Page 9 of The Brutal Arrangement (The Ivanov Syndicate #2)

LUCY

T here was no time to catch my breath. Panic consumed me, making my heart race faster than it ever had before. No thoughts registered in my mind. Only this innate need to get out of here could be obeyed.

I sucked in a deep inhale, almost coughing from the harsh intake of air too quickly, and took off into the darkness again. Without knowing what else there was to find on this massive property, my body moved on instinct.

I had to get away.

Katerina telling me that I would be forced to marry someone under her instruction was a threat I couldn’t accept. Fight or flight had been activated. And I would flee from this insanity.

I had to.

Pumping my arms and feeling so frantic, I tried to avoid the battery of doubts and regrets.

How could I have been so stupid?

How could I have stayed employed here when I first realized this was the residence of a freaking Mafia boss?

Regret kicked in swiftly, mixing with the anxiety that ruled me as I sprinted from the mansion.

The very first second that I realized I was cleaning the house that dangerous criminals frequented should’ve been when I left. I should’ve gotten the fuck out of here then.

Screw how much money I was earning.

Forget about that tentative almost-friendship with Katerina.

Clearly, she was no friend of mine. I didn’t have many friends since I was too busy working or caring for my mother when I could.

I wasn’t an expert on what friendship was supposed to be like.

But it had to be a fact that friends didn’t force each other into marriage!

There would be other jobs. There would be other ways to earn money. I wouldn’t get the rate I was here, but I would work somewhere safer next time.

All I did was try to fund my mother’s care, but I wasn’t sure at what point I’d become so delusional as to forfeit my own safety and well-being for it.

“Lucy. Wait!”

At the sound of Katerina’s shout behind me, I ran faster. Pumping my arms and determined to escape, I didn’t look back at her rushing after me.

“Please, wait!”

She was too fast, perhaps more prone to honing her fitness and cardio levels than I was.

In a rough tumble, she caught up to me. Her fingers latched around my wrist as I swung my arm back.

On the forward pull of my stride, my arm was held back and I pitched forward onto the perfectly manicured lawn.

I tensed, feeling my breath punched out of me as she practically tackled me. Rolling and flailing to get away from her, I realized she was far more skilled at the art of tackling. Of capturing.

Because she belongs to the fucking Mafia.

She wasn’t just a peer, a fellow stressed woman around my age.

She wasn’t a mere ordinary woman I’d been duped to befriend.

So desperate as I was for a connection like a friend, I’d so stupidly ignored that she was a member of a Mafia family. Of course, she’d be skillful at capturing me.

“Lucy.” She grunted as I almost wrestled my way to freedom. “Stop. And please listen to me.”

Shrugging out of her hold, I panted and stared her down.

I wasn’t so na?ve as to think I could outrun her again.

Hell, she might sic some of those burly guards after me the next time.

Stalling and glaring at her, I tried to understand why this was even happening to me.

I was a maid , a nobody. I was supposed to be invisible so I could work and earn my pay.

That was it. But I’d messed that all up in this delusion that she could almost be like a friend.

“I did listen to you,” I shot back. “I heard you. I heard you say that you expect me to marry your fiancé and?—”

“No.” She shook her head, keeping her hands out as if she had to either ward me back like a wild animal or grab me again. “He’s not my fiancé.”

I growled. “Whoever he is, he’s not going to be mine either!”

“Please. Look, I know this sounds bizarre.”

“No. This isn’t bizarre , Katerina. This is insane .

What kind of a world—” I held my hand up.

That wasn’t an argument we’d ever settle.

We came from two different worlds. In her reality, this kind of criminal shit was the norm!

“I don’t want to get involved. Not with you.

Not with anything your family does. I want no part in any of this. ”

“Even if it would cover your mom’s bills?” She furrowed her brow, determined and not discouraged by my heated words.

“Bills that you had no right to snoop and look for, dammit!”

“But I did. I’m desperate, Lucy,” she admitted, unafraid to let me know that. “I’m desperate to avoid this arrangement, and you seem like a good person to ask this favor.”

“Marrying some Mafia monster you want to avoid is not a fucking favor!” Talking back to a client—even worse, cursing at one—was a big, bad no-no I never dared to do before.

At this moment, though, Katerina wasn’t a client, an almost-friend, or a stranger.

She was my adversary, expecting me to marry someone against my will.

“Please.” She shoved her hair back off her face, looking as wild as I felt. “Marry this man, and I’ll handle all of your expenses for your mother. I’ll get her into the Dream Garden facility where you said yourself that she’d do better under their more skilled care.”

I regretted ever opening up to her. She was using all of it against me now in the cruelest way possible.

“I can not marry him.” Her admission was a genuine one, shared with a wretched tone of fear.

“Why?” I didn’t want to know. I wasn’t interested. Nothing she would say could sway me from the deep-seated need to avoid getting involved with the damn Mafia.

She blinked, perhaps surprised that I’d asked that. But she recovered quickly, saying, “Because I belong with another.”

“Tough shit.” I held my hands up again. “This is your problem, not mine.”

“My uncle wants me to marry this man so he can use me.”

A ludicrous laugh burst from me. “Oh, like you want to use me , as your pawn?”

She wasn’t undeterred, pressing her case. “He only wants me to fulfill this arrangement so I can spy on this other family. I won’t do it.”

“Again, not my problem!” I failed to see how she could even think like this. That I could be a pawn, a thing, to use to her advantage.

“It wouldn’t be a problem at all if I don’t leave and marry that man,” she insisted. “I refuse to help my uncle. I won’t do it. I hate everything he stands for, and I will never help him.”

“Not my?—”

She stepped forward once, fury glinting in her eyes. It didn’t seem that she was mad at me, per se, but the topic of her uncle. I didn’t like Anton either, but that was irrelevant. I wasn’t paid to like any of these Kozlovs. I was only paid to be their maid and help with the housekeeping.

“You underestimate what I’m saying, Lucy. I hate him. I hate my uncle with every fiber of my being, and if I have a chance to thwart him, to bring him down, to pay him back for daring to have my father killed, I will take it.”

“He killed your father?”

She nodded, stubborn about it. “I can’t prove it, but I swear he had to be behind it.”

Hearing that Anton could’ve been a murderer should’ve shocked me. He was clearly embedded in the Mafia, a crime leader. Obviously, he was capable of great crimes. No shit, he’d probably killed someone. For all I knew, he was behind mass murders all over the place.

That fact lurked in the back of my mind ever since I learned that the Kozlov residence was a Mafia home. Until now, I’d tried to rely on the concept of ignorance being bliss. That it wouldn’t touch me. That this detail wouldn’t matter to me personally.

Now, it did.

I wasn’t anywhere near considering Katerina’s demand that I leave to marry some man she didn’t want. But I had to wonder if I would be safe here for much longer. If Anton was a murderer, was I safe at all?

Staring at this woman who had tempted me to consider friendship, I registered how shitty of a position I was in.

Maybe I wasn’t ever really safe here at all, with Anton nearby.

Perhaps I could be better off in another place while knowing my mother was completely cared for.

Desperate times called for desperate measures, but…

“It won’t last. It doesn’t have to last,” she added, as if thinking she was persuading me. “All you need to do is go in my place. You can’t deny that we look a little alike.”

I didn’t reply. I couldn’t.

“Just go in my place and get through the wedding. Then once I…” She sighed heavily.

“Once I manage things here, once I finish looking for what I need to find here, then I’ll give you the signal that you can end it.

You can divorce him. You don’t have to stay married to him, but I need you to marry him in the first place so the pressure is off me. It’s only temporary.”

“If it’s only temporary, why can’t you do it?” I lowered my hands, relaxing my arms. Hearing her add this caveat of not having to stay married changed things a bit.

“Because. Because I need to be here , where I can look for…” She shook her head. “I’m convinced that my uncle is hiding things here. Secrets and motives and… Just because, Lucy. I need to be here and look deeper.”

I told her that I didn’t want to be involved, and that was precisely why I didn’t try to demand further explanations. She spoke in riddles, but they could be her damn riddles. Not mine.

“The second that it’s safe, I’ll help you.

I will walk you through the divorce process.

And you’ll be free. Think about it, Lucy.

You’ll be completely free. You won’t have to worry about those outstanding bills or how you’d ever get her into that better place.

I’ll even divert funds to set up an account to cover the expenses there for as long as I can. ”

Katerina and I hadn’t spent enough time together for her to know me, but she had uncovered what made me tick. She’d spotted my weakness. My mother was all that anyone could ever use as leverage, and I hated how well she was doing this. She had good points.

If I didn’t have to stay married to this reject she didn’t want, then…

Why not?

The idea of erasing the burden of bills and funding my mom’s care was an enormous motivator. Nothing else could be so effective to twist my arm like this.

But she had.

I can’t believe I’m going to say this.

“Fine.” I bit out that one word of agreement. It was out there, hanging in the air between us. And I couldn’t take it back.

Without any reassurances that she would keep her word, I jumped and took the bait.

Not stressing about money and whether my mother would be cared for were too good to pass on.

“I’ll do it,” I said, hating every second of the fact that I was agreeing to marry someone with the intention to divorce later.

I’d never had enough downtime to daydream about some magical happily-ever-after.

Marriage wasn’t a goal when I spent every minute of my life trying to stay afloat and take care of my mom.

But deep down, I had always hoped that someday, I’d find a man I’d want to love.

That I’d just know when I met him that he was The One .

That I’d marry once, out of love, and stay in that committed relationship until we grew old together and death did us part.

“You will?” she asked, almost cautious that I was agreeing now.

I glowered at her, pointing my finger at her face. “So help me God, Katerina. If you’re bluffing, if you’re lying, and if you don’t see your end of this agreement through and my mom isn’t cared for, you’ll have a lot more than your uncle to worry about.”

“No, no.” She held up both hands. “I will. You have no worries there. I’ll handle it all. I can hack into the banking program and move the money without a problem. You have my word.”

She held her hand out for a shake, and I eyed it warily.

I didn’t know her long enough to determine whether her word would count for much.

But if I did this and she screwed me over, I’d tell my “husband” the truth and still get out of it.

For you, Mom. I swallowed hard and accepted Katerina’s hand to shake it firmly.

I’m doing this for you, Mom.

And I could only hope it wouldn’t be my biggest mistake yet.