Page 128 of Sinful Promise

My older brothers also happened to introduce me toThe Shiningat around the same time, so I started to convince myself that I was going to turn into Jack during one of these episodes and murder my entire family in their sleep with an axe, which Mikhail thought was hilarious.

Unfortunately for me, I was unable to see the funny and became so scared of going to sleep that I started refusing to go to bed. My mother tried everything she could to calm me down, but nothing worked.

Eventually, things got so bad, and I was so sleep deprived, that Alexei decided to set up an air mattress for me on the floor of hisroom, assuring me that if I were to suddenly wake up and go on some kind of mass killing spree, that he would step in.

That went on for six months until eventually, I must have grown out of them.

Until my parents died.

I wasn't a witness to my parents' murders, and Alexei never told me any specific details of what he saw, but knowing Igor Ivanov, I had a pretty good idea of what happened. Often I would see a haunted expression pass over my brother’s face, like he was seeing ghosts, and in those times, I was glad that he never told me the details.

We might have had our differences growing up, and even now, but one thing that has never changed is his undying need to protect me.

Growing up with a Pahkan as a father, I was no stranger to violence. I had been accompanying my father on business since the age of twelve, and that was only because of my mother. If my father had his way, I would have been going from the age of eight.

My world was both one of love and devastating violence—two things that I never thought could co-exist until Alexei got married to Bianca.

I never understood how Alexei could walk through life with the memory of finding our mother and father slaughtered. And yet somehow, despite it all, he still managed to find light in the darkness.

I think my brothers and I saw Alexei and Bianca’s relationship as permission to move forward with our own lives.

After our parents died, it was like we were frozen by grief. But one by one, I’ve watched them all fall in love and start families of their own, all the while wondering when it was going to be my turn.

And then Emily came into my life, and I just knew that she was the girl who would be by my side for the rest of my life.

Until now.

I should have known better than to walk Emily through Central Park at night, but I got cocky. I thought I would be enough to protect her if something were to happen, and I couldn’t have been more wrong.

The scent of blood in the air is proof of that.

Please don’t be dead.

I try to lift my head despite the shooting pain in my temple as I come around. I’m no longer lying on the concrete floor, but instead I’m sitting up in a chair.

I attempt to move, but my limbs feel like they each weigh a ton.

The coppery smell of the blood lingers on my skin and clothes. The fact it seems to have clotted is a good sign, but that doesn’t mean I’m out of the woods. I’m all too aware of the sort of lasting damage Igor can do.

I just have to hope and pray that I don’t end up suffering with blackouts like Lev.

One of my eyes is swollen shut, and the throbbing pain in my head is so bad that dark spots are starting to creep at the corners of the other.

Any minute now, I’m going to pass out again. But I need to come up with some sort of plan.

The fact that they’ve separated me from Emily could mean two things.

They could view her as disposable and have already killed her. Or, and this is the more likely option, they’re going to torture her in order to get information out of me.

As much as I don’t want it to be the latter, at least it would mean she was still alive.

For now.

“Emily…”

“She’s not here.”

My blood turns to ice in my veins when I realize that I’m not alone.

---