Page 3 of Merciless Promise
“Papa,” I said the moment he picked up.
“Where have you been, Katya?” he asked, using the nickname he’d always had for me.
“I’ve been home, but I won’t be here for long. Is something wrong?”
I heard his exhale of breath, and I briefly started to wonder if he’d heard about the other night’s shenanigans. Something was troubling him, and I dreaded to know what it was, or who, because odds were that it involved me in some capacity.
“There is, and it’s something only you can help me with.”
“Okay,” I said slowly before sitting down at my vanity. “What do you need?”
In recent years, my father had been including me in more Bratva related things. I’d wanted to learn about the business even though I knew he’d never turn it over to me. A lot of men like my father prided themselves on tradition, and as was standard in his world, the sons inherited the empire, and the daughters married others who could one day do so if no son was available.
I wasn’t a fan of antiquated ideas such as that, and if I ever did settle down to marry, it would be to a man of my choosing and not some stooge my father picked out for me. Fifty years ago, I would’ve been the good little girl. Now, I preferred being a bad bitch, and would be until the day I died.
“Papa,” I said when he didn’t immediately answer.
“You have to promise me that you’ll do everything I say,” he responded.
“I can’t promise that, Papa. You should know?—”
“I’ve fallen into some real trouble, Ekaterina.” At his pause, I narrowed my eyes. My father was usually more direct, but he appeared to be struggling mightily with whatever it was he needed to say. Finally, he spoke again. “I need for you to save not only my life, but that of our family.”
“Save our lives?” Now, I was getting concerned, especially after hearing the panic in his normally calm voice. “How? By doing what?”
“It’s already done. You’re betrothed, and he’ll be coming in two days’ time to take you home with him to Yerevan.”
“Betrothed? What the hell? To whom?”
“Katya,” he said, “Please understand that if there was another way, I would’ve done it.”
“You’re not making any sense. How is my marrying someone going to save our lives? Are you in some sort of trouble?”
“Yes!” It was definitive, and the single word sent a shudder down my spine.
“What kind of trouble?”
“I owe some very powerful people extremely large sums of money.”
“If it’s money they need, surely I can help. I have those inheritances?—”
“You don’t have them any longer, Katya. I needed them to get you out of the trouble in New York.”
And just like that, my nightmares were now encroaching on my waking thoughts. “What do you mean?”
“Surely you cannot be so delusional as to think that it didn’t take a large sum of money to buy your way out of that sort of trouble.”
“It’d been an accident. You know?—”
“Underage drinking...Driving under the influence...Illegal drugs...Breaking and entering...And that doesn’t even countvehicular homicide of an heir to the Irish fucking Mafia, Katya. Getting the charges dropped and protection for you set in place nearly bankrupted the family.”
“I never knew,” I said softly. “That changes nothing, though.”
“I’ve been living on borrowed time and borrowed funding. Now, it’s all gone and I’m unable to pay it back.”
“Who do you owe?”
“The man you’ll marry to pay for your sins and mine.”
