Ivan
Lily is like a flower in the rain. Delicate, trembling, soft, and beautiful. Her skin is as pale as the moon, and her lips are flushed deep red with worry. They sit like puffy little pillows on her innocent face, and if I didn’t have such a strong respect for Dimitri, I’d be tempted to kiss her the moment we got to my house.
But I took an oath I can’t break, which makes Lily precious cargo. I can’t do anything that crosses that kind of line without express permission from her, which I doubt she’s going to give in the current circumstance.
I steal glances at her as I drive down familiar roads, wondering what’s going on in her pretty head. She’s not very happy about all this, but I can’t blame her for it. She’s lashed out at me several times already, attempting to defy me despite my obvious power.
She’s a little firecracker packed with more powder than she knows what to do with. I like that about her, though. Life is too short for boring people.
“May I ask where we’re going?” There’s still an edge of aggression in her voice, despite her polite phrasing.
“Home,” I reply, making another turn. “Everything will be explained there.”
“Your home?”
I nod. “The only safe place in a hundred miles of here.”
“Mine is safe,” she replies quickly.
I smile to myself, but it’s coupled with a deep sadness. She has no clue how dangerous her life has become, how naive her words are going to sound to her in a few short hours.
“We must go to my house. I will debrief you there,” I say, taking another turn. We’re on the final road, a long path of jet-black asphalt that winds through the trees. The further we go, the deeper and darker they become, but there’s a light at the end, glowing bright with the promise of safety – the front gate to my sprawling estate.
“Don’t freak out when you see guns,” I warn as we approach the gate.
“Guns?” she asks, her brown eyes growing cartoonishly large.
“A necessary evil, I can assure you.”
“No more shooting, please. There must be a better way to deal with this. We should’ve just called the police.”
I rub my fingertips across my damp forehead. I’m not used to such ignorance, especially not about the police. It almost makes me angry, but I know she doesn’t mean anything by it. Civilians tend to trust the police, especially when bad things are happening.
In this case, however, the police are the bad thing. She’ll understand that soon enough.
“Just stay calm and I’ll take care of things. Do you still have your phone?” I ask as we pull up to the gate.
“Yes,” she replies, pulling out a large glass rectangle in a sparkling red case.
I snatch it out of her hand, rolling down my window and flinging it onto the pavement before she can react.
“Hey! That’s my…” Lily falls silent as two of my men approach the car.
The pair are dressed in camouflage and holding heavy black rifles across their chests. It’s hardly the way most people want to be greeted when they come home, but for me, it’s the ideal situation. If they’re here, I know nothing happened while I was away. Not seeing men with guns outside would mean trouble in the gravest sense.
I roll down my window the rest of the way, leaning out and pointing at Lily’s phone. “Make sure you destroy that in a way where it can’t be tracked any longer. There was trouble at Dimitri’s funeral. More of the same shit from the Blue Boys.”
One of my guards scoops the phone from the pavement, turning it over to reveal a cracked screen. “They don’t make them like they used to.”
“Big enough for target practice, though,” I reply with a grin.
“What?!” Lily exclaims from inside the car.
I wave my hand dismissively. “I forgot to mention my guest. She’ll be staying here for the foreseeable future. Just make sure she doesn’t leave the premises without my permission.”
“Affirmative.”
“Thank you. That will be all.” I pull my head back into the car, rolling up the window as I’m met with furious silence from Lily. Her eyes are moody and dark, and there’s a deep crease of anger between them.
“What the hell was that for?” she asks.
I hold up my hand to silence her. “Remember who is in charge.”
She scoffs. “Brawn over brains, huh?”
“I’m capable of using both, but you seem to have neither.” I know it’s wrong, but I can’t help but to get her a little worked up. She’s pretty when she’s upset.
“I ought to slap you,” she says, “but I’m afraid you’ll attack me. You’re obviously not the good guy in this ordeal. You don’t want me calling the police, so you stole my phone. You don’t even want me to leave your property, which means you’re keeping me prisoner.”
I shrug. “So shut your pretty mouth if you think I’m the spawn of Satan, darling. It’s your only hope at this point.”
She glares at me for a moment, and I can see the cogs turning in her head. She’s probably thinking how easy it would be to jump out of the car and make a run for it, but we’re past the front gate now. My estate is surrounded by walls so high that even a giant wouldn’t be able to climb them.
Nobody comes in or out unless I want them to, and I’m not keen on letting Lily leave.
For her own good, she must stay, but she won’t understand that until we talk about her uncle Dimitri.
Then, she’ll understand.
Then, she’ll really be afraid.
It’s another minute before we reach the house, but Lily doesn’t say a word. She has shut down, her expression cold and calculating. I expect her to do something silly, but I’m already prepared for it.
I have handcuffs in my coat pocket if I need them, and I’m not beyond giving her a good spanking to keep her in check. I almost want her to keep pushing my limits so that I have an excuse to give her a good spank, but considering we just came back from a funeral, I doubt she’d take that well.
Instead, I park the car in my garage and walk calmly around it to open the door for her. “We should get you out of those wet clothes,” I say as she climbs out.
Her face turns from cold to sour. “You’re a pervert,” she snarls.
“I didn’t mean it that way,” I reply earnestly.
“Sure,” she grumbles, crossing her arms and standing in a sopping puddle in my garage.
I chuckle. “You look like a cat who just took an unwilling bath.”
“Unwilling is the right word,” she replies sharply.
“You’ll get over it,” I assure her, taking her by the shoulder and leading her inside. “You have access to everything you need here. I think you should take a shower and find something dry to wear before we have our discussion.”
“Why not now?” she asks, turning around sharply as we enter the lobby. “Why not explain what the hell just happened instead of keeping me here against my will?”
“I could explain it now, but it would take too much time and I’m just as uncomfortably wet as you are,” I say, pulling my coat off and hanging it on a hook by the door. It sags with so much water weight that it threatens to pull the hook out. “Here, let me take yours, too,” I say, holding out my hand.
Lily leans away from me, but gives in after a moment. I take her jacket and hang it on the hook beside mine, stepping back and wiping my palms on my wool trousers. Everything is wet and dirty, and I’m eager to get changed.
“Alright, let’s go. You can use the shower in the master bedroom.”
“I’ll pass,” she replies immediately.
I sigh. “Lily, you’re only drawing things out. The sooner you get cleaned up, the sooner we can have dinner and?—”
“Dinner?” she blurts. “I’m not here for pleasantries, Ivan. I’m here to learn about my uncle, and I’m starting to suspect you don’t actually know much about him.”
“On the contrary, Lily, I know everything about him.”
She gives me a suspicious look. “So, tell me. No dinner. I’ll take a shower and get changed, but then I want to know straight away.”
“After dinner.”
“Over dinner.”
“Deal,” I say with a smirk. “Let’s go upstairs. The knob in the shower is a little tricky, but the pressure is good, and the water stays hot.”
I can see the reluctance melting off her slender frame at the mention of a hot shower. With the adrenaline wearing off, and her joints starting to ache from exposure to the cold, convincing her to clean up and get comfortable won’t be difficult.
I just have to make sure she doesn’t try to escape once it’s my turn to wash the filth off my body.
I have a few ideas how I can achieve that…