Cunning Vows: Enemies to Lovers Dark Romance (Lethal Vows Book 3)

Ihaven’t heard from River for a week, and I’m grateful for it. I’ve concentrated on my work and finding Alek, which should be my only focuses. Not entertaining some gun dealer.

I’m in the main room at one of my auction sites. It’s usually my favorite auction, but I have nothing to be excited about despite the thriving first half of the evening. I weave through the seated patrons, anticipating the second half as my waitstaff tends to their needs.

I find myself looking over to where River sat last time, half expecting the arrogant asshole to be sitting there. He’s not. The person sitting in his spot looks baffled as to why I’m looking in his direction.

I turn and head for my private room. Clay and Vance trail behind me and enter the room. “Have they found something more on the dancer?” I ask, hopeful.

“Yes and no, miss,” Vance says. “Much like your brother, the dancer seems to have gone off grid. In fact, she hasn’t been seen for five months now.”

I plop into my chair behind my desk and throw my hands up in bewilderment. She can’t be found because she’s most likely dead.

The only reason why I care even a little about this dancer is because if I find her, I’ll find Alek, right?

“Why is this so fucking difficult?!” I demand from them, slapping the new file on my desk. “I don’t need outdated information. I need to know where the fuck my brother is!”

Clay steps behind me and begins to massage my shoulders. I’m riddled with knots and tension. “Miss, it’s most likely because Alek knows how your men operate and how to avoid them. He’ll come home.”

I laugh, almost half crazed. “It’s a fucking cry for help if you’re giving me sympathy, Clay.”

He says nothing as Vance drops to his knees in front of me. “We can help release your tension, miss.” And he almost looks hopeful. It’s like a cold wash of reality because why the fuck don’t I find my men attractive anymore? River Bently, that’s why.

Fuck.

“I just need to be alone for a few minutes,” I tell them. They look at one another but take the hint and leave the room. I hear the second half of the auctions begin as I put my head in my hands.

What the fuck am I doing?

My phone rings, and my specific ringtone for Alek startles me into sliding the screen more than once to answer. Alek’s name appears on the screen, and my heart beats through my chest.

“Alek,” I say in a rushed breath as I answer.

“Call your guard dog off, Anya,” he growls into the phone.

I’m still so stunned that it’s finally him that all I can say is, “My what?”

“I’ll kill him. Call him off now. I don’t care if you have feelings for him. If he fucks up what I’m doing and gets her killed, I will kill River Bently,” he says and hangs up. I’m shocked and confused. And now the room is quiet. What the fuck?

I hit call, but he doesn’t answer. I call another three times.

On the fourth ring, I get his voicemail, and I unload.

“What the fuck was that, Alek? Are you serious? The first and only thing you have to say to me is a fucking threat? Do you realize the shit I’ve been going through here to keep this business afloat, and you can’t even give me a proper fucking explanation? I hope your dancer does fucking die. In fact, I might put a hit on her myself so you’re done with this stupid puppy love shit.”

I hang up and do everything I can not to absolutely lose my shit. But it’s not enough. I need an outlet. The first thing I grab is the keyboard, and I fling it across the room. The next is a glass that explodes against the wall. Anything I can manage to grab explodes in one way or another as I do everything I can not to cry. I will turn this room upside down and burn the building to the ground, all to prevent myself from fucking crying.

No man will make me cry. Not even Alek.

A tap comes on the door. “Fuck off!” I scream.

But it opens anyway. I grab the gun from my drawer and point it in the direction of the door, licking my lips. I don’t give a shit who it is. I just need a release.

“Well,” Meredith says as she looks around the room, unfazed by the gun. “Put that gun down, girl, before you hurt somebody with it.”

I consider her for a moment, and she raises an eyebrow in warning.

“What the fuck have you done to this room?” she asks as she steps in and closes the door behind her. “Another tantrum?”

My temple throbs. “There was a bug. What are you doing here anyway? I didn’t get a call or an ASAP demand.” I lean back in the chair.

Meredith is wearing a long, loose dress that’s bright red. Her hair is up in a bun, and I wonder if I adopted her styling along the way. I must have. My hair is always up, I’m only ever in red or black, and I’m sure I have her attitude. Even if she isn’t my biological mother, she’s the only mother we’ve really known.

“Can’t a mother check on her daughter’s business?” she asks as she dusts off a part of the seat across from me.

I narrow my gaze on her. Daughter’s business. I’m not her daughter.

“No, she can’t. Aren’t you supposed to be baking muffins or something in your retired life?”

“About that. I think it’s time I pick up the reins again and try to straighten out this fiasco,” she says.

“I’m sorry, what?” I ask, trying to figure out if I heard her right.

“You’re a mess, sweetheart. I thought you might be able to do this without Alek, but it appears it’s too hard for you.”

My eyebrows furrow in confusion. “You’re fucking with me, right? What part do you think is going amiss? Everything is still running as smoothly as ever. I make sure it does.”

She gives me a patronizing stare. “Not if you’re galivanting around with a man who is clearly only using you to benefit himself. Anya, darling, how many times have I told you not to fall for a man?”

I lick my lips, trying to moisten my dry mouth. “Not that it’s any of your concern, but the same man you’re talking about is the very same one I shot at through his car a week ago.”

Her gaze is piercing as she says, “You said you shot at him, not that you actually shot him, Anya. I know how good your aim is. You’ve become soft.”

I choke on her accusation. “Are you serious right now?”

“Your man has put feelers out on me. He’s trying to investigate a gun deal that went wrong way before I took you and your brother in. I don’t like people trying to bring up the past. So either you deal with him, or I will.”

I’m in shock. Because both she and Alek have said the same thing.

River’s obviously snooping where his nose doesn’t belong.

“I’ll deal with him. I don’t need your assistance,” I state.

She raises her eyebrows again, mockingly. “I’ve heard that before. Have you heard from Alek yet?”

I lick my lips as I reassess the old bitch. Something’s off. Whether it’s because of River or not… something is different.

“No, I haven’t,” I lie. “I’m still trying to track down the dancer after you gave me her name. You?”

“When was the last time that boy called me, even when he was in town? Tell me if he makes contact.”

“Is that all?” I ask, but she just stares and stares, that patronizing gaze unraveling my last fucking nerve. How dare she come in here and think she can so easily take over once again. Ten years later and she thinks she’s in charge because she says so. I haven’t worked my ass off to simply hand it over.

I am the Ivanov auctions.

I will bury someone for it.

“What?” I demand when she continues to stare.

“Sometimes I worry I carved you too closely to mirror me,” she muses. “Then, at other times, I realize you’re still that needy child inside. You’ve always been so reliant on Alek. It makes you weak.”

“He’s my twin,” I remind her. “And part of the reason you were able to retire in such a lavish lifestyle, so respect is due.”

“Yes, but now there is only you, dear. I suggest you remember that,” she says, a hint of warning in her tone.

“We are all each other had. I know Alek. He’ll return.”

Sitting back in the chair, she places her hands behind her head and gives me a pitying look. “If you say so.”

I want to reach for the letter opener right now and lodge it in her throat. Instead, I turn away to calm myself. She always knows how to trigger me, as if daring me to lay a finger on her. She pushes me to remind me that her word is law. Or so she thinks. “Being a woman in this business is always difficult, Anya. You should know this. How many attempts on our lives were there?” she says.

My lips curve up into a tight smile. Hers wasn’t the worst foster care home we’d gone to. But overall, she’d been the most twisted.

“Why would you bring kids into a world like this?” I question. It’s something I never wanted an answer to before. When I walk through the hallways of the orphanage, I can never think about bringing them into this world. As heartless as I might be, I’m not that cruel.

“Hmm. Truthfully, I thought children would work in my favor for a few of my business dealings. The Italian Mafia are big on family. I was a single woman. If they saw I had a family, they might have been less inclined to kill me and persuade business deals because they thought we had common values.” She smiles. “It worked only for one deal, and then I was stuck with you two.”

“At first, you were both annoying, but you learned and adapted quickly; you more so than your brother. He followed in your footsteps not long after,” she says. “And I saw my empire grow. I saw potential in you.”

It doesn’t hurt like it should. I’m not at all surprised since I didn’t expect anything maternal from her whatsoever, but it’s the ease with which she states it that’s unsettling. We may be alike in so many ways, but there was a line I would not cross. I would not take the innocence of a child for my gain in any way. Especially considering how my brother and I were stripped of ours far too soon.

“That’s fucked up,” I tell her.

“Yes, I suppose it is.” She shrugs. “But look at you now.”

“Yeah, look at us now,” I mumble angrily. My brother is God knows where, and my first real contact with him in months was him yelling at me. Not once did he ask about me, let alone our business. And the business is just as important to him as it is to me. At least that’s what I always thought, but maybe I was wrong about that as well.

“Take it over. It was always meant to be yours, Anya. Announce your brother’s death. Let him live his fantasy chasing some dancer. Your brother only ever stayed because of his loyalty to you, and now that’s shifted.”

My head whips in her direction. “What do you mean?”

“He hated the business, hated that you lit up every time you learned something new.”

“He did not.” He would have told me.

“But then he discovered the ruthless side of it. Not just the drugs and other things, but his first kill when he was a teenager and how he enjoyed it. That’s why he stayed.”

I remember the first time he killed someone. Afterward was when I noticed he started wearing gloves. I don’t know exactly what happened, but he changed after that.

One thing I know is that Alek and I have one another’s back, no matter what.

Even amongst all this shit, we have each other.

“The business was meant for you. It’s time, Anya, for you to grow up and claim it. Or I will take it back.”

“He will come back,” I promise her, and it goes unsaid that she’ll never lay a hand on our auctions. She had her business in the past, but these auctions are ours.

“But he may not.”

I never thought the day would come when Alek would abandon me. The voice telling me that he’ll return grows smaller as time ticks by. The old bitch is right about most things. But not that. Alek won’t leave me forever, will he?

“Get rid of your ‘not’ boyfriend. He’s a problem,” she says as she stands.

Why is River looking into my family?

Maybe it’s as the old bitch says; perhaps he’s been using me this whole time. He’s made it clear he wants in on the business, so did he think fucking me was the only way to get it? But if that were the case, then why hasn’t he fucked me yet?

Deep down, I know River isn’t after that, but I can’t help but be hindered by the self-doubt Meredith lays there. It’s a dangerous world we work in. Lies and trickery are a constant. What if I’m betraying my own instincts to make room for River? What if Meredith is right?

When did I allow myself to have a high enough opinion of him that I could… trust him? No, absolutely not. I shut that thought down. I can’t put myself in any vulnerable position.

“I’ll be watching you carefully, Anya. You can’t trust anyone but me, remember that.” Her tone is far more bitter than the sinking feeling in my gut at the thought that River might be tricking me. But I know that’s not the case. Isn’t it? Or am I only being a fool? He is nothing to me, I remind myself.

She walks out without a goodbye, not that I expected anything more from her. I never have.