Irish Throne

Chapter One

Natalia

I never really thought I’d look good as a brunette.

The cheaply dyed sheen of it in the mirror does nothing to convince me. It’s no artfully layered and balayaged salon job, that’s for sure. I’d managed well enough with my own two hands and a box from the store that it doesn’t look entirely flat and fake, but it’s a far cry from my days as a natural version of what I hear they’re calling expensive blonde these days.

Of course, in this place, dyed hair–even the cheaply done kind–isn’t strange. Which is part of why I’m here. It’s easier to blend in.

Even if a few months ago, I’d never have been caught dead in a place like this.

“Athena! I didn’t know you were dancing tonight!”

The sharp, crowing voice of Ruby–not her real name–reaches me from all the way on the other side of the room as she bursts in, dressed in shorts so short that they’d almost count as stage lingerie and a crop top that barely covers her breasts. She’s curvier than I am by far, and the clothes cling to her like a second skin, accentuating every swell and curve of bust and hip. Combined with a narrow waist, huge blue eyes and dyed red hair, she drives all of the men who come to the club absolutely wild.

We all have our strengths. Mine is being an actual, trained dancer, once upon a time. In a place that prioritizes lewd gyrating over actual skill, I bring something to the table that the customers here rarely see. 

They’re not exactly the types to hold season tickets to the Moscow ballet.

“I picked up a shift.” I lean forward, brushing eyeshadow over one closed lid. My look is always the same, and I don’t deviate from it. The most important part is that it looks nothing like what I used to do with my makeup. Before, I was a devotee of a bare lid, a clean face, a sharp wing and a red lip. Now, I’ve learned the art of a smoky eye, thick liner and faux lashes to make my blue eyes look even wider than normal, how to apply contour and blush to accentuate my sharp cheekbones and delicate features. 

The red lip, though, stayed. I’ve learned that men–the type of men who frequent this club especially–like brightly colored lipstick on the dancers. It encourages them to spend more, to take us back to the inaptly named champagne room, where they can more intimately imagine us leaving traces of that same lipstick on their cocks.

It’s not something I’d ever entertain the idea of, but plenty of the girls do, and I can’t fault them for it. Tips aren’t the best in a place like this, and a girl’s got to get by.

“You need to take a day off.” Ruby plops into the chair next to mine, unzipping her clear makeup pouch as she pulls it out of the huge tote bag that she always carries with her. There’s more things in there than I’d ever dared guess at–I’ve seen her pull all sorts of items out over the span of time I’ve worked here. Lingerie, tampons, makeup, a curling iron, a dildo, a lunchbox full of snacks, water bottles of vodka–I’m pretty sure that it’s less a purse and more a bag of wish fulfillment, as if Ruby is some kind of particularly benevolent genie. “I don’t think there’s been a night that you haven’t been here in weeks.”

I shrug, peering in the mirror as I carefully apply lash glue just above my actual lashes. I hate wearing falsies–they feel thick and heavy and as if I have a creature glued to my eyes–but they’re a must. I made it exactly one shift at the club before Ruby whipped out a spare set and showed me how to apply them, lecturing me thoroughly on why I could never go out on stage without them ever again.

She’s been the closest thing I have to a friend ever since.

“Gotta pay rent,” I say casually, tapping my nail against the lash as I let it dry. “It’s criminal, what they’re charging for that shithole I’m living in.”

“That’s why you need to take me up on my offer and move in to my place.” Ruby pouts at me playfully. “I have a spare bedroom and everything. We could split the rent, have girls’ night every night. It’s not the Ritz, but it’s a hell of a lot better than where you’re at now, from the sound of it.”’

“And you know I’m never going to take you up on it, as much as I appreciate the offer.” I grin at her as I glue on my other lash, trying to soften my words. “I like my quiet time.”

I can’t tell her the truth, of course, which is that I lay awake nights sometimes wishing that I could take her up on her offer. As much as I really had enjoyed my personal space and quiet in my old life, I crave company now, to not be alone with my thoughts, especially in the dark. I’d give anything not to live alone.

But I can’t. It would put her in too much danger, and Ruby doesn’t deserve that. She’s been nothing but a good friend to me, even if she is loud and abrasive at times. 

Ruby rolls her eyes playfully. “Well, you can at least come over after our shifts next Saturday. I’m throwing a party.”

“After we get off work?” On Saturday nights, closing the club means staying until two in the morning, even later sometimes if there’s enough paying customers still spending. The thought of partying after a long night of dancing at that hour makes me feel exhausted before this night has even begun–which in turn makes me feel much, much older than my twenty-five years.

Ruby wrinkles her nose at me. “We’ll sleep when we’re dead,” she declares, getting up and shimmying out of her shorts as she starts to change into her lingerie for the night.

It’s just a turn of phrase, but a shiver runs down my spine anyway, an echo of the one I’d felt earlier tonight as I’d walked to the club. The neighborhoods that I live and work in aren’t really ones that a young woman wants to be on foot in, but I hadn’t been lying when I’d said that I’d picked up a shift because money is tight. Getting a cab is a luxury I can’t afford. 

I nearly had tonight, though. The letter that I’d found shoved under my door this morning when I’d padded out to my tiny, cramped kitchen to brew coffee is buried deep in my garbage can now, under potato peels and coffee grounds, but it doesn’t matter. I can still see the words stuck to it, cut out and glued to the standard-issue sheet of printer paper.

It should have been laughable. It was something straight out of an early 2000s serial killer movie. Hardly original–the nondescript paper, the mismatched words from magazines and newspapers, as if the person who’d wrote it and left it had done so after reading a copy of Terrifying Young Women for Dummies. I should have crumpled it up and thrown it away without a thought instead of standing frozen, staring down at it for long, ticking seconds with my blood turned to ice in my veins before I’d finally shoved it down into my trash can and dumped the old contents of my coffee filter over it.

But it wasn’t funny. Not just because of my present situation, but because I’ve known the kind of men who do these things. I grew up around them. 

I can’t help feeling that whoever left it wanted me to think they were stupid. That they’re just some obsessed customer from the club who’s watched too many Netflix documentaries and thought it would be funny to scare a stripper into thinking she was being targeted.

That they want me to let down my guard, to assume it’s just some idiot. To not take it seriously.

The alternative, of course, is to take it seriously. Which is bad in its own ways.

There’s no going to the cops. The Russian police is a joke anyway, as terrifying to an ordinary citizen as to an actual criminal, but even if I’d thought they could or would help me, all I’d be doing is turning myself in. The politsiya would love to get their hands on me.

In the end, of course, I’d walked to work anyway. When faced with a stalker or giving up precious rubles, I’d opted to take my chances. 

I’d felt distinctly as if there were eyes on me the entire way, crawling over me, and it had made me pick up my pace more than normal. Usually I try to walk slowly, casually, as if I belong here and no one should think twice about it. Hurrying, rushing, in neighborhoods like these, indicates that you’re not supposed to be there.

That you’re afraid.

I haven’t often felt afraid in my life. It’s possible, actually, that I’ve experienced too little fear, and that’s what’s landed me in my present situation. But tonight, as with many nights since I came back to Moscow, I felt that stinging chill of fright.

Even now, ensconced in the brightly lit dressing room of the club, I can’t shake that feeling of being watched. 

Of being followed.

You’re just being paranoid, I tell myself as I swipe my red lipstick on, picking up Ruby’s curling iron to add some wave to my hair. You’ve done an excellent job of covering your tracks. 

No one would expect you, the daughter of a once-powerful Bratva leader, a former prima ballerina, of being within a dozen blocks of this place.

I’d picked this club for that reason precisely. The Cat’s Meow is one of the seediest strip clubs on a street of seedy clubs, lit up on the exterior with neon lights and figures of naked women, guarded by bouncers so muscled and huge that they span two of me. Anyone looking for me–the me that I used to be–wouldn’t come here. They’d assume that I’d die before I stepped foot in this place as a bystander, let alone as a dancer.

The same goes for my apartment, a tiny, leaky studio in another rundown neighborhood with broken stairs, broken furniture, broken faucets–and sturdy locks. I’d rented it precisely because it’s the kind of place that would have made me gag before, back when I was accustomed to thousand-thread-count sheets, caviar for breakfast and designer clothes shipped to my door.

The letter has to have been some infatuated customer. Who else would know you dance here? Who else would look for you here? It makes more sense that someone followed you home from the club.

The alternative–that someone linked to my father in some way has found me–is far more terrifying. I’d rather deal with an entitled, horny incel from the club any day over the Russian Bratva.

Ruby wiggles her hips next to me, reaching for the curling iron. “Hand it over,” she demands playfully. “Besides, you’re the first one out tonight anyway.”

I wince at that as I stand up, moving away a few steps to trade out my tattered sneakers for heels. It’s hard to hide ballerina’s feet in the type of shoes that a dancer here wears, but I try to avoid drawing attention to them all the same. I keep the toenails painted now, at the request of the owner, after he was horrified by the lingering bruising on my toes from years of being crammed into pointe shoes. Nothing can change the way they look beyond that, but the polish helps, and I always choose heels with wide straps over the toes.

If Ruby or any of the other dancers have ever noticed, they haven’t said anything. There’s a code here, it seems, that no one asks too many questions. I’m certain I’m not the only one hiding something. Even Ruby, as outwardly verbose as she can be, has a secretive look in her eyes sometimes, as if she’s holding something back too.

It’s a generalization to say that no one ends up working at a place like this by choice, but it’s one I’m willing to stick to.

“What are you wearing tonight–ooh, that one! I love that.” Ruby flutters her eyelashes to me as I wiggle into the gold lace bra I’d brought for the stage tonight. Gold or silver lingerie has become something of a staple for me, building on the stage name I’d chosen–Athena. It stands out in a sea of jewel and sweets-themed stripper names, but I don’t mind.

For the first time in my life, I’m afraid more often than not. Having a goddess’ name with me on stage, especially the goddess of war, feels like the sort of shield that I need. 

“You’re going to kill it.” Ruby flashes me a thumbs up as I hear the cues for my stage music start to come up, and I stride towards the door, feeling my heart somersault in my chest.

In all my years as a ballerina, I can’t ever recall being nervous. I’d danced from a young age with a confidence that had catapulted me to the heights of the Moscow ballet, earning me fame and accolades–and a reprieve from the unwanted marriage that would have ensnared me much earlier, if I hadn’t brought my father so much prestige from my position. I’d stepped out on stage every time as if I’d belonged there–because I’d believed unequivocally that I had.

This stage doesn’t particularly feel like one I belong on. Though I’ve conquered it every time, I always feel nerves when I step out. Tonight is no different.

The club is crowded. I see throngs of men around my stage–three, four, five deep in places, all watching and cat-calling as I stride out, swaying to the music. I feel a momentary flash of fear that I’ve never had before on stage, a chill down my spine as I remember the letter.

What if whoever pushed that under my door is here tonight? What if he’s looking at me right now? Watching me, imagining…

I remind myself that it doesn’t matter, as my heel hits the slick, hard surface of the stage. There are more terrifying things out there than men who clip words out of magazines and glue them to paper to scare a woman who won’t sleep with them. There are bigger things that go bump in the night. Worse things that can happen than a scary letter.

I know, because I’ve seen them, heard them. My father was one of those terrifying things.

If I can conquer that, I can conquer anything.

 I can feel my softly curled dark hair brushing against my shoulders, swinging back and forth, the scrape of the cheap lace of my lingerie against my skin. I let the music wash over me, calling back the old immersion techniques of my days in ballet.

Hear. Touch. Smell. Feel. Become.

I focus on the sound of the music, the slick surface of the pole beneath my hands, the feel of the cool metal against my body and the hard surface of the stage, and desperately try not to smell my surroundings. I’ve become mostly numb to the miasma of alcohol, sweat, perfume, and cologne that fills the room, but it’s still unpleasant.

I become something else. Someone else, someone I’ve never been.

I give myself over to the alter ego I’ve created, to Athena, and I dance.

The music fills me, twisting my body, spreading me open, turning me into a thing of lust and desire, created only to please the men surrounding the stage waving bills at me. I forget who I was, who I am, and focus on this.

The thing that might save me, if only because no one who knew me before would ever dream that I would be here, doing this.

That I would have fallen so far.

I spin down the pole, landing in a split on the stage. The crowd shouts approvingly as I push my ass up in the air, legs still spread as I bounce on the hard surface, my back arched deeply as I slide upwards, sinuous and graceful, onto my hands and knees. I grab the pole, throwing one leg out as I spin to my feet, and just as I rise up again, I see him.

A man in the very front row, directly in front of me. I freeze for a split second, startled.

He’s handsome. Gorgeously, inordinately so. 

So few men who come here are. They’re portly, unkempt, balding, unhygienic, or some combination of all of those, more often than not. But this man is none of those things.

He doesn’t look like the kind of man who would leave a letter like that under someone’s door.

But then again, he doesn’t look like he belongs here, either. He looks too clean, too polished, too expensive. Like the kind of man whose credit card doesn’t have a limit. The kind of man who drinks better liquor than even the best served at this place. 

The kind of man who would never set foot in a club like this without a reason.

Sandy blond hair falls into a sharp, chiseled masculine face, the faintest of stubble on his strong jaw. He’s wearing a black shirt open at the chest with the sleeves rolled up, showing muscled forearms covered in tattoos–including one of an eagle at his wrist. 

His eyes are ice blue–and they’re fixed on me with an intensity that none of the other customers here can claim. It sends another of those cold shivers down my spine, because the way he’s looking at me is more than attraction, more than lust, more than desire.

He’s looking at me as if he knows me.

As if he’s here for me, specifically.

Chapter Two

Mikhail

Years ago, Moscow felt like home.

No longer.

I glance at the cracked clock on my side table as I run my hand through my hair, looking in the mirror. The bar I’m going to isn’t the dingiest of places, so I don’t want to look like a slob, but I also don’t want to stand out too much. Once upon a time, the stark white-blond of my hair would have made me stand out anywhere, but I’ve long since given up the color it used to be. At least, since I’ve been in Moscow to hide instead of the reason I used to come here–to work for one of the most powerful Russian pakhans to ever lead a Bratva.

The Ussuri, the Bear.

Once my boss, now my enemy. My own personal Baba Yaga, the boogeyman that I’ve run from for a year now, trying to find the key to returning to his good graces.

To the life I used to live. 

I reach for my wallet, opening it to check that my cards and cash are still there. As I open the slim pocket, I see the edge of the picture I carry there, and I hesitate.

You could do with a reminder.

Slowly, I tug the picture out from its hiding place, unfolding the deeply creased edges. I open it up, holding it to the weak light, and feel my heart twist inside my chest.

The woman in it is young, beautiful, with a laughing smile and shining blue eyes, sitting cross-legged in the grass with her long platinum blonde hair thrown over one shoulder in a thick braid. In her lap is a child of three or four, with that same white-blonde hair, laughing blue eyes and a gap-toothed smile. She’s pointing at the camera, urging the child to look.

Just holding the picture in my hand, I can hear the laughter, feel the joy emanating from it. It’s a joy I haven’t felt in a long time, a sound I’ve nearly forgotten. I can feel the cracks of my heart start to bleed all over again as I look down at the woman and child, my other hand clenching into a fist at my side.

Viktor Andreyev isn’t the only reason you’re here. You’re here for your revenge, too. You’re here to make sure their blood doesn’t cry out for vengeance for all the rest of your days.

You’re here to make his family suffer the way yours has.

The clock ticks, reminding me that I have somewhere I need to be. Carefully, I refold the picture, sliding it back into my wallet.

Tonight, if I’m lucky, will yield another clue.

It’s raining out when I leave the apartment, so I hail a cab. I slide into the warm, musty space, trying not to breathe too deeply as I give the driver directions to the bar, leaning back against the seat as he pulls into traffic. If not for the contact I’m meeting tonight, I might not have gone out at all, but the prospect of a stiff drink sounds better and better the closer we get to my destination. 

Another man in my position might have hesitated to go out often at all, but it’s long been my belief that the best place to hide is in plain sight. As far as Viktor Andreyev knows, I’m likely dead, but nonetheless, I doubt he’d look for me here first. Moscow is the site of a hundred jobs I’d done for him, two hundred–more, even. We’d traveled here together, drank together, picked out women to fuck together–and then taken them back to our rooms separately. We’d killed together. For more years than I like to count, I’d been his trusted brigadier, his hand of violence.

His left hand, while Levin Volkov stood on the right.

I have no idea who his left is now. I don’t have the same contacts I used to, nor can I trust the same people. But I don’t fear Viktor Andreyev finding me in a Moscow bar.

Especially not this one.

I know the man I’m meant to meet by description. I see him as soon as I walk in and shake off the rain, sitting at a table far back, lit only by one dim lamp attached to the wall. Without hesitation, I stride through the crowd, walking towards him with purpose. He catches sight of me halfway, and I see his eyes widen slightly with fear, as if he didn’t entirely expect me to show up.

Fool.

I pause at the bar, mostly because I want a drink before I go any further, and somewhat to throw him off. I enjoy the look of confusion that flits across his face as he watches me, as I order a vodka, neat, from the bartender.

“Make it two, actually,” I tell the wiry-looking man, who shrugs and grabs a second glass. I enjoy keeping others on their toes, and I can guarantee that my contact isn’t expecting me to buy him a drink.

His main concern is likely whether or not he’ll end the night with my knife in his throat.

I haven’t entirely discounted the possibility.

“T-thank you,” the man stammers when I sit down, pushing one of the glasses of vodka towards him.

“Consider it an incentive to loosen your lips, beyond the payment I’ve promised you.” I lean closer, pitching my voice low. “What do you have for me? You said it was good, Yuri, don’t disappoint me.”

The man smiles, a toothy, half-rotten smile that makes me want to flinch back, but I don’t. “It’s about Konstantin Obelensky,” he says, the gleam in his eyes clearly saying he’s proud of himself. “Good stuff, da?”

A flush of cold rage washes through me as I sit back, stiff and angry. “Fuck your information,” I snarl, my voice still low. “What can you tell me that I don’t already know? Konstantin Obelensky is dead.”

There’s a number of rumors swirling around the city about how exactly that came to pass. One of them is that he’d had his bastard daughter–another rumor that no one is exactly sure of the truth about–locked up in his compound, before a rescue squad came in guns blazing and killed Obelensky. There’s other rumors, including ones that involve poison, mutiny, his legitimate daughter poisoning him, that same daughter shooting him, and a particularly disgusting one involving an affair with that daughter, which climaxes–no pun intended–with her stabbing him in the throat mid-coitus.

My suspicion is that none of them are true. One thing remains the same, however, throughout all the stories. His daughter, the legitimate one, played some part in it. 

Beyond the rumors, one thing is true beyond a shadow of a doubt–Obelensky is dead. 

And I’m fucking furious about it.

I’d wanted to be the one to kill him. Now, without that to lean on, I’ve been at a loss as to how to move forward–what to do next in my quest for revenge and redemption rolled into one.

Yuri had been meant to help me. Instead he’s given me nothing of value.

I consider the option of my knife in his throat, and the option of throwing the vodka I’d purchased him in his face, and weigh them as Yuri looks at me dumbly.

“This is good information,” he insists. “Listen.”

“I don’t want to hear about Obelensky,” I hiss through gritted teeth. “I know all I need to know about him. I asked you for new information.”

“This is,” Yuri insists, reaching into his pocket. “Look.”

He unfolds a photo, pushing it across the table towards me. It’s a poor copy of one, actually, but in color, so I can see more details of what’s in front of me. 

What’s in front of me, however, makes no fucking sense.

It’s a picture of a woman–a stunningly gorgeous one–in silver lingerie with her back against a stripper pole in the middle of a stage, her hands stretched above her head to grasp it. Her dark hair is wild around her face, her eyes wide as if with stunned pleasure, her back arched deeply, her lips parted. She’s a statue of lust, a work of lewd art cast in poorly taken photographic form, and the moment I see her I feel a deep bolt of arousal that I haven’t felt in some time.

My cock twitches in my jeans, hardening instantly at the sight of the dark-haired woman. I do my best to ignore it, although it’s difficult. I haven’t been with a woman in a while, too caught up in my search for information and my reticence to bring anyone back to my apartment–hardly the kind of place I’ve been accustomed to bringing dates in the past–and the perfect figure of the woman in front of me arouses every slumbering primal instinct I have all at once.

In fact, I can’t recall having been this turned on by anyone. Certainly not a grainy photo.

“Who the fuck is this?” I ask irritably. “I ask for information, and you bring me an ad for an escort?”

“A stripper, at a club in another part of town,” Yuri corrects me blandly. “And she’s Obelensky’s daughter.”

He lets that last bit of info land on the table like a mic drop, reaching for his vodka with the barest hint of a victorious smile. “I told you it was good information.”

I stare at him as if he’s lost his mind, which he absolutely fucking has. “That’s not fucking Konstantin Obelensky’s daughter,” I tell him flatly, laughing. “You’re out of your goddamned mind. Natalia Obelensky disappeared right after the break-in at Obelensky’s compound. Besides, that woman isn’t her.”

“It is,” Yuri insists. “I wouldn’t have brought it to you otherwise. Knowing your…temper.”

I shove the photo back towards him, grimacing irritably. “This isn’t her. Natalia Obelensky was a blonde, and notoriously vain. And even if she did decide to dye her hair and masquerade as someone else, she’d never set foot in a place like that.”

Yuri frowns. “Take a closer look,” he insists, pushing the picture back towards me. “Look. It’s her. My information is good, I’m sure of it.”

I lean forward, peering closer at it in the dim light, trying to keep an open mind. “This is ridiculous,” I mutter, but I try to see what someone else might have seen, if there could be a grain of truth. 

Natalia Obelensky is–or was–the only legitimate heiress to a massive Bratva fortune, the daughter of a vicious and powerful man, a woman who lived her life surrounded by luxury. A prima ballerina with multiple accolades, classically trained, beautiful and accomplished and desired.

The idea that she would so much as set foot in a club like the one I see in the picture at all is insane, let alone that she might dance at one.

But as I look closer, I can see a hint of possibility. Very slender, small-breasted, not your typical exotic dancer. Lithe, muscled legs, though that could be from the pole. Classic features, except for the dark hair. 

What stands out to me the most, though, is her bearing. I’ve been to many a strip club, from seedy to the most expensive and luxurious, the kind where only a thousand men hold exclusive memberships for themselves and a guest. In all that time, all those clubs, all those dancers, I’ve never seen a stripper with the kind of bearing this woman has. 

She looks like a goddess, a statue, poised and perfectly posed, her entire body holding the most graceful of movements in the instant the photo was taken. She looks like nothing I’ve ever seen.

She looks like a ballerina.

In that moment, a hint of doubt enters my mind.

I need to find out for myself.

I glance up at Yuri, narrowing my eyes. “Where was this taken?”

He grins, holding his glass of vodka towards me in a mock toast. “See! Yuri’s information is good, da?”

I grit my teeth. “The name of the club?”

“The Cat’s Meow. Kind of a shithole, to be honest. I was surprised a girl like that would work there. But then again, that makes sense, right? No one would expect to find her there.”

I don’t want to let Yuri know that I’d had similar thoughts. No sense in letting his ego get too big. “I’ll look into it.” 

I push his envelope of cash discreetly across the table, sweeping the photo off of it. Yuri pulls a distressed face as he watches me fold it up.

“Aww, no,” he complains, even as he reaches for the money. “I was going to take that with me.”

“I don’t want to know what you’d planned to do with it.” I tuck the photo away, and as I do, I think of another folded photo, another woman with lighter hair and a sweeter smile.

You’d better hope I don’t believe you’re Natalia Obelensky, whoever you are.

Because when I get my hands on her, Natalia Obelensky is fucking dead.