The Prelude (24 page)

Unfortunately, my 3D view of the maestro’s podium also means I’m seated very close to Katerina. She sits in a spot located directly across from me.

Mental daggers are flying, and I’m super happy when the lights dim in preparation for the Maestro’s entrance. Alek strolls out on to the stage, and the crowd goes wild with applause. Dressed in the black tuxedo I designed specifically for this night, the sight of him snatches every bit of air out of my lungs.

His hair is slicked back, and the attitude associated with most maestros comes so easily for him. It’s hard to believe he’s only twenty-three-years old. I can see why he was chosen for such a high position at his young age. Sitting there gawking at him, I no longer feel like a silly school girl. I sense the woman inside me coming alive each time she glimpses at the man who has become such a vital part of her life.

My chest heaves, as I try to contain my excitement. I even feel a tear or two preparing to fall. I’m still not prepared to deal with those just yet. This preview show means so much to Alek, and for that reason alone, tonight is just as important to me. Adriana takes my hand, squeezing it. Tears line her eyes too. She loves her brother, and he adores his sister.

After what Alek shared with me last night, I now fully understand why all of this means so much to their family.

Alek raises his baton, and the drummer fires up the opening notes to the prelude. He doesn’t just guide the music, he owns it. He’s a man who was made for the show.

Everything falls into place. His ensemble stays on key. Nikolai’s lead dancers don’t miss one step. The outfits I designed for Mystical’s Gothic Ballerina line move along with the dancers’ bodies so well, that I find it hard to believe I designed them. Even Lila’s version of
My Heart Will Go On
doesn’t irritate me as badly as I originally thought it would.

Especially since she’s wearing the dress I designed for the Mystical Diva. I almost had a heart attack when I found out she was planning to wear it. Turns out snooty Lila preferred my design over her own.

This sneak peak of the big performance happening in two weeks moves along without a hitch.

Feeling confident, I just know there’s nothing that can go wrong. I’m stepping outside of my comfort zone, and taking a chance on believing I’ll find that damn pot of gold everybody keeps teasing me about. You know the one the people like to say waits at the end of a hard to find rainbow? Yeah, that one. There has to be a rainbow nearby. With the way everything is falling into place there’s no way that my luck can run dry.

At the end of the performance, we all rise to our feet. The custom calls for the maestro to stand center stage with his leads. Alek does this with such grace and class and I cannot wait to get him home so I can fuck him until he passes out. Yeah, I’m that turned on by all of this.

Several roses fly up on the stage. I steal a quick glance at Alek’s mom and do a double take. She’s talking to a man who looks familiar to me. Katerina’s expression tells me the conversation isn’t going so well.

Squinting, I focus on the man. The long gray hair held back in a ponytail catches my attention first. I know that hair. The only other man with locks to rival his is Fabio. Petre came to the show? I had no idea he enjoyed symphonic productions.

After some debate, Katerina rises and trudges toward the exit. Instinct tells me to follow Petre and Alek’s mom. There’s this lump of unease sitting in my chest, getting heavier the longer I stare after the pair who just disappeared through the doors leading to the hallways located just outside the auditorium.

“I’ll be back in a bit,” I say to Adriana and Luca. “Could you let Alek know I’ll be near the dressing rooms?” She’s so caught up in being comforted by Luca, I wonder if she’ll even remember what I just said. “Right. Okay, never mind me.” I glance up at Alek and blow a kiss to him.

And then I head toward the place where Katerina and Petre just disappeared to. Alek doesn’t notice me leaving because he’s engrossed in a conversation with Nikolai and his players.

I head through the door and out into the hallways. It doesn’t take me long to spot Katerina and Petre, my life coach. And the two are really going at each other.

“What are you doing here in Milan? I told you to stay away from my family and me,” Katerina hisses.

“I’ll never stay away from you. Sergey’s a fool, letting you go the way he did. If you were mine, I’d never have let you leave,” Petre says, his body pressed up against Katerina’s in an intimate position. Clearly they know each other.

“If I’d known what you had intended to do with those boys, I would never have allowed you near my son. You sent Alek into a slaughterhouse,” Katerina hisses at him.

“No. I taught your son how to become a man. Something your husband never once tried to do,” Petre answers.

I stand there horrified. All of the feeling leaves my muscles. I’m thinking I’ve stepped into one of those weird carnival houses where the mirrors distort everything and make you feel crazy in the head. But there aren’t any mirrors in the theatre’s hallways. What I’m seeing is real.

“Get off of me,” Katerina orders. She hauls off and slaps his face. The smack whips his head to the side. I wait for him to hit her back, but he doesn’t. Instead, he does something even worse. Growling like a wild animal, he grasps her upper arms, lifts her up off the floor until she appears to be standing on her tiptoes, and begins shaking her. This stirs something in my stunned body, and my feet race forward.

“Stop this!” I yell, rushing up to Petre and begin digging my nails into the fleshy part of his neck.

“Erin stay out of this,” Katerina orders. How could she defend this man who has obviously made fools of us both? I wish somebody would tell me what planet I’ve just landed on.

“What the hell?” Petre turns and focuses his wild-eyed gaze on mine. I wonder what has happened to my calm natured coach. Releasing Katerina, he turns to me.

Right away, I take a step back. This isn’t the kind-hearted man I’ve spent the last year or so revealing all of my innermost thoughts to. “Yes, Erin. Mind. Your. Business.” He grabs me by the shoulders and shoves me backward. Somehow, my three-inch heels tangle up. I collide with the floor, my skull slamming against it. Stars start flying all around me as I lay there staring up at the ceiling.

Something or maybe someone zips by me. “Son of bitch! What the fuck are you doing here?” I hear Alek’s voice call out. A pair of arms surrounds me, helping me come to a sitting position. I turn to face a terrified Adriana whose gaze is locked on her brother who is beating the shit out of my phony life coach.

As I stand there watching, Petre somehow dodges Alek’s next punch and then hauls off and slams him to the floor. But a fired up Alek overpowers the older man. He shoves on top of Petre and wrenches his arm around behind his back. “I taught you everything you know, boy. Do you honestly think you can defeat me?” Petre gasps to Alek who has a knee crushed in his back.

A group of people have gathered in the hallway. I’m terrified of what’ll happen if Alek kills Petre in front of everybody. Before long, I’m pretty sure the press will arrive on this scene, or someone will start snapping pictures of Alek

I shuffle to my feet. “Alek! Stop, don’t do this.”

“You won’t terrorize any of the people I love, ever again.” He twists Petre’s arm back further. I can hear his bones popping. I don’t know what’s most terrifying: Petre’s cracking limbs, or meeting this side of Alek I’ve only glimpsed once before at the Alcatraz.

Katerina returns with Hagar and Nikolai trailing behind her. I didn’t even see her leave.  Nikolai grabs Alek by his arms, while Hagar easily secures Petre. “Get the fuck off of me, Nikolai,” Alek snaps, wrenching his tuxedo jacket back up on his shoulders. He glances over at Katerina and says, “Are you alright, Mother?” She nods as security guards rush onto the scene.

Alek stalks over to me. “Are you okay, baby?” His lips tremble and his eyes hint at a story I may never understand. “This man—this piece of filth is the bastard I told you about.”

“Petre is the Phoenix? No. Can’t be. This is my life coach,” I whisper. I can feel the hint of an asthma attack building up in my chest. He stalks over to where Hagar holds Petre with an embarrassing ease and rips open his shirt.

The tattoo of a red phoenix surrounded by black flames is etched into his left chest muscle.

“This is the man who sent Nikolai to stand down a group of crazy ass sex traffickers, if you must know the truth, Erin. He caused my cousin’s death, and destroyed my family,” Alek explains to me, his voice trailing off as he glances at his mother.

I don’t need an explanation of what Petre, no wait, the Phoenix did to screw up the Dostovsky’s family. Katerina’s guilty expression makes it pretty obvious. We all stand and wait for the carabinieri, the Italian police force, to arrive.

“Don’t ever let me catch you around any of my family or friends ever again,” Alek warns Petre.

“Are you threatening me, Scarlet Phoenix?”

“Don’t call me that,” Alek answers.

“You seem to be forgetting, Alek doesn’t make threats, only promises. That is what you taught us to do, right?” Nikolai adds, standing by Alek’s side.

“You made all of us trust you, Petre, or whoever you are.” I’m unable to just let all of this go without saying anything. “I thought you were my friend.”

Meeting my gaze with an empty one, he says, “Dear, sweet Erin. So innocent. In this life we live, we learn, and then we burn at the end of the journey.” He gives me a smile, a polite one, as though we just finished discussing a class topic.

“Get him out of here before I get arrested for smashing his face in,” Alek orders the carabinieri who have now filed into the hallway.

The man I know as Petre, the same one who terrorized Alek and Nikolai in another lifetime, walks out of the theatre as though he doesn’t have a care in the world.

Alek

The authorities can’t hold the Phoenix in custody. There’s no basis for an arrest unless we consider he scuffed up a few of the theatre’s walls. Mother doesn’t press charges,
and Erin’s testimony won’t stand on its own without her support, since they were the only ones in the hallway with him.

“You didn’t tell me the Phoenix was here in Milan. How long have you known, Mother?” I ask, a war of emotions racing through my chest.

“I hired someone to look into some things last week, shortly after Dmitri left,” she answered.

“How long?” I urge.

“Six months.”

“Ah. Tell me this isn’t the man you cheated on Father with all those years ago. This is some twisted joke you’re playing on me, yes?” I hope for the best.

She sits down on the living room couch and folds her hands. Her silence slaps me in the face.

“Sebastian wanted more. But seeing how unstable he had become, I decided against any reconciliation.”

“How could you? Do you know what this man did to me? To Nikolai?” I ask, my chest heavy.

Her gaze snaps toward me. Shaking her head, she gives me an incredulous look.  “How can you even ask me such a question? I had no idea what kind of illegal lifestyle Sebastian was leading when I first met him. I only knew he was a charming man who told me he’d look after my son, long ago. He was powerful, well-respected. Someone who I felt could easily stand up to your father, which he did for us.”

Years ago, Mother had an affair with Sebastian, the man I now know is the Phoenix. It wasn’t until sometime after I rescued Nikolai and we had left Russia that she filled me in on the brief details of her affair. I know she had a tough life when she lived in the States. But that doesn’t make me feel any better about what I just learned last night.

“How could you be intimate with someone and not know anything about the crooked shit they do?” I ask.

She makes an exhausted sigh, and brings her hands up to cover her face. “I destroy everything I touch, don’t I?”

I move over to the couch and take a seat beside her. “You mean well, Mother, I know. But I wish you would’ve told me about the Phoenix—or Sebastian, as soon as you found out that he was here months ago. This could’ve been a lot worse. Hell, he was Erin’s life coach. If he had done anything to her…” I tremble from the rage I feel when I think of that man being so close to someone I care about.

And it pisses me off that he’ll only get a little more than a scolding after all he’s done. There’s no hardcore evidence to prove any part of mine and Nikolai’s story. But the Italian government did rule that he should deported back to Scotland, the place he claims is his real home, another lie created by a master of deceit and mind games.

“It always comes back to her, these days. Why is that?” Mother’s mood changes at once, as she stands and heads toward the bar. Her statement makes me think of the day Erin told me about the mysterious person who tried to buy out Black Butterfly’s building. While we’re in the midst of madness, I go in for the second dive, the thing that has weighed on my mind since Erin told me about it a couple of weeks ago. “Please tell me you have nothing to do with Black Butterfly’s little dilemma.”

“Do you care to explain what devilry you’re accusing me of this time?” she answers, taking a swallow of her wine.

“Seems Luca Martuccio has someone who made a bid on the building Black Butterfly is renting. Know anything about that?” I ask, holding my breath. I don’t want to believe my mother can be so heartless.