Cabin Fever

by Shani Greene-Dowdell et al.

  He remained standing near the driver’s side of the car. She was standing in her doorway. She spoke to him then looked to the back seat. He knew she was expecting him to have Con with him.

  She was probably thinking that at any moment, Con was going to step out of the car as he always did. When the back door didn’t open and Con didn’t step out, she asked, “What’s wrong? Is Con okay? Is Zaria okay? Please tell me Azariah is okay.”

  “Everyone’s fine,” Yury rushed to assure her. “Zariah and Shy are at Con’s house learning to do makeup with Lina and eating buckets of ice cream.”

  “Oh, okay. Um, Yury, what’s up? Why are you here alone?”

  He could hear the apprehension in her voice. Normally, it was him driving Con to see her. Normally, it was him sending his gifts to her by Con and pretending they were from Con. Con refused to continue the charade.

  Con wanted him to step up and be her protector. For that reason, Yury had been forced to come on his own or not at all. Not at all was not an option. He couldn’t stay away from her. He didn’t have the strength to do so.

  He didn’t know what to say to make the nervous look on her face disappear. Fuck! He should just give her the stuff and leave. He could always just drive down the street and find somewhere to park so he could keep watch over her house.

  She clutched her robe. His gaze dropped to her body. Though he was trying not to stare, he couldn’t help but notice that she was finally gaining back her weight. Her curves had returned. Right after Boris went missing, she’d refused to eat anything.

  “Yury, you’re scaring me.” She took a step back.

  He should go. He should get back in the car and leave. First, he would do what he came here to do. Yury strode forward. He didn’t miss the small step she took backward as he neared her.

  What the hell had he expected? Yury quickly handed her the plate of food he’d prepared then turned and headed back to his car. He’d just opened the door when she called his name.

  “Yury?”

  He stopped. Back to her, he said, “Yes?”

  “Did Criss or Con cook this?”

  He should continue the charade. He should continue letting him think that the food he brought over every weekend was from Con and Cristal. But Con was right. It was time for him to stop pretending.

  Since he was going to be the one protecting her from now on, she needed to get used to having him around. She didn’t have to like him, but she needed to get accustomed to him doing small things like this for her.

  Yury shook his head. “Neither Con nor Criss prepared that.”

  There was a pause and then she asked, “Did you cook this?”

  He hesitated before nodding, but he didn’t turn around. He didn’t want to see the look of disappointment on her face.

  “All of those homecooked meals Con has been bringing me, they’ve been from you, haven’t they? You were the one who cooked them for me?”

  Yury sighed then nodded. For a long time, she didn’t say anything. Unable to stand the silence a second longer, Yury opened his car door. It was time for him to leave.

  “Do you want to come inside?”

  He paused. Surely, he hadn’t heard her correctly.

  “I made a pie yesterday. You can have a slice.”

  Was she really inviting him in? Was she really willing to be alone with him? Should he go inside or should he leave her be? He wanted more than pie. He wanted her. All of her. Yury closed his car door then faced her.

  “Pie sounds good.”

  Smiling, she motioned for him to join her inside. Yury entered the home of the woman he’d been in love with for the past five years. In his lifetime, he’d gone on countless secrets missions, been shot numerous times and even dumped in the middle of the ocean.

  Yet, he’d never felt more nervous in his life than he felt right now.

  Chapter Three

  Memories of our first meeting

  She was used to being around killers.

  She’d even married one. Since doing so, she’d learned that not all of them were bad. Well, it kind of depended on what your definition of bad was. In the truth, the Soldiers had done more good for her than her own family had.

  Being around killers was nothing new to Delilah Norin. However, there was something about Yury that had always scared her. The fact that he was a man of few words had never bothered her.

  It was the way he looked at her whenever he thought she wasn’t looking that made her nervous. Still, she knew he wasn’t a monster. The way he treated her daughter was proof of that. Her daughter adored the big man.

  Every time Zariah came home from one of Criss’s sleepovers, she couldn’t wait to tell Delilah about all the places Yury had taken her and Shy to visit. It seemed the big fearless man before her was still the same teddy bear of a man he’d been five years ago.

  Delilah could vividly recall the first day she’d met Yury Drozdov. Though she’d heard Constantine talk about his right-hand man for years, she’d never met him. He’d always been off handling a mission or something.

  Then one day, Con invited her family on a vacation. It was the first one they’d had in years, so Delilah had been excited. He invited them to Hawaii. It was a long-ass flight and it had been a struggle to keep Zariah entertained for the entire time.

  Her little behind had refused to fall asleep for the majority of the trip. Unlike her father, who’d been in and out of sleep the entire trip, leaving Delilah to deal with their young child. During the flight, Con was the one who helped her keep Zariah entertained.

  That flight was the first time she laid eyes on Yury. He didn’t say one word to her during the flight. He’d grunted as a greeting and said ‘hmmm’ when she asked him how his day was going.

  It was Con who told her that Yury didn’t like being around strangers. After hearing that, she stopped talking to him to keep from making him feel uncomfortable. Apparently, children didn’t fit into the category of strangers.

  When they arrived at their hotel, Boris had taken Zariah to the pool while Delilah got some rest. Feeling apprehensive about having her daughter be near water without her present, Delilah sneaked down to the pool to discreetly keep an eye on her child.

  As she’d feared, Boris had fallen asleep on a lounge chair with Zariah in his lap. And of course, kids would be kids. As soon as Boris fell asleep, Zariah had gone over to the pool. Before Delilah could come out of hiding to snatch up her child, Yury had swooped in.

  Delilah hadn’t known what she should fear more, the deep ass pool or the nearly seven-foot-tall stranger who was holding her child. But then Con stepped outside and joined Yury, and that put Delilah at ease, somewhat.

  With an oversized beach hat shielding her face from view, she’d sat in a lounge chair and watched Conn and Yury interact with her daughter, ready to step in if she felt her baby was in danger.

  When Con had gone back into the hotel to take a phone call, leaving her child with his right-hand man, she’d nearly revealed her presence. However, just as she was about to get out of her chair, Yury smiled at Azariah.

  That smile stopped Delilah dead in her tracks. It was a smile that a man like him didn’t seem capable of. It was a smile that she wouldn’t have been able to picture him sporting if she hadn’t seen it for herself.

  It was a smile that made her sweet daughter burst into giggles. A child’s laughter was contagious. Zariah’s laughter made Yury laugh and Delilah found herself relaxing in her seat and watching Con’s right-hand man chase her daughter around the pool.

  Every time Zariah got to close to the edge of the pool, he steered her away from it. During the entire time, Boris’s ass had been passed out asleep and had no idea what was going on with his child.

  Yury played with Zariah for nearly an hour until he tired her out then he returned her to her father. He’d had to shake Boris repeatedly to wake him up. When Boris started heading to the room with their child, Delilah snuck back up to the room to make it there before he could.
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  Not once during the trip did Boris mention he’d fallen asleep and left their child alone. Anything could’ve happened to her. Delilah had been the one to bring it up on their last night in Hawaii.

  That night, Boris returned to the room late, smelling like alcohol and perfume. Cheap perfume. Delilah didn’t wear cheap perfume. He claimed he’d been at the hotel bar and that the perfume from the lady next to him must’ve gotten on him.

  Lies. That lie was what started their argument and led to her bringing up what happened to Zariah. The bastard even denied falling asleep near the pool despite her telling him that she’d witnessed it with her own eyes.

  It was on that trip that she realized her husband was full of shit. And not just regular shit either. Cow shit. No, horse shit. His drunk ass passed out in the middle of the argument, leaving her angry and frustrated, with no one to yell at.

  She’d been so pissed off, that she’d picked up a sleeping Zariah and headed to Con’s room to ask him to switch rooms with her. Tears had streamed down her cheeks as she walked down the lonely hotel hallway.

  On her way to Con’s room, she ran into Yury. He’d frowned when he saw her and she remembered that he didn’t like being around strangers. She tried to step past him, but he blocked her from doing so.

  His large frame nearly took up the entire hallway. When she tried to sidestep him again, he sidestepped also, preventing her from passing him. It was then that he said his first words to her and she’d never forgotten what those first words were.

  “You should never cry over someone who you’ve never seen cry over you,” he’d said in that deep, rough voice of his. A voice that had lingered in her thoughts long after her trip to Hawaii.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Move out of my way, please.”

  “I know you’re crying over Boris.”

  The only way he could’ve known that she was crying over Boris was if he’d seen her husband doing something he shouldn’t have been doing right before he returned to their room. Had he lectured Boris the way he was lecturing her? Probably not.

  “What goes on between my husband and I is not your busin…”

  “Have you ever seen him cry over you?” He asked, interrupting her speech.

  “What does that have to do with you?”

  “Answer the question.”

  “That’s none of your business. Move.”

  “I’ll move when you answer the question.”

  “Look, Con’s Right-hand Man, I don’t…”

  “My name is Yury.”

  “Huh?”

  “You called me Con’s Right-hand Man. That’s not my name. My name is Yury.”

  “I don’t care if your name is Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood. Why don’t you go back to being ‘silent, but deadly’ and get the hell out of my way?”

  “You shouldn’t curse that way in front of your child.”

  “She’s sleeping you fucking….” Delilah sighed then took a deep breath and released it slowly.

  Normally, she didn’t curse in front of her child. Right now, she was just pissed off and hurt plus this big mountain of a man wouldn’t get out of her fucking way. It was just… it was just… all too much. This was all too much.

  Unable to stop herself, she’d burst into tears. If she hadn’t been so upset and hurt, she would have burst out laughing at the look of pure horror that appeared on Yury’s face when she started bawling.

  He clearly hadn’t spent much time around crying women. Not knowing what to do, he’d grabbed her arm and led her down the hall. Thinking back on it, she probably should’ve resisted him.

  At the time, she’d been too distraught to think about resisting. He’d led her to his hotel room. Again, she probably should’ve resisted. She didn’t. He’d gently tucked both her and Zariah into his bed like that was where they belonged.

  “Stay here,” he ordered. “You can cry here if you want. But you should never let others see you cry.”

  “Why?” She’d asked between sobs.

  “That’s how they find out what your weaknesses are.” That said, he turned to leave.

  “Where will you stay?” She whispered.

  “I’ll stand outside and make sure no one bothers you and the little one.”

  “Wait, what?” She moved to sit up.

  “Stay,” he ordered then left the room.

  She obeyed. She stayed in his bed and cried until her head ached. And then she cried some more as she watched her daughter sleep. She hadn’t cried because her heart had been broken. A broken heart had been the least of her worries.

  It wasn’t like her marriage to Boris had been a love connection. It had been a marriage of convenience, a marriage of necessity. A means for survival. She’d married him because he’d promised to protect her from the people hunting her.

  Her tears hadn’t been tears of heartache. Delilah had shed those tears because of her wounded pride. Her and Boris had made a vow. And she’d respected that vow. She’d been faithful to him. She’d kept up her end of their deal.

  Not him though. On their first family vacation together, he’d returned to their room smelling like cheap perfume. What was the point of him returning at all? It would’ve been better if he’d stayed out all night.

  Then he could’ve lied and said he’d gotten drunk and passed out in Con’s room. That was a lie she would’ve believed. She’d felt even more disrespected because he hadn’t tried to hide it and he hadn’t put any effort into his lie.

  She may not be the love of his life, but that didn’t mean she was just going to sit around and be disrespected. That night, she’d made up her mind to divorce him. She didn’t need him for protection anymore.

  Con was Zariah’s godfather. Delilah knew if she asked him for a job, he’d find something for her to do. And she knew that he’d watch over her and help her protect Zariah. And he’d do it without asking for anything in return.

  With her mind made up, she’d wiped her eyes and promised herself she would never cry over someone who had never cried over her again. It had taken her a while to calm herself down.

  Once she did, she climbed out of bed and pulled the covers up over Zariah. And then she’d strode to the front door to peek out. Part of her didn’t believe Yury was really going to stand watch over the room all night.

  She’d been surprised to find him standing right in front of the door with his arms folded over his chest. He turned his head to the right slightly when she opened the bedroom door.

  “Is the little one still asleep?”

  It was cute how he called Zariah “the little one” instead of the kid or the child.

  “She is.”

  “Good. Are you done crying?”

  “I am.”

  “Good.”

  He went silent. So, did she. She’d felt awkward just standing there in the doorway watching him. With nothing to say, she turned to go back inside.

  “If you’re not sleepy, you can come out here for a while. As long as you don’t cry. I have the keycard in my pocket. The little one is safe in there.”

  Did she want to go out there with him? Why should she? He was still a stranger. She didn’t know where he was from or what he was capable of. Then she remembered how he’d cared for Zariah when Boris had been passed out.

  She remembered the smile that had crossed over his rugged face as he played with her child. Because of that smile, she stepped out of the room. He moved across the hall to the other wall and leaned against it while she leaned against the closed door.

  Though they were standing facing each other, he stared at the wall next to her head, not making eye contact with her. She took advantage of that by staring intently at him. He was nothing like the father of her child.

  Boris was only a few inches taller than her. For that reason, he hated for her to wear high heels. But Yury towered over her, making her feel small. At the time, she’d been much thicker than she was now.

  The fact that he made her feel small was saying
something. His gaze had slid to hers. She looked away and stared down at the floor, embarrassed to be caught staring. Embarrassed by the fact that she was feeling nervous around him.

  It wasn’t the normal kind of nervous feeling. It wasn’t the ‘I’m nervous because I’m with a stranger’ feeling. It was that other kind of nervous. That, ‘damn he tall and sexy,’ nervous feeling. That type of feeling was something she hadn’t experienced in a long time.

  It was definitely something she’d never experienced with Boris. And even though at that time, she hadn’t been in love with Boris, and even though at that time, she was pissed off at Boris, she’d still felt guilty for looking at another man that way.

  What she’d felt at that moment made her just as bad as Boris. Thinking that had brought a fresh wave of tears to her eyes. They’d slipped down her cheeks before she had a chance to wipe them away.

  “Don’t do that,” Yury had told her.

  Through blurred vision, she watched him reach for her then lower his hand and say, “I don’t like to talk. But I’ll talk to you until you get sleepy. But only if you stop crying.”

  Delilah wiped her eyes. “I’m not a crier, usually. I just…” She sighed. “I’ll take you up on that deal. I’ll stop crying.” She wiped her eyes.

  “I’ll start talking,” he told her. “What do you want me to talk about?”

  “Anything.”

  “I… don’t, I don’t know how to make small talk.”

  “Then don’t. Talk to me about you and Con. How did you meet him? Where did you grow up?”

  “I think I’d rather make small talk.”

  Delilah chuckled. “Then let’s talk about, um….”

  “I have two dogs.”

  “Oh, you do?”

  He nodded. “Pit bulls.”

  “Okay. What are their names?”

  “Today and Tomorrow.”

  Delilah burst out laughing. He didn’t. “Wait, you’re serious?”

  He nodded. “Sometimes I call them Day and Morrow.”