kill him.

Or die trying.