With This ring

by Le Carre, Georgia

  Then I lay down on my bed, drew the covers over me, and shut my eyes to find peace.

  Chapter Twelve

  Maxim

  “She destroyed the flowers?” Levan repeated.

  Otari nodded. He was afraid to meet my eyes, so it was a relief to keep them on my brother.

  “Why?” Levan asked.

  “I don’t know, Sir.”

  “Leave,” I said, and Otari immediately exited the office.

  Levan turned to me. “Do you know why she would do that?”

  “Apart from the fact that she hates me, you mean?”

  I returned back to the Belarus factory acquisition report I’d been studying before Otari came in, but the words on the page could have as well not been there. Nothing registered beyond what Otari had told us. I shouldn’t be surprised, but did she truly hate me that much? Not that it put me off. In fact, the opposite was true. Her intense hate invigorated and intrigued me. The idea of conquest always did that to me. Making her mine was going to be an extremely enjoyable task.

  “Why did you send her sunflowers?”

  I could feel his gaze burning through me as he waited for an answer to my question. I shrugged. “I was told they are her favorite flowers.”

  He looked at me speculatively. “Ahh, so you do have a thing for her.”

  I shrugged. “You are wandering into territories you shouldn’t little brother.”

  “Hmm … so who told you about the flowers?” he asked, refusing to drop the topic.

  “Anna Petrovska.”

  “Anna Petrovska? Wow! I almost forgot about her.”

  There was a very long silence that followed as both of us revisited memories from the very skinny, blonde girl. When Levan spoke again his voice was small with grave concern.

  “Do you really want to marry Freya? You might end up being miserable. I mean I know you’re not particularly looking to marry for love, but there is a certain satisfaction you can get from being with someone you can at least be civil with. Freya is like a wild…” he searched for the right word.

  “Horse?” I supplied.

  “Yes, like a wild horse. She will not let anyone tame her enough for her to be ridden on.”

  “I think I can ride,” I said with a grin.

  Levan sucked in a breath. “You know, I actually think she would be perfect for you if she didn’t hate you so much. Having said that hate is the other side of the coin. If you play your cards right she would come to love just as fiercely as she hates you now. Come to think of it, she almost reminds me of Bianca in that way, but Bianca only goes after trouble when it comes looking for her. Freya seems the kind to stir up storms even while she’s aslee—”

  “Don’t you have work to do?”

  His eyes sparkled with amusement at my irritation. “My flight to Macau is in an hour.”

  “Well then get going. The airport is not exactly next door.”

  His grin grew even wider as he rose to his feet. “I’m excited,” he said. “Very excited to see how it goes down with you and the wild mustang. You never lose and she doesn’t seem like one who gives in easily either.”

  An idea occurred to me. “Perhaps your fiancée could pay her a visit?”

  Levan frowned. “Why?”

  I shrugged. “To drop off your wedding invitation.”

  “Maybe, but I don’t want her to go alone. We’ll go together when I get back to town.”

  “I don’t want you there. You’ll just remind her of me,” I said.

  “We don’t look that much alike so I very much doubt Freya will mistake me for you.”

  My gaze turned hard, but my brother was his own man and he didn’t budge.

  “I’ve never been enemies with Freya and we’ve all known each other for a long time. Bianca is a stranger to her, and I don’t see Freya as someone who will open up to a stranger just because they’re both women.”

  I said nothing even though I agreed with him on his assessment of Freya.

  “Besides, no way in hell am I letting Bianca go alone to meet Fedorov’s daughter. One wrong word from Bianca and she could have a gun at her head. I’m not taking any chances.”

  “Forget I asked then.”

  “Too late,” he replied coolly and walked out of my office.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Freya

  “Who was it?” I asked looking up from the vintage earring drawings we had been studying on the kitchen counter before the doorbell rang and Britney went to hang her head out of the window to see who it was.

  “Some Russian panty-melter called Levan.” She pulled a face. “He’s with a woman though. Why are all the good-looking ones always taken, and why do they keep coming to find you recently?”

  “He’s Maxim’s younger brother,” I replied shortly.

  Her eyebrows shot up. “Ah … the plot thickens. Do you want to see him?”

  “I’ve never had any problems with him.”

  “What about the woman? Is she with him?” she asks hopefully.

  “I have no idea who she is, but there are no females in their family.”

  “Then perhaps I have a shot then? Let’s let him in.”

  The sudden shrill ring of my phone made me jump. There was no caller ID, which gave me a pretty good idea as to whom it was. These mafia folks were all so damn intrusive. I was never one to cower, and from what I knew of Levan neither was he so I might as well face this head-on. I picked up the phone and answered the call.

  “Yes,” I barked frostily.

  It was not Levan who answered. It was a woman. “Hey,’ she said in a friendly tone. “I’m Bianca Russet … Levan’s fiancée. We heard about what happened to you and decided to come visit you. Levan says he’s known you from when you were both children, and we’d love to see you, and we also brought our wedding invitation and some homemade cake. Actually, I made it myself. It’s a new recipe so you must tell me if you like it.”

  She must have been nervous, because she spoke very fast and stopped abruptly as if she’d suddenly realized she was babbling. I took a moment to digest all she had said.

  “Who is it?” Britney mouthed.

  I hit the mute button. “His fiancée.”

  “The woman is his fiancée?”

  “Sorry.”

  Britney’s face fell and it somewhat amused me. “Trust me, you’re not missing out on anything. The worst fate in the world is to get involved with that miserable family.”

  “Let’s let them in,” she said, brightening immediately. “I’d love to see how an engaged mafia couple interact with each other. Especially since it doesn’t seem likely I’ll ever get to see that from you.”

  I gave her a hard look, but unfazed she grinned and skipped away to let them in. I stood up and followed her into the living room. While we waited for them to come up the stairs, Britney looked at me.

  “Well, isn’t this exciting?”

  “Actually, it’s not,” I said sourly.

  “You grew up with this, but I didn’t so it is pretty freaking exciting to me.”

  At that moment there was a knock on the door and Britney rushed to open it.

  First in was Bianca Russet. She was beautiful and quite… normal.

  I looked from her to Levan and wondered what the hell was going on. Did she not know of his world, and the darkness that it came with?

  She smiled brightly at Britney, then walked straight up to me and held out the box in her hand. “This is for you, Freya.”

  “Bianca is a baker,” Levan explained, his watchful gaze on me. “She has a little bakery not far from here, on Allen street.”

  Levan, I was surprised to note was being quite chatty. My recollection of his childhood personality was completely different. Maxim was dour and said nothing at all and Levan was reserved and watchful. I wondered at the brightness of his new persona.

  “Levan said you were allergic to cinnamon, but there is no cinnamon in chocolate cakes,” Bianca said nervously, still holding the package out
to me.

  Britney walked up to me and nudged me hard enough to make me stumble. I glared at her then turned towards Bianca.

  “Thank you,” I said, and received the homemade chocolate cake that she had apparently baked herself using a new recipe. I shouldn’t be horrible to her. It was not her fault I was being forced to marry the demon. If anything, she was to be pitied.

  Bianca took a step back and turned to Levan. I could have sworn I saw his eyes sparkle as their gazes met. He wasn’t even touching her, both his hands were in his pockets, but they stood as though they were one. She moved again and let herself rest against him as though that was all she’d ever known, and he … he towered over her protectively, as though the world needed his permission to even approach. Suddenly, I understood the light in his life. He had found his soulmate. And suddenly, I had never felt more jealous in my life of another woman.

  “Thank you,” I said again, and walked away with the cake. Britney stepped in and led them towards our small living room, apologizing for how cramped everything was because we had to store our stock in our living room.

  Bianca laughed and told her our apartment was charming.

  I put the cake on the kitchen table. From my position I could see right into the living room and I watched them jealously and saw how when they sat down, Levan’s arm automatically slid around her waist while her hand rested intimately on his thigh. They were so in love. Something inside me felt bereft. If I married Maxim I would never have that. Ever.

  “When are you getting married?” Britney asked.

  As I watched they turned to gaze into each other’s eyes. “In five weeks. November 23rd,” she answered.

  “Wow, that’s close,” Britney commented, her eyes wide and full of curiosity.

  “Not close enough for me. I can’t wait to get my ring on her finger so the whole world will know she’s mine. And only mine,” Levan stated proudly.

  Bianca tightened her lips to hide her blush and looked away from him, but he couldn’t take his eyes off her.

  I brought out a knife, and began to slice up the cake to serve, my movements were jerky. I had to ask. “How did the two of you meet?”

  “At my bakery,” Bianca answered. “Levan was a…” she stopped, and tilted her head while she thought of the appropriate word, and he laughed out loud. I wanted to hear the story behind that look.

  “Well at the time I thought… well he told me he was a Masters student at NYU where I was attending too. But later found out that was not the case at all.”

  He lowered his head to hide his smile and she gave him a playfully sour look. “Anyway, I had a crush on him, and being the naïve fool I was, I told him about it, which made him disappear for two years.”

  The shock on Britney’s face was amusing. “Why?”

  I had a good enough guess as it most definitely had to do with someone’s death, perhaps even almost his.

  “Well some family issues made him leave the country,” she said, her voice still haunted by that old pain. “But he came to his senses and came back to me, and we got together again.”

  I scoffed at the explanation as I lifted the tray to take it to them.

  Levan heard me. “Why the sneer?”

  “Britney is not a stranger, and neither is Bianca. You can say what actually happened.”

  Rather than taking offense she turned to me with an excited surprise. “What do you think happened, or are you aware?”

  “Wait,” Britney suddenly said. “I’m just realizing that you seem a bit familiar,” she said to Levan. “Have I seen you somewhere before?”

  He shrugged. “Perhaps.”

  She looked away to dig into her memory bank, while I placed the cake on the coffee table. I winced at the slight pain from the effort and Bianca immediately sprung up to help me.

  “I’m so sorry,” she said. “We’re meant to be the ones helping out.”

  “It's fine,” I said. “What do you all want to drink?”

  “I’ll come with you and we’ll do it together,” she said decisively.

  “Thank you,” I said, and we headed back into the kitchen. I smiled at her as I opened the fridge and took out some orange juice. “Is this alright?” I asked.

  She nodded. “It’s fine for me, but Levan hates orange juice so some water will be fine.” She retrieved a glass from our drying rack and filled it with tap water for her fiancé, which she then put on the tray with the other glasses and the jug. She insisted on carrying the tray too.

  “Thank you,” Levan said, taking a sip from the glass of water she handed to him.

  “You’re not afraid I might have poisoned it?” I asked.

  Britney looked shocked at my question, and even Bianca looked slightly worried, but Levan only laughed.

  “You never came anywhere near it. Bianca fetched it not you,” he said.

  I realized the error in my thinking. Levan was friendly and sweet because he had Bianca, but inside he was still the same watchful man.

  “Plus, you wouldn’t dare,” the new and improved Levan added. “We used to be friends.”

  “Yeah, until your brother went ahead and murdered my best friend’s family.”

  My tone was bitter and cast a weighty silence across the room. “Bianca, I'm sorry if I'm making you uncomfortable. You’ve just walked into a minefield and you don’t understand what is going on, but Levan’s family and I don’t exactly have the best of relationships. Which makes me wonder why he’s here.” I turned on him aggressively. “Did your brother send you? What exactly did he ask you to check on?”

  “If you were doing well,” he answered easily.

  I smiled tightly. “I happen to know it wouldn’t spoil his day if I fell into a ravine tomorrow, but if we’re all going to pretend to play this game, then please let him know that I'm doing just great. And that he should please stay away from me so that I can continue to do even better.”

  “Why do you hate Maxim so much?’ Levan asked.

  “Are you seriously asking me that? Don’t you know?”

  “I am asking exactly that,” he said.

  “He killed Anna,” I screamed.

  “He didn’t kill Anna, she took her own life,” he said calmly.

  I could feel my anger begin to take over. “And whose fault was that? Your brother wiped out her family.”

  “Have you ever stopped to find out why, or what actually happened?”

  “The whole of fucking Russia knew what happened. He did it to prove himself to your father. Anna’s father was challenging your father with some lawsuit and Maxim took him out to prove that he was qualified to join his father’s army of demons.”

  “Your father’s business is not any smaller or less violent than ours, Freya.”

  “Perhaps, but no one is as evil as Maxim. How else could a fucking nineteen-year old kid kill a man and his wife in cold blood. All for some accolade?”

  The room was deadly silent.

  Levan frowned. “Is that what you were told?”

  “It is what I know,” I argued.

  He rose to his feet and held out his hand to his fiancée. “Let’s go, Bianca.”

  “Of course, you’ll always be on his side.”

  He didn’t say a word and began to walk. Bianca looked torn, apologetic towards me and yet understanding of Levan. Britney was just confused.

  I felt hurt and wasn’t satisfied enough with my taunt. “Oh, and for old time’s sake, since you said that we were ‘friends’ could you let me know what your family’s plan is with this whole marriage situation? Is Maxim trying to go grand this time? Get married to me, then take out my whole family? Just let me know, friend.”

  Levan smiled, and when I saw that it wasn’t in offense but mockery, it made me very uncomfortable. “You’ve always been really cocky, Freya,” he said “and I understand that it’s because you’ve wanted to always be on guard. But you need to sometimes put your pride down so you can figure out the truth. You knew Maxim before Anna met him. T
ell me, when you heard what he had supposedly done to her family, were you shocked or unsurprised? Did he seem like the kind to so heartlessly do something like that?”

  “Maxim is lethal.”

  “And so are you, perhaps even more so than he will ever be. Otherwise, how else can you so easily accuse him of all that you just have without knowing the actual truth?”

  “Truth. What do you know about the truth? Anna told me this herself, a few days before she committed suicide.”

  I was shaking. How dare he? How dare any of them even come close to me.

  “Someday, ask Maxim what really happened and why he did what he did. I know you enough to know that after hearing it you definitely will not feel as you do now. You will understand. I hope you can come to our wedding, friend. Take care.”

  He took his fiancée’s hand and walked out of our house.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Freya

  I couldn’t sleep.

  It had been two days and I still couldn’t sleep. It was not so much the pain of the wound on my back but Levan’s words that haunted me.

  “You need to sometimes put your pride down so you can figure out the truth… after hearing it you definitely will not feel as you do now.”

  My back hurt, so I got out of bed carefully, and headed out to the kitchen. I pulled the fridge open and looked at the contents. A few minutes later I was still standing there deep in thought. I brought myself back to the present and wondered why I had opened it in the first place. I couldn’t recall why. I certainly wasn’t hungry. So I shut it and was thrown into the darkness of the kitchen.

  “You knew Maxim before Anna did. Tell me, when you heard about what he had supposedly done to her family, were you shocked, or unsurprised? Did he seem like the kind to so heartlessly do something like that?”

  The truth was I had been shocked out of my skin.

  For that whole day I had walked around in a distraught daze. Maxim had intrigued me from the first moment I had fallen on him from the tree on his estate. Thereafter, I had watched him when he wasn’t looking, but acted like he didn’t exist when he was around. Even so, I was irrevocably and irresistibly drawn to that strangely intense boy who stared people into the ground and hardly ever said a word. That secret dream or fantasy of him being my dark prince shattered into a million pieces with Anna’s words.