and get away with it.”
It wasn’t pretty, but it filled in a few gaps that I’d discovered in researching the accident. Like, why was my father walking on a seldom-used road so far away from his work or our apartment? How could there be such deep bruising visible when death would have stopped his blood from flowing? What was the likelihood of a member of the bratva taking his own life in some sign of regret over doing what was considered more a rite of passage than a crime in the ranks of the Russian bratva? One easily overlooked when enough rubles were pressed into the hands of the right people. Nikolai had done everything he could to make sure his cousin was seen as some sort of weakling, a coward who’d taken his own life. Suddenly, the beginning of a plan started to take shape.
“I-I have to go,” Clara said, the wisps of the plan vanishing with her words.
“Over my dead body,” I said, tightening my hold on her hands.
“I have to,” Clara said, pulling free though it cost her a wince of pain. “If I don’t… if he discovers I’ve told you anything at all, he’ll hurt Baba first.” When I opened my mouth, it was her turn to shake her head. “You know I’m right, Alek. I’d rather die myself than to allow that to happen.”
“Fuck,” I said, knowing she was right though the truth didn’t make it any easier.
“It’s all right,” she said softly. “It’s not too bad if I obey him. He is taking me out to eat somewhere, and there will be others there as well. Something about showing me off before we go to New York to do the show there.”
Thoughts were flooding into my head, and I snagged one before it rushed by. “Wait… how did Nikolai even know where you were?”
Clara looked away for the first time since she’d spilled the truth, and warning bells began to ring again.
“Fuck… it was our fault, wasn’t it?”
“Our fault? How in the hell do you figure it’s our fault?” Yuri asked brusquely.
Keeping my eyes on Clara, I pointed out what had become crystal clear in my head. “Clara successfully remained hidden for four years… until the day I brought her into the company. And when you agreed she was principal material after that first performance, who came calling?”
Understanding removed the anger from his expression as his gaze also moved to Clara. “The committee… from New York.”
“Exactly,” I said. “And Nikolai is a huge benefactor of the ballet in New York, so it stands to reason Jason Maxwell couldn’t wait to reveal he was the one responsible for bringing Nikolai’s once-favored ballerina back to Broadway.”
“I-I don’t really understand why,” Clara said so softly I wasn’t sure I’d heard her actually speaking, but evidently Yuri didn’t have the same difficulty.
“I understand,” Yuri said. “You have no idea of the treasure you are, Clara; that’s one thing that still amazes me. If we’d left you in peace… if I hadn’t pushed you to do all those interviews, perhaps Nikolai would have been satisfied knowing he might have lost you but at the cost of you losing what you were born to do.”
Clara shook her head, reaching out to touch him once again. “I don’t blame you, or you,” she added, turning to include me. “I might have been living, but I wasn’t truly living if you know what I mean.”
“We do,” I assured her, easily understanding that “looks” were what truly mattered to Kosloff. He’d been fine with Clara’s leaving when her career was already in the toilet and her disappearance fed the tabloids, pointing to her guilt at being the one to hurt Lara. But now that news had spread about her triumphant return to the stage, he wanted Prima back on his arm.
Well, tough shit. Clara was mine.
“We can’t change the past. All we can do is work together to figure out a way to assure we all have a chance to live in peace doing what we love to do,” I said.
“And that includes me continuing to pretend all is okay,” Clara reminded us both. “Nikolai can’t even think anything is wrong or he’ll teach me a lesson I won’t be able to live with. I left when I thought he’d arranged for Lara to have an “accident.” Knowing the truth… knowing he wouldn’t hesitate to hurt Baba or kill either one or both of you, I can’t live with that. I’d rather die.”
It