The Killer’s Vow by Aria R. Blue
Vera
My almost-wedding made headlines.
Inessa and I sit in front of the TV with a bowl of untouched almond and cucumber salad before us.
I stare at the newscaster’s perfect sleek hair as she goes over the details of the incident. I’m not really listening to anything she’s saying, and I don’t think my sister is either.
Both of us are waiting for the storm to pass.
But it hasn’t even begun yet.
I shiver as I think about how I would’ve been in some stranger’s bed right now if the shooting hadn’t happened.
“Vera,” my father yells. “In my office. Now.”
I close my eyes.
“I can come with you,” Inessa offers immediately.
“It’ll just agitate him further,” I say.
Inessa grabs my wrist. “Vera, he’s going to blame you for this.”
“He can’t,” I say, pulling my hand away. “I was at that altar too.”
Lion, the wolf hybrid I raised since he was a puppy, leaps to his feet.
“Lion, no. Stay boy,” I say, petting his shoulder and trying not to show any fear.
He senses it anyway, lifting his muzzle up against my palm before licking it. He’s trying to comfort me.
Leaving my sister and my dog behind, I make my way to Papa’s office.
“Close the door behind you,” he orders as soon as I step inside.
I do as he asks and lean against it.
My older brother, Ivan, is here as well.
His face is turned away, though, looking out of a window as if I’m not worthy of his interest.
I walk closer to Papa’s walnut desk and sit down next to my brother.
When I turn to look at Ivan, I see the reason he’s avoiding eye contact. A belt-sized welt is forming on his left cheek.
“Do you have anything to say for yourself?” Papa asks.
“She doesn’t have anything to do with this.” Ivan rushes to my defense. Like always.
Papa grits his teeth, ignoring him.
His attention is focused on me. “Your mother is in hysterics right now. What do you suggest I do?”
I glance back and forth between my brother and my father.
“She thinks it’s the curse,” I say.
“Last I heard, you don’t believe in curses, Vera,” Papa says. His eyes remain hard, like he knows everything I’ve been doing.
But until he reveals to me what he knows, I won’t fold.
“Do you have any idea how bad this makes me look?” he continues, fists clenching on the table. He pours himself a finger of his favorite Beluga vodka and throws it all back. “You know what word on the street is?”
My back is ramrod straight in the chair. “What?”
“They’re saying that your brother did it.” Papa wipes his mouth with the back of his hand.
“Ivan? He would never.”
Ivan looks at me, searching my face for something before looking away.
“That’s what I thought about all my children,” Papa says, looking straight at me. “Now I’m not so sure.”
I try to look like I’m devastated about losing the man I was supposed to marry.
But I’ve had to do this too many times before.
“They took him to the hospital,” Papa continues.
“I thought he died?” I panic.
“You would like that, wouldn’t you?”
“No, I’m just saying, there was so much blood.” And also, I saw the light being snuffed from his eyes.
“The paramedics tried to resuscitate him, but he died in the ambulance,” Ivan says, sounding very pleased about it.
I flinch.
This is why my brother keeps getting smacked around.
He doesn’t have it in him to make himself appear small and harmless. If he doesn’t like something, he makes his disapproval known to the entire world.
“All of you are such an embarrassment,” Papa grumbles.
“I’m sorry,” I say automatically even though this time, I really didn’t have anything to do with it.
“Being sorry doesn’t change anything,” Papa huffs. “This isn’t the first time this has happened. I’m starting to wonder if curses exist after all.”
I maintain a straight face.
“What did you do, Vera?” Papa asks.
I reply with the obvious. “I was there at the altar too.”
“Yes, but you have someone helping you, don’t you? Tell me who it is before I rip the entire city apart searching for him.”
Ah.
So that’s what he thinks—that I have an accomplice.
“I didn’t have anything to do with this,” I repeat. “Maybe the groom’s family has their own enemies.”
“I secured the entire perimeter. There were guards inside and outside the church. The windows were bulletproof, and the entire neighborhood was scanned for explosives. But that’s not what people are talking about now. All they see are two weak families who couldn’t even offer basic protection to the bride and the groom.”
“Nobody’s thinking that, Papa,” I say.
He makes a dismissive gesture toward me, as if what I have to say doesn’t even matter.
My tongue demands to speak its truth. “Remember what happened at Ivy Blackwood’s crowning? Every family brought their guards to the party, but it wasn’t enough to stop the massacre. Nobody held it against her. She sent handwritten apology letters to everyone later, and that was that.”
Papa won’t hear it. “You’re forgetting, they’re Americans. They can afford to mess up. But being Russians, we can’t make mistakes like them.”
“It’s only natural for mistakes to happen, though.”
Papa gives me a ‘what am I going to do with you’ look. “Dammit, Vera. This was an important deal for me. Do you have any idea how much pressure I’m under right now?”
How can I not when he talks about it every single day?
We live ostentatious lives, but it’s all a lie.
As the other families rose in the past few years, ours had been falling.
But of course, it’s all kept within the family.
Not even my father’s closest circle knows of it. The numbers on the quarterly reports have been altered to keep up the façade that business is going great.
And to reverse the misfortune that has fallen upon us, Papa has been trying to sell me to forge new relationships.
“I’ll find out who did this,” he warns, as if he’s still waiting for a confession from me.
“Let me know when you do,” I reply.
Usually, it is my fault.
But this time, I truly had nothing to do with it.
That doesn’t mean that I’m not immensely grateful for whoever saved me from what would have been a miserable marriage.
There’s a growl from the other side of the office door.
I rush out before Lion can maul the security guards standing outside.
“Teach your dog some fucking manners, Vera,” my father shouts from inside his office.
Lion licks my cheek, making sure I’m all right.
“He’s just a puppy,” I say, patting the dog that comes all the way up to my hips.
The uniformed guard standing next to me with his rifle across his torso disagrees.
Lion growls and snaps his teeth at anyone who’s not me.
And he has every right to.
They tried to have him put down when he was just a puppy.
Lion was the runt of the litter, smaller and weaker than the rest of his brothers and sisters. Nobody believed that he’d make it through the night, so they decided to put him out of his misery.
But I wouldn’t have it.
To stop my blood-curdling screams, they pushed the puppy into my arms.
I spent the next few weeks nursing him back to health. He grew stronger and faster as the days went by.
And now, Lion is the alpha of the pack.
He’s the only wolf hybrid we allow inside our house.
“There’s a party next week,” my father calls from inside his office. “You’re expected to be there.”
I close my eyes. “Okay.”
It’s always an endless cycle of parties, where I’m shown off like a racehorse. The parties are followed by unwanted proposals from men.
With Lion on my heels, I grab my coat and head straight toward the greenhouse, which is a separate building outside the main house.
It’s the place I go to when it gets hard to breathe.
When I step into it, though, I realize that it’s already occupied.
Soft yellow lights fall on a figure in the middle of the room.
“Who let you in here?” I ask.
“I didn’t know that people needed permission to visit this place,” Konstantin answers. He’s Papa’s most senior guard and most trusted confidante.
My pulse gallops as he continues checking the boxes.
“What are you doing?” I ask.
“I’m looking for something.”
“For what?”
He stares at me. “Do you have something to hide, Vera?”
I stare back.
I knew this day would come.
“I was just trying to help you,” I say. “If you tell me what you’re looking for, I can help you find it.”
The greenhouse is lush and full, even in the middle of the winter. I regulate the temperature and use artificial lighting to supplement the natural sunlight.
Most of the plants grown are medicinal, but there are also some edible and decorative plants.
Konstantin opens a box filled with gardening tools. He sifts through them before pushing the box back into place.
“Again, if you tell me what you’re looking for—”
“Where’s the credit card?” he asks, cutting me off.
“Excuse me?”
“The one you used to hire a sniper.”
“The one I usually use isn’t here,” I say, my voice not rising even in the face of such a heavy accusation. “And I did no such thing.”
He watches me for a moment. “If it weren’t for your papa, you wouldn’t survive a day on your own. You’re lucky he’s putting up with your shit.”
As if sensing that I was just insulted, Lion growls on my behalf.
Konstantin eyes the dog warily.
“I’ll come back tomorrow,” he says, sidestepping Lion on his way out.
But I’m not going to let him walk out with all the power.
“How’s your friend?” I throw out casually.
He freezes and then turns around slowly to face me. “You wouldn’t dare.”
“I don’t know. If you keep invading my privacy like this, I won’t have much of a choice.”
“What do you want?” he asks, knowing full well that I have dirt on him.
Blackmail is usually my last resort. But in times like these, I just can’t help myself.
At one of the many parties I was forced to attend, I saw something that wasn’t for my eyes.
And he knows that I know his secret.
I take a step toward him. “You can search my greenhouse all you like, but you will talk to me with respect.”
He nods, something in his eyes softening. “My apologies, Vera. It’s just been a rough night.”
I nod, watching him as he steps out of the greenhouse.
It’s only when the door closes behind him that I let out the breath I’ve been holding.
Everything I built can be lost in a single moment. And they’re closer than they realize in discovering the truth.
I glance at Lion.
“How are we ever going to survive this, buddy?”
He woofs softly, before sniffing the hibiscus plant that makes him sneeze every single time.