"It's time to be strong, Kukla," Anton said.
I shook my head frantically as I cried. Anton, the stranger, hugged me until I settled myself. It was an act. I wasn't settled, nor had I come to terms with the knowledge. I checked out and accepted the numbness. The only way I could continue with life was to tell myself that this was all a nightmare and that I would wake up soon.
"Why did you call me Kukla?"
Anton's green eyes flashed with pity,"Because that is what you are. You are about to become a doll in a new role where you need to be very strong to survive. I can't save you, Elsa, but I can help you as best as I can." Anton nodded, reassuring himself of his promise to me.
"Where are you taking me? What happened to my parents…" Question after question poured like flood waters from my mouth.
"Shh. Hush now and calm yourself."
"Calm down!" I screamed, but no one came to my rescue since we were on a private plane. "I just watched my parents get blown up."
"Yes!" Anton snapped harshly as he flipped from caring to coldness. "You haven't begun to see the amount of death that will plague your mind, Kukla. So take the olive branch I am giving you and hold on tight because when I hand you over to your uncle, there will be no sympathy or hugs. Your Pakhan is not a pleasant man."
Pakhan? What the hell did that mean. I imagined little pac-man trying to beat each other, but I was sure Anton did not mean the game.
Pushing away from him, I stood, but I was trapped in the private jet, with nowhere to run and no one to help me.
Titan.
He will help me. If I play along and get to a phone, all I have to do is call Titan and pray I was misreading his distance. He was stressed because of something his father made him do, not because he wanted to break up with me. Yes! I continued to tell myself false lies. Little did I know the hell I was about to enter.
* * *
I don't understand, uncle," I confessed as I questioned my uncle Igor. It didn't make sense why he had Anton watching my parents and me. Why didn't he warn my father if Igor knew something terrible would happen? "Your father doesn't listen to others very well, Elsa. I warned him if he gave up his position in the Bratva, he'd be unprotected. I tried to offer my help," Igor shrugged his broad shoulders, "but he didn't want to take me up on that offer. I sent Anton to watch out solely because of you and your mother. And good thing I did." Uncle made himself out to be a savior. Maybe he was, perhaps he wasn't? I didn't know anymore, and in the end, did it matter? My parents were not coming back from the dead.
"Your father got involved with the Kings. They are not to be tricked or messed with. You want someone to blame," Igor eyed me long. I didn't particularly appreciate how he kept pointing fingers at others. Uncle relished in the knowledge that he knew more than me. "Blame the man who just took control of your father's company." There it was, the twist of the hand that showed me uncle's cards. He knew much more than he was willing to tell. He'd drop crumbs only to torture me.
"What do you mean?" I questioned.
"Lucas King just signed over all control and rights of Stepcon Tech to King Corporations. He stole everything from you, Elsa." Uncle sat back behind his vast desk and lit a cigar. His house was refined and ornate. Gold gilded the crown moldings, and thick wallpaper lined the walls that shouted a royal lived under the roof. Unlike the fairy tales, my uncle was no kind king. He was a thug hiding behind the size of his wallet.
I shook my head. That wasn't possible? Wait, was that why Titan entered himself into my life? Was it all a ploy? Had Titan been playing me like his father played my parents?
Everything started to make sense, why Titan King would approach me as a friend, why he wanted to get close. Was that why Titan had acted so strange those last days? He knew, didn't he? Titan knew his father would stop at nothing to get my father's company. Titan played me. He wasn't the knight that would save me. Titan was the villain who just killed my kingdom.
Chapter 6
Seven years ago…
If you knew you were dying, would you lay down and accept your fate, or would you continue to fight the losing battle? I had been in prison in northern Russia for three months. It was a feat I had survived this long. Uncle Igor thought this place would strip me bare, snatch away my soul and spit out a stronger, better Elsa.
He was wrong. I wasn't getting stronger. I was dying.
Every day I fought to stay focused and have the willpower to continue, but I awoke to new threats, and a new part of me was stripped away. Sanity was no longer tangible.
Some nights I told myself this was still a nightmare I would wake from. Other nights I told myself I must be in a coma, and soon I'll wake up to see my parents' faces. Ninety days later, I was still stuck in whatever reality this place was, and I didn't want to live it anymore. I held the shiv in my hand, gripping it tight between my fingers. Two deep cuts, one in each wrist, and I'd fade into the abyss. It will all be over soon. I raised the shiv I made from my toothbrush. I pressed the sharp edge to my inner wrist slowly, too slow to cut my flesh. As the rough plastic touched my inner wrist, I saw Titan's face in my mind.
Titan King.
The boy I loved.
The boy was responsible for killing my parents and putting me in this hell.
Defeat sagged in my shoulders as I lowered the blade and slipped it back into the pocket of my grey sweatsuit. I still could not grasp what my uncle had told me. The Kings wanted my parents' business, and my parents refused to sell it to them, so Lucas King killed my father to take everything. As uncle had described, dad made a deal with the devil, and the devil always came to collect. A virus was planted in our house, and it spread, hacking into my parents' encryption and taking over their hard drive. The Kings knew all our secrets. They tracked our every move, and when my parents went behind Lucas King's back, he went behind my mother and father's.
During my days of rotting away here, I started connecting the dots. Lucas was the reason Titan inserted himself into my life. Titan's love and promises were all lies to get closer to my parents. Titan was the only one who had access to my laptop. I rarely brought it to the treehouse, but he must have distracted me one of those nights I was in teenage bliss, lusting over the idea that the cute guy wanted me for me.