My brothers and I didn’t need second thoughts. “Agreed.”
With a deep sigh, she started. “Okay, Olivia then. We’ve known each other for as long as I can remember. My grandfather and her grandfather were best friends growing up. In turn, my mom and her mom ended up best friends. People in our circles marry other people in our circles.” She took a deep breath but the words she just spoke confirmed that people in her circles don’t mix with the likes of me. Fuck that!
What happened with getting your fill of her and then letting her go!My damn sanity was mocking me.
She continued, and I focused on her words. “Let’s just say that neither her mom nor my mom married well in the eyes of society. My parent’s marriage was happy. My grandfather threatened to take Mom out of the will and all the shenanigans that came along with it, but my parents were fine with it. They didn’t need much, but eventually, my grandfather came around. Olivia’s grandfather, though, didn’t come around. He cut all ties with her mother, and her dad… well, her dad wasn’t counting on it. He is extremely…” She tried to search for the word that could describe him right. “Ambitious and power hungry. He was determined to show the world and Olivia’s grandfather how valuable he is. He got mixed up with Malcome Schmidt.”
“Malcome Schmidt that owns Schmidt Satellites?” Nikolai asked. He, Sergei, and I shared a quick look. Nikolai had been after him for the past two years, and we’ve been helping, but with Malcome’s money and power, he’d been elusive. Almost untouchable… but nobody was truly untouchable.
“Yes,” she answered. There was disgust and fear on her face.
She didn’t like Malcom Schmidt. I didn’t blame her, but I wondered about their history. I disliked the man too, and the few dealings I’ve had with him, I had to ensure he didn’t fuck us over. He tried though. The man was a snake and had some sick tastes. I wasn’t exactly a saint, but he was a sadistic bastard. Nikolai saw evidence of that. Just thinking about it made my stomach churn.
If he had done anything to hurt Anastasia, I’d be sure to take him down. I might just do it for the simple pleasure of laying him at her feet. It was clear she hated that man.
“You don’t like him?” I asked but I knew it. Certain feelings, she wasn’t good at hiding.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Anastasia
My parents didn’t care about the money and power. My mom came from wealth but my dad came from the working class and earned everything he owns. He wouldn’t have cared if my grandfather took all of us out of his will permanently. I thought back to those days before my mom died. My parents were always kissing, holding hands.
Remembering Dimitry’s question, I nodded in response. Saying that I didn’t like Malcome Schmidt was an understatement of the century. I hated him.
“He is nothing like how his PR portrays him. If you read the fine print of every transaction he does, he is always trying to screw you over.”
“Speaking from experience?” Nikolai’s question caught me off guard.
“Yes,” I muttered. “He is-” A cold shiver ran down my spine. “He’s a narcissist, cruel and despicable. He gets off on inflicting pain on others.” I swallowed hard, a knot in my throat making it hard to speak. It was upsetting to think of Olivia suffering under his cruel methods.“I mean, he really gets off on it and doesn’t care if you are enjoying it or not.” Wrapping my arms around me, I continued, “When I made a mistake and signed his contract lending his financial support for a cause, the only reason I came out unscathed is because my dad, grandfather, and uncle got involved. I have no idea how they did it but they made him void the agreement with his damn fine print. With Olivia, her father pretty much offered her up on a silver platter. Her father has years of dealings with that man and owes him an enormous debt, on top of what he stole from the treasury.”
“What the fuck?” Sergei spat out.
“Why doesn’t she just say no and let her dad deal with it?” Nikolai asked.
A deep sigh left my lips. “Because of her mom. If she doesn’t go through with the deal, Malcome gets to do his sick shit on her mother. And her father threatens Olivia with it as a reminder each time she is tempted to walk away.” Her mother was ruined by her father already. Physically and mentally. He humiliated her so many times. “Olivia’s mom is pretty much broken. I don’t know how else to describe it. She should have left her husband and moved on. But it’s always the same thing. You get so wrapped up into that way of life, and then there is the fact that Olivia’s father would have made her life a living hell through the divorce. He didn’t make it to being a Supreme Court judge by playing fair.”
I cleared my throat before continuing. “Olivia’s mom should have gotten her shit together and protected Olivia at all cost.” It made me think about my mom and what she endured to save me. A bratty kid that insisted on not having protection because it was bothering me. And that wasn’t even the worst part. “Olivia loves her mother and would do anything to spare her one more humiliation. But Malcome Schmidt will destroy Olivia. If we could just buy her some time, until Oliver gets back.”
“Who’s Oliver?” Nikolai asked.
“Her twin brother. He’s in the Middle East.” Oliver could be our ticket to saving Olivia. “He’s our best chance. I sent him a note a week before I got kidnapped but he’ll probably need time.” I hoped that would be all she needed.
“And here I thought we had it bad growing up in an orphanage,” Sergei muttered under the breath.
My eyes went to Dimitry. His whole body was tense, all his attention on me. He never told me about his childhood, not that we had many in depth conversations. Despite our incident in the forest, he portrayed protectiveness. At least that was how I felt around him. Like he’d lay his life down for me. He was everything that men in that circle were not.
“And Scarlett?” Sergei’s question returned my attention to the subject at hand.
Pulling my hand through my hair, I muttered. “I don’t know. My dad said she was taken from the hotel. It just doesn’t make sense because they had already taken me by then. I was taken in front of the nightclub, the Russian Orchid.”
“I own that club.” If Sergei would have told me the sky was purple, I would have been less shocked.
“What?”
“I own that club,” he repeated his earlier statement. His words had all the wheels turning in my brain. It was Scarlett’s idea to go there, she said the guy she liked invited her to the club and he owned it. Neither Olivia nor I were crazy about the idea but she was so excited, for the first time since her family told her she was marrying some guy she was promised to when she was seventeen. And then she found out that her scumbag of an ex-boyfriend cheated on her. It was her chance to put a stop to her family’s plans, so both Olivia and I were onboard helping Scarlett.
I stood up and marched toward him, exclaiming. “It was you!”