your perfume. Dior, good choice. You are going to feel my love in the cold hard blade I cut your beautiful, perfect throat with, my swan.
Your Prince.
What the hell? I drop it in shock. This is worse than the others. He’s been close enough to smell my perfume? I do use Dior often. Order it every three months, a gift set of the perfume, shower gel, and body lotion. Damn. The thought of some hate-filled stranger so close makes me feel sick.
Jasper picks it up and sighs. “I need to know if there have been more. This is a real threat this time, my love.”
“I haven’t read any other letters, I swear it. Of course, I would tell you if there were more. This is terrifying.” I shudder at the idea of some deranged stranger watching me from the dark of the seats.
He starts to go through the other mail; some of it is over a week old. He stops and focuses with laser-like intensity on one of the envelopes. My heart rate picks up speed as he opens it.
“Fuck,” he shouts. “You need protection now. Why the hell can’t I get someone? You’d think it would be easy, the amount I’m willing to pay.” He takes out his phone and dials someone. After a few moments, he speaks in French.
“Hello, Phillipe. It’s Jasper. I really need a couple of men who can help me guard Dasha.” He pauses, scowls, and shakes his head. “No, not in three weeks, now. We can’t wait for weeks; Dasha could be harmed.”
How ironic that this man who has beaten me, humiliated me, and threatened me is now worried about my safety.
How fucking dare he? I bite down my anger, though, as I don’t want another thirty minutes with the garbage this evening.
“No, I don’t want anyone I don’t know.” More pauses as Jasper listens, and then he nods. “Hhmm. Yes, hhmm, okay. Okay, call them. One man? Really? That good? Okay. Yes, do it. Makes sense.”
“What?” I ask as soon as he hangs up.
“The men I’d normally use for this are fully booked, but they’ve recommended a firm, highly thought of. They hire out bodyguards; he told me he’d contact them. Normally, I would get two or three men on this, but he says this firm just sends one man, or woman, super close protection style.”
“I don’t think I want super close protection, Jasper. I like my privacy.”
“They aren’t going to be sleeping in your room, Dasha,” he snaps. “But they will be living with us and accompanying you to work for the foreseeable future.”
“Can’t we simply go to the police?” I ask pleadingly.
“No, the police are useless in cases such as this until something actually happens. This company, their bodyguards are trained in deadly force.”
“Fine. If we must.” I don’t push it because I am scared. The note was horrible. To think there is someone out there fantasizing about slitting my throat.
I would have thought the only person who has such thoughts about me would be Jasper. I freeze and turn to stare at my husband. Oh my God. What if this is his way of murdering me and pinning it on some deranged stalker?
No, I tell myself. Why would he pay for protection if that were the case? To make it look realistic, a dark little voice whispers to me. No, no, no. I cannot go down that path. I will lose my mind if I start thinking such things.
“For now, until the person is in place, we are going home. No more practice for you,” he orders.
“What? But the new show is in less than three weeks. I can’t miss practice. Madame won’t allow it.” I refer to the head choreographer, a fearsome woman, who is all of four-foot-ten but terrifying.
“Madame won’t argue with me,” he states. “You can practice at home.”
So I do. I go home, and the next four days are torture as I practice my dance and try to ignore the growing terror I’m feeling.
On the fifth day, Jasper calls me downstairs at midday. “Darling, come quickly please,” he demands in those imperious tones of his that I loathe.
I am sweaty and hot as I’ve been dancing in the studio in the attic, but I do as he says and head downstairs.
When I reach the hallway, he smiles at me. “Our protection is finally here. Come and meet Daniil, your close protection guard.”
I step into the living room, and the whole world stops.
Standing in front of me,