Chapter Eleven #2
“I never wanted my dad’s fame and power to be the highlight of my life.
I tried, I really tried to live the senator’s daughter, but…
it’s not me. It’s an unchangeable fact. I’m not the girl who live streams luxury shopping trips or dresses loudly to make statements.
And I can’t ever be. I learnt that since I was just a teenager. ”
His unfaltering gaze seemed to spur me on without words, so I went on.
“My dad couldn’t understand why his only child would rather stay locked in her room instead of talking about the latest high-fashion trends with the children of his political allies whenever they came to the house with their parents.
He had a major problem with my dislike of accompanying him to prestigious balls and galas.
But, I guess he liked that I was always doing okay on my own while he traveled around for work, so he couldn’t complain much. Eventually, he got used to it.”
“Did he ever ask you why?”
“Hm, nope,” I answered, shrugging. “He insisted on me attending classes from home when I got into college. Then he considered yielding to my preference, and I refused to let him find me an apartment.”
“One step forward, two steps back?”
“Exactly,” I agreed. “Anyway, he ended up letting me do what I wanted. And that was how I moved out and into my apartment. It was the second semester in my first year.”
“Why?”
I blinked, trying to decipher what he was asking about and the meaningful look he gave me.
Then I knew what he meant. I didn’t know how I did, I just knew that I did.
“I’m happy with a private life, not a public one. I like it when I enter a room, and nothing is stirred up, you know?”
“That’ll be a room full of blind people,” he remarked casually.
“Stop it,” I playfully answered, chuckling.
“It’s the truth. I would stir if you walked into a room I was in, and I’m not the most expressive man.”
I gave an exaggerated sigh.
“Sorry. Go on.”
“I prefer simple things. Not cheap or tacky, just simple. I mean, I’m not averse to being admired or even shown off. I wouldn’t want to be shown love only in private. But I would hate for the only thing that can be deduced from my presence to be attention. I believe there’s more to life than that.”
“That’s a wholesome perspective. Not something you hear from a pretty 21-year-old woman,” he remarked. “I’m impressed.”
“Twenty-one, huh?”
“Your age was a part of the information collated about you,” he disclosed coolly.
“I don’t know your age,” I stated.
“Of course, you’re not the mafia boss who had his men gather information about a college student.”
“Don’t…say it like that.”
“That’s who I am.”
“You could just tell me,” I prompted.
“I’m old. Too old. I already crossed the 40 threshold,” he revealed, sighing.
“I would have thought you were in your thirties. You don’t look 40,” I uttered before I could pause to think.
He gave me a half-smile as he said, “I’m over 40.”
“Just tell me,” I whined, half-rolling my eyes.
“Moy zaychik,” he uttered, his voice a soundless murmur. “I’m 41.”
“What does that mean? Is it Russian?”
“My little bunny,” he divulged, his heated gaze immediately warming me up.
“A bunny? Of all things?” I asked with a chuckle, desperately trying to lighten the mood.
“Rabbits are lovely. They’re innocent and totally adorable. My favorite animals.”
“Really?”
“Hm-mm,” he answered with a nod. “Let’s not eat cold food, Mrs. Lobanov.”
I sighed, turning away from him.
I didn’t look in his direction until after I’d emptied my small white round plate.
“So, when I said eating here was my main reason for coming here, I wasn’t being totally truthful,” he revealed.
“Oh?” I uttered, placing my almost-empty glass of water back in the tray.
“Yes.”
He put his empty plate on mine and bent to reach for something at the corner beside him on the sofa. It was a small box.
“I came to give you this,” he disclosed, handing the box to me.
I stared at the image on the white rectangular box.
“A phone?”
“Work keeps me out for long hours. Having a medium of direct communication is crucial; not all messages are appropriate for my men to deliver,” he explained, chuckling. “Yours was destroyed before you even got here. It’s only right for me to get you another phone.”
“Thank you. I’m just surprised. Are you not supposed to make sure I can’t reach anyone out there?”
“The person I had in mind when I got it isn’t the captive who tried to run away from me; it’s the wife I’m beginning to learn to trust.”
My right hand came over my chest.
“Viktor,” I called, my tone low. “That’s sweet. Thank you.”
“You never have to thank me. Open it,” he said, gesturing to the box on my lap.
I opened the box and brought out the sleek rose-gold phone.
“You didn’t have to buy the latest model,” I mentioned as I switched the phone on.
“I totally had to,” he disagreed. “All my lines are programmed into it, alongside a location tracker.”
“Oh..”
“For security reasons.”
“Okay,” I answered with a smile. “And do you have my number, too?”
“Of course.”
I nodded, my smile not quite absent yet.
“Isabella mentioned that she’ll be dropping by later today,” he informed.
“Oh. I’d love to see her.”
“I can only hope this budding friendship doesn’t work against me,” he muttered, a playful smirk on his face.
I giggled as he stood from the sofa.
“I have to be at the office.”
“Okay. See you later, then,” I greeted, craning my neck to smile up at him.
He didn’t move for a second. Then he was bending towards me, his hand digging into the leather by my side.
His lips landed on mine in a noisy smooch before I could say, ‘Jack.’
“That’s the real reason I came,” he revealed, his eyes boring into mine.
Then his lips claimed mine again, making my eyes fall shut as I savored the sensation of his lips and the strong smell of him. His lips closed over my lower lip for a moment before he moved to my upper lip. Just when he swept his tongue over my lower lip, he broke the kiss.
“See you later,” he uttered, his lips still almost touching mine.
The lust swirling in his eyes was unmistakable.
“Later,” I breathed.
He picked the tray up and went for the door.
“And, thank you,” I called after him.
“Don’t tempt me to come back,” he warned, his thick voice matching his gaze.
Maybe I want you to.
“Bye,” I whispered.
He nodded and turned around again.
I sighed as he stepped out of the room.
What is going on?
Is this Stockholm syndrome?
****************
“Of course, I can see you’re good,” Isabella enthused. “And, what about that icy husband of yours?”
“That title still takes some getting used to,” I divulged.
“Hmm,” she murmured, a dubious look on her face. “You seem less hesitant about it. You wore an impenetrable frown the last time we talked about Viktor.”
“I can’t say I haven’t been adapting,” I admitted.
“Ah, you have,” she drawled, her smile widening.
Isabella and I were lounging in the sitting room on Viktor’s floor early on Thursday afternoon. She had called Dimitri, asking him to tell me she could no longer make it on Monday.
The fresh pastries she brought sat on a glass stool in front of the sofa we occupied.
“If Viktors says so himself,” I dropped.
“Tell me about it. I don’t want sneak peeks,” she prompted.
“I found this folder with pictures of me in the bedroom, and I went straight to his home office when one of his men told me he was there. I was so shocked and angry. Threw the door open, asked the men he was having a meeting with to excuse us.”
Her eyes dilated a fraction in surprise.
“He said I was already acting like a Bratva queen.”
“Of course. The audacity,” she remarked. “I bet you turned the heat up right there and then.”
“Don’t know about that,” I answered, taking another roll, which I had no idea what it consisted of.
“Men find guts sexy in a woman, I tell you,” she disclosed, her expression becoming more serious. “And if you want to survive in this world, you have to stop looking like prey.”
“You’re the Pakhan’s wife, you’re up there with Viktor in the hierarchy. What that means is that everyone below and beside the ladder is looking at you. They want to see if you should be respected or tossed aside.”
“Well, considering that I don’t have shooting skills and…”
“You don’t need to learn to fight. Those are skills that the capos under your husband need in order to protect you.
Even if you know your way around guns, you wouldn’t need to use them.
It’s not expected of you as the number one woman,” she clarified.
“You just need to wear your authority. Walk and talk like you own the place, because you do. I know you’re not the type to be rude or mean to people, and that’s good.
But you mustn’t cower away from standing beside your husband, literally and figuratively. ”
I nodded in understanding as she let her words sink in.
“And that’s another giveaway,” she informed, wagging her forefinger at me.
“What?”
“You seem to be giving my words serious thought. Tells me you’re beginning to see your place with Viktor.”
“I…I don’t know…it’s…” I babbled.
“Ooh, I leave you for how many weeks and you’re already falling for your Pakhan husband,” she squealed.
Am I falling for him?
If one thing was true, it was that I’d been thinking about Viktor a lot in recent times. Okay, for several days. Since I started seeing the softer side of him. The side I was beginning to care for.
Is that love?
I couldn’t hold my smile in as I told her, “I don’t know yet, okay? We’re just…getting to know each other.”
“And that exploration includes something around physical knowing, hm?”
If I was embarrassed before, I was now mortified. My eyelids dropped to the floor as images of my body quivering beneath Viktor’s flooded my mind.
Isabella’s laughter made me wish I were invisible, just for a minute.
“Oh my God, you’ve turned scarlet. Was it good?” she rushed. “I have to know!”
“I’m sure he’s popular with the girls,” I answered. “So you must know all about it, you’ve known him for a long time.”
Her expression went a full 180 degrees; she was all serious again.
She shook her head side to side as she said, “No. Viktor isn’t a playboy.
He doesn’t fraternize with women. We hardly ever see him with women except at corporate events, where it’s necessary to attend with a partner.
Even then, it was always clear he was in the category who arranged for women just to accompany them- there was always no chemistry. ”
“Oh?”
“Do you know why we were all stunned when we heard he got married in haste?”
I shook my head no.
“There was a rumor that he might be gay!” she revealed, laughing.
“Wow,” I commented, giggling.
“So, sharing your husband with other women isn’t one of your worries, unlike most of the other mafia wives,” she stated.
“Are men in this…world known to be polygamous?” I asked out of sheer curiosity.
“Not exactly polygamous. It’s more like,” she started, sitting up.
“They marry a woman that everyone knows to be the number one, and then have mistresses here and there. But the legally married wife’s child is the heir; it cannot be contested.
And then there are other shorter-term mistresses in the different parts of the whole where they travel for business. ”
“That’s not fun.”
“Tell me about it,” she answered, chuckling.
“What else is there to know about being a mob boss’ wife?” I dared to ask.
“Just like in any other form of organization, women are targeted more often. Actually, they are bigger targets than in any other world. Being a mafia boss’ wife is both a shield and a cage.”
“A form of protection and a pawn,” I mentioned.
“Yes,” she dropped, emphasizing her response with a nod. “But Viktor will protect you with all that he has. He’s that kind of man.”
**************
As I sat in the garden later that evening, I ruminated on what Isabella and I had discussed.
There was no shaking the truth in the not-so-pleasant conclusion.
I’m Viktor’s bride and also a pawn in the Bratva game.
“There you are.”
Viktor’s voice cut through my thoughts, and I turned around to face him, my arms still folded below my chest.
“Am I ever going to be more than leverage to you?” I spat.
The look of surprise on his face disappeared before I could analyze it.
“You already are,” was his cryptic response as he came closer.
“Is something wrong?” he asked, the concern in his eyes as he grabbed my arms, punching a hole in the bag of hostility I had been holding on to.
“Your question doesn’t surprise me, given the circumstances surrounding our union,” he revealed, his hands rubbing the length of my upper arms like it was a reflex. “But, on the other hand, I’m surprised you felt the need to ask me that.”
He lifted my chin, his eyes holding mine captive.
“It’s no longer about the debt. It hasn’t been for a while. I told you, I wouldn’t let you go even if your father pays his debts off.”
“I guess I just…” I sighed, not quite sure of the right word. “I just got overwhelmed by my new position in this world.”
“It’s a whole new world, I can only imagine how difficult it is.”
“But you make it easier, really. It’s just,” I explained. “I found myself thinking of how everyone now knows I’m your wife and-”
A gunshot cracked through the air, interrupting us.
Viktor’s body was wrapped around mine before I could see where the danger was coming from.
The back door was thrown open as men rushed towards us.
“It was a breach attempt, boss,” one of them informed. “It’s safer inside.”
Viktor silently led me inside through the curtain of men.
Oh, shit.