Using You

by Ariel Arnold

  Aleksandr stopped his car outside of a seemingly abandoned apartment. “I don’t see his car anywhere,” Alek said, sounding worried as he glanced all around. I was scanning the area for possible danger, so I didn’t bother to answer. Alek was right. Nikolai’s car was nowhere in sight, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t still here. Pushing the door open, I looked around at the deserted streets. It was a bad neighborhood crowded with rundown apartment buildings, dirty sidewalks, and local gang members littered all over. This is HBD territory. Ignoring the looks we were getting from the small number of hoods standing across the street, I began walking around the side of the abandoned building. Aleksandr was close on my heels by my side as we made it to the back. There, crouching near a bashed-in window that looked like it led to the basement of the building was Nikolai. I breathed a sigh of release and simultaneously growled. “What the hell, Prakenski!”

  “Wait, which one?” Alek asked, trying to be funny, which only irritated me more. These damn Prakenski men. And it’s not just these two, it’s all of them. They’re all like this: reckless, headstrong, impulsive. In short, stupidly determined to believe that they are invincible. I share some of that Prakenski blood, but obviously, it’s not enough for me to share their more undesirable traits.

  “What are you yelling about and why is Alek here?” he asked, watching us approach him in confusion.

  “You said get here immediately and then your phone shut off and I couldn’t reach you when I called back, so without a car, I had to rush here and I was already at Aleksandr’s apartment,” I explained as I continued to watch him angrily.

  He smiled sheepishly and shrugged as he grinned the smile that had almost every woman I’d ever known throw themselves at his mercy. “Oops, my phone went dead,” he said, slipping it out of his pocket, waving the darkened screen at us.

  I swear if the man wasn’t my boss, my best friend, he might have already annoyed me into killing him by now.

  “So, what was so urgent that I had to get here as soon as possible?”

  “Yeah, now you made me leave my lab. I was really busy. The only reason I left is because I thought your life was in danger. Couldn’t you have at least made sure to get a flesh wound or something, so it justifies me leaving?” Aleksandr grumbled.

  Nikolai sneered at him. “Real nice there, cousin. At least I wouldn’t be crying about the pain, thinking I was going to die just by being grazed by a bullet.”

  Aleksandr’s face reddened slightly as he stepped forward and pushed Nikolai. “I’ve never been shot before, I told you. How the hell was I supposed to know it wasn’t life threatening? And besides, it fucking hurt.”

  Before Nikolai could come back with a reply, I stepped between them. “Children.” If I let this continue, we could be standing for hours with me listening to them trade insults back and forth. “Back to the important matter at hand. The reason you called us here.”

  “Oh yeah. I got some information that the Italians and HBD have been meeting up lately. Now isn’t that interesting? The Italians always insisted that they would have nothing to do with such lowlifes. So, why have certain members been spotted meeting them here?” he said, gesturing to the abandoned building.

  “So, you decided it would be smart to come out here in HBD territory, in plain sight of some of its members, I might add, alone?” I questioned incredulously. This was a stupid move, even for Nikolai, who never thought anything through.

  “Yup, let’s investigate. It looks like the only way in is through this window.”

  “You should have called someone first. You can’t go around doing things by yourself. It’s dangerous. Where the hell is Gavril or Dimitri?”

  “I don’t need babysitters and I did call someone, I called you,” he said, starting to ignore me as he studied the window again.

  “Keyword, first,” I reminded him.

  “Fuck, Ilya, it’s already done and over with, so are you coming with or what?”

  “Of course I am.” I stepped forward, nudging Nikolai out the way as I crouched down and looked into the window. It was already darkening and there was no light to illuminate the interior so I couldn’t see much. I took my phone out and turned on the flashlight, sweeping it around the area. The vantage point from the window only showed me the immediate surroundings of any empty room with a desk and a broken chair laying on its side. “I’ll go in first and see what’s up. If it’s all clear, I’ll open that door.” I pointed at the back door of the apartment building.

  “Shouldn’t one of us come with you?” Aleksandr asked. “I mean, in case anything happens.”

  “Are you volunteering? Because Nikolai can’t. I’m going in there first, specifically for the point of making sure that it’s safe for him.”

  Aleksandr first looked at me, then Nikolai before he groaned and mumbled something about he should’ve stayed home. “Fine, let’s go. Lead the way, oh fearless one.”

  I thrust my foot out, knocking away the pieces of glass that were still attached to the sides of the window to minimize any chance of either of us getting hurt. Once I was satisfied, I sat down on the ground, my legs dangling inside the window. I could feel the cold earth even through my jeans as I slid forward until most of my body was inside the building, and then let go, dropping the last few feet into the basement. Once inside, I immediately pulled my gun out from the holster I carried under my shirt, close to my chest. “Come on in, Alek,” I called out. It seemed safe enough. There was no one down here, but that didn’t mean upstairs wasn’t occupied by HBD gang members. This could be one of their infamous trap houses. On the other hand, I was sure if there was someone here, they would have discovered Nikolai lurking around. It’s not like he was being subtle.

  Alek dropped down into the room behind me, grunting. “Is this the type of shit you guys do all the time?” he asked, looking around. “Because I have to say, for some reason, I imagined the mob life as being more glamorous.”

  “Shut up, Alek.”

  The stairs that led to the main part of the building was directly in front of me, so I walked over to them. Might as well figure what this place was all about so we could get the hell out of here. I was starting to get a real bad feeling about all this. I’d meant to ask Nikolai where he’d gotten the information from about this place. “Hey, do you have a spare gone?” Alek whispered from behind me.

  I heaved another uncontrollable sigh, which seemed to be inevitable whenever I was around Alek and Nikolai at the same time. “No, Aleksandr, I do not have a spare gun.”

  Glancing around me, I crept slowly up the stairs. “Now, be quiet,” I whispered behind me.

  Me and Aleksandr walked as silently as possible to the top of the staircase where there was an open door. I stopped and peered around the sides, gun at the ready in case there was anyone waiting. Once I confirmed that no one was in fact lying in wait, I walked out into the hallway that was lined with debris. Some doors to the apartments on this floor were strewn open while others were closed, but there was no mistaking that this was an empty building. “Come on. Let’s go let Nikolai in.” We made our way to the end of the hallway where the door that led to the back entrance sat. Nikolai was waiting eagerly on the other side.

  “Took you long enough,” he said, stepping inside once I opened the door.

  “Okay, we are here, we are inside. What exactly are we looking for?” I asked. I didn’t know what Nikolai expected to gain from this little adventure. Even if the Italians and HBD had been meeting here, there was only us here now. It’s not like they would have left a taped conversation here for us to find, so how this would help us find Vidor’s killer was a mystery to me.

  “My contact told me that HBD actually keeps notes here. Recorded records of who they’ve met with and what they have decided. We just need to find out where in here, so everyone, start looking. I suggest that each of us take a floor and then work our way up,” Nikolai said, already heading for one of the open apartments.

  “And just who is th
is informant? Is he reliable?” I was getting more and more curious about this mysterious informant. How could they know so much? Especially about where HBD keeps confidential records.

  “As reliable as any informant can be,” he said wearily. “He’s a crooked cop. His friend from his old neighborhood is also in with HBD and informs on them for money. So, when it comes to this, I believe in his information enough to come and search for myself.”

  I nodded. It seemed pretty solid, even though I still didn’t exactly like this setup. Something seemed… off, but I couldn’t place my finger on what it was.

  “I’ll take the first two floors. Alek, you take the third and fourth while Ilya can handle the fifth and sixth,” Nikolai instructed.

  As I searched the fifth floor for the mysterious files, I imagined what it would be like if I’d allowed myself to spend more time with Nana. I’d already brought her and picked her up from work, but I didn’t let it go anywhere past that. She didn’t know who I was, what it was that I did. I’m sure she wouldn’t approve. Nana is one of those eternal do-gooder types. She thinks that everything is black and white, good or bad. She doesn’t believe in or see the grey area. Which was one of the reasons I didn’t want to get too close to her, but I couldn’t seem to stay away. There was this light about her, a warmness that blanketed me every time I was around her. I was becoming addicted to that warm feeling and I wanted to horde it for myself.

  “Uhmm, guys!” I suddenly heard Aleksandr call out. “I think we may possibly have a problem.”

  I rushed out of the apartment I had been searching and down a floor to where the sound of Aleksandr cursing and Nikolai growling in frustration could be heard. “What happened?” I asked, entering the room. There, on the ground, laid the mutilated body of a young woman. Beside her laid a blood encrusted knife.

  “The knife was on that window sill over there and like an idiot, I touched it curiously,” Aleksandr was saying when Nikolai interrupted him.

  “Yeah, for a supposed genius, you can be real stupid sometimes.”

  “Shut up, Niko. How the hell was I supposed to know that it was a murder weapon?”

  “So, what, you see a knife, a knife with blood on it and go, ‘oh, this looks cool, I’mma touch it’!”

  “Can you guys stop arguing for one fucking second and tell me about the dead body in the middle of the floor? Does that work for you?” I yelled, seriously annoyed with their petty fighting at this point. We all had bigger problems to deal with right now. I knew it. I knew something about all of this wouldn’t end well.

  “So, I picked up the knife and went to look in the closet, opened the door and she fell out,” Aleksandr said, gesturing to the body on the ground.

  “Well, good job. You’ve just become a suspect in a murder,” Nikolai said disgustedly.

  “Fuck. Fuck,” Aleksandr said, running his fingers through his hair. “Yaz is going to kill me. We can’t get married if I’m in jail.”

  I shook my head and despite the morbid situation, found myself laughing. “No one is going to jail,” I said. I took off one of my shoes and socks before replacing my foot into the shoe sockless. I then picked up the knife and wrapped it up in the sock and put it into my pocket. “Now there is no murder weapon with anyone’s prints on it and we were never here. Let’s go.”

  Even though I had assured Nikolai and Aleksandr that everything would be okay, I was still feeling uneasy. Something was nagging at me, something that I felt I should remember and I just couldn’t. Because of this, I found myself walking around and inevitably, my unconscious mind led me to Nana.

  Chapter Nine: Nana

  I was left with a type of bitter feeling once both Amanda and Yazmeen left, rushing to get home to their men because they simply missed them. Never before had I felt left out because I didn't have a significant other or even like I needed one. I sighed as I began the walk to my apartment. I know either Yaz or Amanda would have dropped me off, but I felt like walking, clearing my head. The wind blew, making me shiver slightly as I neared my home. Up ahead, a man-shaped shadow could be seen sitting on the steps that led up to my apartments purer doors and a smile came unbidden. Without even seeing his face, I knew who it was. I stopped in front of him, but he didn't say anything. He remained sitting, looking down at the ground in front of him. Feeling the awkwardness, I shuffled on my feet and glanced around. “So, you're no longer too busy?” I asked, lightly trying to make a joke of it.

  Ilya shook himself as if coming out of school trance and abruptly stood, putting him within inches of me. Our bodies were almost touching and I could feel his body heat radiating out, seeping into me. “Let's go somewhere.”

  I tilted my head up, trying to get a good vantage point to see his face clearly. “Are you okay?” I asked. He had a tortured look in his eyes. The kind I've seen other police officers have after experiencing their first brutal crime scene. He nodded without speaking a word, but even if he had spoken, it would have still been a lie. I could easily see that he was not okay. “Sure, let's do whatever you want.” I had another morning shift to work, so I really shouldn't be out until all hours of the night, but it's not like I would've slept if I stayed home anyways. “Lead the way.” I didn't see his car anywhere around, so I assumed that we would be walking wherever it was that he wanted to go.

  The streets in my neighborhood were virtually empty. Lights were turned off and shops were closed. But once we reached the end of the block, all the scenery changed. Twenty-four-hour shops were just as packed as they were during the day, traffic was flowing and the sidewalks were still crowded with moving bodies. Surprisingly, Ilya took my hand in his as we maneuvered through the people. Walking hand in hand like this down the sidewalk, we looked just like any other couple out on the town for the night. I grinned happily. Would this be my first official date?

  I followed Ilya obediently wherever he was leading me, just excited to be with him. I don’t know where it was I expected him to bring me, but to say I was shocked when we arrived at our destination was an understatement. We were at a warehouse that wasn’t too far from my house. “What are we doing here?”

  “I have an office here and I wanted to go somewhere out of the cold,” he informed me as he tugged on my arm to get me moving again.

  I had an eerie feeling of déjà vu as we neared the exterior of the building as if I had seen it somewhere. Where could I have seen this building? I don’t often go this way… but I guess if you’ve seen one warehouse building, you’ve seen them all.

  We entered the building and walked to the back room area that held a desk with a great computer set up, a chair and a couch. Ilya took the chair in front of the desk and computer while I stood in the middle of the room, looking around. “Is this where you work?” I asked him.

  “Sometimes,” he answered simply.

  “Do you have some work to finish up? Is that why you brought me here?” I questioned. Even though that didn’t make sense either. He could have come straight here and done his work. Why wait for me in front of my apartment?

  “Not really.”

  I rolled my eyes. Sometimes having a conversation with him was like pulling teeth. “So, why are we here then, Ilya? Why did you bring me here?”

  He sighed and ran his fingers through his unruly hair. “I just needed to be around you, to feel your warmth,” he said. “Come here.” The look in his eyes and the way he simply ordered me to his side made me shiver. I never knew how obedient I actually was until I got around Ilya. Without any hesitation, I walked over to where Ilya sat in the chair. “Will you share your warmth with me?” he asked.

  I nodded, mesmerized by those eyes of his that were only focused on me. I didn’t know what he meant by warmth, but I’d give him anything that I had.

  He gently took my face in his hands and guided me closer to his face. My heart rate picked up. I felt like it could audibly be heard in the otherwise silent room. I trembled as he ran his thumb across my bottom lip lightly. “I need you right now, Nan
a. Tell me no if you don’t want to,” he said before capturing my lips with his, not giving me the chance to protest even if I wanted to. His firm and soft lips mastered mine as he pressed closer, forcing me to lean forward as well. Our lips connected and retreated over and over before finally, I could feel his tongue caressing the outside of my lips, seeking entrance, which I granted eagerly. My own tongue waited eagerly, tangling with his as soon as he entered. Ilya growled and pulled me down onto his lap so that I was now straddling him where he sat in the chair. “Oh my God.” I was able to gasp out in between a break in our lips. I could distinctly feel the bulge in Ilya’s pants pressed up against me.

  Ilya grasped the back of my neck, firmly pulling me back into him. He took my lips forcefully as if drawing some type of life force from me. It felt so good to be needed by someone. Especially someone as powerful and handsome as Ilya.

  Abruptly, he pulled away from me. Our labored breathing echoed throughout the cavernous warehouse. “Someone’s here. I shouldn’t have brought you here. I don’t know what I was thinking.”

  “I didn’t hear anything, are you sure?” I wasn’t even concerned with anyone seeing us. I just wanted to continue the amazingly sensual journey Ilya had begun.

  “I’m sure. It’s probably one of my colleagues. I’ll bring you home.”

  Ilya lightly deposited me from his lap, helping me to stand while I felt like pouting. I didn’t want him to bring me home. I wanted him to finish stoking this fire he’d started inside of me and then douse it. But it didn’t seem he had nay intentions of doing that. He was really going to bring me home, just like that.