Page 29 of Beautiful Enemy

Finn makes a face but does as he’s told. Once he and Aiden are gone, it’s just me, Dante, and Matteo left.

And the camera.

Dante pushes my hair away from my face. “You’re a good kisser. I’ll give you that. Are you lying when you say you haven’t been with anyone before?”

“Never. My first kiss was reserved for my husband. You just stole it from me.”

“Ah. So that kiss was meant for Viktor. Well, sorry about that,” he says to the camera, acting nonchalant. “She’s not yours anymore, Viktor. You sided with the wrong family. You chose to be an ally with Erik and now this is your punishment. Me stealing your bride away. Now, Nadia, tell me your last secret. Why does your father hate you so much?”

“No. I will not tell you. If you’re desperate to know, you can ask my father.” The pride I feel for myself is like nothing I’ve ever felt. I hope when Anya watches this, she can at least smile at what I’ve done.

Dante makes a small sound in the back of his throat. “I’ll ask him one day. When I go to kill him. Turn the camera off. We’re done here.” He storms out of the basement without another word.

Matteo silently closes the camcorder and follows.

At least I have a blanket to keep me company now.

Chapter Six

Anya

I’m sent an email with a video attachment to it. It’s from an unknown sender, except, I know exactly who it’s from.

I run into Erik’s office and interrupt his meeting with my father, Viktor, and Ivan Romanov. Even though things have been tough between Erik and my father, they’ve put aside their differences to help each other find Nadia, though I believe my husband’s motives are selfless whereas my father’s motives are purely selfish. He wants Nadia back to save his pride.

All the men turn to look at me. My father immediately scoffs. “This is serious business we’re dealing with here, daughter. Leave.”

“You’re in my house,” I remind him. “Show me some respect.”

“The house your husband bought.”

Ivan looks uncomfortable with the fighting while Viktor looks bored. Neither one helps me. The only one who does is Erik.

“Sergei, shut the fuck up. This is Anya’s house. Anya, did you need something?”

“I was sent a video in an email. By Dante. I know it. I haven’t watched it. I thought we could watch it together.” Mostly, I’m terrified of what I’ll see. My sister being mutilated. Tortured. Raped.

God, I want to vomit at the thought.

Erik pulls up my email on his computer and all of us crowd around to watch.

What we see isn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Nadia, at least physically, seems fine but the more she cries in the video, the more my heart breaks. She’s so scared and yet, she’s trying to be brave. There’s a few moments where she stands up for herself. I couldn’t be more proud of her. My shy, baby sister, taking on a scary Mafia man.

And then Dante begins to taunt my father. He asks questions about why Nadia moved in with me and Erik. My father’s jaw gets tenser and tenser as the video goes on until I’m sure his mouth is going to snap in half.

Dante ends the video by kissing Nadia.

The sight of it shocks me to my core. I should have expected he’d force himself upon her but what’s more shocking is that… Nadia doesn’t pull away from the kiss. Instead, she seems to melt into the it, almost like she’s desperate for it.

No. I must be seeing things. That can’t be right. Nadia is terrified of Dante; I can tell by the way she spoke to him in the video. The way she bargained for a blanket. The way she looked him square in the eye and told him ‘no.’

The kiss is over within a few moments. I know I saw it wrong. Nadia didn’t enjoy it.

“I’m coming for you, Erik,” Dante ends the video saying. “And you, Anya. And you, Sergei. You never should have messed with me.” The video goes black.

Erik leans back in his chair, sighing deeply. “Well, that isn’t good.”

“Obviously it’s not fucking good,” my father growls, hitting a stack of papers on Erik’s desk and sending them fluttering to the ground.

---