by S F Draven
I knew that was the kind of fascination that didn’t just vanish into thin air. I was sure she still had countless questions that she was going to find the answers to soon enough, but it was going to be such a shame that she wouldn’t be able to use any of that precious material.
Once she made it back to the first level of the mansion, Alexei led her to one of the guest rooms where she could have a shower and clean herself up. I made sure to monitor any connections she was going to have with the outside world, because I couldn’t have her screaming for help the moment I took her out on the town. She was going to have a lot of writing to do, and I supposed it was the only activity I was going to allow her to do whether she liked it or not. I knew I wasn’t going to give her a laptop, so instead I asked Alexei to run up to the attic to see if there was still that old typewriter that belonged to my grandfather up there. It would be the perfect fit for the work she was going to have to do. Once the words were all in order and her name was on the byline, she would be able to have all that she’d ever desired on my terms.
She was looking very frail once she came out in much more comfortable clothes that I had left over from one of the women I had slept with a few weeks ago. Her hair was wet and dripping on my carpet, but at least it wasn’t matted to her forehead with sweat any longer. She wasn’t dirty, laying in her own filth, trying to get accustomed to the terrible surroundings I’d left her in. Now, she appeared to be relaxed, appreciative even for me letting her out of the hole. I couldn’t help but feel like she was going to run at the first chance she had, but I made sure not to tighten up security just yet to see if she would take that opportunity.
“You’re looking a lot better,” I said, approaching her as I led her into the living room.
“Well, it’s been the first time in a long time I was able to wash up. I’m sure that makes for a world of a difference.”
“Help yourself to the food as well as anything you can busy yourself with that doesn’t involve you contacting anyone outside of here. I have a lot of work to attend to, and while I’d like to stay here and babysit you, I’m afraid that’s going to have to be Alexei’s job,” I said.
“Wonderful. A man who may actually kill me when you’re not looking only to apologize afterward,” she said, and I knew that Alexei had his faults, but I didn’t think he’d ever overstep me in that way.
“Alexei’s not going to kill you because that would mean losing everything he’s built over the years. The man has been loyal to me for a very long time, and I don’t think he’s going to give that up any time soon,” I said, reassuring her even though I wasn’t sure it did any good.
“And how do you expect me to not contact anyone when you’re planning on launching me on society anyway? Everyone that’s ever known me is going to see where I am and who I’m with!” she yelled at me, coming to the realization that this wasn’t going to be as glamorous of a job as she may have thought.
“It’s just something that you’re going to have to learn to live with. I’ve made sure to burn those bridges for you, and it’s only going to hurt that much more if you let it get to you. Move on, Katerina. You’re my property now,” I said, and I could see just how taken aback she was by that statement. I watched as the tears began to well up in her eyes, and I was waiting for her to bust out into tears, but she held her ground exceptionally well.
It was just now dawning on her that her old life would always be there lurking in the shadows, but she was no longer able to interact with any of it. Those she loved and those who loved her were going to resent her for doing this, for running off with a man she barely knew, supposedly to live in the lap of luxury. Little did they all know that this wasn’t going to be a glamorous ride for either of us, because while I had her to serve as a distraction, I still had much bigger problems on my hands that needed tending to. I couldn’t let her in to that side of my life until I was absolutely sure that she wasn’t going to try to run. The last thing I needed was for her to escape and vanish into thin air before I could find her, and then my life would lay in shambles before I knew it. I wasn’t going to have that, not now and not ever.
She didn’t even look at me much after that, unsure of what to do with her days, but I left her in Alexei’s care, trying to focus on the fact I was meeting with one of my allies later that day to talk action about how I was going to deal with the problem at hand.
The more I thought about the entire situation, the more it simply didn’t make sense. I knew that I had a great deal of enemies out there, that I’d pissed off a lot of people, but I never imagined I’d be in a situation where my integrity would be called into question. This person really wants me to lay in wait, to go into hiding, thinking that would solve the problem somehow, but that isn’t the course of action that I’m willing to take. I’m going to find out who’s doing this to me, but first I’m going to make sure that the public eye gets a good look at me and everything I’m about. I have Katerina at my disposal to start spinning the narrative, and I can build her career quite fast to use to my advantage. Maybe then she might even resent me a little less, I thought, while the car I was in pulled out of the driveway, heading into the city so I could further tend to business.
It was a rather dull day, as the skies were gloomier than usual, filling with hues of greys and pale blues, and I knew that a storm was certainly brewing. There were a lot of people on this side of the world that absolutely despised the rain, but I quite enjoyed it. It washed away the blood from my hands, it got rid of evidence I left out to rot, and I supposed there wasn’t much else that I could complain about. My life as it stood day-to-day wasn’t very exciting anymore, and I knew that I was going to have to start making some incredible business moves if I wanted to stay relevant in today’s society. My name was splattered across the media of various countries, all talking about how I was challenging the hotel market, and just in the business of owning things while I handled my other affairs off the books. What everyone didn’t realize was that in my line of work there weren’t very many people or places I could trust, so I had to get creative in order to shield myself whenever I had to be away. I bought my first hotel when I just broke into my twenties, with the money I stole off a dead man, and it was the best financial decision I’d ever made in my life.
I knew that time was ticking and if I planned on making my name globally I was going to have to hit the market where it hurt. I knew that I was going to have to launch Katerina onto society soon before people started to miss her too much, and I decided that adding a new hotel under my belt in her city would be an incredible way to do just that. I had quite a few Bratva connections in Manhattan as well, and there were a lot of traveling customers of mine who I housed under my very own roof. I toyed with the idea, deciding to run the numbers later after my meeting with a good friend of mine, who would hopefully shine some light on the problems I was currently facing.
My black sedan pulled up to an old abandoned coat factory, where I got out and instructed the driver to pull back around in exactly twenty minutes. I knew I wasn’t going to be staying long, and business like this was usually conducted rather quickly. It had been such a long time since I’d ventured off into the back alleys of a place like this, and it reminded me of being young, naïve, and ready to pick at any cash grab I could get my hands on. I retrieved my gun from the holster at my back, cocking it just in case there were going to be any surprises I wouldn’t take too favorably to. I took a steady few steps up to the back entrance, opening the door to find a man toying with what appeared to be a cigar, sitting alone in the dusty, worn down facility.
“Well, if it isn’t the most feared man in Russia. I was beginning to think that you forgot about me, with all the business that you’ve been raking in lately,” said my old friend. I smiled once I noticed that he’d begun to age, and those perfect features of his had begun to deteriorate.
“Maxim, it’s been a long time. I was beginning to think that you weren’t ever going to be into the work I’ve currently
been involved in. I know you like the fast-paced lifestyle, robbing from the men that can actually chase you down,” I said, and he laughed.
“I remember how much fun we had when we were just lowlifes robbing banks together. Look at you now, one of the country’s richest men, and harboring quite an empire I see.”
“It took a lot of work to get to where I am today, but I have to say that I do miss how easy things used to be back then, or how rewarding a couple thousand bucks used to be,” I said, and I knew that he felt the same way. He’d been stuck in the old model of Bratva for a long time, never wanting to step outside of his comfort zone and venture off to the surface, where the rest of the everyday crooks were hiding in plain sight. He’d much rather waste away, letting all of his talents fade as he spent his days fucking a new woman every night, and enjoying all the alcohol that his body could handle.
“I understand that this meeting isn’t just to discuss our old times together, but if you want to take a trip down memory lane for the fuck of it, you know I’d be down.”
“With how many people who have such a close eye on me, acting recklessly probably isn’t the right move to make,” I said, and that was the truth. If I were to get caught doing something like that now, it would make national news.
“That’s only ever going to matter if you get caught, Dom. If I remember correctly, you were the only one of us who ever slipped under the radar undetected.”
“That is true,” I replied.
“I take it you called me here because you believe that I can be of service to you in some way. I’ve heard through the grapevine that someone has been messing with you,” said Maxim, and I wasn’t surprised that news reached him when it did, so I just nodded in response. “Well, I have a few loose ends to tie off myself, Dom. If you want me to help you, you’re going to have to bust out your old gear and help me rob a few people that can chase us down,” he said, and I smiled at him.
“Ah, what the hell, I’m sure it couldn’t hurt. Who’d you piss off this time?”
“I fucked a wealthy heiress who came into town the night that fashion event happened, which I knew you were in attendance of, I just didn’t have the opportunity to stop in and say hello. I fucked her so good that she truly thought that I was going to dish out and court her like a civilized man, but to her greatest horror, I left as soon as I could. Her father has been after my head ever since, and while he may appear to be a man who just owns a couple of fancy jewelry stores, he’s got a lot more money than I do, and thus a lot more power.”
“So, we looking to fuck with him or we looking to take him out?” I asked, trying to get it as clear as possible.
“We rob him blind, flaunt his merchandise, and make sure he never breathes another word of me or what I did again,” said Maxim.
“I like the way you think. Let’s get this done, and then we can grab a drink and I can tell you all about what’s been going on with me lately,” I said, and he nodded.
“It’s showtime.”
I called Alexei a little while after to let him know that there was a great chance I wouldn’t be returning that evening and to make sure that he didn’t let Katerina out of his sight. He didn’t sound too pleased on the phone and I had to remind him who he was working for. It seemed that he got to be a little too comfortable living under my roof, eating my food, and not wanting to fulfill his duties. Right now, I had no choice but to trust him with Katerina because I needed to get Maxim on my side. He was the kind of wily bastard that could hunt anything that could run, and I needed him to do a bit of dirty work for me. He and I always worked this way, bargaining with each other, but we each always held up our ends of the bargain. I was almost looking forward to busting into an event while it was happening, stealing millions of dollars in diamonds, and reminding the world that Bratva would never die.
Maxim and I made our way into the hotel undetected – thanks to all of my work in the hotel business I knew exactly how to get in when everyone else was preoccupied trying to uphold their considerably high standards. The lobby was full of the elite while Maxim and I hid, trying to get a good look at this beautiful heiress he slept with. I laid eyes on her before he did, with her perfect blonde hair, sparkling blue eyes and perfectly painted red lips.
“She’s just your type,” I said, jokingly.
“I always go for the ones who find a way to fuck me over,” he replied, and that was the truth.
He always went after the women that wanted him to settle down, to be an active part of their daily lives, when he knew that even though he appeared to be that kind of guy on the surface, it was the kind of thing he’d never go for long-term. A life like that could never interest a man like Maxim. He was much too interested in maintaining an underground image that would stand the test of time with the right people.
We waited until everyone was gathered in the ballroom, listening attentively as the speeches began so we could move up into the elevators that led up to the penthouse suite. Maxim was well aware that the man he was dealing with only provided the very best for his daughter, and if he was right, there would be countless velvet boxes containing millions of dollars worth of jewelry waiting for us to take. We made sure to stay out of sight, blending in with the crowd in our perfectly-pressed suit jackets and clean-shaven faces.
“Out of sight, out of mind. Do you think we’d be able to get ahold of the security footage to erase it when we’re done?” asked Maxim.
“What do you think of me as? An amateur? I already knocked the cameras out. We have ten minutes to pull this off without anyone seeing us,” I explained, as his lips curled up into a familiar grin. Once we got up to the floor, I swiped the universal key that let us enter, taking in for a moment how expertly clean the suite was. It certainly didn’t appear as though it housed a young, impressionable heiress, but I had no time to think too hard on the matter.
“If I know her father well enough, there’s a safe in here somewhere that isn’t the typical hotel room safe, so don’t even bother looking in the closet. For merchandise like this, he usually keeps it out of sight, somewhere no one would ever think to look. Say, Dom. What’s the last place you’d expect to find a shit ton of jewelry?”
“Under the executive desk in the small study, where no heiress would imagine spending any of her time,” I said, as we both moved over to it, prying at the wooden thing until the top of the desk began to lift out and we were in business.
“We didn’t even bother to think about what the combination might be,” I said.
“Dom, she’s an heiress. Remember, it has to be something that she can remember, with all two of her brain cells,” he replied, and that was when he began entering in all the combinations he could possibly come up with. We both sat on it for a while, until we decided that we had to dig a bit deeper, and that was when it hit me.
“She’s been pretty taken with you lately, hasn’t she? Did you ever tell her your birthday?” I asked.
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” he said, as it finally opened up to reveal the jackpot.
“Hurry up and get what you can. We need to get out of here before she brings up her next conquest,” I said, as Maxim opened up the bag we brought, stuffing all the boxes of jewelry into them, knowing it would’ve taken far too much time to empty them all out.
The show wasn’t over now, because it was time to get through the second phase of this assignment. Maxim wasn’t one to spill much blood, and he wasn’t too keen on the clean-up period that came afterward. He only ever knew how to run away from his problems, but he had to make sure that the man’s family would never be able to track him down. That was where I came in, and I had to be honest about the fact that it felt good to help out an old friend. If I were in his shoes, I knew I would’ve done the very same thing.
“What now?”
“Now we get out of here, have my driver take us somewhere far away from here until the festivities are over, because once that happens, it’ll be time to put an end to your problems,�
� I said, and he agreed.
“Let’s go get that drink and talk about all the shit that’s been bugging you,” he said, and I needed that right about now.
I knew that this wasn’t about the money for Maxim, because he and I both knew a lot of people who would’ve loved to buy this stuff off of us, but he was the kind of man who didn’t take down people very often. I knew he was going to want to hold onto this stuff for a while and I couldn’t quite blame him. There had been many times in my life when I wanted to do the very same, displaying all of my trophies proudly, because they all reminded me of how far I’d come. If it wasn’t for those humble beginnings, I wouldn’t have known how to handle myself in this line of work now. Maxim and I made an incredibly good team, and something told me that he was going to want to stick around for a little while. He knew how to slip in and out undetected, and if I was going to get to the bottom of my problems, I was going to have to make sure that happened without fail.
Seeing as how we managed to pull this off with no one even batting an eyelid, I could say that when it came time to begin the hunt, Maxim would be the guy I’d need to call.
He and I sat in the back of my black sedan as my chauffeur took us to a local bar where we could douse ourselves in hard liquor, eye the women in the room and remind ourselves of the good old days. I knew I wouldn’t want to revisit reality too quickly, and even though we would be finished far before the two o’clock mark, I was certainly in no rush to go home. I was well aware of the kind of trouble that Maxim and I got up to in our prime, and I was ready to see just how much trouble we could get into now that we’d assumed so much more power.