“To see Alexandria,” Dmitry answered.
“That was three years ago. Haven’t you forgotten about her yet?”
“No. Should I?”
Ivan had a devious smile on his face. “Maybe you should. But if you haven’t, you still might want to shave that shit off your face before you go. You look like a grizzly bear.”
Dmitry wiped his face and carefully folded the towel. “I’ll shave it after tonight.”
“To make you more discreet?” Ivan smirked. “What is discreet about a man your size, beard or not?”
“Good point,” Dmitry said, looking around the bathroom for a razor. “What do you shave with around here?”
“There is a razor in the drawer.” Ivan walked over and opened the small wooden compartment. Pulling out an old razor, he passed it to Dmitry.
Dmitry took it and snarled. Gross. Grabbing the alcohol, he poured it over the razor and bent down into the mirror.
“Fuck you. It’s the best that I could do,” Ivan said offended.
Dmitry looked up in the mirror at his brother’s reflection. “Spasiba,” he said finally.
After cleaning his face and putting on clothes that actually fit somewhat, Dmitry headed out into the cold night air down through the back of his apartment complex.
The snow had begun to fall again, covering his wide shoulders. He shivered a little, holding his wool coat to his chest as he made his way a few buildings down from his own.
“Dmitry is that you?” a girl asked, sitting on the step as he passed.
“Da,” he answered. Turning around, he looked down to see Alexandria’s sister, Angelina. She had grown up a lot. She almost looked grown. With her blond hair pulled into a ponytail and her small lips smeared with red lipstick, she stood up and hugged him.
“I didn’t know that you were out,” she said, looking up into his pale face.
“I just got out. I won’t be here long. So, I wanted to stop and see Alexandria. Is she here?”
“No, she’s over at Nicolai’s house.” Her face changed in shock. Did he not know?
“Nicolai who?” He stepped down from the door and held on to the wrought-iron banister.
“Baranski,” she answered. “He’s her fiancé.” Angelina’s face was solemn. She always liked Dmitry and would have preferred her big sister to date him instead, but they have been torn away from each other after the murders.
Dmitry gave her a clever smile. He bent down to her and moved the lonely strand of hair from her face. “Why don’t you tell me where he lives, and I can go and visit them.” His voice was soft, unlike his eyes that spoke venom.
Angelina swallowed hard. Everyone knew how territorial Dmitry was over Alexandria. She doubted much had changed while he was away in prison. When they were together, he had treated her sister like a queen, promised her a new life. Then he had gone away, and Alexandria had fallen apart.
“Are you going to start trouble?” she asked in a hushed voice. “Alexandria wouldn’t want any trouble.”
“No, I’m leaving tomorrow, like I said. And I just want to see her.”
Angelina could feel the heat coming from his body. He was fire hot with anger, burning red in his face. She sighed and then pointed north. “He’s in building 14-B, Unit 9.” She instantly wished that she could have taken her words back, because without even saying goodbye, he jetted back down the stairs and into the dark night.
Dmitry walked fast. The snow beneath him hiked up under his boots as he made long, violent strides through the buildings. He reached building 14-B within minutes. Three men were sitting on the stairs sharing a bottle of vodka and laughing as he approached. They looked up stunned by his presence.
“It’s the butcher,” the one man whispered as Dmitry entered the apartment building. The door clanging behind him.
“I thought that he was in prison,” said another.
“How can he be in prison when he is here?” the third asked as he turned to look at Dmitry’s body disappear behind the doors.
Dmitry did not know what he would say, how he would come to explain why he was at this man’s doorstep, but he couldn’t bare not to see her.
Taking a deep breath, he balled his fist and gently tapped the door. He put his ear to the door and heard voices raised and a television playing. Hitting the door harder, he turned the doorknob. Locked.
Moments later, the door flung open and a short young man with dark brown hair appeared in a dirty brown sweatshirt and red fleece pants.
Dmitry looked him up and down and slipped his hands in his pockets to prevent himself from reaching out and choking the man.
“What do you want?” the man asked, marveling at the size of Dmitry.
“Are you Nicolai?” Dmitry smiled.
“Da, who wants to know?”
“I need to see your Alexandria for just a minute. I’m an old friend,” Dmitry explained. “Is she here?”
The man’s eyes narrowed. “No, she’s not.”
“Are you sure?” Dmitry asked. He could feel his heart rate accelerate.
“What the fuck did I say, you big bastard? She’s not here.”
When Dmitry first knocked on the door, he heard a woman’s voice. “Are you here alone?” he asked, looking down the hallway that he had just come from.
“Yes,” the man said as he stepped back to close the door. “Now, fuck off.”
As the man prepared to close the door, Dmitry put his steel toe boot in the door and blocked it from closing. Then he pushed the door open and at the same time, knocked the little man down.
Curiously, he turned the corner to see a woman standing in the corner with her hand over her mouth. As Dmitry walked in the dark room, he finally crossed the path of light and it shone on his face.
“Dmitry is that you?” the woman asked.
“Alexandria?” Dmitry responded.
The woman ran her hand over the light switch and illuminated the shabby room. It was Dmitry. She put her hand over her mouth as she let out a whimper in disbelief.
Tall, muscular and stealthy, the giant before her appeared like a dark angel. Dmitry’s crystal blue eyes were illuminated by the dim lights around them, causing them sparkled liked precious diamonds. His perfect nose, high cheek bones, chiseled jaw clenched tight, full lips pursed and menacing stare reminded her of what she had missed for the long years he had been away.
He didn’t blink. His gaze was fixed on her. Breath slow and easy, he swallowed hard and his thick neck moved under the pressure of his tension.
Shocked that she had a black eye, Dmitry paused and turned around to look at the man who had finally stood up behind him in a daze with a bloody mouth and nose.
“Is that your handy work?” Dmitry asked in a deep, reverberating baritone. His shadow covering the small man as he cowered.
The man backed up in the corner. “Look, if you want our valuables, all we have is a shitty television,” he said, pointing towards the small floor model in the corner.
Dmitry kept his eyes on the man. “Answer me, you little weak fuck. Is that,” he pointed towards Alexandria, “your handy work?”
The man looked over at Alexandria. “She fell,” the man lied. “She’s clumsy as shit.”
Dmitry spat on the floor. He reached out and picked the man up by his neck in one swoop. “I’m going to snap your neck into and piss on your remains.”
“Dmitry!” Alexandria called out. “Don’t!” She ran towards him.
“Who are you?” the man asked, scared to death.
“The butcher,” Dmitry answered with a devious smile on his face. “Want to see my handy work?” He pulled a long, sharp knife from his back pocket and raised it.
The man pissed down his leg at the sight of the giant, and the urine leaked down to the floor beneath his dangling body. Shaking, he realized that the man, whom he had heard would be in jail for twenty or more years, was now in his living room with a raised weapon to him.
“Dmitry,” Alexandria said, putting
her hand on Dmitry’s lower back.
He turned around to look at Alexandria but did not lower his weapon or the man.
“He’s not worth it,” she begged in a calm voice. She shook her head, gazing up at him with red, teary eyes.
“No, I’m not worth it,” the weak man chimed in, holding on with both hands to Dmitry’s tight grip. “Spare me, butcher. Let me live.”
Dmitry was torn. He wanted to tear the man’s throat out, and yet the woman whom he felt the need to avenge begged for the man’s protection. He finally lowered his weapon and threw the man back in the corner.
“You’re coming with me,” he said, grabbing Alexandria and pulling her to the front door.
She quickly grabbed her coat from the chair and threw it on as she walked out of the door in front of him.
Abruptly, Dmitry stopped at the entrance and turned towards the man still in the corner. “And I’ll be back for you later,” he said smiling as he slammed the door behind him.
***
Alexandria walked through the snow silently. Still in shock, she could not believe her eyes. Dmitry Medlov had shown up at her boyfriend’s apartment to save her.
She was suffering one of Nicolai’s many beatings that he handed out when he was drunk. It never happened before they were engaged, but shortly after she had said yes, the violence flooded their relationship. He would always apologize, always try to make up for what he had done, but she inwardly knew that if she stayed around long enough, he’d end up being just like her father – a wife beater.
Shivering, even with her coat on, she felt Dmitry’s arm on her shoulders. He was too tall to bend down to her, but he guarded her as they walked.
When they got back to the main street, she looked up at him.
“Where are we going?” she asked.
Dmitry raised his finger to silence her. “Be right back,” he said, walking off and leaving her on the corner.
She stood confused as she waited. The gripping winds blew past her and chilled her fair skin. Wondering where he’d gone, she finally saw a truck pull up. Dmitry reached over, pulled open the door and smiled.
“Get in,” he ordered.
“Is this your truck?” she asked as she stepped inside and closed the door.
Dmitry smiled. “For tonight it is.”
Looking down at the steering column, she noticed that the ignition had been torn out. Typical Dmitry, she thought as she put her head back on the chair. Dmitry turned on the heat and turned down the radio. Sighing, he looked over at her curled up in her jacket.
“How have you been?” he asked.
“How do I look?” she turned and put her knee on the seat. “You’ve gotten even taller.”
“Da, about a foot.”
He turned left and avoided the police as he turned onto a dark road. He was growing tired of that being the only observation people made when they saw him. Yes, he was seven feet tall. Maybe he should get a shirt that stated the obvious. No one had noticed, however, that while he was in prison he had gained new tattoos indicating his promotion in the ranks of the Vory.
“Where are you taking me?” she asked, knowing he was contemplating something very hard.
“To a hotel.”
“You are presumptuous,” she scoffed.
“Should I not be?” he looked over at her. “If I recall, I was interrupted in the middle of something the last time that we were together.” He looked down in between her legs.
Alexandria did not speak. Instead, she cracked a naughty little grin and turned back in her seat.
The money Kirill had given Dmitry could not have come at a better time. He got them a hotel room downtown and escorted Alexandria up the elevator. The couple that got on after them looked up at Dmitry with bright, unbelieving eyes. He could read their thoughts without trying.
“Seven feet tall,” he answered the woman’s bright eyes. “And no, I’m not an athlete,” he said, clenching his jaw. He looked down at Alexandria and smiled. She smiled back.
The man beside his girlfriend pinched her as he gazed over at Dmitry’s arm. He recognized the man’s elaborate tattoos as Vory markings. It was best to leave the tall man alone before they ran into trouble. As the elevator doors opened, the man practically pulled his girlfriend off the elevator. Her eyes were still locked on Dmitry.
“Do you always have that kind of effect on women?” Alexandria asked.
“Only the straight ones,” he answered.
Dmitry relaxed and pulled Alexandria in front of him. Moving her long hair out of her face, he looked into her bruised eyes. It had been three years since he had seen her. He had been snatched from her embrace in the middle of the night by cops.
To impress her one last time, he had fought hard, but it had not been hard enough for five detectives. They beat him badly, hog-tied him and drug him out of the apartment complex. Now, he had her in his arms again, and if possible, she was even more beautiful, even battered.
Alexandria didn’t wear makeup for two reasons. She couldn’t afford it, and she didn’t need it. Bare faced, blue-eyed and angelic, she looked up at him and put her face on his lower abdomen. Just to see him was a blessing. How she had missed him. How she had wondered if he ever thought of her.
“It’s been too long,” she said softly. “Have you come for good?”
Dmitry ran his hand through her long, blond locks and sighed. “No.”
She batted her eyes. Did he just say no? “I don’t understand?”
“I’m leaving tonight,” he said pained.
“Then why did you come and get me?” She pulled away. “Why did you even bother me?” Her voice rose. “Why?!”
The elevator opened.
Dmitry looked at the opened door and looked at her. “I missed you.”
“Missed me?”
The elevator closed.
Dmitry hit the stop button on the elevator and paused it so that it would not move.
“You were up there getting your ass kicked by a man who is not big as one of my arms, and yet you argue with me because I came to collect you?” He shook his head astonished.
“Da, collect me for a night just to return me in the morning,” she answered. “You can’t just rent me out, you know.” Her eyes quickly shifted from side to side. She clenched her little jaw and breathed hard out of her small nostrils.
“You never have to go back to him,” Dmitry promised. “I’m out now, Alexandria. You know that I’ll take care of you, no matter where I am.”
“That’s not why I want you, Dmitry.”
“I know.”
Dmitry hit a button, and the elevator opened again on their floor. Taking her hand, he ducked out of the small contraption and led her to their room.
He didn’t have much time before he had to go and take care of that other thing, but every moment that he had, he wanted to spend it with Alexandria.
Alexandria was three years older than Dmitry when she met him. He was fourteen, and she was seventeen. First, she had had many reservations about liking a boy so much younger than her, but he was more mature than many of the men she had met. She found it odd then that he knew so much about sex and about life in general, but she enjoyed his company and was fascinated by him.
Now, he was back and if only for one night, she thought it worth it to remember what it was like to be touched by Dmitry.
He opened the hotel room door for her and followed her in. Ducking into the room, he closed the door and leaned against it. She turned and looked up at him. She didn’t even know how to make love to a man as tall as he was. Would it even be possible? He walked over to her and reached down to pick her up. Standing up on top of the mattress, she came to his neck. Pulling him closer, she kissed his full, warm lips, savoring the taste of a lost love. He gripped her in his needy embrace happy now that he had not slept with the old woman from the night before.
Alexandria whimpered. More. More. Her body begged out to him. She helped him take off his coat and then pulled at his
thermal shirt.
As the shirt came up above his neck, she saw the many tattoos that covered his muscular body and the scars from the many fights in prison and before.
She ran her fingers across them, astonished by the possibility of what he had done to get them.
“Is this why we can’t be together?” she asked.
Dmitry looked down at his chest and arms, covered in blue ink. No one would ever know how much the markings meant to him. He looked back up at her and realized that he didn’t have enough time to explain himself, so he opted not to explain at all. Instead, he pulled her coat off and pulled up her shirt. With the twist of his fingers behind her back, her bra dropped in between them.
The Chronicles of Young Dmitry Medlov: Book One Page 3
