I haven’t recognised any of the men’s voices until now, and I’m sure there can’t be many more, as I’m sure I’ve seen more than fifty men today. I hope we are nearly done, because I can feel myself slipping, and soon, I’ll snap. I feel like I’m out of breath and my skin is clammy. I don’t want to do this, but I know it is necessary for them to know who entered our apartment.
“Let’s take a break,” Dimitri suddenly says, which has me looking up at him hopefully. I see the look that passes between Dimitri and Alexei before Alexei nods.
“You are doing wonderfully, Ruby. Thank you for doing this for us,” Alexei suddenly says, and my head snaps around to him. I can see the tension on his face, and realize that knowing one of his men might be a traitor has him furious even though he hides it behind a bland expression.
“I’ll go see about something for us to eat,” Alexei says before he walks out of the office. I feel a hand on my shoulder and jump in fright before I realize it’s Dimitri.
“Relax,” he says gently as he takes his hand from my shoulder and strokes his fingers through my hair, relaxing my muscles. “Nothing will happen. Don’t worry.”
“Do you think he is among the men?” I ask. Would the guy be stupid enough to still be waiting around?
“Yes, there is no way out. Therefore, it means he is one of us, or he is still hiding in the building,” Dimitri says as he squats down before me, his eyes now level with mine. “Relax, Ruby. I won’t let anything happen to you.”
“Are you still angry with me?” He tenses. “I was surprised this morning. I wasn’t expecting anyone in my bed. You can’t expect to tell me you’re going to share a bed with me and I’ll be okay with it.”
Dimitri stands, his hands low on his waist, a frown adorning his face. “Why can’t I expect it? You’re my wife.”
Now I stand. I can feel the anger coursing through my body. Who does he think he is? Standing here demanding that we share a bed. “You can’t sleep with me,” I say angrily.
“Why not?”
How can he ask that? How can he want to sleep with me? “What do you mean, why not? Because that wasn’t the plan,” I say as I, too, place my hands on my hips as I face him.
“That was always the plan. I was just giving you time to adjust to your new life and to get to know me.”
This was his plan all along! “Why?” Why would he want to be with me? After everything that has happened to me, everything I have gone through. I know he has been told that I was raped. How can a man like him want someone who has been spoilt like I have. Someone who will never be able to be beautiful; someone who will never be able to give him the things he might want in a marriage. I’m only half a woman, while he has everything going for him.
“What do you mean why?” he asks as he lifts his hand and rubs it over his face, a clear sign of the stress he is under. “You are my wife. As such, you will sleep with me going forward. I told you from the beginning that this was going to be a normal married relationship.” I can feel my heart racing at his answer, my breath laboured as I start to panic at what this might mean.
“You can’t want to be with me. You know what happened to me before,” I say quietly in case someone comes in and hears our conversation.
“What happened to you wasn’t of your doing. Why wouldn’t I want to be with my wife? You’re a beautiful woman, and the past is that, the past.” He strokes a finger over my cheek. Only now do I realize a tear was sliding down my face.
“You don’t understand. He hurt me.” I see a vein on the side of his neck pumping erratically, his body tense, his hands now fisted at his sides as he looks down at me. I didn’t want to have this conversation with him, especially not here when anyone could come in. I didn’t think it would ever be necessary, as I didn’t think he would ever want me.
“You think I will hurt you?” His voice is a gruff angry murmur, but I hear the hurt there.
“No, I know you won’t hurt me,” I say, and realize that I mean it. I have come to trust him, trust this man I have known such a short time.
“Well, then what is the problem? Don’t you want me as your husband?” he asks.
“It’s you who won’t want me,” I say angrily again. Why is he making me tell him? Suddenly, I’m in his arms and his lips are over mine, his kiss punishing but so erotic that I feel my legs shaking in response. I don’t know what he has done to me, but he can make me respond to him like I never thought I would be able to respond to a man again. One minute I’m in his arms and he’s kissing the breath out of me, and the next, he is stepping back again. “Do you still have doubts that I want you or that you can respond to me?”
I tense as the conversation comes back to me. “You don’t understand,” I say, and hear my breathless voice, the knot in my throat choking me.
“Then tell me.” He places his index finger under my chin as he raises my face, holding my chin with his thumb. “Stop hiding, Ruby. Trust me.”
“He marked me.” My voice comes out so low that I’m not sure he hears me. He doesn’t say anything for a minute, but then his other hand comes up around my neck, and he strokes the back of my neck with his fingers.
“What do you mean he marked you?” I don’t want to show him. I don’t want to see the revulsion or pity in his eyes when he sees what was done to my body, when he sees how ugly I look. I try to pull away, but his fingers tighten, not hurting but not letting me go.
“Please,” I say, but he shakes his head.
“Tell me,” he grunts. The tears are now coursing down my cheeks, but I don’t attempt to hide them.
“He cut me,” I whisper. I know he will never guess at the marks I have by what I have just said, but maybe he won’t push me anymore now that he knows I’m less than perfect. I feel his fingers tensing on my cheek. His eyes have hardened as he looks at me closely.
“You think because you have a scar that it will detract from perfection?” I can’t hold back any longer and let the tears run down my cheeks. He thinks I have a scar. If only! “Don’t cry, sweetness,” he murmurs as he leans forward and kisses the tears away. “You are making more of it than it is. I also have scars. Should I think that you won’t like looking at me because of that?” I shake my head. How can he think anything could detract from his magnetism? “Well, then why would I be different from you?”
“It’s not just a scar,” I say, which has him shrugging.
“It won’t bother me.”
I wish I could believe what he is saying, but I have my doubts. I saw how my mother and father reacted when they first saw the scars.
“There is coffee in the dining room, with some freshly baked cake,” Alexei says as he walks in, surprising both of us. Dimitri drops his hands and turns around to face Alexei, keeping me behind him, which gives me time to rub at the tears on my cheeks. It’s one thing having Dimitri seeing me cry, but it’s unacceptable to have Alexei, the head of the Bratva Fury, seeing me cry. It would embarrass Dimitri, and I won’t do anything to embarrass him.
I hear other men’s voices from outside, but I can’t see anything, as Dimitri is still standing before me, but suddenly, I tense when I hear the timbre of that voice from outside. Dimitri and Alexei are talking, but I don’t pay attention as I concentrate on the other voice. That’s the voice I heard; my heart starts racing as I lift my hand to Dimitri’s back. The heat radiating from him comforts me, making me want to move closer and hide, but I know, especially now that I recognised the voice, that I need to get this over with.
Dimitri doesn’t interrupt his discussion with Alexei, but he takes a step to his right so that I can move next to him. “It’s him,” I say quietly but loud enough for both men to hear. Their conversation instantly comes to a stop. Dimitri looks down at me, a frown on his face as he cocks his head towards the door, and I nod. There is someone else talking now, but then the man once again interacts. “Him,” I say.
“Are you sure?” Alexei asks, a fire burning in his eyes, betraying the look of calmness
he’s trying to portray.
“Yes, that’s the voice,” I say.
“Take a seat. I will call them in. If you’re still sure after that, we will be done here,” Alexei says as he turns and moves towards the door to his office as I take my seat again.
Two men walk in. I know who the man is instantly by his boots without him having to say a word. I see him looking around, and then his eyes are on me. He must be in his forties, his hair slightly long, with grey hair just over his temples. Dark-brown eyes and a slim constitution has him blending in with everyone else. He wouldn’t stand out like Dimitri or Alexei, which for a traitor is perfect.
Alexei once again introduces me to the men. After the introductions are done and the men respond appropriately, I see Alexei looking at me expectantly. Dimitri has his hand on the back of my neck, rubbing gently, which I hadn’t realized until now.
“Yes,” I say. Dimitri once again moves to stand before me as Alexei dismisses the one man and leaves the traitor in the room.
“Nik,” Alexei calls, which has the man’s head snapping around towards the door. There is a worried look on his face that changes to fright when Nik walks in and closes the office door behind him.
“What’s going on?” the man asks as Alexei moves behind his desk and sits down.
“That’s what I want to ask you,” Alexei says. I see how pale the man has gone. His hands are fisted at his sides as he looks from Dimitri behind him to Nik.
“I don’t know what you mean,” he says. I jump, as suddenly, Dimitri is no longer before me but before the man, with his hands around the man’s neck as he pushes him back until he’s against the wall. I have never seen Dimitri as angry as he is at this moment. Nik hurries towards them, but Alexei holds up his hand.
“Are you sure about that? Because we know you have been in my apartment.” At Dimitri’s growl, he fights to break free from the hold on his neck, but Dimitri tightens his hands, which has the traitor soon gasping for air.
“Dimitri,” Alexei calls. Nik steps forward and places a hand on Dimitri’s shoulder. I can see the struggle Dimitri is having with himself in letting the man go, but he soon starts to loosen his grip.
“You were in my home. You frightened my wife. You better pray that you were born under a lucky star, because otherwise, you are mine,” Dimitri says angrily before finally letting him go. The man falls on his knees, gasping for much-needed breath as Dimitri steps back.
“Nik, take him,” Alexei says. “Dimitri, take Ruby home and then come meet us downstairs.” I see Dimitri looking at me and then at the traitor. I know he wants to get to the bottom of this as quickly as possible, but I also think he needs to calm down. I can see the vein on his neck still pulsing with anger as he approaches me. Taking a deep breath, I raise my hand and place it on his chest to try to calm him. I see the surprise on his face at my demonstration of affection, but he places his hand over mine when I start to withdraw.
I know his anger is still fighting to erupt, but the gentleness with which he holds my hand contradicts his fury. That simply proves to me that no matter what, Dimitri is a decent man and will never hurt me.
DIMITRI 11
Closing the door of the apartment behind me, I take a deep breath to calm myself. The fury coursing through my body now that I know who the bastard is who was in my apartment close to Ruby has me wanting to rush downstairs, take Boris’s neck in my hands, and squeeze until there is no more traitorous air in his body.
Boris has been with us for just over a year. He came directly from Russia to us after he got into some trouble with the authorities there. To think he is betraying us after we helped him has me wanting to lynch him by his toes.
I know that Nik will get whatever truths out of him, and that he will be wanting to tell us everything by the time Nik is finished with him. My curiosity is eating at me when I try to wrap my head around why Boris would be targeting me instead of Alexei or Vlad, who are the main core of the Bratva Fury in South Africa.
Stepping out of the lift in the basement, I walk down the corridor towards the questioning room where I know Nik will be with Boris. I want to get this sorted and out of the way so I can go upstairs again and finish the conversation that Ruby and I were interrupted from earlier.
She says he cut her. Why is there nothing in her file from the hospital regarding that? It can’t be that bad, but it’s bad enough that she’s self-conscious about it. I’m going to have to appease her of it, and that I will be doing as soon as I know why the asshole was spying on me.
Opening the door to the interrogation room, I see Alexei standing against the wall with Vlad on his left. I can see by Vlad’s expression that he wants a go at Boris. If Vlad was interrogating Boris today, I’m sure he would be dead by now. Vlad doesn’t take kindly to traitors. He’s suspicious and doesn’t trust anyone besides his brother, Alexei.
Looking to the far corner of the room, I see Boris sitting on a chair, blood running down his face from a cut to his cheek. Looks like someone punched him. Taking a guess, I would say it was Vlad. Nik is standing in the far corner of the room, shuffling through some of his tools on the table he has over there.
“Dimitri, now that you’ve arrived, we can start,” Alexei says. It pleases me to know they waited for me to question the bastard. “He’s all yours to question.” I approach Boris, feeling that fury that has been churning in my body since I found out someone had frightened Ruby.
Boris winces as I pull at the tape that someone placed over his mouth. “Are you ready to talk?” I ask.
“Yes.” At Boris’s prompt reply, I tense. I want to hurt him; I don’t want him to give in this easily.
“Why were you in my apartment?”
“Why do you think it was me?” Boris asks angrily. At his sidestepping, I place all my strength behind the punch that I administer to his midriff, which has the breath rushing out of him.
“I’m asking the questions here, not you,” I say. “Now again, why were you in my apartment?”
“You need to understand. They threatened me,” he mutters as he looks over my shoulder, and I know he’s looking at Alexei.
“Who threatened you?” I ask. Why would anyone threaten him and it have to do with me? I have enemies, but I don’t think I have any who would go to these lengths.
“The fucking cops. They have stuff on me,” he says angrily.
“Why would the cops want information on me?” I know I’m part of the Bratva, but I’m not out there like most of the guys. Mostly I deal with security for Alexei and Vlad. Why would the cops want information on me?
“They wanted information on Alexei, but I put the bugs in your apartment instead, as I’m sure nothing important gets done there, as you are way too careful.”
I look back at Alexei and see his bland expression. In a way, Boris was protecting Alexei by deviating the attention to someone else, but he should still have told us what was going on.
Looking at Boris once again, I see his eyes are also on Alexei. “You should have come to us if you had problems. That’s what we are here for, to help each other.”
“Even though you were protecting the boss, you betrayed one of us,” Vlad rasps out angrily.
“You frightened my wife,” I say angrily. The betrayal is what has my anger bubbling. “Why are the cops after Alexei?”
“They say they know he’s mafia. That’s all they said.”
“What did you say?” I ask, and he tenses. This son of a bitch said something.
“Nothing,” he says.
“You are lying,” I say, which has him shaking his head franticly. Taking hold of his hair in my fist, I pull his head back. “I can tell you’re lying. What did you say?”
“Nothing, I said nothing,” he insists.
“You say that you said nothing, and even like that they make you place bugs?” His story doesn’t make sense.
“Nik,” Alexei calls out, which tells me he also doesn’t believe his story. Nik will get the information out of
him.
“No, please,” he pleads. “I have told you the truth.” But Alexei is already walking out of the room, his back tense, Vlad in step with him. I punch Boris again, trying to get rid of some of the anger that still courses through my body.
“You are lying, but Nik will get to the bottom of it,” I say.
“No, I have told you everything,” he pleads as I also turn and leave, hearing him plead with Nik as I walk away. I don’t know how Nik does it, but he closes himself out to all the pleading and crying and swearing and gets the information out of everyone. As I walk down the corridor, I realize that Alexei and Vlad are still standing in the corridor, talking.
“Dimitri, I want to know what they want with me,” Alexei says as I draw closer. We have some dirty cops on our payroll. I’m going to speak to them and find out why we weren’t warned that there is an ongoing investigation to try to catch Alexei.
“I’ll make some calls,” I answer, “but I don’t trust that asshole. I’m sure he blabbered.”
“Motherfucker, I hate traitors,” Vlad mutters, which has Alexei placing his hand on his shoulder. It is clear how close these two are and how they’re always ready to protect each other, which is admiring to watch. “If he talked, I’m going to make him swallow a bullet.”
“Calm down. We don’t know if he did,” Alexei states.
“Do you believe that? Just looking at him, you can tell he’s a spineless asshole.”
Alexei shakes his head in amusement as he lets go of Vlad’s shoulder and starts to make his way towards the lift. The two of us follow. I’m going to go up and check on Ruby, and then I need to start making plans on how best to deviate the police’s attention from us.
Entering the bedroom a few minutes later, I hear water running in the bathroom. I want to walk in and watch her shower, and my body tells me that it wants the same thing, but I know she’s not ready for that, especially after our conversation downstairs, which I still want to finish. I wish I still had a chance to kill the son of a bitch who did this to her. I need to prove to her that her worries are unfounded. No matter what scars she has, they won’t bother me.
Mayhem: Bratva Fury (book 3) Page 8