“Who is it?”
“Andrei. I have the seamstress with me.” Andrei’s accent is deep, which sometimes I have difficulty in understanding, but knowing it’s him, I open the door to see him standing to the side. A lady who must be in her late forties, early fifties is standing beside him. I see a rack behind her with various dresses hanging from it, and a guy who seems like he could be with the seamstress standing next to it.
“Hi, yes, I was expecting you. Please come in.” I step to the side to let them in, noticing that Andrei also walks in. Is he going to stay here while I try on dresses?
“Hello, I’m Sonia, and this here is Paulo. Where would you like to do this?” Well, I’m definitely not going to be parading dresses in front of Andrei no matter how much of a friend to Vlad he is.
“If you would walk down the corridor right to the last door, we can do it there.” That room is big enough for me to walk around in, and they won’t be looking at any of Vlad’s personal items in that room.
“Are you leaving or staying, Andrei?” I see the question has confused him.
“Staying,” he says.
“Well, why don’t you make yourself comfortable? We will just be down the hall.” At that, I see him frown, knowing that he doesn’t like the idea of foreign people being in here. Looking over my shoulder, I see them entering the room down the corridor. Lowering my voice, I say, “There is nothing in that room. We will be fine. If I need you, I will call.” I can see the indecision on his face, but then he nods.
When I enter the room, Sonia is placing various items out on the bed, and Paulo is setting down some kind of step that I’m guessing is for me to stand on if a hem needs to be tucked in. “I have brought different models, as I’m not sure what you like. If there is nothing you like here, we can always see what model you like and bring more.” Looking at all the beautiful dresses hanging from the rack, I doubt that there isn’t something there that takes my fancy.
“Well, shall we start? I’m sure I will like more than one,” I say, which has Sonia smiling.
“You’re such a beautiful little thing. You will look stunning,” Paulo says as he raises his hand and fans himself playfully. His mannerisms clearly indicate that he is very gay, which instantly has me relaxing at the thought of parading before him.
“Shall we start with this one?” Sonia asks as she pulls down a lilac little number. Lilac has never been a colour I would go for, but the dress looks lovely, and I am excited to try it. An hour later, I am still trying on dresses, but there are two that have been set aside as possibilities. To be honest, I would have accepted half a dozen of them, but Sonia and Paulo are perfectionists, and I am thankful for it when I try on an aquamarine body-fitting dream of a dress.
“Now that is what I’m talking about,” Paulo says as he buttons up the one button at my back. “Come on, darling, let me help you onto the step.” Taking his hand, I look at the mirror from the walk-in closet.
“Oh, it’s lovely,” I say as I look at myself. The bodice is scooped but just enough to make it sexy but not enough to be scanty. It hugs my body down to my hips, and then the bottom flows gently down, a slit up the right-hand side. Turning slowly, I look over my shoulder. My back is bare, and the fabric falls in slim folds down the sides to my waist.
“I think we have found your dress. What would you say?” Sonia asks as she stands back, admiring the dress on me.
“I love it.”
“Good, we just need to do some slight adjustments, which we will be able to do right here, and then you can have it.” Paulo helps me turn to face the front once again, and then Sonia is behind me, pinning something on my back, and Paulo is on his knees before me, pinning the hem. I hear a door somewhere in the apartment and wonder if maybe Vlad is back.
This dress is not as scanty as the black one, but it’s just as sexy in its own way. I’m sure he will love seeing me in it. Looking down, I see Paulo lifting the bottom of the dress, a pin between his teeth, just as the door opens. Looking up, I see Vlad stepping in, a smile lighting my face when I see him until I see the anger tightening his features as he hurries across the room.
“Vlad.” I gasp just before he places his hands on Paulo’s shoulders and pulls him back.
“What the fuck?” he rasps in anger, pulling back his arm to punch a very surprised Paulo, who is now half lying on the ground, looking up at Vlad with fear plastered across his face. I step forward to stop him, but trip over the dress, tumbling down.
Vlad snaps around at the commotion. “Haley, what the hell, woman? Are you trying to break your neck?” He hurries to my side, his arms sliding under my body as he picks me up from the floor. “Are you hurt?” he asks as he looks over my body.
“Just my composure,” I mutter in embarrassment. He sets me down on the bed and then looks over his shoulder at Paulo, who is now standing up with a scared look on his face.
“What the fuck was going on when I came in here? Why did you have your head under her dress?” With each word, I can see the anger returning. He turns to approach Paolo again, but I quickly take hold of his hand to hold him back, not that my puny attempt would stop him if he didn’t want to be stopped.
“Please, sir, he was merely measuring the hem,” Sonia says as she steps before Vlad, her hands fisted in anxiety.
“I was making sure the back looked straight from the inside. I promise I wasn’t being inappropriate.” At Paolo’s statement, I see Vlad incline his head, a suspicious look on his face, but then he nods.
“Are you nearly finished?” he asks with a raised brow.
“We just need the final touches, and then the dress will be ready, but Haley can take it off now, and we will finish it before leaving,” Sonia says with a tentative smile.
“Oh, great. Vlad, why don’t you let these nice people finish the dress in peace, and I will be out as soon as I change.”
He raises a brow but then nods and makes his way to the door. “Don’t take too long or I’ll come get you,” he mutters as he leaves. Paulo sags in relief at his departure, the colour slowly returning to his face.
“I’m sorry,” I say as I stand.
“No need, dear. It was an understandable confusion,” Sonia says as she helps me undress. I have always known that Vlad is possessive. I just didn’t know how much.
VLAD 11
“You could have told me there was a man in there and that he’s gay.”
Andrei shrugs a shoulder as he stands. When I walked into the room and saw that guy under Haley’s dress, I saw red. I was ready to rearrange his face, but when Haley fell over, all thoughts of violence dissipated. I don’t know what she has done to me, but she is so deep under my skin that even if I wanted to, I wouldn’t have known how to extract her.
Finding out that Haley didn’t betray me has changed everything. Knowing that she would go to such lengths for those she loves gives me confidence that the woman I thought she was is true. She would suffer so that her sister didn’t have to pay for what she did; that is exactly the type of person I thought Haley was, so when I thought I was wrong, it crushed my belief in my judgement of people and of the goodness that might be found out there.
When I read the report, I was angry, knowing the way I had been treating Haley when she had done nothing except withhold the truth because of her fear of not knowing what would be done to her sister, a sister I have come to realize doesn’t deserve her loyalty. When Haley walked out of that bathroom the day I found out the truth, I was furious, but I didn’t say anything until I spoke to her sister.
The next day, talking to her sister was an eye opener. She has no consideration for the sacrifices that Haley has done for her, and she is an opinionated young woman, but she realized the trouble she was in by the end of our conversation. She now works for the Bratva Fury until she has paid off in full what she cost us, which will be in many years’ time. Hopefully the hard work and company of the other women around her will teach her some humility.
Even though Haley ha
s been asking me about her sister, I haven’t said anything to her about knowing the truth, as now that I have her here with me, I don’t want to let her go, and if she knows the truth, she might want to get back to her day-to-day life.
“Was it as bad as last time?” At Andrei’s question, I snap back to the present, and then my mind floods with the memory of why I was called away from Haley today. My thoughts make my stomach tighten in fury.
“It was worse,” I mutter. We have been hoping that there weren’t going to be any more killings since the last one. We weren’t able to catch who the fucker is who killed previously, and thought that maybe it was a once off out of some misconception, but he has done it again, and this time, she was barely a woman. This one I knew personally, as she was the daughter of one of Alexei’s guards. I saw her grow up. She was a carefree child, always into her books, never disturbing anyone. Next week, she would have gone off to college, something that her parents were very proud of, but now she’s not going anywhere because some fucker decided to murder her.
“He took his time with her. Apparently she had been missing since last night,” I relate to Andrei. “She had cuts all over her body, which hints at torture. She was also raped, and a different message was left on the wall this time, with her blood again.”
“What did the motherfucker say this time?” Andrei asks as he lifts his hands to his waist in anger.
“He’s baiting us. His message was A bird is a thing of beauty, a woman a thing of lust. Give their necks a twist, and they both bust. Who’s clever now?’” At the thought of the words on the wall, the letters smudged from the blood running, I feel a shiver race down my spine. Whoever is doing this is sick. No one in their right mind would do something like this. He is a killer, and it’s clear that he enjoys it. He is baiting us. I hope that this time, Dimitri can catch something, because last time, there was nothing concrete that we could use. There were too many fingerprints in the laundry room for us to break it down to one person alone.
Hopefully the bastard made a mistake, because we really need to get him. None of our women are safe until he is gone. This time, we found the body on the third floor in a storage room that is hardly used, and the only reason we found her was because he left the door open. This had the guard suspicious, and he went in to investigate.
“What does he think he is, a fucking poet?” Andrei asks as he shakes his head in anger. “What about lie detectors?”
“What about them?” I ask with a frown.
“Maybe we should get everyone to submit to a lie detector.”
“Lie detectors aren’t accurate. All we can hope is that this time, he made a mistake and we can catch him,” I say as I rub my forehead in frustration. “I want you to keep an eye on Haley when I’m not around. Tomorrow, she is going to the fight. You will pick her up, and then I want you to stay by her side at all times.”
“Are the women going to be warned that there is a mad man out there preying on them?” Andrei asks as he walks towards the windows.
“Alexei will decide when to inform everyone, but we need to tread carefully, as this fucker can’t know what we are doing, or he will retreat, and we might never catch him.” I hear Haley’s footsteps approaching. I incline my head towards the couch so that Andrei takes a seat and doesn’t make Haley suspicious by his agitated state.
“Oh, I thought you would have been eating already,” Haley says with a smile as she approaches.
“No, I thought we would wait for them to leave.” To be honest, I didn’t even think about the food when I came out of the room and my mind went back to the gore I saw earlier. The pain I saw on the parents’ faces when they found out what happened to their daughter was heart-wrenching.
“Would you like to join us for dinner, Andrei? There is more than enough.” I am surprised at her invitation. I would rather spend the rest of the day and evening alone with her, but now that she has invited Andrei, I won’t retreat the invitation.
“Thank you, but maybe another time, as I have to go make sure that security is in place at the arena.” I know that Dimitri will be all over the security at the arena, but with everything that is happening, I think Andrei being there to make sure that we cover all angles is a good idea.
“You can leave. I will call someone to escort them down.” Andrei nods at my statement, relived to not be sitting around when he has stuff to do.
“Sorry, I didn’t think before inviting Andrei for dinner.” I look at her in surprise. I want her to feel comfortable to invite anyone she wants, but I can’t tell her that, as she doesn’t know yet that I know the truth.
“It’s fine. I want to talk to you about tomorrow.” I see her raise her brow in question at my serious tone.
“You don’t want me to go anymore?” she asks.
“Of course I want you to go, but I am not going to be with you for some time. I have asked Andrei to keep an eye on you, and Alexei will also be there. I want you to listen to them. Do you understand?”
She frowns, her hands rising to her waist. “What happens if I don’t?”
“Haley, you don’t want me distracted while I’m fighting, do you?”
“Oh, unfair,” she mutters as she lowers her hands. I know that she would never do anything to see me hurt, and that is something I now know for a fact. “Fine, but you better not get yourself hurt, because I’m not going to help you.”
“It’s okay, there are a lot of women who will be there dying to make me feel better.” As soon as the words are out of my mouth, I know I shouldn’t have teased her with them. Her hands are back up to her waist, and her nose is flaring slightly as she breaths. I can see the anger pulsing through her body. Fuck, but she is beautiful, and she has me as hard as a fucking gargoyle. Not having taken my release earlier on when I got her to orgasm is not helping.
“Well, I don’t think I need to be there, do I? Seeing as you have all those women ready to kiss all your aches away.” She steps around me and starts making her way to the kitchen.
“But I don’t want their kisses. The only woman I want to make me feel better is you.”
She stops and then slowly turns. “You did that on purpose, didn’t you?”
“Did what?” I ask innocently, which has her sighing and shaking her head in defeat.
“Just be careful, okay? You have no idea what a well-placed punch can do to a person,” she mutters as she once again turns and continues her walk to the kitchen, giving me a great view of her swaying hips.
“I know, babe. You have told me before, and you even showed me that video clip of the guy in a vegetative state, remember?” I follow her into the kitchen to see her bending down, her perfect ass up in the air as she looks in the oven.
Shit, if this carries on, I am not going to make it to the fight without having made love to her first. My trainer will have my balls. “I can feel you staring,” she says as she stands up straight again with the tray in her hand.
“You did that on purpose,” I mutter.
“Did what?” she says innocently, repeating the words I used earlier.
“You, madam, have turned out to be a real tease,” I say as I look at the food she is setting out for us. Damn, that food smells nice. Looking over my shoulder, I wonder if we will have time to eat before the seamstress and her assistant finish. I love my food; before I would have given anything to sit down for a meal made by Jade, but since Haley has been cooking for me, I am more than happy to eat at home. To be fair, Haley doesn’t have the flair that Jade has in the kitchen, but I love Haley’s food. Her dishes are tasty and filling, something I can’t ever fault.
“I’m hungry, and they might still take a while.” Her comment has me sitting down. No reason to wait, and if they do disturb us, I’m sure they won’t mind waiting.
I have taken a few bites of my food when I decide to broach the subject of her safety. Now with this killer on the loose, I want to make sure that she is aware of what is happening and is prepared if anything happens.
“Haley.” She looks at me just as she places a forkful in her mouth. A little sauce slips from the side of her lips and starts to slide down her chin. Leaning forward, I swipe it away with my thumb and then bring it to my own mouth. “I need to tell you something.” She tenses at my words, and I can see all the different scenarios going through her mind.
“Is it about Paige?”
“No, your sister is fine,” I mutter, angry that she worries so much about her sister when her sister not once has asked about her. “We have a problem.”
She lowers her cutlery, a frown evident on her forehead. “What’s wrong? Can I help?” That is what draws me to this woman—she doesn’t know what the problem is, but she is willing to help me with it. Haley has the biggest, most caring heart in a person that I have ever come across.
“Someone in the building is killing women.” She gasps, her eyes shocked. “He has now killed two women, and we still don’t know who it is.”
“What do the police say?” she asks.
“We are dealing with it. You can understand if we can’t have the police coming among us to investigate a homicide; well, now two homicides.”
“But you have to call the police, Vlad. What if you can’t catch him? He will kill someone again.” I can hear the fear in her voice, and that angers me. Not the fact that she’s afraid but that the killer has been able to instill fear in us.
“Dimitri deals with all our security. He knows us and everything about everyone here. He will catch him. Have no doubt.” I place my hand over her fisted one. “But the reason I am telling you is that I want you to be extra careful. We don’t know yet who it is, so I don’t want you to trust anyone. If I don’t tell you that someone is coming, then don’t open the door for anyone. If I’m not with you, then Andrei will be with you. I trust him.”
“Is that why you have been telling me not to open the door to anyone?” I nod at her question; I know she thought that I didn’t want her to meet anyone from the Bratva, but the real reason was that I was trying to keep her safe.
Fury: (Bratva Fury) Page 9