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Konstantin

Lake Como, Italy

A high-pitched scream shatters the afternoon serenity. It echoes up from the cellar, ricochets off the long, marble corridors, and pierces my skull. My head feels like it’s about to explode.

Pinching my throbbing brow, I growl, “That fucking woman. I’ll rip her to pieces before the pageant even begins.”

The preparations for this event have taken me months, from finding the perfect place to the perfect women. The villa is private and secluded. The sixteen women locked in my cellar are glittering treasures. I won’t allow one stupid little bitch to upset everything I’ve worked so hard to arrange.

The woman screams again, the sound filled with indignation and rage.

Kirill rolls his muscular shoulders and stands up. “Allow me, Kostya. It will be a lesson for the others.” His dark eyes gleam with perverse delight. He’s as excited as a child at Christmas for the pageant to begin.

I glance at Elyah, the only one who hasn’t heard the scream because he’s staring out the window at the ornate Italian garden, sunk in blood-soaked fantasies. I can see them flickering behind his eyes like the koi fish in the lake beyond the window.

I slowly crack one knuckle after the next on my right hand. Among other things, this week is meant to bring Elyah peace and focus, but betrayal still burns too fiercely in his heart for anything to pierce it.

A moment later, Elyah rises to his feet smoothly. “I’ll do it.”

I smile to myself. Or maybe this is working.

The three of us stride down the long, marble corridors with their high ceilings and ornately carved columns. Outside, heavy golden sunlight beats down, causing heat to ripple above the winding garden paths. Swallows skim over the lawn. Below, the water of Lake Como laps against the verdant cliffs, the sound of the waves carry up to us on the afternoon breeze.

This place is paradise on earth, but for the sixteen young women locked in cages in the cellar, it’s a living hell, and I am the gatekeeper.

We pass through a locked gate and head down a set of stone steps into chilly darkness. Down here, the air is damp and scented with fear. Through another locked gate, there’s a cellar room containing a row of sixteen cells, six feet square with iron bars. Each one has a beauty huddled within, and all of them cringe away from us.

All but one.

She flings herself against the bars and screams, “Let me out, let me out, let me out!”

I unlock the cell, drag her from her cage by her hair, and twist her face savagely up to mine. “Little jewels are meant to be quiet.”

“I’ll fucking kill you, you Russian fuck! Don’t you know who I am?”

“Who are you?”

“Asshole!” she shrieks. “I’m the daughter of—”

Pain stabs through my skull. I draw back my hand and slap her across the face. Hard. She sprawls across the damp concrete and comes to rest at Elyah’s feet. He stares down at her, disgust etched into his chiseled, cold features.

“Does that feel like I care who you are, youglupaya suka?” I ask her.Stupid bitch. “Here, you don’t have a family. You don’t have a name. You are Number Eleven. You are obedient. Unless you are asked to speak, you aresilent.”

The woman’s eyes nearly bug out of her head. “My father is going to kill you. He’ll kill you all! He’s in the Cosa Nostra. He eats assholes like you for breakfast.”

Her whining, nasal voice goes right through me. Maybe she’s a Sicilian mafia bitch, and maybe she’s not. That threat might put the fear of God into Italians.

But we’re not Italian.

We’re Russian.

I don’t care if her father is the president of Italy.

“Breakfast?” Kirill says in a soft hiss. “Tomorrow morning will be too late for you.” He speaks as if to a child who has asked for a bedtime story. Hunkering down on his heels, he caresses her cheek. “Will Papa save you as you scream for mercy? Does Papa even know where you are? Does anyone?”

Hatred twists Elyah’s mouth, and visions of this woman’s demise dance in his eyes. This pageant is for me, but it’s for these men, too. I want a wife to take back to Russia with me, the most precious jewel I can find. She will be beautiful. Obedient. Self-possessed. She must have a heart as hard as titanium and nerves that can withstand the danger that perpetually circles me. My world is drenched in blood, violence, and money. Identifying the perfect woman from among these sixteen will be performed through a series of tests, just as a diamond or sapphire is tested to determine its value. Meanwhile, Kirill and Elyah, my two most trusted friends, are here to enjoy themselves. They’re more than capable of testing women in the way I want them tested.

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