Chapter Thirteen
Rhys
I don’t think I have ever done such things for a woman before as I am right now, nor would I ever have. Today, Vera and I have hardly seen the hotel room. She wanted to go see the sights, and who was I to deny her? I wanted to prove that I could and would give her the world. Call it ego or a power trip, but I was enjoying it.
We got to see almost every important place in Rome, and we had a long and amusing talk about the things that sued to go on in the Colosseum. A saucy woman like Vera would like the idea of men and animals fighting to the death in front of a cheering crowd as if it’s sport. I could see her fitting in well at the time, though she would be a real ball buster for woman, of course.
After that, I surprised her with balcony reservations at the most exclusive restaurant in the city with views of everything s the stars began to come out. I know I a lot of women would see it as a romantic gesture, but I figured Vera would appreciate this for what it was; a show of what she was getting by agreeing to be my wife. I was fighting a battle of sorts myself, trying to prove to her I was the best choice for the future of her gang and all the things he wanted to accomplish.
But as we sat there and our food was all gone, just enjoying the views of Rome, I allowed myself to watch her in a calm state, something I got the feeling she didn’t get to be very often, and I realized something. It was something that both excited me and scared me at the same time.
I was beginning to have feelings other than loathing and lust for Vera.
See, no one, not even a tough, mafia man like me, wants to marry in a business deal, though getting someone smoking hot and tough as nails doesn’t hurt at all. But it was something I thought I was prepared to do, especially when it satisfied the end goal I had to gain the trust back of Ion and Mariana; my king and queen. But it took me by surprise the moment I realized that my end goal was no longer the only thing I wanted out of this.
I looked over at the way the moonlight was hitting the sheen on her golden hair and her shimmering dress, just the way she liked it, and I thought about how tough she was. There was no woman in the world better suited for me or my purposes, so why would I deny a little spark turning into something even stronger if it could make both of us happy?
My goal suddenly became to show Vera I could give her what she deserved so that she would start to open up to me and trust me, in business, in the bedroom, and in her heart. I was such a weak fool for her, and I had never even noticed it.
Now, we are walking out of the restaurant and back onto the night streets of Rome, just strolling with no destination. Vera is talking, and I can tell she has had a lot of wine, and she sounds so excited about all she has experienced today. It makes me smile.
We pass by a gondola, and suddenly I know there is something we must do. I wonder if Vera has even had anyone try to woo her at all. I doubt it, and I know I have to be careful, lest I lose my balls in the process.
"There’s still one thing we must do while in Rome," I say, offering her my arm. She puts her arm inside and walks with me, a little giggle escaping her at the pure cinema of the moment as I lead her to where I can pay to have a gondola ride with her.
I feel her eyes on me, but I look straight ahead as we step onto the boat and take a seat.
"Don’t tell me you’re going all soft on me now, Romanian," she says, elbowing me hard in the ribs.
I growl at her, though I know she is teasing,. This is as close to being intimate as we ever get. And I know I may have to put up with it for a time before I push her into feeling anything more for me than wanting my cock inside her when she needs it.
"I wanted to show you Rome properly. You can’t come here and not do this. You can think of it whatever you wish," I tell her flatly.
"Alright, sounds fair."
I nod in snugness as we take the rest of the ride in silence, but when I reach for her leg, resting my hand there, she doesn’t move it away. I take it as a sign of progress at any rate and just enjoy her presence.
I know when we get back home it won’t be so easy, that I might lose anything I have felt with her here and now, so I will enjoy what I can when I can.
When we complete the ride, I help her out of the boat. "C'mon, Romanian," she says to me with the most devilish look I’ve ever seen. "We have an appointment with that fucking glorious bed."
Chapter Fourteen
Vera
The rain that comes plummeting down from the sky couldn’t be more fitting for this day. I’m standing in the end of an alley while my legs are frozen in position. No part of me dares to move as my eyes have just landed on the body I know so very well. I feel void, like nothing inside of me is alive. I don’t hear my heartbeat, or feel my blood pulsing through my veins. At the sight of her my entire being went silent. Almost as silent as every man surrounding me is, awaiting my reaction.
Waiting for my pain to come barreling out of my body.
Rain drenches my entire body,, and before I know it, I’m soaking wet. Still I’m unable to move, barely able to think and don’t know how I’m still able to breathe. Never in my wildest dreams did I think a nightmare such as this would come to life. I thought I did everything to prevent it, but obviously I was wrong and I failed.
I failed Olena in the worst way possible. I regret every decision that I’ve made regarding her treatment up to this point. I should’ve encouraged her to stay in rehab longer, maybe if I did that I wouldn’t be staring at the lifeless body of my best friend.
“Vera…” Rhys’ voice tries to come off soothing, but it isn’t. Nothing is soothing right now. Instead I feel like he is trying to rush me along, like we have better things to be doing. We do have things that need our immediate attention, but all of it can wait. I’m too busy punishing myself for not doing the things that I should’ve, for not being as strong willed and pushy that I needed to be. “None of this is your fault,” he whispers, wrapping an arm around me from behind.
I rip away from his touch and whip around to face him. All of my hidden emotions coming out of nowhere. “Every part of this,” I whirl my hands in the direction of her body, “is my fault. All of it. There is no question that I am the guilty party here.” I walk away from him and approach her body, kneeling on the ground to see how her color has already faded. She couldn’t have been dead for more than a few hours, but yet all of the life has drained from her body.
I kneel down and run my hand along her soaking wet face, looking over her features. She may have been my best friend, but she was so much more than that. Olena was my sister. Neither of us would’ve survived our tragic childhoods without the other. We’d been through the best of times and the worst, not really sure how we made it through.
Throughout my entire life I never knew what a family felt like until I met her. Not until I was homeless, starving, and met a smart street girl who knew where we could get our next meal. It was only the kindness of a little old woman who worked at a restaurant near the city center that kept us alive. She’d feed us scraps, and we’d take anything we could get. I’ve only ever had to exist in a world where Olena was by my side, if not physically, in my heart.
Now...how am I supposed to live in a world without her?
His hand meets my back in a soothing, circling motion. “I know what you’re doing. You want to blame yourself for this, for this tragic thing that has happened because you need someone to blame. You refuse to blame Olena for her actions, and I understand that ,but Vera…” Rhys pulls my face to look at him. “None of this is your doing. You gave Olena every resource that she could’ve needed in order to get clean. You gave her the chance, the opportunity and the support. Please, you can’t blame yourself for this.” I hear the encouraging words that spill from his lips, but even understanding the logic of what he’s saying doesn’t make me feel any better. My heart is being ripped apart, shredded to a million pieces. My best friend is dead, and I don’t know how on Earth I will ever be able to cope with that.
Honestly,
I don’t think that I ever will be able to.
Chapter Fifteen
Rhys
I tap my foot absentmindedly against the tile floors in my office as I wait for the phone call I had scheduled two days before. Ion is a tough man to get any time with outside of a Clan meeting, so two days is pretty good timing, but it doesn’t mean I don’t feel like I am failing or moving too slow at what needs to be done.
Vera is hanging by a thread right now. I can feel it. I have tried to tell her how much this is not her fault, but I can’t tell if she is still carrying the guilt of Olena’s death with her or not. And even if she isn’t, the grief could consume her if she keeps this up without throwing her emotions into something. It isn’t like she’s into telling me how she feels. I feel like ever since our honeymoon the walls around her have grown twice as high and I have run out of energy to scale them. My best bet is to give her the things he wants.
What she wants is to have her hands in the sex trafficking game, in Russia, in all of eastern Europe eventually, and she wants the drugs gone. She wants the streets of Ukraine clean so that no one else like Olena has to lose their lives over such a horrible addiction. There will be no one to tempt them to continue to use.
But before I go running head first into territories that may belong to our allies or even our enemies, I need to consult Ion. I need not just his permission, but his advice.
My phone finally rings, and I answer it, possibly a little too quickly. But I am ready to find out if I can give Vera, my wife. the world or not.
"Albu, this will have to be quick, but I am interested to know what it is you would like to speak to me about. How are things going in the Ukraine?" he asks, sounding all business. The man is a little up tight sometimes, to say the least, but there is no one that has spent his years learning his shit the same way as Ion.
"I didn’t mean to inconvenience you, but I have to talk with you about an idea that Vera and I have to further our reach. I respect your opinion."
"Mhmm," he offers, clearly wanting me to get on with it. I feel sweat dripping for my brow as I psych myself up to tell him what it is we want.
"Vera has a lot of ideas and ambitions, one of them being...becoming a Madame. She wants to get girls from some of these eastern European countries that would have it so bad, maybe die, without coming to us. She wants to run a clean and fair business for the girls and eventually work with Russia on it."
I hear Ion breathing on the other end and wait for him to give me any indication that I didn’t fuck up by bringing this into the light to begin with.
"We have never thought about such a thing here because of the laws and the way things work. We would never get away with it, and there are few lives we would make better by bringing them in to such a scheme. However, if you are willing to create something where the women are well treated and you can take them from places where the women would be better off, then I back the idea of doing this." I am about to have a victory here before he clears his throat and adds a caveat that I should have known that he would. I know we are walking a fine line here with those enemies that have gotten a foothold because if me. "BUT, do not make us any more enemies in doing this. You be smart about this, Albu. I am counting on you, and so is Mariana. You know what this means to us."
As of I didn’t have enough pressure already...
"I completely understand what you are saying. I know that I have a lot of shit to clean up in this part of the world, and I can’t make any more messes. Thank you for hearing me out, Ion."
"Good luck," he says before hanging up and leaving me to my thoughts...and to get the ball rolling. What better time now than to get my team together to send out there and get women? I want to see Vera happy and with a purpose. A purpose is the best distraction to help her get through all that dark shit that is festering inside of her. And then I can tell her at dinner tonight that we can really do the shit she’s always wanted. I am giving her what she’s asked for.
***
I watch Vera come into the room, just in a pair of jeans and a hoodie, and still somehow she commands a room. She notices all at once, as I stand up to pull out her chair, that this dinner is not typical. I can’t even say that we eat all of them together. Even when we aren’t out on our own business, we sometimes do our own thing. It just works for us, and I still don’t know how she feels about me anyway. I don’t think she hates me so much anymore, but I don’t know if she exactly likes me either.
"Wait, am I underdressed?" she asks, stopping in her tracks, and I chuckle at her before motioning down to my own jeans.
"My idea of the perfect dinner means getting to be comfortable," I tell her and motion for her to sit down. And she makes a show out of it too, raising her eyebrow at me suspiciously. I make sure she has been scooted all in before I sit down myself and pour us some champagne.
"Okay, what the hell is this about, Rhys?" she asks, possibly annoyed at the element of surprise. I take it he is not a woman who likes those, and in her line of work, I guess I can understand that.
"I have some news for you. I talked with Ion today about getting some girls, giving you what you want. I have a team together already. Just say the world about how many girls and where you want them to do," I tell her simply, looking her in there. I see a gleam there for just a moment and wonder if I am finally going to get something real form her before is disappears as quickly as it appeared.
"Anywhere you go, Lana is going with. She is the only person I trust. I will get her ready for this myself," she tells me, taking a bite of her food, no longer looking at me.
I am a little worried about that. Lana is barely legal, a girl, and this is a dangerous job, but I know Vera has been making her a mini me of sorts. I am not about to deny her this, even if I worry about the safety of such a thing. So, I just nod.
"So, what about the drugs? Have you figured out here we need to start with that?" she asks, and I feel my shoulders physically fall. I thought this would be good news here, but it feels like nothing is ever going to be good enough for her.
I angrily get up and leave the table, unable to pretend anymore like this is working.
Chapter Sixteen
Vera
A pair of arms wrap around me in silence, and her scent is what I recognize before I even see her. Olena has a younger sister, one who has been living a life Olena never got to. Unlike my mother, Olena’s woke up one day and decided to do something about her parental failures and made sure that she would never make the same mistakes with Cecilia as she did with Olena. Though, Cecilia had always been close with her sister, she is a different young woman entirely, obsessed with her academics, studying at a school in Germany thanks to her new stepfather. But it doesn’t stop them from looking and smelling almost like twins.
I say nothing and let her hold me, trying to keep the tears at bay. This day is going to be too long and too full of these already. I hate being weak as it is, but I can’t hold back my emotions about her being gone. So, I am settling for a compromise. I am going to limit myself on the amount of tears that I get. The rest can come out in anger as I lash out at my enemies in the near future.
Her mother passes by me with a sad nod and takes her seat. She likely blames herself as much as I blame me for what happened. I decided to hold a memorial for her at the mansion, just those closest to her and my men. She is here in spirit, one lone photograph from when she was clean sitting at the front of the foyer. Her smile is so bright it’s hard to believe she ever had the darkness inside her capable of drawing her to do drugs to begin with. But looks can be deceiving and pasts can haunt you even when life is a s good as it can get. I know that just as much as she did.
Cecilia lets me go and walks around me, and I can’t help but to hold back a gasp. The last time I saw her she certainly looked like her sister, but she has grown now into a young woman, and both her height and her beauty now match Olena's exactly. We squeeze hands for a moment before she joins her mother.
The room is full, and
it is almost time for this thing to start. I plan on keeping it simply, a few kind words, the usual religious bits that are just supposed to be there, and then a goodbye.
I feel his presence as my husband falls in sync with me silently, and we take our seats right in front. We haven’t shared more than two words since he stormed out on dinner.
I would be a dumb ass not to know it is my fault we are like this; so cold and business -like. I know that he wants more. I can feel it., I can see it in all the things he has done for me, even if he hasn’t exactly said the words. But I don’t trust in anything like this enough to give in.
Deep down I am angry at myself for keeping him at an arm’s length and continually pushing him away. I may be a bitch, and I may have gotten into this for the power, I will never deny that. But that doesn’t mean I want to be in a marriage for the next decade or even longer where I despise the man I sleep next to.
People talk all the time about how a relationship between two damaged people CAN work, but I have never witnessed it. Someone always ends up regretting that they met the other in the first place.
I think of my mother and father as a prime example. My mother was a druggie, one who loved the drugs so much she abandoned her children and their needs and put them in the care of a man who not only could not function as an adult without her but had never truly had a heart for much of anyone, especially his own seed. It was a throw away thing, and somehow he felt no connection to us. So, when the money ran dry, he just lessened his load of mouths to feed. So fucking simple. No second thought at all.
And the last words I heard either of them speak about each other were filled with loathing.
I sometimes wonder if they would have been different people had they met and fell in love with someone else instead of each other. If they were horrible people because they MADE each other that way. And that is what I am afraid of. that I am so damn toxic I will ruin any shred of humanity Rhys has left inside of him. I will make him bitter, and we will despise each other. I don’t know if I will want to live through that if it’s the consequence of giving into him and his charms.
Anguish Page 52
