The girl that we needed to “rescue” was one Lady Ioana Kiritescu who was set to marry the son of an Italian Fortune Five Hundred listee.
The wedding was tomorrow.
“This seems dodgy as fuck,” I muttered as we travelled via rail to where the rehearsal dinner party was being held in the Italian countryside. “This isn’t the freaking Middle Ages. If she didn’t want to marry the guy, she simply wouldn’t. I bet we are going to turn up there and find she is entirely under her own free will and will more than likely call the local police or some shit on us for gatecrashing.”
“Probably,” Cole agreed, shifting me from the seat to his lap and wrapping his arms around me.
“Be that as it may,” River scolded, “this is the task that was set, and if we want the amulet shard…”
I sighed and rolled my eyes. “I know, I know. Play along with what Big Silver wants. Even if he is a shady fucker himself. But all I’m saying is, what if she doesn’t want to be rescued? Are we really forcing her to leave with us?”
There was a long pause among my travel companions, but it was Vali who answered me.
“We will wait and judge the situation when we get there. Wesley, how are you going on those invitations?” Vali turned his attention over to Wes, who was working on his laptop across the aisle from us.
“Pretty good,” he murmured, not taking his attention off the screen for even a moment. “I have hacked the security system at Diego Russo’s villa and located three guests who roughly fit your physical descriptions. I’m just voiding their invitation barcodes and recoding it to the ones I will print for you.” The security on this party was next level, but we had the best on our side. “I have also organized costumes for you. The designer will be getting on board at the next stop to fit you. Anything less than perfect will stick out like a giant red flag, and we’re way better than that.” Wes glanced up and flashed me a smile. “Wait until you see what you’re going as.”
“Better not be anything stupid,” Cole warned him, and Wes covered a smile with his hand.
“Wesley, what have you done?” I asked him suspiciously, and he just shrugged.
“It’s a fancy-dress party catering to the richest fuckers in all of Europe. I promise you they’re not stupid costumes. Besides, the next stop should be coming up in less than five minutes, so you’ll see for yourselves soon enough.” He turned back to his computer and started tapping away again, ending our conversation.
It really was less than five minutes before our train pulled in for a quick stop at a station, collecting our costume designer, before continuing on. We had rented the train privately and impressed upon the driver the importance of getting us to our destination on time, which he seemed to be taking seriously.
The designer was a small, trim woman who didn’t speak a single word of English but somehow managed to convey what she wanted effortlessly.
We’d already decided it was far too obvious for all seven of us to gatecrash such an exclusive event, so it was just Cole, Vali, and I going. Originally, they’d all vetoed me going in, but it hadn’t taken all too long to talk sense into them. Not only was I the most powerful among us, but I was also the only female. If this girl really was being held against her will—which I still doubted, but whatever—then who was she more likely to confide in? Me? Or two surly, muscle-bound men who scowled far too much and looked like they killed people on a regular basis?
“So, where is the rest of it?” I asked with a frown as our designer, Marianna, stepped back and clapped her hands like she was done.
At my question, her brow furrowed and her lips pursed in disapproval.
“There is nothing else, sweetheart,” Wesley informed me with a lazy grin on his face. He’d finished making our fake invitations and IDs already and had been sitting back to watch the little Italian woman buzz around me with needle and thread for far too long. “This is apparently the in thing for these sorts of parties.”
“Not that I’m disagreeing with you,” I replied, squinting at him. “But are we all okay with me strutting around in public wearing this? And nothing else?”
“No,” Austin replied straight away, folding his arms over his chest with a scowl. “But you’re welcome to wear it in private any time you like.”
“Quit it,” Wesley snapped at him, punching him in the shoulder. “We had limited time, and this was a costume Marianna already had made. So, it’s all we have. Besides, it’s sort of appropriate given that this is a dragon quest, don’t you think?”
“I’ll give you that, mate,” River agreed with a half-smile. “Let’s see the lizards before we judge too harshly.”
Marianna must have understood because she hustled down the aisle to the next carriage, where Cole and Vali had been getting fitted by her assistant. When they emerged, a grin spread across my face, and suddenly I felt a whole lot better about my own costume.
While I was dressed in nothing but black and red metal scales, all linked up to form a sort of barely-there bra and—I didn’t even know how to describe it—loin cloth? Skirt? It was like a skirt, but with no sides to it, so when it moved you could clearly see my ass. Thank the gods of coffee for the shimmering, black G-string underneath to at least cover my vagina. Princess Leia wore more in her metal bikini than I had on at the moment. Anyway, while I thought that was bad enough, Cole and Vali emerged wearing tiny, metallic-silver hot pants and seemingly random pieces of gleaming armor on their top halves.
Vali had both arms clad in metal, joined at the throat with a silver chain, while Cole wore just one arm and half of a breastplate. Other than that, all they wore were matching scowls.
Marianna beamed and clapped, then babbled something in Italian before diving back into her suitcase of bits and producing a magnificent pair of wings, made of the same metal scales as the rest of my costume. She carefully eased them over my shoulders and secured them with leather straps, then clipped what felt like a heavy necklace around my neck.
The looks ranging from surprised to shocked on my guys’ faces told me it was no ordinary necklace though. Something that was confirmed when Marianna handed a long length of chain to Cole and another to Vali, then clipped the other ends to my collar. Not necklace. Collar.
What. The. Fuck.
Marianna said something more, her face shining with pride at her creations, and Wesley hurried to translate for me.
“She said, um”—he coughed, clearing his throat—“she said you are like a majestic dragon, held captive by your knights in shining armor.” His face was turning redder by the second. “Told you it was oddly appropriate.”
I leveled a glare at Wesley—one which I’m sure matched Cole’s and Vali’s expressions—but with the other guys barely containing their snickers, it was hard to stay mad. It was just a costume, after all.
Sighing, I let Marianna continue to fuss as she applied a countless number of cosmetics to my face and body to make me shimmer under the lights. She had just barely finished when our driver announced we’d reached our location.
“I feel like an idiot,” Cole rumbled as the three of us stepped off the train and into the waiting town car, which would drive us out to the villa.
“A sexy as fuck idiot, though,” I replied, licking my blood red lips and giving him what I hoped to be a sultry smile. He shook his head at me with a half-smile but let his hand graze over my backside when he “helped” me into the car. Perv.
Vali slid out behind us, then cleared his throat and gave us both a look as he closed the door. I smothered a smile and nodded back to show I understood. Now wasn’t the time for games; we needed to be in character from here on out.
Cole and Vali were wealthy Russian businessmen, and I… well, I was little more than arm candy for the night.
The bride sparkled as she strolled the room on the arm of her fiancé. Literally. She was just head to toe in glitter and sequins with some sort of fairy wings attached to her back. She looked stunning, and happy.
“Guys, come on,” I murmured under my breath, covering my mouth with a cocktail glass, “that woman is not here under duress. Look at her.”
“I see a young woman who is hitting the champagne awfully hard for the night before her wedding,” Vali commented with an arched brow as he sipped his own drink. “Is that what you would be doing in her shoes?”
“Her shoes look painful,” I observed, inspecting the sharply angled, strappy sandals Lady Ioana wore. “But I wouldn’t have a clue. It’s not like I ever pictured myself getting married, so I have no idea how hard I’d be hitting the booze the night before.”
“Seriously?” Cole wrinkled his nose at me. “Don’t all little girls dream of their wedding days? I thought that was sort of just an inbuilt thing.”
I snorted a laugh, then covered it with a cough, glancing around to see if anyone was looking at me. “Most probably do,” I replied when I was satisfied I hadn’t drawn any undue attention to us. “But it’s not really something that you ever consider when you’re not sure you’ll live to see your teenage years.”
This confession settled an uneasy silence over the three of us, which I attempted to cover by taking another long sip of my drink and letting my eyes wander the room.
Smooth, Kit. Way to kill a conversation.
“That’s really sad, regina mea,” Vali murmured finally, and my cheeks heated with embarrassment. “I think it might be our responsibility to give you a fairytale wedding now.”
“Don’t,” I snapped in a sharp tone. “I don’t need or want a wedding. How would that even work? Six grooms?” I snickered a laugh at how that would look in a church. “No, I am perfectly fine with the commitments I already have from you all.” I waved my Ban Dia ring to remind him of the unbreakable promises they’d all already given.
An evil sort of smile touched at his lips, and he flickered a look to Cole that was too quick for me to catch. “We’ll see, regina.”
I growled a little under my breath, but it was pointless arguing with him in one of these moods. “Whatever, I need another drink. Where did our blushing bride go?”
The guys followed my gaze across the room to where we had last seen her, but she was nowhere to be seen.
“Probably around here somewhere,” Cole said, looking around with a dragon-sharp gaze. “She can’t have gone far. It’s her party, after all.”
“I’ll go check the bathroom. You two scout around here,” I suggested. “Hopefully she’s just making out with her husband-to-be in a dark corner somewhere.”
“Or maybe she’s made a run for it because she’s really here against her will,” Vali countered, and I rolled my eyes.
“Split up; let’s find her,” Cole ordered, and I tugged my collar chains out of their hands so I could actually walk more than three feet from them.
The nearest bathroom had a line of people waiting outside, so I ventured farther inside the villa. If I were in her shoes, I’d head to a more private one where party guests weren’t going to be waiting in line. Master bedroom, perhaps?
After a few false starts, I found what looked like the right place.
I tried the handle of the door that I guessed led to a bathroom, but found it locked.
Damn.
“Just a minute,” a woman’s voice called back, and I grinned my success. Now, was it too much to hope that the woman inside was Lady Ioana?
“No rush,” I called back, “I just needed a break from my dates, you know?”
Whether I thought she was there under duress or not, I wasn’t going to half-ass this job. We really needed that amulet shard, and if this was the way to go about it, then so be it.
A bitter-sounding laugh came back through the door. “Yeah, I know.” This was said in a voice considerably less bright than her first words and was followed by a heavy sniffing. Like someone was doing lines of coke… or crying.
“Are you okay?” I asked hesitantly, pressing my ear to the door. “You sound upset.” I was taking a gamble on crying, but truly it could go either way.
There was a long silence, and I almost gave up before a clearer, shuddering sob filtered through the door to me. Yup, definitely crying, not snorting coke.
Now the real question was if this was our Lady Ioana or some random drunk chick with a dodgy date. Crossing my fingers, I sent up a quick prayer to the gods of coffee—the only gods I still believed in—and sucked in a deep breath.
“Lady Ioana?” I tried again, biting my lip with anticipation. “Can you let me in? Maybe I can help.”
Again, there was no response for so long that my hopes began to sink, but just when I was about to give up, the lock clicked and the door opened a crack.
Not fucking around, I pushed it open further and slipped inside. I pushed it closed again quickly and flicked the lock while eyeing up the soggy, tear-stained mess on the floor in front of me.
“How did you know it was me?” she sobbed, then blew her nose on a piece of toilet paper. Her sparkling wings were discarded in the corner, and her glittery makeup was smeared halfway down her face. All in all, not quite the cliched happy bride I had her pegged as.
“Just a guess.” I smiled at her in an attempt to seem less like a creeper.
Come on, Kit. Channel that inner nice girl. She’s in there somewhere!
“I bet I look pathetic, huh?” Ioana sniffled, dabbing at her red nose. “I’ll be okay soon. I just needed a few moments alone, you know?”
Crouching down, I folded my legs under myself in a way that I hoped didn’t flash too much vag at this poor girl before replying. “Totally. Can you believe I’m here with not one, but two dates? What was I thinking?”
Ioana gave a small, sobbing laugh and nodded, wiping her eyes with more toilet paper.
“I saw you earlier; your dates are hot as fuck,” she commented with clear envy. “They seemed like the kind of guys who know how to treat a woman right, even if your costume does have a collar.”
I smiled, running my finger over the stupid collar and giving a small head tilt of acknowledgement. It didn’t sit right with me to talk shit about my guys, even for the sake of the mission.
“Your fiancé isn’t that kind of guy?” I asked her in a gentle voice, hoping that her clear intoxication—which, this close was abundantly clear—would loosen her tongue enough to answer honestly. It was like trying to tame a wild horse or something the way I was approaching this situation. Damn me for having so little social interaction with girls my own age; I was hopeless at this!
Thankfully, Lady Ioana was too far gone on expensive champagne to notice my lack of social graces. Hell, the poor girl looked like she was bursting at the seams to offload her problems.
“No,” she replied with a bitter laugh. “No, he’s a right royal asshole.”
“So… why marry him?” I frowned. “You don’t look like you’re collared and chained.” I tried to make it into a joke, rattling my own chains. She laughed, but shook her head, looking so damn miserable.
Fuck me. I’d really misread this one.
“My chains might not be so literal, but they’re there.” She sucked in a deep, shuddering breath, like she was trying to pull herself together, and I knew my time was limited.
“Hon, you’re a bit of a mess. Did you want me to fix your makeup? I can’t promise it will be as professional as before, but at least he won’t know you’ve been crying.” I could only hope this would give me enough time to learn what I needed to know in order to “save” her.
“Oh god, I bet I’m a huge mess.” She laughed in a self-deprecating way and nodded. “That would be amazing, thank you. I have my makeup bag there.” She nodded to the huge Gucci case on the counter, which I had guessed was cosmetics.
I smiled at her in what I hoped was a reassuring way. “Don’t worry; we can sort you out. Sit up on the toilet seat for me.”
She did as I asked, and I opened the makeup case to rifle through all the options.
“So, tell me your story,” I encouraged her with a casual air to my voice, like we were just new friends getting to know one another. Totally harmless, right? “How did a beautiful girl like you end up marrying a man you don’t love?”
This made her pause and purse her lips. “Who said I don’t love Diego?” she said in a breathy whisper, her eyes darting around like someone might be listening.
“I did,” I pressed with confidence. “You’re in here crying your heart out, alone, the night before your wedding. That’s not a woman in love. So, spill. If you can’t tell a random stranger in a locked bathroom after too much champagne, who can you tell, right?” I played up the casual, tipsy girl act, and thank the freaking coffee beans, she ate it right up.
“You’re right,” she laughed. “This could very well be my last chance to tell anyone the truth. Lord only knows what he’ll do with me after he gets what he wants…” She trailed off with a shudder, and her eyes took on a haunted look that made my heart clench.
“So spill,” I coaxed. “And look up so I can clean off some of this mess.” I held up a cotton pad drenched in makeup remover, and she did as I asked, tilting her face up to me and beginning her story.
“He owns me,” she whispered with dread, and I forced myself not to react too strongly. “Not like, metaphorically. Not in the way a man could normally own a woman, heart and soul. I mean Diego literally owns me.”
I paused in wiping her smeared mascara and frowned with confusion, like any normal person would. “How can that be possible? You can’t own another human being.” Something I knew firsthand was painfully untrue. The Onyx Auction where Vali had “bought” me was proof of that. Maybe Ioana had somehow ended up in a slave auction?
“Apparently you can.” She sighed heavily. “With the right legal contracts, you can own anything. In this case, he owns me… and my virtue.”
“Oh,” I gasped. “So, this is a legal thing?”
“Yeah, how else would it be done?” She wrinkled her nose at me like I was an idiot, so I bit my tongue to keep from replying, “with magic?”
“Right, of course,” I laughed and shook my head like I was a ditz. “Too much wine. So, how did this all happen? You must have signed for it to be actually legal.”
“I did,” she groaned. “That’s the worst part. I signed that damn contract fully knowing what I was doing.”
Well, that made no sense. Didn’t Big Silver imply that she was being held captive? If she signed this contract willingly…
“I know what you’re probably thinking,” Ioana continued, wiping her dripping nose on more toilet paper. “You’re thinking I’m a total dumb blonde, signing away my freedom for a rich husband. But that’s not what this was. I had no choice.”
Using a warm washcloth, I tilted her face back up and gently dabbed more glitter off her cheeks. “That’s not what I was thinking at all, but why don’t you explain what you mean? It might help you feel better about everything, if nothing else.”
She heaved another sigh, letting her delicate shoulders droop. “I did it for my family. We used to be one of the most respected aristocratic families in Romania. My great-great-great-grandfather used to have an actual treasury. Like, full of gold and jewels, can you believe it?”
I snorted a laugh, thinking of Big Silver sitting on top of his horde. “Yeah, I kinda can.”
“Anyway, somewhere along the line, one of our family heads developed a bad gambling problem, so by the time I was born, there was little left except our name. Which was fine,” she rushed to clarify. “I didn’t need to be raised as a lady, but my parents were too damn proud to give it all up. They kept borrowing and getting deeper and deeper in debt just to maintain the sort of lifestyle our family was expected to have.”
“Ah,” I murmured. “I see where this is going. Diego owned the debt?”
“Not at first. But he did buy the debt after meeting me during a charity event last summer. After that it was a pretty easy choice to make, you know?” She gave me a pleading look, silently begging me to understand. And I did.
“He offered you a way to save your family, and you took it?” I concluded, and she nodded miserably. “Do your parents know that’s what you’ve done?”
This question brought fresh tears to her eyes, and she sobbed her answer. “It was their idea.”
“Motherfuckers,” I swore, mentally skinning Ioana’s parents. “They sold you to save their own status?”
“Pretty much,” she cried, unravelling another wad of toilet paper to cry into. “And now I have to marry him tomorrow and let him you know”—she lowered her voice to a whisper— “deflower me.”
Biting my lip to contain a totally inappropriate laugh, I turned away to grab some concealer from her makeup bag.
“Okay, I’m going to cut to the chase here, hon.” I leveled her a more serious look, even as I dabbed concealer under her puffy eyes. “Why is your family telling people you are being held against your will, like some sort of damsel in distress?”
Ioana sucked in a gasp, her cheeks blanching white. “Y-you know my family?”
“Not really,” I shook my head, continuing to apply her makeup in a calm way so as not to freak her out any worse than I already had. “An acquaintance of mine wants something from your family and thinks that saving you is the way to get it. But if your parents are the ones who sold you…”
She shook her head, tension dropping from her shoulders like a deflated balloon. “No, they’d just be saying that to save face, you know. Throw a little sympathy in there from the older Romanian families. Heaven help them if their ‘friends’ find out what really happened.”
“So, why don’t you back out? Leave them to deal with their own shit?” I mean, it’s what I would do. Then again, I didn’t exactly grow up in the most conventional family situation.”
She frowned at me, looking horrified. “I can’t do that! They’re my family, and they’d be ruined if Diego collected on the debt.”
I sighed, suspecting as much. “Okay, can you chill here for a couple of minutes? I need to go and see if my friends can think of another way to get you out of this shit-storm.”
“You’re… going to help me?” she squeaked, her eyes wide with shock. “But why?”
I rolled my eyes. She really was tipsy. “I just told you; there’s something in it for me if I ‘rescue’ you. So just… stay here, okay? Don’t open the door for anyone until I get back.”
Lady Ioana nodded frantically, starting to gush her thanks, but I quickly exited the bathroom before things could get too awkward.
“Lock the door, hon,” I called back to her. “I won’t be long.”
As it turned out, Cole and Vali found me as I was making my way back through the villa, and when I tried to tell them what I’d learned, they already knew.
“Wait, how do you two already know this?” I demanded, blocking their path and folding my arms over my metal-scaled chest. “And is that blood on your wrist, Cutie?”
“‘Killer’ is more appropriate right now, draga,” Vali snickered, and Cole whacked him with the back of his hand before rubbing the smear of red from his skin.
I arched my brows at them, but they had identical stubborn expressions.
“Let’s just go grab the virgin princess and return her to the big bad dragons,” Cole suggested in a low rumble.
Vali nodded his support. “We really shouldn’t linger. Things might turn a little prickly soon.”
“Oh my God,” I groaned, turning to lead them back up to Ioana. “You killed him, didn’t you?”
Cole actually had the audacity to smirk, while Vali gave me a faux-innocent stare.
“How little faith you have in our ability to negotiate, regina mea. But really, we should hurry. I’ve alerted the team to have the train ready to roll.” Vali swatted me on the ass to hurry me up, and I snarled over my shoulder at him.
Nonetheless, if they said we needed to hurry, I wasn’t going to fuck around and wait to get caught. With a little more urgency in my walk, I led them back up to the master bathroom and tapped on the door.
“Ioana? It’s me again; can you open the door?” I called out and was relieved when the lock clicked a second later. “Hey, hon. We’re getting you out of here, okay? Grab anything you want to take with you and let’s haul ass.” I gave her a bright smile but also tried to convey the urgency. If the guys had killed Diego, it would only be a matter of time until someone found the body and started looking for Ioana.
“What? No, I can’t leave!” Her face paled, and she gripped the door tighter, like she was thinking about slamming it in our faces. “I told you I have to stay.”
I shook my head, searching for an acceptable explanation that wouldn’t take all freaking night for her to believe.
“We handled it,” Cole answered for me with all the tact of a bull in a china shop. “Now let’s go. Quickly.”
Ioana started shaking her head in disbelief, so I slipped farther into the bathroom to coax her out while Vali tried a subtler approach.
“Ioana, wasn’t it? My name is Vali. I promise you everything has been sorted out with your former fiancé and you are free to go. Your family will not suffer for this, I give you my word.” His words seemed to be working as she released her grip on the door and let me push her out of the bathroom a little way, but I was worried he was making false promises.
“Really?” she whispered in a small, hopeful voice, looking up at Vali with huge, watery eyes that made me want to groan. Such a clichéd move—surely that shit didn’t actually work on guys.
“Dragomir Valeriu du Romane doesn’t give his word lightly, Ioana,” Vali told her with an air of authority. “Now please, we must hurry. Our transport is waiting to leave.”
“Du Romane,” she repeated in awe. “Your family—”
“Yes,” Vali cut her off with a tight smile even as Cole curled his lip in a sneer. “Now let’s hurry, hmm?”
Sucking in a deep breath, Ioana nodded. “Of course. Yes, let’s go. I don’t need anything from here; it all belongs to him anyway.”
“Great, let’s roll.” Cole strode back across the room and left without waiting to check if we followed. We did, of course, hurrying through the opulent villa and out the front doors—where we ran straight into four waiting security guards.
“Move out of our way,” Cole demanded of them, but his words seemed to have the opposite effect. Each guard shifted his hand onto his barely concealed handgun, and their stances turned aggressive.
I stepped ahead of Ioana a little, shielding her somewhat with my body even as I prepared to fight my way out of there. These humans would be no real trouble to get past. Just frustrating.
Ioana whimpered behind me, and I heard Vali shush her like she was a scared child or something. Good gods of coffee.
“Let them go,” a man’s voice barked from behind us, and I turned my head just enough to see Diego Russo himself coming down the front steps dabbing at his nose. Judging by the red on his monogramed handkerchief, his nose had recently fallen afoul of something hard.
“Sir?” one of the guards questioned. “But your bride—”
“I said let them go,” Diego snapped again, this time sharper, and his beady, hate-filled eyes roamed over the four of us. “I want all four of them gone from my property in the next two minutes, or you’re all fired.”
With that, he spat on the ground at Ioana’s feet and stalked back into the villa.
“Well, you heard the man,” I prompted the guards, who hadn’t moved an inch. “We will be leaving now.”
Their confusion was clear, but no one stopped us as we hurried back down the long driveway to where a sea of black town cars waited. As we power-walked down the row, one pulled out and paused in front of us, waiting for us to get in.
“I was surprised to see Diego just then,” I commented as we all piled into the car and closed the door.
Vali arched his brows in the picture of innocence. “Why is that, regina mea?”
“I thought…” I frowned. “I kinda assumed you’d killed him.”
A small smile pulled at Vali’s mouth, and Cole snorted. “We should have,” the younger brother muttered. “Would have been cheaper.”
My jaw dropped at his implication. “You paid him off?”
Ioana gasped, just now clicking to what had happened with her slimy ex-fiancé. “No, you can’t do that; it’s so much money and he would have demanded interest and—”
“It’s done now, Lady Ioana. No man should own a woman. Not like that.” Vali’s tone brokered no further arguments. “But you owe it to yourself to build a new life. Away from your parents. You’re old enough now; go and travel or something. Find yourself.”
The wide-eyed look of adoration she gave him made me snicker, even as Vali shifted uncomfortably in his seat. Still, he had done a good thing, and he should get the appreciation for it, even if that appreciation did look a whole lot like a hero crush forming.
Leaning back in my seat, I glanced up at the digital clock beside the air conditioning vents. Not a bad effort for only a couple of hours’ work, as long as Big Silver handed over his piece without any further tasks.
