by Cher Etan
“I wish I could say the same to you Tony. You’ve been busy,” she replied hands on hips.
“Have I?” he asked as if he had no idea what she was on about.
Natalia inclined her head to the side, “Do you have my money or not?”
“Oh I have it. But I also have conditions,” Tony said.
“What kind of conditions?” Natalia sneered.
“Nothing too strenuous. You have to agree to leave us alone forever and we should never hear from you again,” Tony said.
“Or what?” Natalia asked contempt in her tone.
“Or I will be forced to take steps,” Tony replied. Natalia sauntered forward to lean on his desk.
“Darling, what steps do you think you can take against me?” she asked leaning forward so he could see down her blouse. Tony looked away and twisted his lips in disgust.
“I have some friends in very low places,” he murmured.
Natalia laughed, “I’ll pit your friends against my friends any day of the week.”
“I’ll take that bet,” Tony said turning to face her with a glare.
Natalia stopped laughing rather abruptly, “Let’s get down to business. You have my money?”
“Of course. You haven’t agreed to my conditions though,” Tony said.
“Look. Tony. Clearly you don’t understand what’s going on. This is the only thing that’s going on, you give me that money and I don’t kill your child.”
“You’d have to find him first,” Tony said.
“Who says I don’t know where he is?”
Tony tilted his head to the side and gave her a small smile. “Where is he Natalia?”
Natalia stared at him narrowing her eyes in suspicion. “What do you mean by that?” she demanded.
“Did you really expect us to sit around and wait for you to attack?” he asked her.
Natalia stared at him grinding her teeth. “You think you’re so clever but you aren’t. I don’t need to know where he is right this minute to kill him. Either way he’s still dead,” she ground out.
Tony nodded his head “Well that’s unfortunate”, he said. “Crowley?” he raised his voice.
Natalia stiffened and turned around looking this way and that. She leapt for the door but there was a slight sound in the air and suddenly there was a dart in her neck. She scrabbled for the door but before she could open it her legs gave out beneath her. Two men stepped out of Tony’s bathroom and stood over her. Her eyes were open and they darted from one to the other as her mouth opened and closed like a fish.
“Don’t strain yourself sister. Your vocal cords are as paralyzed as the rest of you.” Crowley told her. Tony came and stood over her as well.
“What now?” he asked his father.
“Now we deliver her to Popov as agreed along with the deed to this business. He takes care of her, and he keeps the Bratva off your back,” Crowley said.
“And we leave town,” Roman said. Tony nodded.
“We have to wait until Cara can be moved,” he said.
“Indeed, it’ll take a while to relocate anyway. And Mikhail hasn’t agreed to go yet,” Roman said.
Tony nodded again reaching down to take one of Natalia’s arms. His father took the other and Crowley slipped a piece of carpeting beneath her body. He rolled her in it, and Tony saw that he’d cut holes in it so she could breath. He picked her up and slung her over his shoulder like she weighed nothing. Tony and Roman watched him walk away.
“Will this work?” Tony asked Roman.
“I think so,” he replied.
*****
All six vehicles converged at their home and created a shield between any snipers still positioned in the neighborhood and the front door. Tony and Roman drew up a few minutes later and Tony took the stairs two at a time to get to Sophie and Benjy. They were waiting in the lounge and threw themselves into his arms even as he rushed in.
“Are you alright?” Tony asked as he stroked Sophie’s head over and over.
“We’re fine. You?” She asked in turn.
“I’m great. Are you ready to move house and everything that goes with it?”
“I always liked the idea of living in a state with perpetual sunlight,” she said into his shoulder.
“You’ll love California then,” he said.
“I’m sorry about the April Shower,” she said.
“Hey. Small price to pay,” he said reaching between them to ruffle Benjy’s hair. He was surprisingly pliant for having been squeezed between his parents. They separated reluctantly and Tony looked around the room. His eyes fell on Solomon and Kat, sitting side by side on the settee while Sam drew pictures on the floor between them.
“Sol I know you just got settled in college-“ he began before Solomon interrupted.
“Don’t even say it. California is great and I’m sure they have colleges there too.”
Tony looked at Katarina, “Kat, we can’t ask you to come with us but it’d probably be safer for you if you did. I would urge you to think about it. I’ve been looking into it and there are some excellent autism facilities in the state.”
Kat smiled at him, “I have thought about it and Sol and I have discussed it in detail. I too think I’d be safer with you than without you and there is nothing really holding me here. So if you will have me, I would like to come with you.”
“We’ll have you,” Sophie said smiling. Solomon put his arm around her and smiled.
“Grandpa,” Sophie began.
“You know you don’t have to ask,” Elijah said.
“Then it’s decided, the Romanov-Devereauxs are off California!” Tony declared with a wide smile.
Epilogue
The house in Napa Valley was surrounded by three acres consisting of an orange grove, three satellite cottages and a five bedroom bungalow. Kat, Sam and Solomon settled in one cottage and Elijah and Roman took one each. Tony, Sophia and Benjy moved into the bungalow. Sophie speculated about growing grapes for wine on the weekends while she still ran the Romanov Group’s financial division during the week with Curtis.
Curtis had stayed in Boston wrapping up business at the headquarters. He saw Robbie on occasion but was afraid to get too close since it was possible he’d be moving to California as well. That is until Robbie said he had no particular attachment to Boston and went where the job took him. So Curtis asked Sophie about taking Robbie on as permanent security in California. Sophie, being the good friend she was and having a genuine liking for Robbie, was happy to oblige.
Elijah joined a poker league with Roman. He flirted gently with the woman who ran it; they went out for drinks now and then, made each other laugh. Eventually he invited her to Sunday lunch much to everyone’s excitement.
Solomon completed his advanced training as an art teacher and joined a program working with autistic children like Sam. He and Katarina eventually tied the knot and moved out of the cottage to an apartment closer to Solomon’s workplace.
Tony opened two more businesses; one in Las Vegas and the other in Hawaii – they holiday there every year as a family during the Christmas break.
The end.
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More Books By Cher Etan And Friends
If you enjoyed that, you'll love Steven And Julie by J A Fielding (sample and description of what it's about below).
Description:
A complete boxed set collecting all 9 parts of the popular Homes And Hearts series by best seller J A Fielding. Bundle over 800 pages long.
Billionaire Londoner Steven has moved to America to expand his house renting business.
Here he meets Julie, an estate agent who may just be the person to help him get the properties he's after.
But what starts as a mutual business relationship soon turns into a whole lot more!
Join Steven and Julie as they become lovers, business partners, and loving parents.
Witness their wedding, their baby making, ups and downs and more.
Suitable for over 18s only due to passionate love making scenes between a handsome billionaire and his curvy Nubian queen.
Collects all 9 parts of the best selling Homes And Hearts series:
1. Home Is Where The Heart Is.
2. Jealousy and Trust.
3. My Man, My Family.
4. The Proposal.
5. The Other Man.
6. The Wedding.
7. The Honeymoon.
8. My Billionaire Baby Wish.
9. Billionaire Baby Bump.
Sample:
Julie Parker was having one of those mornings from hell. She had slept right through her alarm for the third time that week. As she got dressed she was cursing under her breath and wondering what she was going to tell her boss this time round. She was quite sure that Dana, her boss, was getting quite tired of her excuses. Julie could almost hear Dana’s questions ringing in her head.
“Why don’t you move closer to work?”
“Why don’t you just get a louder alarm clock?”
She put on a pink high waist satin skirt and a white long-sleeved blouse. She coupled her outfit with a pair of black shiny pointy toed heels and then grabbed her bag before she ran out of her room and into the kitchen.
“Great. Even dad made it out of here earlier than me. How pathetic is that?” she wondered as she nibbled on a bacon strip. She looked at her breakfast and frowned. She hated having to skip breakfast especially after her father had so lovingly prepared it for her. She looked at the time and sighed before she grabbed her keys and got out of the house. She decided she would get a bagel and a cup of coffee when she got to work. When she got to her car, she got inside and started it. As if her morning wasn’t bad enough, it seemed her car was not going to give her an easy time either. “Damn it!” she yelled as she banged her hand on the steering wheel. As soon as she did it, she knew it was a bad idea. She got out of the car and banged the door angrily as she rubbed the side of her hand. She took her phone out of her bag and called for a cab. Thankfully, the company had a cab a few blocks from her place, so she only had to wait for…fifteen minutes. After she was done talking to the cab company, she dialed Dana. She could feel her heart beating fast as she heard the phone ringing.
“Dana, Hi….I’m running late,” Julie said. She could almost hear Dana’s tired sigh at the end of the line.
“Slept through the alarm again, didn’t you?” Dana asked.
“Yes and…my car won’t start,” Julie replied feeling almost too guilty.
“Let’s just add that to the list of things you need to get,” Dana said. “When do you think you’ll be here?” she asked.
“I just called for a cab so it might be a while seeing as it takes me more than an hour to get to the office,” Julie promised. “I’m really sorry Dana, I’ll stay in an extra hour today to make up for it,” she added guiltily.
“Damn right you will,” Dana snapped before she hung up.
Just as Julie had predicted, she did not get to work until a little after ten. She hated that her workspace was so close to Dana’s office. She could never really sneak in, but then again she had an angel’s morality sense. She had just sat down when Dana walked over to her desk.
“You know, you could just lease a new car, right?” she asked as she looked at Julie.
“Yeah, but I’d rather not. I am not in a great financial position right now,” Julie admitted. Dana smiled and nodded.
“Well then, I have the perfect job for you. This property mogul from England is in town looking for a house. I thought you could show him some of the properties around town,” Dana said. Julie frowned.
“A property mogul?” Julie asked.
“That’s what the call from the London office said and the meeting is right now. So, you better get going,” Dana announced.
“Wait. Where am I supposed to meet this mogul?” Julie asked as she stood up from her desk. Dana gave her a post-it with an address written on it. “Dana this is on the other side of town,” she responded looking at her boss. “Wait, is this...” she started asking before she noticed Dana nodding. She had seen that house before and fallen in love with it. She could hardly believe that she was getting the chance to show it. “Wow, I never thought it would be me,” Julie confessed still looking at the address.
“Well it is and you are running late.”
“But the car…”Julie started before Dana shook her head.
“The show must go on,” Dana replied assertively. Julie rolled her eyes.
“This isn’t theater you know,” Julie retorted “And the fact is, traffic is a bitch right now. I will never get there in time.”
“You will just have to try,” Dana said as she walked away from her desk. Julie wanted to scream. She hated taking cabs to meet with prospective clients and to make it worse, it was a property mogul. An English property mogul. If there was something she was sure about as far as Englishmen were concerned was time, and thanks to her good for nothing car, she was already late. She practically bolted out of the office and made her way to the elevator. This was one of those days she wished she had on some nice flat shoes or that her office had no strict dress code. Luckily, she managed to get a cab almost as soon as she got out of the building, and as luck would have it, getting across town was not as difficult as it usually was. Traffic was actually minimal on that particular day.
“There is a god,” she thought as she got out of the cab. She paid the cab driver and then turned around to look at the house in front of her. It was the most perfect property she had ever laid eyes on. It had everything an estate agent could ever hope for: it had the most perfect driveway donned with a perfectly manicured lawn and the brick finish of the house was just the icing on the cake. She was still looking at the house when she heard a car pulling up. She turned around and smiled at a tall dark-haired man getting out of a white Range Rover.
“Hi, you must be Julie Parker,” he questioned as he walked towards her. She could not help but notice just how perfect he looked. He actually reminded her of Christian Grey on Fifty Shades of Grey. He was almost exactly like him. He was in a pale blue shirt and a pinstripe gray suit. He looked really simple, but she was sure that his attire, simple as it was, probably cost more than her house. She didn’t even realize that she had been staring at him all this time. “Miss Parker?” he asked as he looked at her, snapping her out of her trance.
“I’m sorry…yeah… I am Julie…Parker,” she said. The man smiled at her and nodded.
“Yeah, I kind of just said that.”
Julie felt her cheeks get hot.
“Sorry…” her words trailed off when she realized that Dana had not given her his name
“Steven Davenport,” he said as he stretched out his hand to shake hers. “Pleasure to meet you.” She almost melted at his unmistakable British accent.
“Julie Parker,” she told him. She let her gaze drop to the floor when she realized that she had just said her name for the umpteenth time. “Sorry,” she apologized, smiling at him embarrassed.
“Shall we take a tour of the house?” Steven asked looki
ng at her.
“Sure,” she said as he walked towards the front door.
“So, I have to say that I really love the brick finish. It makes me feel like I’m back home in London,” Steven admitted looking around.
“I’m glad you like it. But I am sure you will like everything about this house,” Julie replied confidently as they entered.
“I hope so,” he replied.
“So, it is a three bedroom, four bath, two story house complete with hardwood floors. I should point out that everything in the house is one hundred percent original, nothing has been replaced and it is still in great condition,” Julie described as Steven walked around the gigantic living room. She had to admit, the house was perfect.
“The lighting is amazing in here,” he gasped as he looked around.
“Yeah, that’s one of the perks of the property,” she said chuckling. “Come this way, you haven’t seen the master bedroom yet.” She walked out of the living room and up the stairs. When they walked into the master bedroom, even she wanted to move in. It was so big that Julie thought that she could comfortably fit four king sized beds and still have plenty of room. “Mr. Davenport if you don’t take this house, I will,” she quipped.
“What?” he asked looking at her.
“Well, it would probably take me years to pay it off, but this room is most definitely worth it,” she said, looking out of the huge window that overlooked the driveway below.
“You would buy an entire house just for one room?” He chortled.
“Oh yeah,” she said nodding. “If this was my room, I would never leave.” Steven looked at her and smiled.
“So far I am impressed but I still have to see what the kitchen looks like,” he told Julie, still looking at her. She raised an eyebrow and felt her cheeks flush.
“You cook?” she asked surprised.
“Every decent Davenport cooks. Some families have law or medicine as their legacy, but ours is in our culinary abilities,” Steven divulged as they walked out of the bedroom. Before they went downstairs, they looked at the other two bedrooms. Steven commented that the two other bedrooms were just going to be guest rooms. If his guests didn’t like them then they should probably have stayed at their own houses. Julie was smiling as she led him downstairs to the kitchen. When they got there, she suddenly felt as if she was looking at Chef Ramsey because he was busy talking about the counter tops, the storage cabinets…everything that a professional chef would be obsessed with.
