Chapter 10 Roman
ROMAN
Another night in the can… and I’m no closer to regarding Ember as just a manager than I was a week ago.
I thought I’d be over it by now. I thought I’d be content with getting a rise out of her by throwing a flirty gesture every now and then. But I’m not. Not at all. Maybe it’s the ten-year hiatus from anything real messing with me.
In my quiet moments, I imagine my tongue on her clit again or I think about being inside her, her hands in my hair, her moans in my ear. Tonight, anytime she walked out onto the floor for one reason or another, my eyes were on her. She’s an addictive beauty.
The worst thing about all of it is that I know she’s right. What happened last week shouldn’t have happened at all. Not because of anything having to do with the job, but more because…
She’s not from my world. There’s a light that shines all around her, from within her.
It’s the kind of thing you see in everyday people at the supermarket or just out in the wild.
She’s shopping centers on Saturdays and grocery stores on Sundays.
One day, she’ll be driving a minivan with a bunch of kids.
Her husband will be some balding man with a dad bod who religiously watches football every week.
There’s nothing wrong with being that. In a lot of ways, I wish I were that. But it’s like she’s from another planet when I compare it to my existence.
The bottom line is Bratva don’t usually date women outside their circle, and for good reason. We tend to drag people like her into the darkness with us.
The car stops, bringing me out of my thoughts. My driver puts the car in park and gets out to open my door. I’m home.
I get out of the car and suddenly, I can feel the late hour in my bones. It’s three in the morning. In three hours, Sasha will be up and expecting breakfast. I’ve been making it my business to make sure that food is ready for her when she comes down in the morning.
“Good night, Mr. Orlov,” my driver says as I pass him by. I acknowledge him with a nod and make my way up the stairs and into my house. I close the door behind me and take two steps forward… and I hear it.
It’s a thump from somewhere upstairs. I freeze and look over at the staircase. A few seconds later, another thump, followed by a scuffling noise. Sasha is probably asleep at this hour. What the hell am I hearing?
I walk up the stairs, my hand on my gun. In my mind, I keep thinking about my brother’s warning about Sergei Durov. At the time, I brushed it off, but it’s been in the back of my mind since he mentioned it. Some potential somebody coming for me is always somewhere in my periphery.
I hear the sound again as I reach the landing. I turn my head as I realize it’s coming from near Sasha’s room. Shit…
I creep forward, being careful not to step on any of the loosened boards under my feet. The closer I get to Sasha’s room, the more noise I’m hearing. Rustling, lots of movement… and the muffled sound of low talking. I pull the gun out of my holster.
I get to the door and fling it open, turning the light on. It takes about half a second for my brain to process what I’m seeing. The blankets, lumps underneath, two pairs of feet at the foot of the bed.
Two heads pop up. My daughter, her curls mussed and her eyes wide… and a boy with hair so short his scalp is visible.
They look at me with terror and freeze. It’s like a moment in time has been stopped just so that my mind can catch up.
My teenage daughter has a fucking boy in her bed.
“Dad,” she says, “I can expl—”
And I’m moving. I stalk around the bed and grab the boy by the back of the neck, yanking him out and throwing him to the floor. Sasha screams as I aim my gun at his head.
“M–Mr. Orlov!” the boy cries out. He’s not wearing anything but a pair of boxer shorts. I should blast his brains all over the carpet.
“Daddy!” I feel the weight of her body as she grabs my shoulders. “Please, don’t kill him!”
It takes me a second for my senses to come back. Looking at this kid, shaking in his shoes, his bottom lip quivering and tears in his eyes. He can’t be too much older than Sasha is. Skinny bird chest, and thin legs and arms. The longer I look at him, the more like a baby he appears to me.
I holster my gun. “Get the fuck out of here.” He stares, shaking like a leaf on my daughter’s bedroom floor. “NOW!”
He jumps up and scrambles to his feet, grabbing his clothes as he runs out of the room.
“Paulie, wait!” Sasha says. I turn just in time to see her jump off the bed to run after him.
I intercept her, grabbing her by the arm and pushing her onto the bed.
A second later, I hear the door open and shut somewhere downstairs.
I’ll bet his feet didn’t touch the floor from here to the front door.
“Dad, why did you do that? Now he’s never going to talk to me again!”
“GOOD!” I bark. She jumps and her mouth snaps shut. Her big brown eyes stare up at me fearfully. “You were up here in bed with a boy, Sasha! Have you lost your fucking mind?”
“Daddy, I know how it looks, but… but I love—”
“Don’t you dare,” I growl at her. “If you tell me you love that little turd, I’ll throw you out of here myself.”
She whimpers as she shuts her mouth again. Looking at her, a million fears are bubbling to the surface. This is not the child I raised.
“So, is this it?” I say. “You fucking now?”
She opens her mouth shakily, then closes it again. She shakes her head.
I glance down at her clothes. She’s in her tank top and pajama bottoms. Pretty much fully clothed. Especially in comparison to ‘Paulie’. I believe her, but if for any reason I’d have been any later tonight…
I can’t deal with this. All I want to do is put my fist through a wall. Or go chase that little shit down and break his skinny little legs.
“I don’t know what you think you are doing, Sasha,” I say. “You are fifteen years old.”
“To be fair, a lot of kids my age are having sex—”
“A lot of kids are on their way to boarding school this year. You want to join them?”
Her eyes get as large as saucers. Shock. Then she stands up and says, “You wouldn’t dare.”
“Hey, it’s either that or keep a guard here overnight while I’m at work. Do I need to have your uncle come over and patrol the house at night to make sure you don’t turn into some whore?”
The tears well up as she yells, “Don’t talk about me like that! I am not a whore!”
“Then stop doing whorish things, Sasha!”
That hurt her and at this moment, I don’t care. She needs somebody to hurt her to keep her from doing this ever again.
“You’re a fucking monster,” she sobs. “Mom would never—”
My hand flies on its own, poised to backhand her across the face. She flinches, closing her eyes and throwing up her hands to protect herself.
Shit. Almost lost it there. I take a half-step back from her. “You’re grounded. No screen time and no going anywhere other than home and school for a month.”
“A month?”
“Wanna try for two?”
We stare each other down before she finally looks down at her shoes, the tears dripping from her face.
“Go to bed,” I say and walk out.
I can’t believe her. She comes home from camp and all of a sudden, she thinks she can just fuck guys in the house and…
I need to calm down. Hell, maybe I should make good on getting my guys to start patrolling the house at night. The last thing I need is for Sasha to suddenly start acting out on me.
I go downstairs to my kitchen and make myself a drink. I’ve never really had a guarded presence at the house unless we were at war. I know other Bratva do it for their own safety, but I’ve always thought it was too paranoid for my tastes.
But if I did have somebody here at night, either way, this shit wouldn’t have happened. I would imagine an armed guard is a great deterrent for a teenage boy to sneak over the gates to fuck your daughter.
I stand over the sink and sip the glass of vodka I just poured. When did this whole parenting thing get so complicated, anyway? I could easily have killed that kid and buried him in my backyard. No one would have thought much of it if I did.
Except for Sasha. She’ll eventually forgive me for grounding her, but she’d never forgive me for actually hurting that little bird-chested bastard.
My glass is already half empty and the burning warmth is starting to work on my agitated state of mind. My kid is growing up on me. It’s too soon.
I catch movement outside, in the woods just beyond the gates of my property. The trees move in the darkness and suddenly, the hairs on the back of my neck stand at attention.
And I see a silhouette, moving in and out of the light. I see dirty blue jeans and a dark hoodie…
I put my glass down in the sink and rush to the back door, opening it with my hand on the hilt of my gun. By the time I get there, the figure’s gone and the trees are swaying in the breeze.
Did I imagine something? I don’t think so. Somebody was out there watching my house.
I stand for a few minutes, surveying the perimeter of my back yard. Waiting for… for anything. Make yourself known, I think. Don’t be a pussy, come on out. I could use somebody to take some of this anger out on.
There’s nothing. The cool night is calm and quiet. There’s nothing out there for miles and miles.
I walk back into the house and lock the door behind me. First light, I’m going to call Ares and have him bring a few others to survey the surroundings. Whoever it was, they’d better have been reconsidering jumping my fence.