Page 5 of A Devious Arrangement

Now, we have the Salvatore organization breathing down our throats, threatening us with God knows what.

I glance at my brother. His gaze is hard on our grandmother as he stares her down. He knows as much as I do we need this money. He looks from her to me and back. His expression turns to one I’m entirely too familiar with. He’s spent a lifetime sacrificing himself for me.

I can’t let him do something stupid. I can’t give up like this. I have to at least try one last time.

“There has to be something else. Something we can do,” I rush out.

The glint in her eyes makes me feel like she’s lured me like an insect caught in her web.

“We’ll help you if you return what your mother stole from us.”

My head whips back, and I look at my brother to see if he knows what she’s talking about, but he seems just as much in the dark as I am.

“We have nothing of yours,” he replies.

“Of course you don’t. She didn’t steal it for you. How do you think a runaway was able to get protection from the Order of Saints? Do you think they just let your mother and your father in?”

I take a step forward, but Nikolai’s firm grip holds me in place. “What are you talking about? Our father inherited his place as a Saint.”

She tuts. “It sounds like they’ve spun a lifetime of lies for the both of you. Let me be clear. When your mother left us, your father was nothing but an Unsainted, waiting for judgment. They knew the only way to escape our family was to have the protection of the Order of Saints, so they had to buy their way in.”

“That’s impossible. The Order would never allow something like that.” Nikolai’s voice is unwavering in his belief.

A curve forms on her lips, which sickeningly resembles my mother’s. It makes me nauseous to see anything they hold in common.

She looks entirely too pleased when she delivers the next blow. “You have a lot of faith in them, but even the Order can be purchased at a price.”

My brother shakes his head. “The position of Saint is invaluable. No amount of money would be enough.”

“Agreed.” The matriarch lowers her head but never breaks eye contact. “Which is why they gave them something impossible to buy.” Her voice turns cold. “Something that belongs to me.”

I rack through my brain for any mention of an item from my parents, but whatever it is, they kept it a secret.

“The Kokoshnik Tiara has been passed down throughout the generations, originally owned by your very namesake. An item that’s coveted by all.”

Her sharp gaze turns on me. “We expected your mother to be the one who returned it, but with her death, it seemed lost to us. I heard you played a part in that.”

Acid crawls up my throat as my gut twists. Somehow, this woman knows exactly what I did. How I destroyed my once happy family, turning it into the mess it is now.

I take a deep breath, knowing what I’m about to say is crazy. “I’ll do it. I’ll return it.”

My grandmother’s head cants to the side, and her eyes roam over me as if assessing me for the first time.

“What are you saying?” Nikolai grabs my arm, worry written in deep lines on his face, imploring me to stop this.

I ignore him. I know if I look at him too long, I’ll lose my resolve. Getting caught stealing from the Order is nothing less than a death sentence, but I won’t let him give up anything else for me. “I’ll get it to you. No matter what.”

“Ana, don’t be ridiculous. If anyone is going to do it, it’ll be me,” Nikolai says, but I don’t look his way.

The full smile my estranged grandmother gives us makes the hair on my arms stand. “Nikolai, you will stay here. You’re the heir, after all. What better collateral?”

I feel a chill when her attention falls on me.

“It makes more sense for me to do it. I’m already a Saint.” There’s a sharpness to Nikolai’s voice I’ve never heard before.

My brother has taken care of me my entire life. He was the one who held me together when our mother passed away. Who checked my homework and made sure I ate when our father gave up on life.

It was my fault he became a shell of a human, no longer caring how his children survived. Nikolai sacrificed his childhood to be there for me. He should have been out with friends, causing trouble. Instead, he was forced to grow up too fast and raise me.

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