Chapter 13 - Arko
“Good morning, sir.” My driver tipped his hat at me as he opened the door to the back of the Bentley.
“Morning, Rus,” I nodded as I slid in. We pulled out of the compound, and I smiled to myself as we drove toward the exit gates, noticing that the car assigned to Beatrice wasn’t in its usual spot.
Beatrice told me she’d be leaving for her shopping trip with Alena and Anja straight after breakfast. Turns out, she stuck to the schedule. Something told me the girls planned to have a long day spending on my dime.
I didn’t mind. The fact that she was speaking to me at all seemed like a miracle.
I had a few meetings planned for the day and had already told my secretary to keep the evening short. I wanted to be home in time for dinner, hoping to spend some time with Beatrice. I knew she hadn’t completely forgiven me from how civil she had been at breakfast.
There were no small quips, no banter, no teasing, nothing. It was as though, at the back of her mind, she was still wondering if she could trust me. Day by day, meal by meal, I wanted to somehow mend the fracture I had caused by keeping the truth from her.
The last words she said to me on that horrible night when her brothers stormed into the party and let the truth slip still haunted me. We could have had something real, she had told me.
The days she hadn’t spoken to me had been the worst. But now that we were talking again, I wanted to go back to that magical place of possibility.
“Should I drop you off in the front or head straight down to the basement, sir?” my driver asked as we took a right onto the street to my office.
“Head down to the basement. I’ll take the private elevator up.”
Just then, my phone rang. Without looking, distracted by the horrendous traffic up ahead, I picked up.
“Hello?”
“Arko, you son of a bitch.”
My blood ran cold as Caspian Lebedev’s voice sliced through the line.
“Caspian. What a pleasure,” I slid out in a smooth, nonchalant voice.
“We’re not calling for pleasantries,” Giovanni said, sliding into the conversation.
“Oh, great,” I smiled cruelly. “I’m dealing with two of you now. Like one wasn’t bad enough. Is the whole happy family on the line?”
“Cut the bullshit. It’s just us two,” Caspian said coldly. “We’re giving you forty-eight hours to return our sister.”
I motioned my driver to pull up to a stop right off the parking lot entrance before I lost the signal heading down to the basement.
“I believe you don’t know how marriage works.” I kept my tone bored, even though my heart was now racing with exhilaration at seeing them this pissed. “She’s my wife and lives with me now.”
“A forced marriage isn’t legal, and you know it!” Giovanni roared. “We’ve already got our lawyers preparing to have it annulled.”
“Go ahead. The paperwork is ironclad. She signed it of her own free will.” I smiled again, hoping they could hear it in my voice.
“We need to hear it from her,” Caspian said. “Send her to us, and we’ll ask her ourselves.”
“I wasn’t born yesterday, Lebedev. What’s the guarantee you’ll send her back?”
“She’s our sister, you bastard!” Giovanni lost his temper. “You’re not doing us a favor sending her to us. In fact, we’re doing you a solid by not sending our men armed and brazen to your doorstep as we speak.”
“Are you threatening me?” My voice turned sharp, like the edge of steel.
“We wanted to keep this civil, Arko,” Caspian added. “But if you won’t do the same, then we’ll be forced to bend your arm.”
“Listen carefully,” Giovanni continued, his voice dropping to a dangerous whisper. “If you don’t return Beatrice, we’re coming for you. We’re going to take her back, then destroy all you hold dear. You hear me?”
“Oh, I hear you just fine,” I drawled, leaning back in my chair.
“But let me tell you what’ll happen if you do.
I’ll declare you kidnapped my wife, I’ll rally the families, and you know how the families feel about taking innocent women against their will.
Beatrice is mine, and I’ll come back for vengeance with an army your men can’t handle. ”
I felt the terrorizing silence between us, the only sounds during which were both men breathing hard.
At last, Caspian spoke first, his voice threaded with the promise of unleashed violence. “Do what you will, and we’ll do what we will. This isn’t over, Arko.”
He ended the call before I could even say another word. Immediately, my pulse went into overdrive as I thought of what he meant at the end. If they claim they’ll do what they wish, chances are, they weren’t going to back off. They were going for Beatrice, ignoring any threats I gave them.
“Plans cancelled,” I told my driver and motioned for him to move back onto the street. “We’re going somewhere else.”
“Where to, boss?”
“Call Alena’s bodyguard and find out where the girls are shopping,” I declared, before making the call to my secretary to tell her to cancel all my meetings. “Make sure he doesn’t tell them I called.”
If the Lebedevs were coming after Beatrice, I wasn’t letting her out of my sight.
***
My driver led me straight to Fifth Avenue. I made him park the car a block away and went on foot toward the stores they were wandering in, not wanting to be seen. I wasn’t here to ruin Beatrice’s fun. Hell, she needed a day like this to forget all her troubles.
I simply wanted to make sure that she stayed safe. Keeping an eye on her from a distance felt like an obvious way to do that without setting her on alert.
I walked past stores, staring in through glass windows. It was when I was passing by Hermés that I took a double step back and stopped. There, through the windows, I saw Beatrice laughing as Alena held up a ridiculous hat bigger than Beatrice’s entire face.
Beatrice held out a hand, and Alena passed her the hat. I watched, enchanted by this carefree side of Beatrice as she put it on and gave a playful curtsy to my sisters, her head dropping low, one sensuous leg, all skin, bending behind the other.
I felt the air whoosh out of my lungs, like time itself had decided to stop for me so I could take in this moment. Even when playing the fool, Beatrice was the most beautiful woman I had ever set eyes on.
For her, I wanted endless days like this, I realized. Days full of joy and laughter, being free to exist and explore without looking over her shoulder.
I didn’t go in. I just stood there at the window, looking in at this life of hers and side to her I’d never seen before.
She went into the changing room and had on a gorgeous, fitted pair of white pants, but instead of a top, she’d tied a scarf as a bandeau. Anja got out a twill, insisted on tying Beatrice’s hair back with it, letting some loose strands frame her face.
Beatrice laughed when Alena followed suit by painting her lips red and putting on a necklace larger than my fist. I’d never seen her laugh the way she was laughing that day; Unguarded, with her head thrown back and eyes crinkled.
It was like looking at a completely different person from the one I’d gotten to know.
She looked younger than her years, if that was even possible given that she was twenty-five. But right now, she looked like a timeless beauty, like one of those postcard-worthy images of what youth could be.
People came and went, the chimes over the store’s door ringing in warning. But I never moved from the spot I stayed rooted on, my eyes fixed on Beatrice like she was the center of my gravity.
For an hour, I watched them go from store to store. Beatrice tried on dresses, shoes, and coats. She twirled for my sisters’ approval, posed dramatically, and made silly faces. With each new outfit, each burst of laughter, I felt the fear crawl down my back with firmer claws.
I was terrified of how much it pleased me to see her so happy, spending the day with my sisters, because sooner or later, I might be the one to wipe that smile off her face.
I began to think that a day would soon come when she would realize just how much her family and mine hate each other, and when that would happen, I feared Beatrice would retreat into her shell again, only deeper and harder to bring her out of.
Fuck. In that moment, just letting her have this pure, unadulterated joy was the one gift I could give her before shit hit the fan.
So, I stayed out of the way and watched her have the time of her life. I would have stayed till the sun set, till the next morning, till however long she needed, as long as she laughed.
But it seemed the day had other plans, for just then, I saw a face out of the corner of my eye that had me do a double-take.
It was one of those same men who chased us the night I took her out for dinner at my restaurant.
A god damn Volkov man.
He was inside the store, his eyes fixed on Beatrice.
Somehow, by god’s grace, he hadn’t seen me lingering.
My hand went to my gun, hidden beneath my jacket.
I scanned the street, checking to see if he had any others with him.
There, across the intersection, I noticed a man in a baseball cap, standing suspiciously at attention.
And closer to the cafe on the right, I saw a third pretending to read a newspaper.
They had us surrounded.
I crossed the street, keeping my eyes on the Volkovs. The girls were leaving the store now, heading toward a high-end boutique on the corner.
I waited until they disappeared inside, then called my driver to meet me here and followed. The store was crowded with shoppers, which would provide cover. I spotted my sisters and Beatrice heading toward the back, where the dressing rooms were located.
One of the Volkov men entered behind me. I pretended to browse a rack of men’s shirts, but kept a keen eye on him. He was so focused on the girls, the bastard didn’t even notice me.
I needed to get to the girls before he did.
I ducked behind a display, cutting through the center of the store to reach the dressing area first. I heard Beatrice’s laughter sounding in the air.