Chapter 35
JULIUS
Rose is holding out on me. I saw it in her eyes, and I’m a man who sees through lies, and knows when someone isn’t offering the entire picture. Interrogation is a skill I mastered quickly, which is why I take great delight in using it in our family business.
I run the import and export side of which, in plain layman’s terms, is the drugs and arms side of it. I deal with vile men most of the time and have encountered many volatile situations. I am cruel, heartless and treat my enemies as they deserve, which is why I am in unfamiliar territory now.
Treating Rose so delicately has become a passion I never expected to thrive on.
She has made me a new man where it concerns her, and I am protective of this softer side of me.
It’s the balance I never realized I needed and if anything, it has made me into even more of a monster than I am already because I am sharpening my claws and preparing to fight her demons who appears to be female and is in Washington as we speak.
Dinner is at an intimate table laid for two in the dining room. The table has been set with candles, and they burn around us on every surface. Romantic for sure, and the food and wine is excellent, but for some reason it all leaves a bitter taste in my mouth.
It’s impersonal.
As if we are the king and queen in a vast banqueting hall with silent servants observing our majesty. Rose is being polite, but I can tell she is uncomfortable, and as we sit opposite one another, I make a face.
“What’s that for?” She giggles as I stand, grasping my plate of food and indicating she should do the same.
“Follow me.”
“Where are we going?”
She scurries after me, plate in hand, and I walk at speed toward a room better served for the occasion.
We soon reach the screening room, a more intimate space with huge comfortable chairs and dim lighting, facing a giant screen with a bar set to one side to provide refreshment.
“Make yourself comfortable; this is less formal.”
Her smile could light up any room, and the gratitude in her expression makes me feel like a comic book hero.
“This is perfect.”
She drops into a seat and tucks her feet up under her and places the plate on her lap with a satisfied smile.
“Much better.”
I grab her some water from the cooler behind the bar, which she accepts with a grateful smile.
“Your preferred drink of choice.”
I wink as I set my bottle of cool beer on the table beside the seat next to hers.
“What kind of movies do you like?”
“I don’t know.”
Her response causes me to hold the remote as if frozen.
“Well, what do you usually watch?”
“I don’t.”
Her sad smile ties my stomach in knots as I say carefully, “You mean you’ve never watched a movie.”
“Unless you count educational ones, then no, I haven’t.”
“What about kids’ programs or reality trash?”
“Not that I can remember.”
She shrugs, placing a forkful of food into her mouth, her face blushing under my scrutiny.
“What about games? Did you play them?”
“No.” She shakes her head miserably. “Anything competitive wasn’t allowed.”
“What was allowed?” I’m beginning to form a bleak picture of Rose’s childhood, and it breaks my heart.
“Music, study and reading.”
“Reading is good.”
She pulls a face. “Not the books we read. They were hard going and factual rather than fanciful. You see, Julius–”
She sighs as she pushes her plate to the side.
“Our father considered that the world was corrupt, and that began in filling our heads with fiction. He believed that it painted a view of reality that clouded the true nature of living. He dealt in facts, not fiction, and we were encouraged to learn rather than dream. Morgan, of course, loved the idea of that and reinforced his wishes at every opportunity. We were tested daily on what we were reading, any pictures we painted or sketched, and any needlework we created. Everything was criticized rather than encouraged, and so when she announced we were to attend boarding school when our father died, we couldn’t have been happier. ”
“I’m not surprised.”
My knives are sharpening for Morgan Sorcusi and Rose says sadly, “It merely followed us.
It was as if we were wearing black at an all-white party, standing out from the crowd, courtesy of our lack of knowledge of life.
We were considered freaks and treated that way, and for some reason the teachers were the worst. If anything, life got harder at Canton House, and so we decided to make a break and head to a place where we could be free.
“I don’t pretend to understand what you went through, but I can assure you of one thing now, baby girl.”
I fix her with a sincere smile. “You are free now. You are my wife, and I won’t pretend it will be easy, and in many ways, it is an extension of your childhood, but I promise to make your life with me a happy one.”
“It already is.” Her soft smile spears my heart and shatters it because Rose’s pain is now mine, and when I am hurt, I fight back—harder.
I turn to the screen and select a romantic comedy, which is not my usual choice of movie, but it’s not about me anymore. Rose deserves the fairytale, so call me her fairy godfather because if I do anything worthwhile in my life, it’s keeping that smile on her face.
One movie turns to two, and we share an easy silence and as we laugh along with the characters on the screen, Rose relaxes, and her happy smile is all I require.
However, my mind is not so relaxed as I plan one woman’s painful demise and my thoughts turn to her request to meet up with Rose.
I decided not to agree; Rose isn’t ready to meet her yet.
I want her to be strong and to have courage because I’m guessing that Morgan is a worthy opponent, whereas Rose is still an apprentice to the trade.
The next morning begins early for me, and I leave Rose sleeping after the best night’s sleep of my life.
The fact we are home had a lot to do with that, but it was also holding her soft body against mine, loving her small sighs and the scent of my woman beside me.
She will always be beside me, never anyone else.
Not now, not ever, and it’s my job to make her want to stay.
I head to the home gym where Eddie is already working out with the weights.
“Morning, boss.”
“Morning. Anything I need to know?”
I take the bench beside him and attach my weights, and he pushes up and nods, reaching for the water, draining the glass with relish.
“How long have you been here?” I raise my eyes, knowing that man never sleeps.
“Thirty minutes, but I ran for twenty of them.”
He jerks his head toward the treadmill, and knowing Eddie, it was set for a punishing workout.
He is the fittest man I know and the most powerful.
He is also a master strategist, a bastard with no emotion and a calculating mind that I admire.
Eddie is all about the business, and to my knowledge, he sleeps alone, preferring to screw whores in sex clubs for his physical needs, at the BDSM clubs we own.
“Morgan hasn’t moved from the Astoria. She had room service and never left her room all night.”
“Anything else?”
“No, but she has an interesting neighbor who, as it happens, has an adjoining room.”
“Not the penthouse?”
We share a look because I would have thought that a woman as rich as Morgan currently is, would demand the best. Not an adjoining room on the lower levels in a corridor along with many other rooms.
“No, which was her first mistake.”
Eddie rolls his eyes, and it causes me to smile because he is meticulous in his planning and will consider this sloppy.
“Who is it?”
“Raphael Demitri.”
I let his words sink in as my mind powers into overload.
“Fuck.”
“Houston, we have a problem.” Eddie says with a cunning smile and I must agree with him.
Raphael is the most evil bastard I have had the unfortunate pleasure of meeting on several occasions. I wouldn’t trust him with a puppy, let alone a woman like Morgan.
“So, they are working together, an item perhaps?”
“Working – an item is doubtful as Raphael prefers his conquests young and male.”
“Business then.”
My mind is racing because Raphael deals in people, and I wouldn’t have thought that was Morgan’s thing.
“Any intelligence on that?”
Eddie nods, wiping the sweat from his brow with a hand towel.
“Word on the street is Raphael is in the frame with the authorities. His usual payoffs have been replaced with a department that is made up of officials who aren’t as open to corruption.
Career-minded individuals who are intent on bringing him down and the heat is intense, causing him to abandon his operation until he discovers a hold on his aggressors. ”
“Will he find any?”
I’m aware that Raphael uses intimidation to control and if the officials have any skeletons they wish to hide, he will expose them and use them against his persecutors. He hasn’t survived this long in the jungle without knowing how it works, and this will be a temporary blip on his radar.
“So, he’s working on something with Morgan.”
“It appears so. An anonymous hotel room with a connecting door gives them the perfect opportunity to hold a business meeting in private.”
“Do you think it involves the sisters?”
I can only believe that’s the reason they’re meeting because Raphael is just the kind of man to seize the opportunity and one third of the fortune. It may even make his retirement more profitable than his occupation, and my heart freezes at the thought of that monster near any one of the girls.
“I do. It’s too much of a coincidence, so the meeting should be an interesting one if you agree to it happening.”
He makes a valid point because the only way we will discover her plans is if Rose meets with the woman herself, but my main concern remains. Is Rose strong enough?