Frank Kurns Boxed Set

by Natalie Grey

  “Then you don’t have to.” He promised her. He brushed her hair behind her ears. “Hey, you remember Dmitri?”

  Yelena sniffed and wiped at her eyes. She nodded. “Yeah, why?” When the two of them were younger, they had spent whole holidays at Dmitri’s kennel, learning how to train the dogs, and playing with the puppies. Dmitri had been forty or so then. His public demeanor was gruff, but he’d been kind to the two children.

  “Well, Inger—one of the bitches now—just had another litter. I bet he’d let you help out at the kennel if you wanted.”

  Yelena shook her head, dispirited. “I’d just get in his way. When we were kids, it was fine, but now I would be imposing.”

  “No, you always had a way with dogs, remember?” Alec nudged her. “You really did. I bet he’d ask you to help, if he knew you were back.”

  Yelena smiled back, chin trembling. The thought of staying here was crazy. She had a job back home. All of her things were in the apartment she shared with Ciprian. She couldn’t really stay here, could she?

  Maybe just for a couple of days. She could call in sick to work. She smiled recklessly back at her twin. “Okay. I’ll stay. Probably just for the weekend.”

  Alec knew better than to push her, “Uh-huh. You get some sleep, okay? I’ll take you to see the puppies tonight.”

  Yelena hunched her shoulders against the winter wind outside the kennel. She was wearing some of Alec’s old pants and a heavy down vest, warm enough for early winter, but her fingers were going numb holding the phone. “Ciprian—”

  “Just come home, Yelena.” He sounded desperate. “I messed up, baby. I don’t know what I was thinking.”

  “What you were thinking again, you mean?” She retorted. When she walked in on him with their neighbor, she remembered that she had only felt tired and numb. Now, she could feel herself starting to get angry. “You said you’d never even talk to her again. How did this happen?”

  “Yelena—”

  “You know what?” she snapped. “I don’t even want to know. I have to go.”

  “Yelena.” It sounded like he was crying. “Yelena, please.”

  “I have to go,” she repeated, but she was shaken. Ciprian never cried. He would yell and be cold with her, but he never cried.

  She could hear him sob, “Yelena, I’d give anything to have you back.”

  Her voice went cold, “How can I believe that when you couldn’t stay away from her? You’ve been a jerk for months, Ciprian. You don’t deserve to have me around.”

  “It’s different now!” He sounded panicked, like a prize was getting away. “When I realized you were gone, I went crazy. I’ve never been that afraid.” He paused, just a second. Just enough time to feel…honest. “Tell me I haven’t lost you, baby.”

  You haven’t. Of course I’ll come back. Yelena bit her lip.

  She knew she shouldn’t say those words, but she had been weak when it came to him. Ciprian was the one guy wanted by every other woman she knew—and she’d won him.

  Unfortunately, the satisfaction of winning him had blinded her to how much of a jerk he really was.

  “Please.” His voice cracked again. And then, desperately, “At least think about coming home, Yelena, please. It’s not just us, it’s your job. It’s everything.”

  “I hate my job,” she spat out.

  “You’ve been having a hard time—that doesn’t mean you should walk away from everything! You have friends there. We have a life together. You can’t just throw it all away! If you—”

  “Fine.” Gott Verdammt! She’d give anything to make him stop talking.

  He echoed everything she’d been thinking last night. This was crazy, people didn’t just quit their job and move back to the town where they grew up. She was being a baby, and she knew it. She looked down at the ground.

  She didn’t want to go back to it all, but Ciprian had a point … didn’t he? She might not stop herself from saying something, but damned if she would totally capitulate to that ass. “Fine, I’ll think about it.”

  She hung the phone up before she could say anything else. Putting the phone back in her pocket she stamped her feet to warm herself up. She should go back in, but needed a moment or two to think.

  She looked around at the trees admitting to herself she didn’t have the first idea what to do. Alec would be disappointed if he knew she’d even said she’d think about going back to Ciprian. But they had been together for two years, and in the beginning, she had been happy, hadn’t she?

  How could she just turn around and walk away. God, relationships suck and monumental relationships sucked worse.

  Alec poked his head out the back door of the kennel. “You done with your call?”

  “Yeah.” Yelena nodded and headed in.

  “Who were you talking to?” She heard the worry in his voice.

  She tried to give herself an easy out, “Work.”

  He wasn’t fooled, “It was Ciprian, wasn’t it?”

  “Alec, let it be please.” She pushed past him, annoyed with herself. “I don’t want to talk about it, okay?”

  Luckily for her, he didn’t get a chance to answer.

  “Hey, there!” Dmitri called to them from across the room. The big, barrel-chested, man came to enfold Yelena in a hug. “Yelena! Good to have you back.” He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her across the room. She could hear the yipping of dogs beyond. “So how long are you staying?” His eyes full of joy.

  “I don’t know,” she admitted. She smiled up at him. Once, he had seemed impossibly tall to her. She’d teased him about the salt and pepper in his hair. Now it was all grey, and she was almost as tall as he was, “So, I hear there’s a new litter?”

  “Right here.” He held a door open for her and led her over to a large enclosure. Several black balls of fluff tumbled over one another, yipping, while Inger, a massive German Shepherd, reclined in the corner. She looked immensely pleased with herself.

  “Oh, look at them!” Yelena smiled as she reached down to brush her hands over one of the puppies. It tipped over, barked, then righted itself with a shake of its fur.

  At this stage, the puppies looked like little bear cubs. She patted one on the head and laughed as another toddled toward her. “This one! She’s so tiny!”

  “Oh, that’s … yeah.” Dmitri rubbed his hand through his hair and shrugged. “She’s the runt, and no mistake about it. I don’t think anyone’s going to take her.”

  “But she’s so fierce.” Yelena laughed as the puppy struggled for freedom in her arms, giving a growl that was not as intimidating as the puppy hoped. “There, there, little one, you’re safe. You’re safe.” She sat down and let the puppy roam about on her lap. In this moment, she was perfectly content. She watched as the puppy asserted itself, trying to sit proudly and puff out its chest. “Look at her, Dmitri!” Yelena looked up at the older man, then back down at the little puppy, “She’s perfect.”

  Dmitri squatted down next to her. He looked dubious as he scratched his chin. “You have a name for her?”

  “Hmm.” Yelena picked the puppy up and put it right in front of her face. It opened its jaws to try to bark at her, and got caught in a yawn. She laughed and put it down, and the little black puppy snuggled against her.

  Yelena smiled as an image formed in her head. In it, the puppy was the size of a small pony and its fierce growl had the other puppies cringing and rolling onto their backs.

  Yelena’s smile slowly faded as she noticed more details of the image. Things like it being a little out of focus and the whole scene lacked good three dimensional detail, looking flat.

  One last thing started her frowning. She had no control over the image, she could not change the details to better reflect reality. The image faded, as the little puppy’s legs started twitching and she fell asleep.

  “Yelena?” Alec shook her shoulder gently.

  “Hmm? What?”

  Alec pointed at the puppy in her lap, “Dmitri asked
if you had a name for this one.”

  “Oh.” Yelena looked away from the puppy, thinking of the little scene she had in her mind. “Hmm, Bellatrix?”

  “Bellatrix?” Dmitri raised an eyebrow. “Big name for a little pup.”

  Yelena looked at the little puppy, all snuggled in her lap. “It means, lady warrior and bringer of light.”

  “That’s an even bigger name,” Alec laughed. But he reached out to stroke the puppy’s head and Yelena felt contentment radiating from the little ball of fur.

  “I like it, though,” Yelena told him. She looked over as Dmitri scooped the puppy off your lap annoyed. “Hey, I wasn’t done cuddling!”

  Dmitri shrugged, “Well, you’ll have to come back tomorrow and help me train them, then, won’t you?” He grinned. “Your brother told me you might like to. I’d be glad to have you. Never met anyone who can communicate with dogs the way you can.”

  Yelena wavered, “I really should go back to my job….”

  “Just stay a week,” Alec suggested. “Say Mama’s sick or something, they’ll let you take off work.”

  Yelena wavered, but Bellatrix’s pitiful mewl caught her heart strings and jerked them hard. She smiled and reached out to tickle the puppy’s stomach. “Okay, one week. Then I go back to the real world,” she promised herself.

  Chapter Two

  “Because I like it here!” Yelena’s voice rang out. There was a chorus of yips from the other room, and she lowered her voice to a whisper. “I’m happier than I’ve been since before I met you, Ciprian.”

  It was true. The last week had been amazing. Every day, the puppies learned something new. Their mother had taken to escaping over a small partition to rest, and only a few of the puppies had figured out how to climb over it and follow her. To Yelena’s pride, Bellatrix was one of them.

  The little puppy was still smaller than the rest, but she was absolutely determined that nothing would slow her down. She would nap in Yelena’s arms for a few minutes after her exertions, and then Yelena would set her down so she could go back to playing, climbing, play-fighting.

  She didn’t follow her brothers and sisters anymore. She explored on her own, utterly fearless.

  “Don’t be ridiculous.” She could practically see Ciprian rolling his eyes. “What are you going to do, work in a kennel for the rest of your life? Wear flannel? Date someone who works in a factory?” he ridiculed her.

  “I didn’t say I was going to—” Yelena started.

  “You don’t have a plan.” He lectured her like she was a small child. “You’re just throwing a tantrum, Yelena. You want me to believe that you would actually stay somewhere there’s no hope for a career? That you’d live in a little cabin? Is there anything in that town?”

  Yelena pressed her lips together angrily. Ciprian couldn’t imagine a life here, that much was clear. At one point, she had felt the same way he did. There was no place for a career here, no way for her to earn as much money as she could in the city.

  But she didn’t miss any of it: not the fancy restaurants, not the suits, nor the elegant apartment. She liked slipping into jeans and a warm shirt at the start of the day, pulling her hair back in a ponytail rather than taking an hour to blow dry it.

  She liked not having to wear makeup. And now that she wasn’t watching women in thousand-dollar dresses throw themselves at Ciprian, she was beginning to realize he wasn’t much of a catch, either.

  She was wondering what the hell had made that fish not smell so bad earlier.

  Ciprian hadn’t realized what she was thinking. “You don’t have to say anything.” He sounded so smug that she wanted to punch him. “Just don’t hurt yourself because we had a little spat. You don’t want me to move on and find someone else while you’re gone, do you?”

  A little spat? Her eyes drew together, her teeth clinched.

  “That is not what happened.” She was shaking in her anger. “What happened is that we broke up, asshole.”

  “What?” He laughed. He actually laughed at her.

  “I said, because apparently we have a bad connection, is we broke up.” She paused a moment to think about it, then added, “No, really, I broke up with you. You cheated on me Ciprian—again if you don’t remember—and I left.”

  Damn, this felt good!

  She smiled out at the view of the valley, leaning back in the chair. “So don’t call me anymore. I’m staying here. And you know what? Don’t find anyone else. It’s not about me wanting you—it’s for their good. No one should have to put up with your shit. Goodbye.”

  She hung up. She was shaking, breath coming fast. Had she actually just done that? Had she broken up with him?

  Every woman she knew was crazy about Ciprian, and she’d been the one who got him. She’d be crazy to give that up. She visualized what she always did when she made him angry and he left the apartment in a huff. Him, going out to a club and a dozen women, prettier than she was, throwing themselves at him.

  But somehow, instead of making her sick with fear, the thought didn’t hurt at all right now. For the first time in months, she felt happy. The idea of never talking to him again made her feel like she could fly.

  “Hey.” Dmitri’s voice made her jump. He was at the door to the main room. “You all right? I heard shouting.”

  She started nodding her head, “I’m all right.” Yelena could not stop smiling. “I’m better than all right.”

  “Good.” He smiled as well. “I have an idea. How about you take Bellatrix home tonight?”

  Yelena’s eyes opened, “What? Really?”

  Dmitri shrugged, “Yeah. She’s old enough—eight weeks today, actually. I think it would be good for her to explore a new place. You know I’ll never be able to sell her as a guard dog. And ... it’d take a heart of stone to split you two up.” He grinned wickedly, “Just be careful she doesn’t go on your rugs, ok?“

  Yelena got up from the chair, feeling too damn good to be sitting still, “I will Dmitri, my Mama would flip out.”

  She might flip out anyway, but Yelena would be able to say … well, she’d be able to say that she’d be getting her own place soon.

  Because she was staying. She really could not stop smiling.

  “All right, then.” Dmitri held open the door to let her pass, “Come get a crate and some blankets.”

  Hundreds of miles away, a door slammed and Ciprian made his way down the stone stairs of his apartment building, fuming.

  He was wrapping a Burberry scarf around his neck, pulling on leather gloves that fit him perfectly. Normally, putting on the clothes that showed his wealth made him happy. He knew how good he looked. Men got out of his way on the sidewalk and women looked at him appreciatively—sometimes they did more than just look.

  Right now, nothing even dented the fury in his chest. She was leaving him. She was leaving him? No one left him, ever!

  He paused on the landing two floors down and looked speculatively at their neighbor’s door. She would ask him inside. She would pour him a brandy and go slip into something lacey, and when Yelena finally came home, she’d find that Ciprian had moved on.

  She’d beg to get him back.

  The thought should have made him smile, but it only infuriated him. He left without knocking on the neighbor’s door, walking out into the sun.

  He found himself walking without purpose, fairly snarling at people to get out of his way. Dammit, he was going to be one of the city’s highest powered attorneys within a year. Certainly worth millions within a few years.

  Yelena was throwing a fit, but she shouldn’t even dare to think for a second, she shouldn’t even dare to pretend that she thought she could do better without him in her life. When she came home she would realize…

  He stopped, staring around himself for a moment, taking in the area, the cars, the people and forced himself to stop ignoring the truth.

  The truth that was making him so angry, and the realization of the truth didn’t make him any happier.


  She really wasn’t coming back.

  When she’d hung up on him this last time, he could feel she’d meant it. She wasn’t coming back. She didn’t even miss him. She’d just walked out without so much as a by-your-leave and she was happy without him.

  He ground his teeth. Then he set off, with a purpose this time.

  To the train station.

  Like hell she was going to leave him.

  Chapter Three

  Bellatrix toddled across the unfamiliar rug, a jumble of not-quite-coordinated puppy legs, until she came to an obstacle. She mewled piteously and looked up at Yelena.

  “You can do it.” Yelena sat cross-legged nearby and smiled down at her. When Bellatrix tried to come snuggle against her, it took resolve not to hug the puppy close. “No, you have to be brave. Come on. Over the books.” She trailed her fingers up one side of the stack of books and down the other. “Come on, you can do it. Then you get a bit of bread,” she whispered to the little puppy, looking at the door to the room, “if you promise not to tell Mama.”

  Emboldened by the promise of treats, Bellatrix propped her front legs up on the books and tried to climb up the side.

  “No.” Yelena started laughing at the spectacle. “You have to jump, Bellatrix. Come on. You can do it!”

  A knock sounded at the door and she looked down at the puppy, smiling. “Come on.” The knock came again and she remembered that she was the only one in the house right now.

  Alec was off skiing, her father had gone to help someone trim a tree that was threatening to fall on a nearby roof, and her mother had gone to the market. “Coming!” She yelled out as she stood up and brushed off her pants.

  She pointed at the little black ball of fur, “You need to keep practicing.”

  She made her way through the house, still smiling as Bellatrix yipped piteously after her. Yelena paused briefly when the image came to her.