Lawyer & Liar

by T Wells Brown

  “Anytime you want to wrestle with me, little warrior, I’ll be here. I like my women with fight in them.”

  “In your dreams!” I responded.

  “Da,” he said back and winked at me.

  Gross.

  Neither Roman nor Lucas were pleased with our banter and they showed it when Lucas stepped in front of thug number three and blocked his view of me, while Roman shoved me into his car. I was about sick and tired of being shoved into vehicles.

  Once we were outside the gated area, I let go of the breath I’d been holding.

  There was a couple of things happening here. One: I still had to talk to Roman about the investigation I’d already begun earlier that day. Two: we obviously needed to discuss what this shit was that just happened. I mean, he spoke Russian. He was very familiar with a man who was obviously a very wealthy influential Russian man. A man who sends thugs to retrieve people he wishes to meet. I knew this would change everything. I was just hoping it didn’t change how we felt about each other.

  I looked at Roman as if I was seeing him for the first time.

  “I’ll tell you everything once we get home. I need a minute to decompress from the stress, okay with you?” He stole a glance at me.

  I needed to make sure he knew we could withstand anything. He could trust me. I wouldn’t stop caring about him when things became hard or uncomfortable. Hopefully, he would feel the same when I was on the other side of uncomfortable conversations.

  I leaned over the console and planted a quick kiss on his cheek.

  First: I was super happy he came for me and second: I was going to get my earlier conversation out of the way so I could then focus on the crap that had just happened.

  He had a lot of explaining to do, but I hoped this conversation wouldn’t do anything to keep me from getting anymore kisses but I couldn’t be sure. I leaned over and gave him another kiss and said, “Have you thought anymore about leaving the department.”

  He looked at me like I was crazy and said, “No. I said I’d wait and I waited.”

  “I need you to stay in and fight from the inside.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “Full disclosure; you aren’t going to like what I am about to lay on you. But you need to know I’m going to do it anyway. If you try to stop me, it’s only going to hurt our relationship. You can decide to work with me, and then at least you’ll have insight to what’s happening.”

  “Wait, don’t tell me anything you might be doing, or planning to do that could be illegal.”

  I looked at him. Who did he think I was?

  “I’m not doing anything illegal!” I shouted. Geez.

  “Okay. Don’t get mad. I needed to make sure you didn’t take us down a rabbit hole we couldn’t come back from.”

  Me? I wasn’t the one that had spoken another language while retrieving my girlfriend from a mysterious old Russian man with the same last name as I had. Now was I?

  I glared at him, “I’m doing what the District Attorney’s office should be doing, and assist the sheriff department in solving this Triple D case so no more little girls are killed!” I finished on a shout. “What did you think I was going to say?”

  Roman yanked the car suddenly off the road, into a parking lot and slammed on the brakes. I was flung all over and wasn’t prepared when he quickly unfastened my seat-belt and hauled me across the console onto his lap.

  “Do. Not. Fuck. Around. With. This. Case.” He was shaking. I don’t know which had him more riled up, what just happened with the Russians or the conversation, but he was really upset.

  Things were getting out of control. I had a lot of questions about what just happened, but the one thing I did know for sure was I loved him.

  “Roman, I can’t walk away,” I said softly placing my hands on his cheeks. I cradled his face and watched him for a few seconds. “I love you. But I can’t sit back and do nothing. Lives are depending on us finding who is doing this and stopping them.”

  Roman placed his large hands over mine, leaned in and kissed my nose.

  “Also, you should know I already have the wheels in motion. Even if you sex me up, you’re too late. It won’t change anything.” The air in the car changed and a dangerous element entered. Looking into his eyes I knew Roman, the man I loved, was so much more than he was letting on. He watched me with such an intensity I became uncomfortable and wanted to get back to my own side of the car.

  He must have read my face because he swiftly moved me back to my seat, and as soon as my seat belt was buckled, he had the car in gear and we quickly drove out of the parking lot and headed back towards Harmony Grove and The Manor.

  I’d not ever met this Roman. I was unsure how to handle this situation, so I said nothing. Just waited to see where we were going.

  Before long we turned onto our street and were almost home. As we approached we saw there were two media trucks outside of my electronic gate and they were taking pictures of something hanging on my gate. Roman cursed under his breath and honked for the reporters to move and then we saw what they were photographing.

  Several copies of the same newspaper was tacked to my gate, in disarray. A scary and pissed off Roman exited the car, yanked all of the papers down and yelled at the reporters. They scurried to their vehicles, but let’s face it they already had their story. Why stick around?

  “What is that?” I asked when he climbed back into the car and slammed it into gear. Roman was not a happy guy.

  Roman looked at the paper, crumpled it up and said in a menacing voice, “We need to talk.”

  Uh oh. He’d said those words to me before.

  Chapter 19

  Confessions

  R oman said we needed to talk once before, but I’d forgotten and he never mentioned it again. This time however, he followed me to the back of the house and outside where we would have privacy. We settled into the seating area just off our master bedroom outdoors, and I waited for him to cue me in on what the heck just happened.

  I thought I’d been patient enough and luckily he didn’t waste any time getting to it.

  “The night I was shot, it wasn’t a random occurrence.” Everything blurred and then zoomed right back into focus, crisper and clearer than ever. “I knew both of the men who shot me.”

  “What?” This didn’t make sense.

  “My uncle is Aleks Stognafsky, the man you met today. If you don’t know who he is, he’s the head of the Bratva on the west coast. My family has been Bratva for numerous generations. High ranking. I grew up in the brotherhood. The men who shot me? I grew up with them. They were Chechens who my uncle was letting work the sex trade in this territory. They wanted a bigger territory. I don’t know why they thought going after me was going to help them.” He looked down and ran his hands through his gloriously thick hair and continued, "then you stumbled along and really stuck it to them. Their faction was exposed and my uncle was able to identify who the traitors were and eliminate them. The night they shot up your house was their undoing. My uncle had them killed in jail shortly after they were sentenced.”

  I took a deep breath. “Why didn’t you tell me before now?”

  “Angel, I wanted to tell you sooner. I should have. I knew it was a mistake not to. I can’t tell you why I didn’t.”

  “Because you’re a liar that’s why!” I shouted at him as I jumped up.

  “I never lied to you,” He said in a menacing manner, but remained seated.

  Goosebumps rolled over my skin. “You lied by omission Roman! You know you did!” I looked down at the paper he had crumpled next to him. “Is there a story about who you really are in there? Is that why? You knew I was going to find out, so you HAD to tell me?”

  “Yes.”

  That took me by surprise. Well, at least he was being honest. I sure didn’t know what to say next.

  “Why did your uncle take me?”

  “Probably curiosity. Also, my aunt and cousins are giving him grief. They live here because m
y uncle knows how much I love them. Even though my contact with them is scarce, he tries constantly to get me to visit them. He knows if anything happened to him I’d make sure they were taken care of.”

  “Does Cabe know about your family ties?

  “Yes.”

  I sat down. “I don’t know how to move forward from here. Does everyone know but me?”

  “When you came back I wasn’t sure what you knew. It didn’t take me long to realize you didn’t know much at all. It’s taken the entire six years you were gone to convince Cabe I was on the up and up.”

  Oh, Lord Almighty! This made so much sense now. Why Cabe was so adamant about me not having contact with Roman. I wondered why he didn’t tell me.

  Like he was reading my mind Roman said, “Cabe didn’t say anything to anyone. He says it’s because he wanted to make sure you were safe. What he didn’t understand was you saving my life meant not only was the local law enforcement going to make sure you were safe, so was the Bratva . Unfortunately, some of the younger Bratva decided it was a good time to try and wrestle power from my uncle and his enforcers and that’s when they teamed up with the Chechens. You, your home, and I’m sorry Angel, your cats, suffered being stuck in the middle.”

  “You’ve kept this from me all this time.” He lied to me. He was a liar. How could I trust him after this? “I gave up so much of my life. I deserved to know the truth sooner.”

  “I agree,” He sounded relieved.

  “Do you think we can go on like the world hasn’t been completely shifted off its axis?”

  “I want to. Nothing has changed for me.”

  “Everything has changed for me. What else have you been keeping from me? Now is the time Roman.” I could tell by the way he looked at me there was something else.

  “I’ve been keeping you away from the Triple D case because I believe it’s a faction of the Bratva murdering the girls. My uncle reports there is a new Chechen enforcer and he has a large young crew. This enforcer brought several of his men from Chechnya and they’ve been acting like perverted kids in a candy store since their arrival. On top of that there’s about to be a very bloody territory war, Angel. I don’t want you caught up in the middle of it.”

  “What does that mean?” I was starting to feel sick to my stomach. I was sure I wasn’t going to like what was coming next.

  “My uncle is as disgusted with them as I am, and has been sending me information as he gets it. He pulled these enforcers in and they denied killing the girls, but he doesn’t believe them and neither do I. We’ve been working together, my uncle and I, to catch them. We have to make sure we get them all. Leaving the wrong one out of the sting could mean leaving a predator on the street. One that would continue to target the girls. It’s the first time we’ve worked together. It’s the first time we’ve agreed on anything. And the only way my uncle would agree to it, was if he was able to administer justice in his own fashion. Which means they would disappear. You know what I’m saying Angel?”

  “I don’t even know who you are,” I replied, wrapping my arms around my knees and pulling my legs up close to my body. I needed some time to process this. It was a lot to take in and I was freaking out.

  “I need you to stay out of this or you might get caught up in more than you bargained for.”

  I shook my head, “I…”

  “Aleks knows about you now. He is going to want to suck you in. He’ll think you’re his in with me. He’s going to try to get you involved with my aunt and cousins. I guarantee it.”

  I didn’t know how to respond to that so I asked, “How did you pass a background to get on the police force?”

  “I’ve never committed a crime in my life,” He said in all seriousness. “Also, when I told you I was handing in my badge? I’m not leaving law enforcement. I’m switching departments. Home Land Security has asked me to join their office at the port.”

  “Do they know about your uncle?”

  “Angel it’s not a secret. It’s not well known, but it’s not a secret.”

  Well shoot, if Homeland Security wanted him he must be on the up and up.

  “Why Homeland?” I asked.

  “The office at the port deals specifically with human trafficking in and around the port. They’d been trying to recruit me for some time, and now with Dickhead Jones in charge I think it’s the best place for me.”

  “So the human trafficking cases could be run through that office? That might be a life saver! You have to do it Roman!”

  “I think so. But you need to understand a couple of things first; Homeland doesn’t deal with the girls so much as it deals with going after the traffickers. They will rely on places like Safe Haven to help with the victims.”

  I nodded that I understood, “We already do that with the U.S. Marshals.”

  “Homeland isn’t going to try and find the Triple D murderers. It’s not their function. They deal with crimes against our country and protecting our boarder and ports.”

  “That’s why you’re working with your uncle isn’t it? You’re covering all the bases.” He really was a hero. He was just a much more complicated hero than I’d ever realized. Looking at him I knew there was more. Much more.

  And this is what’s it’s like having a relationship. You had to deal with other people and their ‘stuff’ too. I loved Roman and this didn’t change that, but, it did make me want to know more. I really didn’t want any more surprises.

  Oh, Lord Almighty!

  I wasn’t sure how long it was going to take me to get past this. It felt like everything I thought I knew about him and the shooting was wrong.

  “I want to meet the rest of your family.”

  Roman’s head dropped and he grabbed his forehead like he was in pain. “Once you meet my aunt and cousins there won’t be any going back.”

  “I don’t care.”

  “They are going to latch onto you and want you to be involved in everything they do.”

  “I don’t have any family Roman. None. Not one annoying relative to embarrass me or make me dread introducing people to them. Not one. I want to meet your family.”

  “I’ll set it up. But I warned you Angel, don’t say I didn’t when they’re driving you crazy.”

  “I understand.”

  “Also Angel,” he reached over and took both of my hands in his. I tried to pull away but he held on, looked me straight in the eye and said, “You have plenty of family. All those women you call your wine tribe? They’d lay down their lives for you. That’s the only family anyone ever needs. Don’t diminish their love, because you don’t understand the difference, and how blood relatives can drive you crazy, disappoint and hurt you. Sometimes our closest family members don’t share a drop of blood with us.”

  Wow. He was right. I thought about everything Isabella had been going through with her mother and how the wine tribe had stuck by her like glue without a second thought, and knew he was more than right. But I still wanted to meet his family.

  I indicated to Roman I was going to need some space and spent the evening after dinner in the pool trying to work out some of my thoughts and swim off all the weird energy from all the crazy things that had happened that day. Today being the weirdest day ever.

  Luckily for Roman, he was really beautiful and a really good kisser. I thought a lot about what life has been with him and what life would be like without him, and decided I wasn’t going to jump to doing anything rash. I was able to sort of forgive him, but not before punishing him a while.

  The next day I started his punishment by giving him five evil stares and refusing to speak to him until it was time for him to leave the house. I gave him a little itty bitty kiss goodbye, instead of my normal wet, deep kiss, just so he knew how unhappy with him I was.

  I may or may not have patted his beautiful butt because I couldn’t help myself.

  I had a full day planned. My office was all set up and I had a new assistant hired. I was keeping her very busy organizing my customers a
nd working on getting my database uploaded in all of the necessary computers.

  And of course the fax, of all the ancient machines, we would need for some of the more sensitive contracts I was in the middle of negotiating.

  Luckily for me there was a private airport a couple of miles down the freeway; Harmony Grove Airport owned by a lovely couple who also had a little café located on site too.

  After all my time in some of the most elegant countries in the world, there really wasn’t anything like good old fashioned home cooked comfort food, and boy could I use some. I mean, after so many years of living abroad I’d developed a taste for more than just a cheeseburgers, french fries and salad, but that didn’t mean I didn’t still enjoy them. God really must’ve thought I’d paid my dues, because He so graciously gave me this one little gem so close to my beautiful home.