I stood looking down at the bay area. Olivia, oblivious to me, walked across the bay before starting up the steps. Her eyes raised to me and widened when she saw me standing there.
I motioned for her to move into my office. Every time I thought about how she felt in my arms, I got hard. I wonder if she had any idea how close I had come to completely losing control last night. I was the king of control. I found it bewildering that around her, I barely had any.
“What are you doing?” I asked, following her into my office.
“I miss Sasha.” Over her shoulder, she gave me a self-conscious smile. “It just feels a bit lonely upstairs.”
For half a moment, I debated buying her a puppy, but considering how unstable everything was right now, that wasn’t even a reasonable thought.
“I’m sure he misses you too.” I moved to my desk.
My cell phone rang. I stared down at Amelia’s number. I felt a mild curiosity over why she was calling me. I wanted to ignore her calls, but if I didn’t handle this, she might start calling Mica or, worse, his mom again.
I looked at Olivia. “Don’t go away.” Then I answered in Russian, “Andrusha speaking.”
“It’s me,” Amelia breathed into the phone.
I rubbed the back of my neck. “Yeah.”
“Is that all you have to say to me?” she cried.
“You called me.”
Her tone went pouty. “Darling, it’s been so long since we’ve talked.”
The last time we had seen each other had been on one of my leaves from the military. We had booked into a hotel and fucked like bandits all weekend, scarcely leaving the bed. I wouldn’t be able to remember our last conversation if my life depended on it.
“I don’t remember the last time we saw each other,” I lied.
“My husband—he passed away a few months ago.”
“My condolences.”
“Don’t you understand what this means? We’re free to be together.”
Olivia moved to the window and stared down at something below.
Mild curiosity about Amelia’s angle kept me in the conversation. “Our time has passed.”
“You can’t mean that.”
“You made that decision when you married an old man for money.”
“You don’t understand how hard it was for me. I needed to marry someone who could provide for me. You can’t blame me for my choices.”
“I don’t blame you for anything,” I stated flatly.
“Why are you acting like this?”
“You sent your sister to meet me at the train. Telling me what you had done was your job.”
“How could I meet you? How could I come and tell you that I was already married to someone else?”
I couldn’t seem to take my eyes off Olivia. Completely unaware of me, she reached above her head and stretched her back. Her T-shirt rode up her thin waist.
I worked to focus on my conversation with Amelia. “You disrespected me by not telling me in person.”
“I was so young, Andrusha! I couldn’t bear to face you, the man I loved, and tell you what I had done.”
This conversation was beyond frustrating. It was also years too late. I no longer cared, so I remained silent.
“I still love you.” Her voice was soft, beckoning.
Olivia moved to the couch and glanced at me. She was holding one of Sasha’s stuffed animals.
I covered the mouthpiece of my phone and spoke in English, “What is it?”
Her question was adorable. “Do you think we should bring this to Charlie and Mica’s place?” She was angling for a visit with Sasha, which made me smile.
“He’ll probably be back for another visit soon. He needs some toys here.”
“Who are you talking to?” Amelia demanded. “Do you have a woman there?”
Amelia was notoriously jealous. I switched back to speaking Russian. “Do you think that I’ve sat around pining for you for the last eight years? Or maybe you thought that when you snapped your fingers, I’d come crawling back?”
“Andrusha, we have a timeless love. Something that can overcome distance, time, or any mistakes that either of us have made.”
I had no idea why I was indulging this conversation except that it was enlightening to see a side of Amelia that I seemed not to have noticed when I was younger. “I wasn’t the one who made the mistakes.”
“You could have taken better care of me! You could have shown me that you had ambitions. That you wanted to be more than a soldier.”
“I didn’t. I never wanted to be anything but a soldier.”
“And that was your mistake. You gave me no choice.”
Her blame made me lash back. “You chose to sell the best years of your youth and beauty away for money. That was entirely your decision.”
She gasped. “Andrusha.”
“I hope he enjoyed what he paid for.”
She started to cry. “Do you think I liked being with him? He could have been my grandfather. I never enjoyed lying in his bed.”
“I’m pretty sure you did more than that,” I cut cruelly.
She rose to the bait. “The only thing that got me through the touch of his wrinkly skin was the thought of you. I would lay there with him panting on top of me, thinking of our time together. Of your touch.”
“That’s a more than disturbing thought.”
“I need to see you. I made the worst mistake of my life, but now I have a chance to fix things. Please, let me come and visit you.”
“What would give you the impression that you have a chance at fixing anything?”
“Because you are you and I am me.”
I had forgotten how Amelia liked to talk in circles to avoid giving a direct answer. “I’m not interested.”
“You are, Andrusha. You just don’t know it.”
I watched Olivia. She was now sitting cross-legged on the couch, doing some sort of yoga meditation breathing.
We made eye contact, and I accidentally spoke to her in Russian. “Are you going to start chanting?”
She and Amelia spoke at the same time. “What?”
I covered the mouthpiece and repeated my question in English. “Are you going to start chanting?”
Olivia gave me a self-conscious smile. “Do you want me to start chanting?”
“I wouldn’t mind seeing what other yoga poses you can do.”
She flushed, but she had a small smile on her face when she shut her eyes again.
“Who are you talking to?” Amelia asked in perfect English.
I switched back to Russian, taken aback that Amelia had understood that. “You speak English.”
“Who is this woman that you are talking to?”
I wondered if that would be enough to make her go away. “She is none of your concern.”
“I want to come and see you.”
“Not going to happen.” I hung up on her and tossed the phone on the desk. Olivia was watching me.
“You’re restless.”
She rolled her shoulders. “I get stiff when I don’t dance.” She gave a little self-conscious laugh. “Even dancing at the club was a workout.”
I thought about that statement. I worked out daily, every morning before she got up. It never dawned on me that she’d want to work out too. “You miss that part of your life.”
“Not a big deal. Who was on the phone?”
I loved how she felt she could nose her way into my business. “No one important.”
A sharp knock sounded at the door. Vlad stood there while Olivia scrambled off the couch, picking up her book before walking out. I hated that she bolted each time she saw him. Vlad didn’t like her, and it pissed me off that she might sense it.
“What’s your issue with her, anyway?” I asked in Russian.
“Who says I have an issue with who you fuck?” Vlad shot back.
“Easy, old man,” I warned.
“Why does she have to be here anyway?” He crossed his arms and looked out of the office after her.
“I assume you came here to tell me something.”
“I came here to tell you that since you stopped all our shipments, we are bleeding money.”
“I know what’s going on. I run this place,” I said shortly.
“You can’t afford to stop shipments. We’re going to go broke doing it this way.”
“For every shipment that we miss, we are losing a couple hundred thousand at most. If we get hit by Bunko while moving anything, and we lose our merchandise too, we take a hit of at least six million. You do the math.”
“It’s bad for business.”
I pretended to shuffle some papers while focusing on his body language. He was nervous. I watched his hands. There: that swipe he took across the brow, pushing hair he no longer had off his face. That was his tell.
What are you up to, old man?
I decided to give him enough rope to either prove himself or hang himself. “What are the customers saying?”
He swallowed. Hand swipe. “They’re not happy.”
I had personally met with each of my customers and explained the risk on the street. I had offered to run shipments as long as they ate half the loss if we got hit while doing business. All my clients agreed it made more sense to wait. No one wanted to take a loss. No one was in that much of a hurry.
“What do you mean, they are not happy?” I pushed.
He slapped his hand down onto the desk. “They said they want stuff moved. Or they might go somewhere else.”
He was talking a load of bullshit. So why was he so anxious to move product? We all knew if we tried that, we’d take a direct hit from Bunko. Why was Vlad pushing to make me vulnerable?
I didn’t have the proof, but I knew it in my gut.
Vlad was dirty. Someone in my own fucking backyard was dirty.
I started flipping through papers, if only to take a moment to get my emotions under control. Did they have something on him? Who was he working for? Or was he working from his own greed?
I would test him and get proof before I addressed this situation. Pretending to take his suggestion at face value, I said. “I’ll take that under advisement.”
He stood up. “I’ve been around the block a few times, you know. I’ve seen things you haven’t.”
I waited until he left before I stood up at my desk.
I picked up my phone and dialed. “Viktor. We have a problem.”
It was after eight o’clock when I walked into the loft. It smelled tantalizingly like home cooking. Olivia was washing dishes. She spun around at the sink and watched me walk across the room to her.
“I made some dinner.” She sounded too nonchalant.
I looked at her closer. “Did you?”
She chewed her bottom lip. “Do you want me to heat up some leftovers for you?”
“I can heat them up.” I looked around. “How was your day?”
“Okay.”
“We have someplace we need to be.”
Her face looked surprised. “Are we meeting with the lawyer again?”
“Better.”
“Better than temporarily holding someone hostage against their will?”
My lips twitched. I liked it when she sassed me. “I found a place where you can work out.”
“Like a gym?”
No, I want to see you dance. “An empty dance studio.”
Her eyes widened. “Are you serious?”
“You want to go?”
She gave a short squeak and then raced across the room to her boxes. I saw her pull them down, digging through them until she pulled out a worn dance bag. More boxes opened until she found her workout clothes. She shoved everything in the bag, raced to the bathroom, and then reappeared at my side.
“I’m ready.”
Eight armed men accompanied us to an empty dance studio that had cost me two thousand in cash to rent for the night. One of my best snipers parked themselves on the roof outside the studio. There were two guards in the back, three in the front, and two on each door inside, all that so Olivia had an opportunity to work out.
She walked into the dance space, turning on the lights and the stereo, like she had danced there a thousand times before. She disappeared into the change room.
I stood in the doorway of the studio, pretending to look down the dark hallway, as if I were guarding her, but instead, my eyes were glued to the mirrors in the room.
She reappeared, wearing a pink bodysuit and some sort of leotard under a soft dance skirt. She didn’t seem to notice or care that I was there. She sat on the floor and put on her ballerina shoes.
She moved to the barre and started doing some sort of warm-up, stretching her body into the most amazing positions. I had never given ballet a second thought, but right now, it seemed like the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.
And my cock was so hard it hurt.
I couldn’t tear my eyes off her face. She looked so serene, so at peace, it made me ache. This was what love looked like. She loved dance with such a pure heart that it made me think I’d never seen love before.
When she finished warming up, she padded over to the stereo and put on her own CD. She moved to the center of the room and began to dance. And I stopped breathing.
For sixty minutes, I couldn’t tear my eyes away from her. She was graceful and light, moving to the music in ways that defied logic. The strength of her body, despite her slight frame, completely captured me.
“Andrusha…” Viktor came up beside me. His voice trailed off as he caught sight of Olivia.
I didn’t take my eyes off her. “What?”
He cleared his throat. “Uh… Vlad is on the move.”
“Damn.”
“I know. What do you want to do?”
I looked at him. His eyes were glued on Olivia. “Looks like we’re going to find out who Vlad is meeting.”
I waited until Viktor moved off before I crossed the dance floor towards her. Her movements stilled as I approached.
I didn’t want her night to end. “How was your workout?”
She gave me a happy sigh. “This felt amazing.” She was glowing and flushed. Damp hairs that had escaped her bun clung to her neck. My entire body was primed to fuck—that’s how on edge she made me. Did she know the effect she had on men? Did she know what she did to me? I didn’t think she did. I couldn’t see it in her face.
So damn innocent.
“I’m sorry. We have to go.”
“Thank you for this.” She looked around the studio with a satisfied smile. “Tonight made me remember things.”
“What did you remember?”
She met my eyes. “It made me remember part of myself. Sometimes I forget what my life was like before all this.”
I wanted to tell her that I could give her back her old life, but lately, I wasn’t sure I could.
I turned on my heel and started walking towards the door. “I need you outside in five.”
