Chapter 1

TWENTY FOUR HOURS EARLIER….

Damian Kalashnikov’s voice slices through the cathedral, razor-sharp, dripping with venom. "We're calling off this wedding!" His sudden announcement sends undulations through the crowd in a ripple of gasps.

Lily can hardly catch her breath as she snaps the picture. Her hands shake, but she holds tight. Chaos explodes before her-literal chaos-just like it was staged and stolen right off some reality TV show gone horribly wrong.

In the centre bride Alicia Luxembourg stands. Her white rehearsal gown is pristine and virginal, but on her it clings to her shaking form while her face contorts in disbelieving horror, tears beginning to streak down her cheeks.

 "What are you talking about?" she shrieks, voice cracking as she lurches forward towards him. "What are you… what? You can't do this!"

Damian gazes down at her, his eyes cold with contempt; his jaw clenched, the muscles furrowed tight with anger. His gaze meets with the officiating priest as a warning to stay clear. "I know about your affair, Alicia," he spits. 

"You think you can cheat on me and I'll still marry you tomorrow? You're lucky I’m sparing your life.”

“No! I didn't! Damian, please, you have it all wrong!" All that fills the silence between them is Alicia's sobbing. She falls on her knees pleading, with streaks of mascara running dark down her face.

This is gold, Lily thought. Biggest Scandal of the year right before her. And her camera.

Damian simply draws out a cigarette right there in front of the alter. "It's over. You can keep the diamond ring."

“Pleaseeee..” Alicia bellowed.

Without wasting any more time he bursts out of the cathedral flanked by three hulking men in black, their faces about as animated and dangerous as stone statues. They aren’t just bodyguards. They have something more to them—something more perilous.

Instinctively and without a second thought, Lily is off after them. The air in the cathedral thickens with the shock, murmurs racing through everyone present. Cameras light up, freezing on film the destruction of what was once a glamorous wedding rehearsal. 

She sprints outside to see Damian and his men disappear into a black SUV parked at the curb. She immediately brings her camera up once more, shooting shots of them getting in. The SUV peels away from the church, but Lily's curiosity has just gotten bigger. 

“There's more to this story. I can feel it.” Lily draws blood from her lower lips. Her blood boiling with excitement.

Later that day, as she finally reaches the office of the magazine, it would seem that the whole world has shifted. She had thought her bosses will rejoice, but the mood inside City Pulse is anything but celebratory.

“Lily fucking Hills!, what the hell happened?" her editor, Marcella growls from her office doorway, sharp, her eyes ablaze with impatience. "You had one job-get some feel-good pictures and interviews from the rehearsal for most anticipated wedding in America, and now we've got.. this!?" She tosses a pile of photos onto her desk-ones Lily has taken filled with the drama that unfolded.

“Huhh? But.. but it's a story, a crazy one at that.” Lily protests, her stomach twists into nervous knots. “It's the hugest scandal we've ever covered. We could blow this up. People will want to know what happened!”

Marcella sighs. She narrows her eyes. 

“Alicia Luxembourg has paid us off already. There's nothing to publish, and she's also asking that you get fired. You're done, Lily.”

At this, the world crashed in on Lily. Fired? For doing her job?

She wasn't fighting anymore. Today had just been one crazy day after another. Instead, she snatches her camera bag and got out—the heavy feeling of failure pressed upon her chest. 

At about seven p.m., she still couldn’t muster up the courage to go home. Afterall there was no one home. Mum in the hospital..and dad?.. dad.. 

Fuck.

She’s seated on the rooftop of an abandoned building peering over at the city. The sun is setting, casting across the sky in a most orange tone. Comforting very little.

She lets the small camera dangle from her fingers, taking a deep breath.

 What a disaster. 

An hour later when evening really stretches into the night—something weird draws Lily's attention across the street. Viewed from one block away from the apartment down the street, it catches her gaze near an old warehouse where several men—to put it more exactly, big intimidating figures—rush in and out of the building. 

Next thing she knows, she's raising an eyebrow, peering through the darkness to make out the shadows' dance across old panes of the warehouse window.

Something is happening, and big!. The journalist in her perks up.

Lily forces the camera deep in her bag, then rushes down from the rooftop, her heart tumbling as she heads to the warehouse. Of course, she knew that was a foolhardy act.

She circles the structure, peering for a decent viewing point. Grimy window; she can see them—two people tied onto wooden chairs. No wait.. they’re four: a man and a woman, and two girls. Lily gasps, heart thudding against her chest.

She stands on the dumpster for a better view, her fingers are shaking while bringing the camera into view. There's a figure coming out of the shadows wearing a hoodie and a cap; features of his face cannot be distinguished. 

What happens next is dark and chaotic: men with guns, yelling, the figure in the hoodie pacing back and forth.

The man in the hoodie stops. The screams of the family bound to chairs rise-the chaos, pleading, shouting—

Then, the gunfire. BANG

The echo rings inside her skull, standing appalled, as just in front of her very eyes, this whole family is getting murdered.

She heaves her breath up in the pit of her tightened throat. It is only when a cat springs out from behind the dumpster that she opens her mouth and screams. A loud shriek tears her voice through the night.

Shit!

"Hey!" one of the men shouts.

Panic courses through her veins like acid. Lily stumbles back; her camera falls from her grasp and crashes upon the ground.

"She saw everything," another voice yells. "Get her!" 

Lily doesn't think. She runs.

She sprints from the warehouse, heart pounding in her chest as the sound of boots pounding pavement follows her. She barely clears a fence, her bag catching and ripping on the jagged metal as she slips through.

She runs until, after an eternity of running, she is lying under a shallow, ragged truck. She can hear the men's voices, which grow closer and then fade as they scurried away.

 In that darkness, she remains still, her heart pounding.

Finally, when it seems the coast might be clear, she crawls out from under the truck. 

What now?

Her camera's gone, and her bag's been trashed, but the wallet's still there, tucked into the back of her pocket. 

Down the block a bit, she sees a bar—actually, a sleazy motel bar, neon flashing in the near distance—and walks on in.

The bar is noisy, but that is a welcome distraction. She orders a beer, trying to still her jangling nerves as her mind replays tonight's events.

Lost in thoughts for long minutes, Lily didn’t notice him at all—the man who comes in behind her.

It isn't until he's seated across from her that she looks up, her heart stopping as she locks eyes with him. Damian Kalashnikov?—the man who had called off his wedding just hours before.

Damian smirks at her, "Small world, huh?"

"May I sit here?" He asked as he slid into the booth before she could answer him. His tone was silky but held a glint of something hazardous beneath it. His whole body feature was a cautionary tale. The tattoos, the rings.. the Russian accent.. the veins..

This man was hot! Or was it the beer?

She swallowed hard and nods, not knowing if he recognized her and wasn't about to give her identity away—at least, not yet.

"Yeah sure..” she smiles.

Is that.. uhh is that blood stain on his shoes? No. Probably not. Lily’s mind spiraled.

"You look like you have had a rough day," Damian says, eye glinting with humour.

"You have absolutely no idea," Lily mutters, bone dry in the throat, at the way the feel of his eyes on her was-studying her.

They sat amidst a moment of silence; the air between them all twisted into some sort of weird, palpable tension. She knew he held something in reserve.

"Care to share?" Damian trying to lighten the mood.

Lily thrown off guard with his question started coughing harshly and he immediately reached out rubbing her back while calling on the waiter.

"Get her a glass of water please" he demands.

"Um..., I'm fine" lily mumbles as she regains her breath.

"Here." Nathan offers, as he hands her a glass of water, lily takes it and gulps it in one go.

"Thank you, I'm uhhh sorry if I scared you." she babbles.

"Oh, that's not a problem, so about your day?"

"Yh Uhmm..I just had a really tiring day that's all. I decided to just come over to the bar to Uhmm relax. Yh. To relax." lily replies in a rush.

"Your day must have been really shitty then to have you this nervous.. “ Damian says with a smirk on his face. “Did you do anything you shouldn’t have?..” he adds, boring holes into her with his eyes.

Lily let out another nervous laugh. Looking away.

The conversation skyrocketed from there as they discussed about some TV shows and some celebrities, to his ‘business’ line of work and also Lily’s boring ass life. 

No one brought up the wedding. 

"Let's get out of here," he whispers—almost unexpectedly, casual yet firm.

Lily hesitates a moment, she isn’t one to move around with someone she just met and presently her life wasn't that rosy.

The issue with work, her dad.. missing for weeks. Her mental heath depreciating by every passing second.

"Sure." Lily smiles back flirtatiously, placing her hand in Damian’s, she needed to forget about her entire life and that is what this opportunity is bringing. 

A compensation for her horrible day.

As they both walked out she caught someone staring at her.. familiar eyes. Smirking.

Her breath hitched. 

Those tattoos.

And that’s when it hit her, he’s definitely one of the men from the warehouse.

He knows who she is.