The Russian Billionaire: A Romantic Suspense Novel

by Georgia Le Carre

  I look up at her and find her watching me speculatively. “I didn’t know what you liked,” she murmurs.

  “That was kind of you,” I say politely, but I feel the first real sense of unease. Is this woman even sane?

  One of the maids pours tea into the gold-rimmed china cup in front of me.

  “One sugar, thank you,” I instruct with a smile.

  Then the women leave and I am left alone with the reptilian like human.

  “Please, eat,” she urges.

  The last thing in the world I want to do is eat, but I reach for a biscuit and nibble on it. “What did you want to see me about?”

  “I heard that Konstantin has done what he does to all the women in his life. He casts them away when he is done with them. I understand he has also reneged on his promise to pay your sister’s medical bills.”

  I don’t pretend to ask how she knows. I know exactly how she knows and she knows I know. I put the biscuit down on the saucer of my cup as if I am too emotional to eat.

  “Yes. Yes, he has,” I say, making my voice sound choked and hoarse.

  Her eyes glitter. “I’d like to help you.”

  I pretend to look surprised. “You do?”

  She smiles. “Yes. How would you like to easily earn a million dollars?”

  “A million. How?”

  “The police will come to interview you about the death of that Russian hacker. All you have to tell them is you were asleep. You were so deeply asleep you couldn’t be sure if Konstantin remained all night with you. He might have been, but he could just as easily not have been.”

  “But won’t that mean he could end up in prison?”

  “Not necessarily. It will be up to his defense team to come up with an appropriate defense. You just won’t be supplying him with an alibi.” She leans forward. “He doesn’t deserve it. He promised to pay for your sister’s medical bills and now even though she has nothing to do with the mess he finds himself in, he is punishing her. I think that is despicable behavior.”

  I nod slowly. “Yes, it is despicable behavior. I suppose I won’t really be telling a lie. I do sleep soundly and there could have been many instances during the night when he could have left to murder that poor man and got back into bed with me.”

  I pause, as if I am considering my options. She says nothing.

  “Um… when will I get the money?”

  “As soon as you have testified at the trial.”

  I widen my eyes. “I have to testify in court?”

  “Of course.”

  “Does that mean I will be cross examined?”

  “Yes, but if you stick to your heavy sleeper story, there is not a thing they can do.”

  “Won’t going to court take a very long time?”

  “I am reliably informed Konstantin’s case will be expedited by the judge. He will stand trial in less than two months.”

  I frown. “But my sister needs her treatment before that.”

  “I have spoken to a specialist in the matter, your sister can easily survive for the next six months.”

  “Okay. I’ll do it for Maddy.”

  “Wonderful.” Her voice is full of triumph.

  She thinks she’s got me.

  Raine

  "We are probably one of the last generation of homosapians. Within a century or two, earth will be dominated by entities that are more different from us than we are different from Neanderthals, or from chimpanzees. Because in the coming generations, we will learn how to engineer bodies, and brains, and minds."

  * * *

  – Yuval Noah Harari,

  World Economic Forum,

  When I get home I cook the chicken and Maddy and I eat together. As I watch her eat, I hope and pray I have made the right decision for her. It may all go wrong, but this is the right thing to do.

  For the first time I’m doing what is right.

  Maddy shows me a TikTok video she has found online. I smile at it. She takes the phone from me and starts scrolling through it and for a second, I feel strange fear grip me. The way she is staring at the screen, lost inside that world, makes me think of Konstantin’s words. They want us to be connected to the machine. My sister will be one of those people who will think it is a great idea to take something that will internally connect her. She will never have to worry about reception or her battery running out.

  She has a terrible paranoia about that.

  After we have eaten and the dishes have been washed, we sit in front of the TV in the living room watching Stranger Things. I find it impossible to concentrate. I keep thinking of Helena Barrington. I remember the way Lana almost shrank with fear when Konstantin told her husband she had a message for him. I must not underestimate Helena. She is not just a formidable opponent, but a fearful, ruthless, infinitely powerful one.

  If she can strike fear in the hearts of her own son and daughter-in-law I have to tread very, very carefully. Eventually, the episode ends and Maddy goes off to bed. I sit staring at the TV until my mother comes in. She looks haggard today.

  “Are you all right, Mom?”

  “Yeah. It’ll be good when I can stop this job at the end of the month.”

  I swallow. I gave them all hope and now I’m about to take it all away. I walk up to her and put my finger against my lips. I take her cell phone from her pocket and put it on the side table. She says nothing as I lead her towards the front door. We say nothing while we stand in the lift. She stares at me as if her heart is breaking. She already knows I have bad news for her.

  We get to the street and start walking.

  “What’s going on, Raine?” she asks.

  I tell her everything. About Konstantin’s secret alliance and what they are doing, about the murder of the hacker, about him finding out my betrayal, his reneging on his offer to pay my sister’s medical bills, about Helena Barrington’s one million dollars. Her face becomes white as a ghost and her eyes are filled with horror.

  Then I tell her my plan.

  She clasps her hands together tightly. “Are you sure, Raine?”

  I nod. “I have never been more sure of anything in my life.”

  “But she sounds so dangerous… so evil.”

  “Yes, she is very dangerous and evil, but this is the right thing to do. No matter what happens after, this is the right thing to do.”

  “What if she arranges to hurt or even kill you?”

  “There are worse things than death, Mom. We are all going to become slaves, controlled by a central AI, if Helena’s side wins. I make this sacrifice willingly.”

  “And Maddy?”

  “I think I know how to get help for Maddy too. Let me work on it then I’ll tell you all about it.”

  We say nothing until we get back to the apartment. When we get in, I turn to her. “Are you hungry, Mom?”

  “No.”

  “Shall we just have some chocolate ice cream?”

  “Yes, lets.”

  We sit together at the kitchen table and eat our ice cream. This is the calm before the storm. Soon the police will come to interview me and the whole merry-go-round will start. They will arrest him. They will charge him with murder. Their plan is to break the alliance. I remember the story of the poor little Dutch boy who put his finger in a hole in the dike to stop the water from rushing through and bursting open the old dike, and drowning his entire country. I am that little boy. It is only my finger in the leaking dike that stands between the alliance winning and the end of humanity as we know it.

  Suddenly, my mother’s hand shoots out and grasps mine. “I’m proud of you, Raine. Very proud.”

  I smile at her. I don’t let her see my heart is shattered. The man I love is lost forever.

  Raine

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eM213aMKTHg&ab_channel=LadyAVEVO

  Need You Now

  * * *

  Three weeks pass. I go through the days in a daze. The police call me to come to the station and take my statement, and I find out that Konst
antin is out on a five million bail.

  At first I keep looking at my phone, thinking, hoping Konstantin will call, but he never does. By the middle of the second week I know he is never going to call.

  There is another change in me. I have started to view my phone with extreme suspicion. Now that I understand it is recording my conversations and locations I treat it as a necessary evil. In fact, I am even thinking of getting an analogue phone. That way I can communicate with people, but my conversations won’t be recorded and used for nefarious purposes. I go to Lois’s home and see that she has an Alexa, and my first instinct is to immediately suggest we leave.

  But it is when I see how utterly entranced my sister is with her phone, that I feel real pain. I actually feel the same way someone must if they see their loved ones shooting heroin into their veins.

  I know I must bide my time. Be patient. She is ill and other than the small walk she is allowed every day to give her some fresh air and keep her muscles exercised, she has nothing to look forward to in her life.

  Once she is better I will wean her away from that device and back to the real world.

  Mom doesn’t give her notice. She is unsure of our future and she wants to carry on working for the time being. I just nod even though it breaks my heart to see how tired she is.

  “Maddy, isn’t it time you were in bed?”

  “Yeah, yeah, I’m going,” she says, and uncurls herself from the sofa.

  “Goodnight,” I say, switching off the TV.

  “Nite, nite,” she calls as she disappears into the room where she and Mom sleep in. I lean back and close my eyes. I can hear our neighbors arguing. They have taken to arguing a lot these days. Mom won’t be home for another two hours tonight. She was offered overtime work and she took it.

  I hear the ping of my phone and I am curious who would be texting me at this time of the night as I go to my bedroom and look at it. It is an unknown number. I open the text and stare at it with my heart racing.

  It is just an address and the words. Come now.

  I don’t even think it could be a prank or a hoax or even a dangerous plot that could get me raped or murdered. Intuition tells me exactly who it is. I knock on Maddy’s door and tell her I’m going out for a bit. As I make my way to the elevator, I send a message to my mom to say I might not be home when she comes in. I run into the street and hail a cab. I give the driver the address and sit back.

  My stomach is in knots with sheer excitement. The address is not in the best part of town, in fact it is only a few blocks away. Under normal circumstances I would have walked. I pay the driver and run to the door. On the shiny surface of the elevator I see that my hair is a mess. I was in such a state I didn’t even brush it before I left the house.

  I comb my fingers through my hair quickly.

  My eyes look feverish. I walk down the narrow corridor. I can hear the sounds of TV sets coming from the apartments on either side of me. I take a deep breath, knock on door number 632 and wait. The door opens, before I can say anything, Konstantin puts a finger on my lips.

  He pulls me in and closes the door. For a few seconds, he does nothing, just looks at me, his eyes roving greedily over my face and body, then he catches me and whirls me around so my palms slam into the door.

  He reaches in my skirt and tears away my panties. A small moan escapes my mouth, but he comes close to my ear and says, “Shhh…”

  Then he tilts my hips upwards, crouches down, and swipes his velvety tongue slowly and tantalizingly along the crack of my sex. My stomach curls, but he doesn’t stay for long. It is as if he just wanted one taste.

  He stands and pulls me towards him. I press my body invitingly against his hardness. With the solid heat of his body pressed against me I feel strangely safe. As if the outside world with all its problems and horrors does not exist.

  I feel him grab my hips roughly, and suddenly, without warning and without using any protection he enters me in a fierce thrust. My mouth opens in a startled gasp. He is branding me. It is crude, it is primitive, but it is exactly what I want. I need to take him raw. And if he leaves his seed in me even better.

  He plunges in again, harder.

  I gasp softly.

  I feel him pull apart my buttocks and the next thrust is so hard and so deep that my body jerks like a puppet. My eyes swivel upwards, dimly noticing the ceiling that needs a new coat of paint. All that I need is to be his. Like this. Forever.

  His skin slaps against mine as he fucks me so hard I feel his thighs chafe against mine. He comes inside me in a rush of heat. And I am glad for his seed. I wish one of them will grow inside me. If that is the only thing I can have from him, then so be it.

  “Shhh…” he says again.

  I become still.

  He crouches down again and pushes my skirt up, and looks at my pussy. I can feel his seed leaking out of me. He puts a restraining hand on the small of my back, he licks my swollen sex. Then he does something strange. He opens the curls of my sex and whispers something right into my pussy. Then he licks me clean. Just like a dog.

  My hips start to move. I want him to fill me up again. I’ve been so empty without him.

  While his thumb circles my clit, he pushes his fingers into me and finger fucks me.

  Until I climax, my mouth opening in a silent scream. He doesn’t allow me to turn around and look him in the eye. He pulls me towards him, opens the door, and gives me a slight shove. The door closes and I’m standing in the corridor.

  The sounds of the TV’s follow me all the way to the elevator.

  He’s just treated me like shit, but I love him. I love him so much it hurts.

  Raine

  Weeks pass and as Helena Barrington predicted the date of Konstantin’s trial is set within two months of the time I went to her apartment. I mark the start of it on my calendar and cross another day off before I go to bed.

  Life drags on.

  Our little family seems to be in a limbo. I pretend to be normal, but it’s hard and often I find I am berating myself. If only I had trusted Konstantin and told him earlier about the painting. But I can’t go back and change the past. I can only make the future better by doing the right thing.

  All Maddy knows is there is a slight delay to her procedure. Of course, she knows something is wrong, that Konstantin and I are no longer together, but she doesn’t ask about him, or refer to him as ‘the billionaire’ the way she used to all the time.

  Once I find my mom crying in the bathroom. Instantly, I assume something is wrong with Maddy, but I find out she is crying because of me.

  I stare at her in surprise. “Me? Why me?”

  She drags me over to the mirror. “Look at you,” she says. “Just look at the state of you.”

  In the mirror, I see a stranger’s face. It’s true, there are shadows under my eyes and my face looks gaunt and haunted. I’ve stopped taking care of myself. I hardly look in the mirror anymore because I can’t bear to look into my own eyes. I still feel so guilty, and until Maddy has her procedure I will not stop feeling bad. I can’t help feeling I ruined it all, for me and Konstantin and for her by being a fool.

  I turn away from my reflection and look at her. “It’s okay, it’ll be over soon, Mom.”

  “I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about something else.”

  I frown.

  “You’re pregnant, aren’t you?”

  My eyes widen. “I… I… why do you think that?”

  “When are you due your period?”

  My periods are never regular, but only then do I realize I am late. By more than a week.

  “Yes, I thought so.” She looks at me sadly. “I’m so sorry, honey.”

  I grip her hand fiercely. “Don’t be sorry, Mom. I want this baby. You don’t know how much.”

  She looks into my determined, passionate face and nods. “All right. We’ll manage together. Somehow.”

  “It’ll be fine, Mom. I promise. It’ll be fine.”

  “
Wait here,” she says and leaves the bathroom. She comes back with two pregnancy kits and gives them to me. My mother leaves and I do the test. While I wait for the results I remember again that day when he entered me in that apartment. Not a single word passed between us, and anyone else would have thought it was a quick, rough, ugly encounter, but there was so much need in both of us. It was as if we were starving for each other’s touch.

  To think we conceived a child in that strange encounter. I look down at the stick. There are two clear lines on it.

  I move to the mirror and for the first time in many weeks I look at myself. I touch my stomach and tears of joy fill my eyes. No matter what happens now I can never again regret everything that happened. Because if not for those things this beautiful miracle wouldn’t have happened.

  I tell Lois about my pregnancy.

  “Are you going to keep it?” she asks, surprised.

  “Of course I am. I want this baby.”

  “But you’re not with him anymore. Why do you want his baby?”

  “Because I love him. I love him, Lois. More than you could ever know.”

  “So what are you going to do?”

  I shrug. “I still have fifty thousand in my bank. I might try to buy a small farm somewhere in a faraway land. Somewhere cheap like South America. Grow some vegetables, rear some chickens for their eggs. I fancy the idea of living off the land.”

  “Don’t leave New York, please, Raine,” she pleads.

  “I haven’t made up my mind yet, Lois. It’s just a pipe dream at the moment.”

  She chews her bottom lip. “Aren’t you going to tell him about the baby?”

  “Of course I will.”

  “What do you think he’ll do?”

  “I don’t know. He’s pretty mad with me right now, but I don’t think he can be mad with his own son or daughter.”

  “You know what I think?”

  “What?”