The image in her hands has my blood running cold.
“What the fuck is that?”
She jumps, puts the photo face-down on the table, and turns to me. “Oh, you startled me. It’s nothing.”
“I’ll put up with a lot of things from you, Annika, but lying isn’t one of them.” I lean down, leveling my gaze with hers. “What is that?”
She swallows hard, glances down, and shoves everything back into the envelope. “Not now. Not here. It’s Nadia’s special day, and I won’t ruin it with this. Especially not with this.”
She turns embarrassed eyes up to me.
“Annika.”
“Let’s dance.” She shoves the envelope into a bag under the table, takes my hand, and tries to pull me onto the dance floor.
But I outweigh her by at least a hundred pounds and stand my ground.
She looks up at me, sighs, then retrieves the envelope and leads me out of my grandmother’s ballroom and to a nearby empty room.
“I don’t want this to go anywhere but this room for today,” she says, her voice strong, her tone saying it isn’t open for discussion. “It’s my best friend—my cousin’s special day. Got it?”
I can’t promise her that. But I nod. “I’ll do everything I can not to ruin the day.”
She blows out a breath and pulls a note out of the envelope, passing it to me.
If you do not meet our demands, we will send these to the press. Your family will be ruined. You will be ruined.
We will be in touch.
I scowl and look up at Annika. “Who the fuck sent this?”
“You know as much as I do.” She shifts her feet.
“Show me the rest.”
“No.” She shakes her head quickly. “These are private photos, and I don’t want you to see them. It’s humiliating. You saw the last one.”
What I thought I saw was Annika, naked, spread-eagle and tied to a bed with a group of men standing around her.
And by the look on her face, I’d say my memory isn’t wrong.
I want to fucking kill someone.
I was her first. I knew everything about her, once upon a time.
Is this who she is now?
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
No. By the look on her face, I’d say that’s not who she is. I have so many fucking questions.
“Here you are,” Nadia says as she walks into the room, a bright smile on her face. “I thought I saw you leave. We’re about to cut the cake.”
The new bride stops talking and glances back and forth between us.
“What’s wrong? Are you arguing again?”
“No.” Annika pastes on a smile. “Of course, not. We were just talking.”
“She needs to know.”
The color leaves Annika’s face, and Nadia turns to me, all badass now. “What the fuck is going on?”
Carmine walks in behind her and cocks a brow.
I pass them the note as Annika curses and paces away to look out the window.
“Who is this from?” Nadia asks, but Annika doesn’t turn back from the window.
“We don’t know,” I reply softly. “There are photos, as well.”
“Let me see,” Nadia demands.
“No,” Annika says, shaking her head. “Let’s just forget this and go back to the party. We’re ruining your day.”
“Someone is threatening you,” Carmine says, his voice much gentler than the look in his eyes. “Let us have the information, and if we can’t handle it today, we’ll tuck it away and push it aside until tomorrow.”
Annika turns to him, her bottom lip trembling.
I want to pull her into my arms and assure her that everything will be okay.
But I can’t.
She wouldn’t welcome it, and I don’t know that everything will be okay. I can’t lie to her.
“Photos.” She passes them to Nadia. “Do not show those to Carmine.”
Nadia frowns, looks at the images, and then gasps. “Annika.”
“What are you guys doing in here?” Ivie asks as she and Shane walk in.
“Close and lock that door,” I say to Shane, who frowns but does as I ask.
I quickly fill them in on what we know, which isn’t much, and Nadia shows Ivie the photos.
“Jesus, Annika,” Ivie breathes. “What in the ever-loving hell is this?”
Annika shakes her head, fights tears, and I go to her and take her hand, giving it a firm squeeze as I smile down at her.
“We’re your friends and your family. You’re safe here, honey.”
She takes a deep breath.
“I really wish we didn’t have to have this conversation right now—or ever.” She licks her lips. “For now, let’s just say that Richard was a son of a bitch. And after we got married, he turned into someone I didn’t know. He had certain…preferences. If I denied him, he punished me, but also if I agreed—so to speak. Obviously, someone took photos, and they’re trying to make a buck or two off of it. No biggie. I can afford to pay them to go away.”
“Fuck that.”
“No way.”
“Absolutely, not.”
Annika stares at all of us as we fume around her.
“You pay them this time, and they’ll just come back for more,” I inform her. “Besides, it doesn’t say they want money. It doesn’t specify the demands. I assume they’ll be in touch again.”
“I’ll handle it.” Her chin comes up, and she squares her shoulders. “I. Will. Handle. It. Now, I want all of you to go back to the party. Me, too, actually. I need a stiff drink.”
“We’re sticking close,” I insist.
“Of course, you are. You’re my people. Now, let’s go have cake and champagne and get damn good and drunk in celebration.”
We all exchange looks but nod and follow Annika back to the ballroom.
Carmine, Shane, and I hang back a bit as Ivie and Nadia flank Annika as they walk down the hall.
“We meet in the office at oh-nine-hundred,” Carmine says. “All six of us. We’ll figure this out.”
“Copy that,” I agree.
“Oh, my God, I’m hungover.” Ivie walks into the office, makes a beeline for the coffee and donuts set up on the credenza, and sinks into a brown leather chair, her eyes closed. “Sugar will help.”
“I feel great,” Nadia says as she pours herself some coffee. “Must have been all that married sex we had all night long.”
Carmine winks at his bride and takes a sip of his own coffee as Shane and Annika walk through the door.
“I found this one in the kitchen, sulking over a bowl of Cocoa Puffs.”
She’s still carrying the bowl.
“I’m not sulking.”
“Well, you weren’t smiling,” Shane says and sits on the arm of Ivie’s chair. “Hey, baby.”
“Hey. I’m consuming all the sugar to help fight this hangover. I know better than to get drunk on champagne. It hurts.”
“Drink lots of water today,” Nadia advises her. “Okay, we’re all here.”
Carmine closes and locks the door. “I want to keep this between the six of us for a while. I don’t think we need to involve the parents at this time.”