His Smile: A Mafia Romance

by Katerina Winters

  Pressing the icon on her phone for Roman, she stood staring at the men as the one who caught her eye first waved at her to come over to the locked door with a smile. As the phone rang, she inwardly thanked Bill for remembering to lock the thick glass door behind him on his way out.

  “Are you on your way home?” Roman answered immediately, his deep voice echoing around the empty foyer from her speakerphone.

  "Roman," her voice had a hollow note to it as she watched the man's smile fall from the other side of the door as he realized she was on the phone staring at them with wide, scared eyes.

  Picking up on the desperate note in her voice, Roman's voice grew icy. "What is it?"

  The men were talking with one another, different than before, more animated, and with more hand gestures, she could sense the growing malevolent energy from here.

  “Did you send any of your men here to the studio for me?” Though she knew the men couldn’t hear her from where she stood on the far end of the foyer, Rahina couldn’t help but whisper as she slowly inched backwards back to the elevators.

  “No, I did not,” there was something breathless and rough by the way he answered that made the knot of tension in her stomach tighten painfully with dread. Speaking harshly in Russian she could only guess Roman was speaking to Mosca before speaking back to her. “I will be there in ten minutes, but some of my men might be there sooner, do you hear me?”

  "Yes," the sharp command refocused her attention to him despite never taking her eyes from the men on the other side of the locked glass door.

  “Rahina I want you to hide,” she could hear Roman’s breathing increase and the sound of an engine roaring and wheels burning against the pavement.

  White hot fear bloomed through her as she watched one of the men raise his hands. It took precious seconds longer than it should have for her mind to register the gun in his hand.

  “Roman they have…” Her desperate attempt to tell him what was happening ended in a piercing shriek as the man fired three shots into the glass.

  Chapter 23

  Why was this happening? Who were these men!? The questions echoed around Rahina’s head as she snatched open the stairwell door and took the stairs nearly four at a time. The two dance studios were located on the top two floors while the second floor of their new building was still under construction. Knowing that there were little options to choose from to hide in the studio spaces, Rahina silently opened the door to the second floor and slipped inside.

  Her heart was crashing in her chest as she stood still for a second, frantically scanning the dusty floors, construction equipment, and furniture covered in big heavy drop cloths. Streetlight from outside barely trickled through the windows covered in hazy thick plastic, giving the shrouded space a dark, murky feeling. Naturally, Rahina looked to the large island of furniture gathered in the corner on the other side of the space covered in a dusty drop cloth. It would be perfect to hide under—but also very obvious. Feeling the seconds tick by, she followed the foot trail in the plaster dust on the floor made by the construction workers earlier and ducked between two scaffolding racks half concealed by drop-cloths and equipment. Ducking down and out of sight, she grabbed a long metal pole with her shaking hands and silently clutched it against her.

  With blood thundering through her veins and pounding in her ear, Rahina strained to listen to the noises in the building. Her stomach dropped at the sound of the elevator being taken up. Feeling herself begin to hyperventilate, Rahina forced her lips closed, pressing them painfully together, swallowing the rise of panic. Tears welled in her eyes as she recalled the three men’s faces.

  They were coming after her! They were waiting for her, with guns. Were they going to kill her or did they mean to capture her? The thought of being captured by those men made her sick. If they caught her, they would hurt her, she knew that instinctively. Crouched low, she put her forehead to her knees, taking a few shallow breaths, she forced herself to swallow the sob that threatened to escape from her throat. Tightening her sweating hands on the metal pole, she thought of Roman’s voice when she dropped her phone downstairs. She could hear the panicked fury in his voice as he shouted her name.

  Roman would come for her. He would save her.

  Dear God let him be on his way, she prayed.

  Moving again between the floors, the whirring sound of the elevator activated again. They're done searching the top floors, she realized. Thankfully the elevator didn't stop on the second floor without the construction foreman's key—but that didn't mean those men couldn't take the stairs like she did.

  As if manifesting from her fears, Rahina’s blood turned cold and stilled in her veins at the sound of the heavy stairwell door opening. The room around her filled with a terrible empty silence. How many were in here? Were they just standing there or were they walking further into the room? From her spot behind what looked to be a huge generator and a table-saw, Rahina couldn't see anything, though she hoped it worked the same in reverse and they couldn't see her either.

  Seconds dragged by like hours as she waited helplessly. A sound somewhere ahead of her to her right made the blood in her face drain away, and Rahina had to put a shaky hand over her mouth to keep from crying out.

  The sudden unmistakable reports of a gun going off somewhere above her made her jump. A man's voice cursed from a few feet away from her, and she could clearly hear him moving now as he reacted to the sounds above them.

  A muffled scream from the floor above startled her again, this time her flinching reaction causing the long metal pole in her hand to hit some of the equipment next to her. Without warning the piece of drop-cloth that was hanging from the scaffolding and framing her hiding space was ripped away. Screaming, Rahina stumbled backward, nearly falling but catching herself as the shadow of one of the men loomed over her.

  “Come here!” the man hissed, lunging to grab ahold of her over her small barricade of construction equipment.

  Nimbly, she scurried out of his range and backed away, holding the metal pipe in front of her like a bat.

  “Stop!” she yelled as the man jumped over the generator and came towards her.

  Intense panic gripped, her as the startling realization settled on her, there was no way she was going to be able to win a fight against the man.

  Bits of light leaked in from the partially covered window behind her and illuminated the man’s ugly face as it twisted in anger. Stalking towards her, Rahina gripped the pole and swung at his head. Dodging the wild arc, he lunged for her again, but she didn't give up. Swinging the pole back up to catch him in the flank, her heart seized in terrified horror as she felt the pole stop mid-swing. With a gleam of spiteful satisfaction the man glared at her as he jerked the pole from her grip. Oh God, this was it. Backing up until she was pressed into the plastic covered window, Rahina prepared herself to fight like a wildcat when the man got close. He would not take her easily; she would use every ounce of her strength to gouge at his eyes and bite at his throat if she had to.

  Throwing down the pipe with a clang, she barely heard the man’s curse or noticed his satisfied cruel smile as he stepped towards her, she was too focused on changing all of her fear into her last will of strength to fight back against him.

  Behind him, the shadows moved. Materializing from the darkness, Rahina caught sight of the large shadowy frame first—then the blade.

  The machete started high in the air just as the man reached out one hand for her. Her body was coiled and ready to react in wild frenzy, but time and space seemed to freeze robbing her of her readied reaction. With a singing swish in the air, the machete came down with an unholy force and speed, lobbing off the man's extended arm at the elbow. For a few seconds both her and the man met each other's gaze in terrified confusion. By the fourth second, the man's brain finally registered what happened.

  Both of their screams rang out in the empty space. Stumbling to the side, away from his fallen twitching arm, the man fell to the floor, screaming i
n a growing pool of his blood.

  Emerging from the shadows, the familiar tall figure glanced at her with a look so foreign and distant it chilled her scream in her throat. It was as if she wasn’t looking at the man she loved at all. She was finally looking into the eyes of the monster he always warned her about. Kicking the man’s severed arm as if to get it out of his path, Roman stepped over the screaming panicking man and raised the bloodied machete for another hit.

  Rahina wasn’t sure what really happened next, it was as if a slice of her reality was taken away and her memories could only fast forward to the next. Commanding but soothing words were spoken into her ear as a familiar figure stepped in front of her covering her body, ordering her to wrap her hands around his neck and to keep her head down as he lifted and carried her away. She obeyed everything except for one brief moment. Looking over the man's shoulder, she looked back at Roman who stood like a mountain over the mutilated man. With a mask of deadly rage, he caught her eyes as he watched her being taken from the room. Anger pulsated through him in waves that washed over the entire space as he turned slowly back to his victim beneath him and raised the machete again.

  Closing her eyes, she buried her face into the strong shoulder beneath her not wanting to see the following carnage.

  The gentle vibrations of the quiet ride home carefully began to numb her still thrashing heart. Still held tight she had looked up moments ago to a familiar pair of blue eyes and finally realized it was Dimitri who had carried her from the room. Sitting in his lap, she rested her head on his shoulder as they drove presumably back to the house. His words felt lost in a fog around her head as he calmly spoke, telling her that she was safe now and not to worry and that Roman would take care of everything. How could she not worry, though? Did he not see the look on Roman's face, that unsmiling rage like nothing she could have ever produced even in her nightmares? Yes, she knew she was safe now, but millions of questions lingered in her mind about what happened, and more importantly, she was worried about Roman. Although none of her concerns were voiced. It felt as if her voice was trapped in her chest. Each time she thought she summoned up the strength to speak the pressure in her chest intensified, choking the speech further down her throat.

  Dimitri’s sharp blue eyes seemingly noticing her struggles began moving the hand, that braced her by the upper arm, up and down comfortingly.

  "You're in shock," maybe for the first time since meeting the captain, she realized his blue eyes held no smile, just an out of place look of concern. Through his worried expression, she realized how she must seem to everyone else.

  Closing her eyes for a moment, she rested heavily against Dimitri’s firm frame.

  The light shake to her shoulders startled her out from the darkness and Rahina opened her eyes. Blinking, she looked up at Dimitri who was giving her a small, sad smirk.

  “You’re home,” he said, helping her sit-up before opening the door to the car. “Come on, let’s go inside.”

  Allowing him to guide her past the group of men who stood around the front door, all carrying long black military grade rifles across their chests Rahina finally found her voice, though it was barely a whisper. “Where is Roman?”

  The image of him standing over the screaming, bleeding man replayed itself in her mind. She could hear the man's screams more clearly now that she was away. It was as if during that moment, the man's curdling cries became muted and far removed from her mind.

  Shrugging out of his suit jacket, Dimitri threw the jacket over the back of the couch. “He will be back once he is done,” he answered, looking at her where she stood stiffly near the stair banister. “In the meantime, I want you to go up and take a shower, but when you get dressed I want you to wear pants, a shirt, and a pair of socks.”

  “What?” she breathed, barely forming sound as she thought of the implication to his words. “Why? What’s going on, are we leaving? Are we not safe here? Please, Dimitri, tell me what's going on."

  Holding his hands out as he approached her, he gave her a rueful smile as he stopped in front of her cupping both of her shoulders. “You’re too damn quick to have let that slip by, huh,” rubbing each of her shoulders in a slow, comforting circular motion, he carefully drew her closer to him. Being only a couple of inches taller than her, she was able to stare at him directly, worry shining back in her eyes. “Calm down, I promise you are safe with me. But right now, someone has made the biggest mistake of the century. All I know is that for some reason, some of the Italians wanted to capture you. They didn't want to kill you, they wanted to specifically capture you. At this moment, I have no answers as to why anyone would make such a stupid decision. But I can tell you one thing, Roman will burn this city to the ground to find out."

  Rahina shuddered at that. “Should we stay here?”

  "Nowhere could be safer, but I also don't take chances. I rather have you dressed and ready to leave at a moment's notice than have to carry you out of here in a nightdress,” he grinned lasciviously, which surprisingly relaxed her a bit. If Dimitri could still joke at a time like this then maybe she could take him for his word and believe she was safe. His hands moved from her shoulders and tenderly framed both sides of her neck, pulling her gently closer until she did have to look up at him to meet his gaze. “I know you’re scared and I promise the moment I have answers I will tell you,” he assured her gently. “I promise I won’t let anything happen to you. Besides, I like you too much and more importantly, I rather not have my face curb-stomped into the pavement by Roman for letting anything happen to you.”

  Shocked, she stepped back a little. “He wouldn’t do that to you.”

  Dimitri gave her a deadpan stare that conveyed just how serious he was. "For you, yes he would, without hesitation."

  Remembering the savage rage she saw in Roman earlier, Rahina felt her chest constrict. She wanted Roman back home with her, she wanted him to console her and tell her everything was all right. Tiredly, she let Dimitri coax her into showering and dressing, but she shook her head at the offer of food. The thought of eating anything while her stomach was knotted with worry made her sick. Sitting on the sofa, she spent the night cuddling Hannibal and Genghis before falling asleep next to Dimitri who lounged at the other end of the couch.

  Roman didn’t come home the next morning or that following afternoon. Dimitri informed her that the dance studio was quickly repaired that night after Roman had left with his men, all traces of what transpired erased. She knew she should have been grateful for the attempt to not let this moment destroy everything she had worked for, but all she could think about was Roman. What could he be doing? Was he hurt?

  Each time she tried to hint her worries to Dimitri about his boss, he simply smiled and said: "It would be more accurate to ask who is he hurting, darling.”

  Regardless, she continued to worry. Exhausted from her thoughts and fears she spent that day mostly in bed only getting up for the bathroom and a meal which Dimitri threatened to experiment with his skill at Japanese bondage if she didn’t eat. After eating, she went back upstairs with both dogs trailing behind her. She fell asleep on Roman’s side of the bed.

  A familiar warmth stroked her cheek, and Rahina turned away, deeper into the pillow, with a grumble. "Leave me alone Dimitri, I'm not hungry."

  The warm touch paused and disappeared before reappearing at her waist, tracing the curve of her body with a familiarity that should not belong to Dimitri.

  Feeling her stiffen, the figure beside her finally spoke. “It’s me.”

  A surge of joy speared through her tired mind. Sitting up with energy she did not possess before, she sat straight on the bed and looked at Roman sitting at the edge of the bed. The heavy drawn look to his face didn’t deter her from throwing her arms around his wide shoulders and tears spilling from her eyes. Framing his face with both hands, she cried in relief as she kissed his unmoving lips. A few seconds passed, and she realized he had remained frozen in her embrace. The tender spring of hope that gr
ew to life in her seconds ago died a little as Rahina leaned back and stared at him questioningly.

  "Roman," she whispered. "Please," she begged, unsure herself what she was begging for specifically. Answers? Reassurance? Affection? Or just anything besides the unreadable dark look in his fog gray eyes.

  Like a breath of relief, one of his thick arms wrapped around her waist and pulled her to him as he crushed his lips against hers. Rahina moaned into his mouth as she tried to keep up with the desperate, hungry kiss he led against her lips.

  His hands tightening at her shoulders was her only warning before he ripped away from her and stood up, distancing himself from her.

  “What?” The sudden absence of his warmth made her feel empty inside. Watching him pace in front of the bed, Rahina clicked on a lamp beside the bed. “Talk to me please, tell me what’s going on.”

  “I do not have all the answers yet, but I know someone paid a couple of the Italians’ lackey enforcers to take a side job, off the books and unknown to their boss, to kidnap you.”