Chapter 34 Elena
ELENA
“And yet here you are still fucking around with whores,” Anna’s voice states angrily as she steps into the light, and I see her holding a gun.
Shit.
“Princess, it’s not what you think.” Pedro gets up trying to placate his wife.
And all I can think about is this is truly Anna.
I try to catalog the changes. Her hair is blonder, her nails longer, and she is covered in fake tan.
She is covered in diamonds. And the moment she looks away from her husband and sees the woman he is with she stills, blood rushes from her face as she turns gray as if she has seen a ghost and she’d be right, she has.
But in that millisecond of a moment, I know she knows it’s me, her friend.
I give her the faintest smile before schooling my features. “She is Manuel’s new woman.”
“Manuel’s?” she asks still pointing the gun at me.
“Si, princess. He wants what we have and it’s with this woman. I brought her in here to question her not to fuck her,” he tells her. Which is utter bullshit.
“He wants to marry this woman?” Anna asks, her blue eyes narrow on me as she slowly lowers the gun to her side, but I notice she doesn’t take her finger off the trigger. She’s not fully relaxed. Will she shoot me? To keep her cover, I’m assuming she would.
“I cannot speak for my friend, but he asked for her to be his,” he explains.
“His?” she questions.
“Si, and Carmen has told me she wishes to be his, too,” Pedro explains.
“Carmen?” she questions.
“That is her name. Come, meet my wife,” he says, ushering me over to where they are standing.
“Pleasure to meet you,” I say, holding out my hand to her.
“I don’t shake hands with whores,” she sneers at me.
“She’s not a whore, my love, she’s different,” Pedro tries to explain to her.
“What is she doing in your suite, the one you frequent with your whores, during your parties. And don’t think I don’t know about them. I do,” she says, waving the gun at him.
“I was testing her. To see if she was worthy of Manuel,” Pedro states.
“With your cock,” she says, pointing the gun at his dick.
“Never,” he tries to reassure her, “she will be Manuel’s. She is different to the whores at the parties.”
“You think this is different to the whores out there?” she asks, waving the gun around.
Hey, what the fuck, Anna. I’m your friend.
You know me. Don’t forget she’s playing the role of a scorned cartel wife.
It’s hard hearing her talk about me like this.
I’ve missed her so much. This isn’t at all how I thought our first meeting after all these years would go.
“Manuel thinks so,” Pedro adds.
“You truly believe she is going to be his wife.” Anna sneers again at me.
“I promised I would allow him to divorce his wife for her.”
“He’s that serious?” Anna questions.
“Si.”
Anna lets out a huff. “Guess, I should get to know this woman then.”
Pedro looks relieved. “I think the two of you will get on very well.”
“Debatable,” Anna snips.
“Why don’t you take Carmen upstairs to your parlor and have some champagne and chat. I have business to attend to down here,” Pedro tells her.
“Fine. I will leave you to your whores. Come on, Carmen, let me explain to you how it’s going to be when you’re Manuel’s bride. You’re going to have to put up with your husband fucking whores.”
“My love, it’s my job.” Pedro sighs as if this is a common fight the two of them have.
“To fuck whores?” She glares at him.
“Si,” he snips and the look he is giving his wife changes, she has pushed him too far and he has had enough.
“Remember, for every whore you fuck I get to do the same.” She smirks. Pedro mumbles a prayer asking God to help him with his wife before she turns on her heel and storms out of the suite. The door slams shut behind us and we are in the basement of a home.
“Anna …” I gasp as we are alone.
“Not here,” she hisses at me before strutting off up the basement stairs, where we emerge into a luxurious, palatial home.
It’s all white, marble and gold, very much what a cartel house would look like in the movies.
She heads to a grand staircase, via the living room, which is full of art pieces and leather sofas, we then make our way up the curved white staircase to the second level.
We take a right at the top of the stairs and down a corridor all in silence.
Thankfully, she has put her gun away in her pocket, but I still feel uneasy about her being armed.
“In here,” she states abruptly, indicating to an open door and I step in and still.
It’s as if a ball of pink bubblegum has thrown up everywhere.
All I see is pink, pink, pink. There’s a bookcase filled with books, that’s bright pink, the sofas are another shade of pink velvet, the curtains are a softer pink and look out over the ocean.
There’s a white and gold desk which breaks up the pink in a corner with a computer, but the chair is pink.
There is a champagne bar set up in another corner serving pink champagne. This isn’t Anna at all.
“Elena. Is that really you?” Anna asks in Russian.
I twirl around and rush toward her, tears falling from my eyes as I pull her into my arms. “It’s me. It’s really me. I can’t believe it’s you. I thought you were dead,” I tell her.
“I feel dead,” she whispers as she hugs me tightly, breaking down. We hold each other for what feels like an eternity.
“I can’t believe I found you,” I say as my hands pat her face, testing to see she is real and not some figment of my imagination.
“Me either.” She smiles. “Is my father still alive?” she asks.
“Yes. Sergei is alive. He misses you so much.” Relief washes over Anna’s face. “Where have you been? You disappeared. The agency is looking for you.”
Anna’s eyes narrow. “Why would they be looking for me when they know where I am?”
I still. “They know you are here?” Anna nods. “They told me they haven’t been able to find you since the first mission.”
Anna’s brows pull together. “They sent me here. My mission was to infiltrate the Dominguez cartel.”
“But they told me you went rogue.”
“They told you what? No. My instructions have been very clear. I wasn’t allowed to be in touch with anyone in case it blew my cover.
I had to say goodbye to you, to my father, to everything, but they said it would only be for a couple of years or until I got what they needed.
” I’m so confused. Did they lie to me? It’s not like they haven’t omitted things before. “I thought you had gone rogue.”
“Me?”
“Yes. They said you disappeared on a mission.”
I shake my head. “No, I came back.”
“So did I.”
“Fuck.” I look at her.
“They probably told us that story so we wouldn’t come looking for each other,” Anna suggests.
I pace the room. “I can’t believe they did that.”
“I tried looking for you,” Anna confesses.
“So did I,” I tell her.
“They never wanted us together. They know we are stronger together,” Anna states.
“We are. Always have been. I’ve missed you so much,” I tell her as we embrace again.
“I’ve been so lonely without you, Elena,” she confesses.
“Me too.”
“Where have you been?” she asks.
“Europe. With the Bratva,” I tell her.
“Shit. That is the last place you ever wanted to be.”
I nod. “Guess you can’t escape it.”
Anna shakes her head, “You can’t.” She gives me a sad smile. “Come, let’s pop some champagne, we have so much to catch up on. You’re safe here with me. None of Pedro’s men will hurt you here,” she explains as she walks over to the bar.
“Nice set up.” I grin as she grabs a bottle of champagne from her bar fridge and pops the cork.
“The color pink makes me want to vomit.” She chuckles as she pours us both a glass of champagne and hands one over to me. “To family,” she says as we clink the pink glasses together.
“To family,” I say in agreement.
Anna ushers us back toward the pink velvet sofas like the perfect host and takes a seat. “Now tell me how the hell you ended up in Mexico.”
So, for the next hour I explain to Anna about everything that I’ve been through, about The Bratva, about Dmitri, Zoe and Grace, my brother and her father.
That I am on a quest to find the jewels that had been scattered around the world.
And that one of them led me here. Anna was horrified and demanded I let her know who it was and that she would help me rescue her.
I asked her about the women downstairs and she said they are hired prostitutes, they are not trafficked women, they get to go home at night with their wallets full.
She doesn’t like it, but it is the cartel’s way and as a woman she has no say in the men’s matters.
I then explain to her about what Manuel does and she seems surprised.
“This is the first I’m hearing of this. I will investigate it for you,” she assures me.
I ask her questions about her life and she explains everything. That her job was to become Pedro’s wife and to make herself his right-hand man in essence so she could find out the inner workings of the cartel for the agency.
“How can you sleep with your husband?” I shiver.
Anna bursts out laughing. “Thankfully, he doesn’t bother me too much because he is always being entertained by the women downstairs which leaves me to my own devices. Plus, his son is hot and satisfies me.”
“You’re sleeping with his son? Anna, that is dangerous. If he finds out he will kill you.”