Wreckless Engagement: The Russian Engagement Series

by K. Marie

  I shook my head in the negative. “I don’t think I’ll be dancing tonight, I really don’t feel like being jostled by a bunch of sweaty people on the dance floor,” I answered with a grin, knowing I’d just contradicted myself.

  “Do you want me to clear the floor up here?” Garland questioned.

  “No!” I exclaimed on a horrified laugh, “Don’t you dare!”

  He was completely serious.

  “We would look a bit strange out there on the dance floor all alone, but thank you anyway,” I told him in amusement.

  He apparently wouldn’t let something as pesky as a packed dance floor stop his wife from dancing. Garland didn’t believe anything to be non-negotiable.

  “Hey! break it up over there, the honeymoon has ended!” Greg called out.

  Garland lowered his head and kissed me again, an obvious attempt to further provoke Greg.

  “Get a room!” he called out again, taking the bait.

  Garland and I both grinned. I loved that he had no hang-ups about being affectionate with me in front of others; he and I could go full-blown PDA and think nothing of it.

  I’m at the sink washing my hands in the ladies’ room when the door opens. I looked up to see ‘The Bitch’ entering and sighed on the inside.

  Had she followed me in here?

  She watched me as she approached the stalls that were just past where I stood; but stopped when she got a few feet away. We eyed each other silently in the mirror.

  “I have to give it to you, you’re good, I could learn something from you,” she said, eyes sparkling with malice. “You wasted no time going after exactly what you wanted, pulling it off in record time by using that slot machine in your stomach,” she added with a sly smile.

  Slot machine? Really, bitch? Several nasty retorts are on the tip of my tongue; but I don’t say any aloud, I wouldn’t dare give her the satisfaction.

  “You’re right, you could learn a lot from me, but unfortunately class can’t be taught. You either have it or you don’t,” I said instead, turning to face her.

  “I’m not sure what your problem is, but you had to know you never had a shot in hell with Garland. Besides you being his best friend’s leftovers; my husband is a man of refined tastes, he doesn’t like trash. My guess is, you give a damn good blow-job, because I’m having difficulty figuring out what Greg sees in you. But if I were you, I would appreciate what’s right in front of me and stop thinking a better opportunity will come along. You’ve already reached the top, sweetheart, it’s only down from there,” I told her with distaste, having no idea where the words had come from.

  I saw a quick look of surprise flash in her eyes; she hadn’t counted on me being able to top her bitchiness.

  I didn’t even know that I could be such a bitch! She clearly brought out the worst in me. I guess I can give as good as I get. I thought with satisfaction.

  “I see someone’s got her claws out tonight, but don’t get too cocky. Just because you got him, doesn’t mean you’ll keep him. You do know what happened to his first wife and child, right?” she asked maliciously.

  I let out an un-lady-like snort. “That’s the only way I wouldn’t be keeping my husband—through death. If I could get him, I damn sure know how to keep him. So, until ‘death us do part’, I’m going to enjoy the hell out of letting him knock me up, the man is truly talented in bed,” I said with a bitchy smirk, taunting her with what she’d never have.

  “I guess all I have to look forward to is giving birth to more slot machines,” I mused on a dramatic sigh, before giving her a wink and walking away.

  After I exited, I came to a stop when I saw Joe standing opposite the door on the other side of the hallway. “Hey Joe, Garland tasked you with babysitting duty, huh?” I said with a smile.

  With Marie out on the dance floor at the time, I should have been more suspicious when Garland let me go to the ladies’ room unescorted. Even if it was only fifty feet away. He’s even more paranoid in public places.

  Joe’s mouth lifted in a semblance of a smile. “Ensuring your safety is never a task, Camry. Were you okay in there?” he asked with a nod towards the ladies’ room. He’d finally dropped the ‘Ms.’ from my name after Garland and I married.

  “Oh, just a little catfight, but I won,” I told him, sporting a huge grin.

  Joe gave an actual smile this time. “That’s good to hear,” he said with an affirmative nod of his head.

  Forty

  G A R L A N D

  “Did you get the email I forwarded to you yesterday?” Camry asked. We were seated at the island in the kitchen having coffee, leftover breakfast dishes already shoved aside.

  “Yes, I received it,” I answered, attention still glued to the display screen of my iPad.

  But, I looked up after a moment, sensing her staring at me. My answer apparently insufficient. “The guy is an asshole and a sore-loser; but it’s nothing to worry over,” I told her.

  Camry smiled. “What are you smiling for?” I asked, wondering if I’d said something funny. If I did, I wasn’t aware.

  “I’m not telling,” she answered, giving me a mysterious Mona Lisa smile.

  “I have ways of making you talk,” I threatened.

  “Yes, and I’m already familiar with most of them,” she said with a wink, undeterred.

  I couldn’t help smiling, I loved when my wife was being goofy. I’ve probably smiled more the past six months, than I did the past eight years.

  “Do you realize your accent becomes more pronounced when you swear?” Camry asked, smiling in amusement. She liked making fun of me.

  “I have no idea what you mean, I never swear,” I told her, a blatant lie.

  Well, at least I refrained in front of the child.

  Camry laughed at my bullshit, as I focused my eyes back on the iPad.

  “You know, I didn’t get around to reading the email before I sent it to you, was it much of the same? she asked.

  The Gods were clearly smiling in my favor.

  “Along those lines,” I confirmed.

  McKellan is a dick, and also a fool.

  She sighed in disgust. “Should I just respond to him and get it over with?” Camry asked, frustration in her voice.

  “Not yet, sweetheart, I want to see how far he’ll take this first,” I told her.

  “Sloan, I have a job for you,” I said to the man on the other end of the phone, twenty minutes later.

  I quickly laid-out for him what I wanted. “And Sloan, make sure any further emails are lost in cyberspace, I want that account blocked,” I told him before hanging up.

  I sat looking at the damn email, knowing it was a problem I’d have to deal with sooner rather than later. McKellan had conclusively proved himself a stupid man.

  And, according to the report I had on him, he might also be an unstable man. The report lay secure in my safe, but I could recite every detail of it by memory. It seemed stalking may have been the lesser of his evils. Drakos worked his magic and was able to get ahold of his juvenile records; that pot of gold told a whole different story.

  I became angry all over again. Camry had actually been in a relationship with the man for almost two years; that she’d ended things without it immediately escalating was a stroke of luck it seemed.

  I called myself a fucking moron, I should have done a more thorough check on McKellan from jump. I left Camry vulnerable because I hadn’t. My instincts had never failed me, and my instincts about McKellan was on point. It’s why I had security placed on Camry in the first place. Only, it turned out McKellan was worse than I imagined.

  I can’t claim to be a good man, I’ve done things to take me out of the running. But, McKellan is a psycho of a whole other caliber. He’s the kind of psycho who used manipulation guised as ‘nice guy’ to get close, then became enraged and sought vengeance against his offender when rejected. The sort of vengeance that often resulted in the woman being either hurt, or dead.

  I wondered what McKellan
’s game was, and now I’m certain I know. I was in no doubt his emails were an attempt to manipulate Camry into reaching out to him—to try and lure her into calling him or revealing where she is. But though my wife could be naïve, she wasn’t stupid.

  Email was McKellan’s only means of attempting communication with her, he had no idea how to find her. If he attempted locating her through her computer’s IP address, he would be searching for her in New Zealand. Everything else was buried under so many layers that it would take more digging to find than most people would ever bother with. I had my own reasons for that, which had nothing to do with McKellan.

  I told Camry I wanted to see how far the asshole would go, and now I had.

  “Come on Garland! Mommy’s finally ready,” Autumn announced, bounding into my office.

  I looked up to see her hopping from foot to foot, nearly bursting at the seams with excitement. “Are you sure?” I asked, smiling at my other favorite girl, “Because mommy is as slow as a turtle when it’s time to be ready.”

  She giggled. “Yes, I’m sure! She sent me to get you.”

  “In that case, let the fun begin,” I told her, rising from my desk and hitting the power button on my computer.

  C A M R Y

  “Wait until you see her Marie, she’s so awesome!” Autumn cheered, practically bouncing out of her seat.

  We were on our way to the equestrian farm where her pony was currently stabled. The animal had been an elaborate Christmas gift from Garland, and he’d promised Autumn he would bring her out to ride the pony today. This would be our first time going; someone from the farm came to pick the pony up on Christmas day, and transported her back to the stables.

  I smiled, remembering Autumn’s look of amazement when she first saw the pony. And then, her high-pitched screech. After presents were exchanged on Christmas morning, a mischievous looking Garland announced that he’d saved his ‘most special gift’ for last. It was apparently too large to bring into the house. Already hyper from present overload, Autumn quizzed him on what it could possibly be, before growing impatient.

  “Come on Garland! Where is it?” she demanded, grabbing hold of his hand and pulling him towards the front door. With a look of enjoyment brightening his eyes, Garland finally led us to the garage.

  A couple of the cars had been removed, and in their place sat a white enclosed trailer of perhaps fifteen feet in length. There were two opened windows on the side facing us, and a wide door at the rear of it. Recognizing it as a horse trailer, I’d looked at Garland in surprise and confusion, for the pony was just as much a shock for me. I knew that she’d requested one; as probably all five-year-old little girls do, but I had no idea the man would actually buy one.

  What’s next, a unicorn?

  “Is that a horse?” Autumn questioned; eyes widened with a look of wonderment on her face. “Garland, it is a horse! Is that my present?” she cried, spying the pony through the opened windows.

  She ran over to stand next to the trailer.

  “Yes, Autumn, it’s your present,” Garland answered with an indulgent grin.

  Moving to the rear of trailer, he pulled the handle to open it up. All white in color, but with a long chestnut colored mane and tail, the little pony stood there all majestic and beautiful.

  “Wow…” I breathed, as it stood there patiently staring at the three of us, as we all gawked.

  “It’s so pretty, thank you Garland!” Autumn squealed, running over to him and hugging his legs.

  “You’re very welcome, Autumn. Would you like to ride her?” he asked.

  “Yes!” she’d screamed, so loudly that the poor pony was no longer stood patiently still; but started shuffling around and snorting in alarm.

  “I can’t wait to see her, Autumn. But why did you give her such a girlie name, Daisy?” Marie asked in a disbelieving voice.

  “That’s because she is a girl!” said Autumn, pealing with laughter.

  “Yeah, but you’re going to turn her into a real Pansy with a name like that,” Marie warned.

  Garland and I glanced at each other and smiled, amused by the two of them in the backseat. He was driving today, but Joe was close on our tail in the Rover behind us. Perhaps Garland intended for this to appear as normal a family outing as possible; sometimes, the whole armed-guard vibe tended to interfere with that. Not that he didn’t sometimes drive himself places, but he rarely did when Autumn or I were with him. As much as I’d made strides with accepting my new reality, he knew I still sometimes struggled with it. And I knew that this change in protocol today was him appeasing me.

  I held his gaze when he glanced a look my way, probably wondering why I was staring. “I love you,” I whispered, as not to gross-out the two sitting in the back with my mushiness.

  “And I you, Camry, always,” he said back.

  It seemed impossible, but I swear I fall more in love with him every day. And it scared the hell out of me.

  I figured no one could possibly be this happy.

  My pulse still raced whenever he walked into a room, I still got butterflies in my stomach whenever he gave me that intense look that I knew would end in sex; and I still melted whenever he touched me.

  It was a heady feeling. But I couldn’t help wondering if I would suddenly wake one day to find that it’s all a cruel dream.

  Fifteen minutes later, we pulled through the gates of the equestrian farm and piled out of the car. As we approached a large redbrick building, a man walked over to meet us. The middle-aged man was tall, with tanned, leather-looking skin, and salt and pepper hair with matching beard.

  “Mr. Vidov, welcome back,” he greeted, with what I would describe as a deep, southern drawl.

  “Thank you, Tom,” Garland said, before making introductions. “This is my wife, Camry, her cousin, Marie, and this young lady here is my daughter, Autumn.” He always referred to Autumn as simply his daughter, never his step-daughter.

  “Mrs. Vidov, Marie, a pleasure,” Tom said with a gentlemanly nod of his head.

  “And you must be the owner of Daisy. I believe she’s going to be excited to see you, I’ll take you to her,” he told Autumn.

  We followed Tom around the brick building and to a massive-sized gray barn-looking structure. Once inside, I was surprised to see how clean and brightly lit the building is. For some reason, I’d expected it to be dark, dank, and smelly inside—like most barns are depicted to be. But I should have known Garland would have chosen only the best stables for Autumn’s pony to reside. My baby would start her once weekly riding lessons today; and would be able to come more frequently for lessons when school let out for summer.

  “He couldn’t have just gotten her a ‘My Little Pony’ from the toy store?” Marie asked next to me, wearing a humorous look.

  We stood behind the clichéd white picket fence, watching a helmet wearing Autumn being coached on how to ride Daisy. Not even fifteen minutes later, I heard Garland’s phone vibrate in his pocket. He excused himself to take the call, walking only a short distance away; but not so far that I couldn’t hear him speak. But, other than his “Yeah” in greeting, I couldn’t make out anything else, because the remainder of his conversation is spoken in Russian.

  Besides a few words here and there, typically in the form of an expletive, Garland rarely used the language at home. Except of course, those times I ask him to, during sex. Yes, I admit to liking for him to talk dirty to me in Russian.

  During those times, some words he translated into English, others he didn’t. But honestly, he could be saying any-damn-thing; who cares? It turned me on regardless. Learning the Russian language was on my list of things to do.

  “This is the first time I’ve heard Garland speak Russian, do you know what he’s saying?” Marie asked, as though following my line of thought.

  I wished. “Unfortunately, no. The only words of the language I understand are ‘Nyet’ and ‘Da’, which translates to ‘No’ and ‘Yes’ in English.

  “Are those the wo
rds he makes you use during sex?” Marie asked, eyeing me curiously.

  I let out a guilty laugh. “Sometimes,” I admitted with a smirk.

  Our conversation is interrupted when Garland comes up behind me and wraps his hands around my waist. “I’m sorry Camry, but we’re going to have to cut it short today,” he told me.

  I turned my head to look up at him. “Why, what’s wrong?” I asked, searching his eyes.

  “Nothing major, I’ll explain when we get home,” he answered.

  Seriously, he couldn’t just tell me now?

  Garland left to walk over to where Tom and Autumn were, calling out to get Tom’s attention.

  “What’s going on?” Marie asked.

  I shrugged a shoulder in annoyance. “I’m not sure, but we have to leave,” I replied.

  Garland retrieved Autumn, and by the time he came striding back over with her riding on his shoulders, I caught sight of Viktor walking toward us. I wasn’t aware he’d been in the other Rover with Joe; I’d assumed it to be someone else. At least now, I knew who was on the other end of the call.

  “What’s sexiness doing here?” Marie asked, as she too watched Viktor. She’d taken to calling him that, I couldn’t wait to see what she came up with for Stack.

  I eyed Viktor curiously as he approached Garland, looking serious and all business. When the two men started to converse in Russian; my worry-meter surged. They didn’t want us to know what they were saying.

  What in the hell is going on?

  Their conversation complete, both men walked over to where Marie and I stood. “Let’s get out of here,” Garland said, turning to lead the way.

  Forty-One

  C A M R Y

  “Can you teach me to speak Russian, Garland?” Autumn asked, as we walked back towards the car. His and Viktor’s exchange had obviously piqued her interest.