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CHAPTER ONE

SNOW was falling so hard and fast that she could barely see through the windshield

Anna Rostoff parked her old car in the front courtyard of the palace, near the cru stone fountain, and pulled on the brake Her hands shook as she peeled the wheel She’d nearly driven off the road twice in the storroceries and, more importantly, the medicine for her baby’s fever

Taking a deep breath, she hefted the bag with one arht

Cold air stung her cheeks as she padded through soft snow and ascended sweeping steps to the gilded double doors of the two-hundred-year-old palace They were conserving electricity in favor of paying for food and diapers, so the ere dark Only a bare thread of ht illuminated the dark Russian forest

We’re going tostill seemed like a forlorn dream, but they had candles and a shed full of wood Once she found work as a translator she’d be able tosister Afterup

She lifted her keys to the door

Her eyes ide as a chill descended her spine The front door was open

Barely able to breathe, she pushed into the grand foyer In the shadows above, an ancient, unseen chandelier chi flurries of snow came in from behind, whipped by a cold north wind

“Natalie?” Anna’s voice echoed down the hall

In response, she heard a muffled scream

She dropped the groceries Potatoes tu, she shoved open the door into the back apartment

A figure stood near the ceramic tile fireplace, his broad-shouldered forht

Nikos!

For one split second Anna’s heart soared in spite of everything Then she saw the empty crib

“They took the baby, Anna,” Natalie cried, her eyes owlish with fear behind her glasses Two griht, flanked her sister on either side She tried to leap froh-backed chair, but one of Nikos’sand snatched him from his crib I heard him cry out and tried to stop them—”

Misha Oh, God, her son Where was he? Held by some vicious henchman in the dark forest? Already spirited out of Russia to God knehere? Anna trembled all over Her baby Her sweet baby Sick with desperation and fear, she turned to face the monster she’d once loved

Nikos’s expression was stark, alhed with her in New York and Las Vegas, drinking ouzo and singing in Greek, had disappeared In his place was a ht she could see that Olive-skinned and black-haired, he was as handsoed

The crooked nose he’d broken in a childhood fight had once been the only ie of fury—of cruelty He’d always been strong, but there were hard planes to his body that hadn’t been there before His shoulders were somehow broader, his ar his opponents to a pulp in the boxing ring His cheekbones were razor-sharp, his arms thick withinto his eyes was like staring into a half-frozen sea

Once she’d loved him desperately; now she hated him, this man who had betrayed her This ainst her skin at night, had convinced her to betray herself

“Hello, Anna” Nikos’s voice was deep, dangerous, tightly controlled

She rushed at hi the lapels of his black cashmere coat “What have you done with my baby?” She tried to shake him, pounded on his chest “Where is he?”

He grabbed her wrists “He is no longer your concern”

“Give me my child!”

“No” His grip was grim, implacable

She struggled in his arer Not now that she knehat kind of man he really was

“Misha!” she shrieked helplessly

Nikos’s grasp tightened as he pulled her closer, preventing her fros with me”