Chapter Twenty-Tw
Roman’s POV
My thoughts were everywhere and nowhere at the same time.
The underground safe house had a unique scent of dust and paint when I walked in.
The air was air-conditioned. The lighting was a bit dim.
Viktor sat on the chair across the table while Konstantin leaned on the wall with his arms folded.
Their faces weren’t hopeful, but full of gloom.
That made me wonder if we had the answers or not.
“Care to sit?” Viktor’s hands pointed to the chain in front of me.
“No, brother, ” I answered with my hands placed atop the headrest of the chair. “I prefer to stand.”
“You look uneasy. Are you alright?” Konstantin asked.
“Yeah. Just had a long night. I had some work to attend to.”
“Hmm…” Konstantin stood upright and arranged his inner jacket, and my attention turned to notice the things that were on the table.
A pile of books was arrayed neatly by the corner at the left side where Viktor was.
Stacks of papers in a blue folder were on the right side, and in front of him was a black notebook, but it was closed.
I had the slight urge to tell them about what I saw when I drove my car outside the mansion, but I didn’t think it was much of a case to be mentioned.
Besides, if I mentioned it, they’d treat it the same way and mount my entire house with guards, and I didn’t want that.
It would draw lots of attention, and Liza would be disturbed.
So I shrugged off the thought and stood still. Konstantin saw correctly, I was uneasy, and I didn’t want to feel relaxed. Sitting in a chair was only going to make me think deeply about the things that might be beyond my control. Standing, on the other hand, regulated me.
Konstantin moved from the wall and sat on the chair. I moved to the side of the table, and Viktor took out a cigar from the pack. He lit it up, inhaled, and gave me a careful gaze.
“There’s more news. We’ve traced Arkady’s flight to Dubai.” I questioned myself on why in the world Arkady went to Dubai, and Konstantin uttered in retort after Viktor exhaled the smoke from the side of his mouth.
“Turns out the final sale isn’t just a shipment route.”
“Okay,” I said. “Do you have a clue what it is?”
“It’s a human cargo, Roman, and it gets worse.” I took my hands out of my pockets and folded them across my chest. “Arkady has promised Liza to a rival syndicate to clear out all his debts.”
The words that came out of Konstantin’s lips weren’t hopeful. They filled me with a rage that made me clench my jaw and ball my fist like I was ready to take a good hit on Arkady’s face like a punching bag.
Somehow, the thought of Liza wasn’t far-fetched whenever her father’s name was mentioned.
To him, she was just a pawn to be used by him, and Arkady was a very bad example of a father.
God forbid such an atrocious occurrence turns up in my home.
News of this sort gave me hope that I would be a better father to our baby, and it was because of this very reason that I couldn’t let her be used.
No, not when I was alive. Not after all that we’ve been through together.
Her sacrifice and suffering. She’s my wife for crying out loud, carrying my child.
How stupid it is for Arkady to do such a thing.
I took a vow to protect her at all cost and I meant it.
I wouldn’t let Arkady’s plan work out. No man would ever have the right to use my Liza, whether it be for revenge or repayment of whatever it was that they owed.
It would be more than a slap to the face to watch my Liza get used.
Even if there was a justification to it, I wouldn’t let it happen, and I wasn’t going to sit with my arms folded like a coward either, because there’s no way in the world that I’d turn out like Arkady, not even in the afterlife.
***********
I headed back to my mansion, and everything seemed calm.
I parked in the garage, barging past the security guards who were on standby.
I stormed into the rage, and I saw Liza.
She jumped to her feet with a smile when I walked in.
I felt nothing when she hugged me. The information I had in my possession was stronger than any emotion at the moment.
“Where have you been?” she inquired. Her voice was filled with concern, and I stood with my neck stiffened in contemplation of how to answer.
A mere look at her reminded me of how much I had to be there for her and protect her, yet I felt like something was off.
There were things I needed to know, information I needed to find my way around Arkady’s plans.
So I looked at her with a sigh and replied dryly.
“I went out.”
“Alina told me you went for a meeting.”
“Yeah, I had to leave early to see Viktor and Konstantin. Something came up.”
“And you didn’t leave a note.” I didn’t reply to her, so she stood, took a step away from me, and looked at my face.
“Tell me, Liza,” I asked as soon as we broke the embrace. “What do you know about your father?”
I observed how her countenance changed before she released a dead sigh. She looked down for a while, and by the time she raised her head up, her eyes were drenched with tears.
“What happened?” I asked, and she sniffed. Liza cleaned the tears that flowed down her cheeks with the back of her hand.
“I’ve been collecting evidence, Roman.” Her words were heavy, my heart sank, yet she stood her ground, and her voice wasn’t disheveled.
“For how long?”
“Months,” she said, and I ran my hand through my hair. What does she mean? She’s been collecting evidence for months, and we’ve been together all the while, yet she didn’t say anything.
“That’s crazy,” I managed to whisper in a low tone.
“I didn’t know that he meant to sell me, Roman. All I knew was that he was dirty.”
I didn’t know what to do. My teeth were clenched behind my mouth.
My fist stiffened while I observed my breath.
I didn’t want to take this as betrayal. In a way, I felt like her revelation was late.
If she had said something months earlier, I’d be safe, I thought.
We’d all be safe. Now, danger seemed to have no boundaries, and the walls around us seemed to close in.
“I want to show you something,” she said with a firm stance.
She walked towards where her bag was and opened it.
She brought out some of the clothes that were neatly arranged and piled them up until the lower part of the box was revealed.
I saw a tiny zip at the far end. She unzipped it and brought out a small flash drive.
I didn’t wait for her to stand when I took the flash drive from her. A tiny piece of metal and plastic held so many secrets that I had yet to unravel.
“I’m sorry,” she said, and I drew her close. Her body pressed mine, and I felt her heart beat at the side of her neck.
“You should have said something.”
“I know I should have, but I didn’t know if I could trust you at the time,” Liza whispered. Her voice carried a large trace of sincerity, and I believed her.
“Look at me,” I said, and she didn’t move her head. I raised her chin up, and our eyes clashed. Her eyes were wet, and I held her cheeks with both of my hands right before I kissed her.
She looked confused at the time when I broke the kiss.
Teary eyes were now still, our breath increased, and her chest heaved up and down to the tension that shook the atmosphere.
I raised my pinky to her lips and rubbed it to the side.
Liza looked as though she wanted to say something.
Her mouth opened, and her breath had the scent of mint.
I wasn’t expecting her to kiss me back, but she did. My tongue found its place in her mouth, and my lips took hers.
“Roman,” she whispered my name. The way she said it melted me from the inside, and my body answered. I listened to my heartbeat drum fast, and the flow of blood passed around my body in what I felt was a rush. “I didn’t mean to…”
“Shhh…” I hushed her, and she stood still. “Don’t ruin the moment.” My tongue found its way back into her mouth again. Her breath scattered across my ears while she released a soft moan.
“Damn,” I sighed, and my fingers got lost in her hair. My lips moved from her cheeks and traveled down to the side of her neck. I looked up, and I noticed that she had gotten rid of the pink robe that she had worn. My eyes couldn’t stop looking at her body, so I stood still.
Liza went ahead and undid the button on my blazer.
I removed the first button on my white shirt, and she undid the rest. I wasn’t thinking when I flung my vest to the side.
She turned, walking backwards until her back fell on the bed.
My knees met the soft foam. I had imagined how I’d do it.
How I’d kiss her all over again and suck on her perky breasts.
I’d imagined the way I’d touch them and let my tongue slide down till I sucked on her belly button.
Like the previous night, I loved the way she grabbed a hold of my hair while I went down on her.
Her moan was the one thing that I looked forward to.
The glimmer in her eyes was the flames of passion, and I wanted all of me to fill all of her.
I unbuckled my belt, leaned in closer to Liza’s body, and did all I had in mind to do. She was very wet now; most importantly, she was ready for me. I raised my body, and she sucked on my earlobe.
“I want you now,” she whispered. “I want you badly.” I felt the burning sensation flow around my body.
I kissed her on the lips again, and I let my body do the talking.
I was rock hard, and she knew it. It was hard for me to control myself now.
I knelt down between her thighs, and she sat upright.
I got turned on even more when she went down on me.
My hands grabbed a handful of her hair and let her take control.
“Fuck,” I whispered out loud. “You’re fucking amazing.” We went on with the foreplay for what seemed to be hours, right before I felt her hands hold me tight after I had penetrated her.
“I want all of you inside me.” These were the very words that turned me into a beast. Our bodies were sweaty and slippery, but I didn’t mind. The only thing I wanted was to let go of every frustration and satisfy Liza with all the pleasures she wanted in the way she desired it to be.
***********
After the sex, I took a light shower, and she followed behind. Liza lay on my body, and I stroked her hair. The tension that was once built up was now subtle. The air felt neutral. Her hand ran around my nipples, and it made me smile.
“You know that it tickles, right?”
“Does it?” She asked with her head raised to me.
“Yeah,” I answered. And silence soon ensued, with her smile still spread across her face.
“I love you,” Liza said, and it rang a bell in my head. This was the first, and it took a lot of guts for her to say something like this to me. I felt my lips spread wide, grinning. Liza tucked her hair behind her ears, and her eyes made me feel the butterflies.
“I love you too, Liza.”
She smiled, revealing her perfect teeth. “But I have to let you know the truth.”
“What truth?”
“The truth of how things might not be easy for us. There’s a battle that’s coming, Liza, and it’s one that I don’t plan to run from. When it comes, you’ll have to make the choice of standing by my side or pledging allegiance to your father.”
She moved up closer to me and kissed me in a light manner.
“I’ll always choose you, Roman,” she said, and I sighed, though the words landed in my heart like the shock from a live wire.
She sounded sure, and her tone felt undeniably irreversible.
I couldn’t catch my breath any longer, my heart became fragile, and the feeling was nice.
The feeling of having someone open up to you in heart, soul, and body.
I touched her face after she spoke and traced the edge of her jaw with my thumb; her eyes closed in reception to my touch. Her posture toward me was a symbol of total submission.
I couldn’t help but think of the reality that, indeed, Liza was mine. I leaned in a little bit and kissed her back. The shift between us after that was subtle but absolute. She kissed me again, and this time, I felt whole because it was intentional.