14. Artem
Artem
“Ican’t believe you’re going,” I hear Max say in the next room over with Giselle after I hear heels coming down the stairs.
This woman is going to put me in an early grave. I walk myself over to the foyer and lay my eyes on her. Not only is she going after I told her how bad of an idea it is, but she’s going dressed like that.
“Why? It’s my family,” she says to him casually. As if her fucking cousin and uncle weren’t cast out of her family, but she won’t believe that for some reason.
When I approach her in the foyer, her head turns to me but she looks back down at her purse again to seem busy.
“I’m going,” she huffs, not looking at me directly.
“I know,” I say gently. I step closer, moving my hand to her neck to slide her necklace clasp to the back, feeling a shiver run down her at my touch. “I’ll go grab the keys then.”
She immediately grabs my arm. “What? You said you weren’t coming.”
“Yeah, well I’ve changed my mind,” I say as she releases my arm, and I can’t tell if she’s mad or relieved.
“You think he’d miss an opportunity to piss and mark his territory? After the last time he and Leo—” Max starts before I put my hand up to stop him from talking and she turns to me furrowing her brows.
“After you and Leo what?”
I pinch the bridge of my nose before I walk past Max and open the door. “Thanks,” I say as I look down into his face, as I walk out of the door and she follows.
Smug fucking bastard.
“Hello? Answer the question,” she says as she slams the car door after climbing into the passenger seat.
“You already knew I didn’t get along with your family,” I say vaguely as I start the engine.
“Yeah, and? I never knew you and Leo actually interacted anyway.”
“Leo isn’t exactly fucking subtle,” I say, trying not to show all the emotions I want to.
The last time I saw him eleven years ago, we were throwing punches outside of the country club. Roman and Caesar had to drag us apart, and all I saw as he was pulled back was his mouth open in a wide smile, his teeth covered in blood.
“So why the hell are you agreeing to go if you don’t like him?”
“Because I don’t trust him.”
She sighs as she crosses her leg, showing me more of her bare thigh in her tight ass dress.
“You better not cause any drama tonight,” she says as she attempts to shimmy her dress down as she sees me looking, rolling her eyes.
“Don’t hide yourself from me,” I coo, using my hand to rub the skirt back up as she slaps it.
“You better not be a fucking pervert either once we’re inside.”
“Then it’s acceptable until we go inside?” I ask as I put the car in park and lean toward her, trying to kiss her but she tries to push me away.
“You’re the worst,” she says, but I can already hear the tone change in her voice. I can see the way her lips part and her chest rises and falls slowly in anticipation of me.
“You’re the worst liar I know,” I whisper in her ear as I slowly slide my hand down her waist and unbuckle her seatbelt before I lean back into my seat to get out.
She huffs as she gets out, until we see Leo waiting outside standing by security.
“Ah, perfect!” He puts his arm out to hug Giselle and something about the smile on his face makes me want to break it again.
“Artem,” he says coyly, holding his hand out to me to shake it as if we’re letting bygones be bygones. I’ll pretend, for now. But I hope he knows it isn’t for him.
“Come in,” he gestures, and security moves out of his way as he escorts us inside.
To the left is more of a sit-down restaurant, with a stage against the wall. The upper levels have different bars and music, and he takes us all the way up to the fourth level.
She runs from my side to hug her brother, and I can’t help but roll my eyes. I’ve found Caesar to be more tolerable than Leo over the years, but only barely. After we exchange awkward pleasantries, we finally take a seat at a round booth and are greeted with glasses and champagne bottles.
“Wow this place is pretty nice,” Giselle mutters as she grabs the bottle to pour herself some.
“Yeah, I’ve been working on it for a while. Only opened a week or so ago officially but it’s gotten a lot of business already.”
Blah blah blah.
He goes on and on about how amazing he is and this place. Any rich person can throw money at someone and make a place like this. I’m only waiting for the other shoe to drop here.
“Well, Artem?” I hear when I’m pulled out of my thoughts and annoyance.
“I don’t think he’d want to do that,” Giselle says as she turns to me.
“I thought I’d offer anyway, Caesar is thinking about investing and maybe even becoming a partner.”
He fucking asked me if I wanted to invest in his ridiculously overpriced lounge?
“I don’t know about being partner still, I just became the Head and—”
“Yeah, yeah. But I could help with that too anyway. Family is always here to support each other.”
I can sense her tension immediately when Leo offers to help run the family. Then there is more she isn’t telling me, of course. Why wouldn’t there be?
“Caesar doesn’t need help with that anyway. If he did, he’d call me, right?”
When she asks, Caesar seems pleased to have her support, but I know he wouldn’t ask her. I also know that he knows her well enough to just nod and agree.
“Well Gigi, you must be busy yourself, aren’t you? I’m sure Artem is keeping you busy welcoming you,” he says, and I want to fucking jump across the table.
He thinks I don’t notice the way he quietly wars with me?
“I mean I know you’re probably not doing anything for the bratva right? They’ve always been a tight-knit bunch. Not open to outsiders.”
I can’t fathom why he’d say that to her. To hurt her? Humiliate her? He surely knows her well enough to know her situation losing to her brother. I know he knows about our arrangement.
“Actually, she’s going to be helping with some things.” I say impulsively, and his eyebrows raise. She quickly turns to face me—surprised by my words. Why did I just say that?
“Really? I didn’t think you’d involve my cousin in something so dangerous. I’m sure her father wouldn’t approve.”
“Great that her father isn’t here then, I’m the one who—”
“Ooookay let’s take a breather,” Caesar interrupts me before I can finish. Fucking pompous shithead.
Why do I hate him and her family so much?
It’s easy. They think they’re everything, just because they’re the largest family in New York.
As if it means they’re the strongest, or that other Families can’t take what they have.
They have influence but they’re not indestructible.
Yet all the men of the family have that fucking look to them, like they walk on water.
“Aren’t you and your father barred from the family?”
When I say this, she slaps my arm. But I know she noticed the way Leo paused.
Now I’m sure no one in her family knows. I thought it was just a rumor Roman heard, but it seems I pinched a real nerve.
“You don’t understand anything about my family or me,” he says lowly.
“Is someone going to fill me in what the fuck this is about?” Giselle asks and Caesar sighs.
Does he know the same rumor? Does everyone just keep her in the dark?
“The past is the past. I regret the fight my father and uncle had, and I was forced to pick my side in it. But we’re all older now, and we’re family. Family sticks together.”
It’s bullshit. I smell it a mile away.
“I’m going to take my wife to the bathroom,” I say as I start pushing her out of the booth.
“What? But I—” I give her a look and she furrows her brows but reluctantly goes along and we walk off.
“What’s your problem now?”
“He’s up to something. I feel it.”
She scoffs and stops walking. “You feel it, huh? You know what I feel? I feel like you’re pissed that we’re reconnecting because of your ten-year-old feud. Can’t you guys just get over it now? I want my family to reconnect, Artem.”
I feel for her. I do. I know though she pretends otherwise, but deep down she’s emotional and needs connection. But I can’t just let my wife walk into something blind.
“We can’t talk about it here,” I mutter and she stares daggers at me.
“Talk about what?”
“Later, unless you want to ruin your family time.”
She huffs and we walk back to the table.
She gets in the booth with Leo, and I can’t help but be lost in thought.
Roman said it’s not confirmed, it was mostly a misunderstanding.
Or that it was an attempt at framing them to weaken the family.
But I don’t think her father would have believed something without proof.
If he didn’t believe it, why cut them off from the family?
“I’m surprised you really came,” I turn and see Caesar leaning over the railing next to me.
“Well, Giselle tends to dive in headfirst without a lifeguard.”
He chuckles as he watches her sit and talk with Leo. “I trust Leo. Giselle was all worried too, but I’d never put her in harm’s way.”
“No? Then why hasn’t anyone told her about what happened to her mother?”
“That wasn’t true. It was—”
“Yeah, yeah. But neither of you saw her body after the crash supposedly happened.”
He stops for a moment to think and looks up. “Well, it was a bad accident. She couldn’t have an open casket.”
I sigh. Then he doesn’t really believe it. But he does know. “But she doesn’t know that it might’ve not been—”
“Stop, Artem. I get what you’re doing here but it isn’t true. I’d never tell Giselle something to make her upset when it isn’t even confirmed. It’s the same reason my father never told her.”
I don’t know why it bothers me that she’s left in the dark. All I want is to keep her there myself. But . . . death is complicated. I couldn’t bear the thought of not knowing the possibility of how my mother died.
“Please, Artem. She’s happy right now. She’s still in her bubble. You want her there too, don’t you?”
I do. But when is it too far? When do I decide that the woman I’ve come to know so well is capable of handling it?
“I love her. That’s why I don’t tell her everything. My dad is the same way. She . . . just deserves to live unburdened. She’s my baby sister and I can’t think about her constantly worrying. I know you agree.”
She deserves more than that.
The entire universe.
The role she always dreamed of.
A stand-up man who will treat her right.
All the luck and gold and happiness and stupid fucking rainbows the world can offer her.
But she gets none of it. Only me and my fucked-up life.
That, and the label of ‘too complicated to be told shit by her own family.’
He can say it whatever way he wants. He loves her, yes, but I know he and her father only want to keep her sated. Only he doesn’t realize how much they’ve fucked up by keeping her in the tiny bubble her whole life.
After another hour of forcing myself to not jump from the railing onto the first-floor dance floor, Giselle finally says goodbye to them.
“Until next time,” Leo mutters with a smug grin at me, and I turn.
“Jeez wait up,” she says behind me as we hit the outside air, and my ears can finally pop after all that noise inside. We get in the car and both sit quietly.
“Why are you acting like you’re going to tell me my goldfish died?”
My head tilts back against the headrest as I sigh.
“I’m conflicted. And I’m usually not conflicted.”
She tilts her head and turns her body trying to face me.
“About?”
“I’m torn between being a good husband or being a good protector.”
“Protector? Who the hell do you think you are anyway? If you’re asking me to choose one, I’d say stop being a pussy and tell me whatever you’re hiding.”
I laugh and let my head lift from the headrest.
She was only halfway right about the nickname I gave her not suiting her.
She’s right; she isn’t sunshine and butterflies. But whatever she does is light. She can make me laugh when I can’t imagine laughing.
She ignited a light inside of me that day on the roof; a beacon that shone the way out of the darkness of my grief that had been consuming me. I never thought a day would come that I’d laugh again after what happened.
I never thought a stubborn girl would give me so much damn motivation to live and let me bask in her rays.
They burn sometimes, but she’s so warm.
“Let’s go home first,” I say as I finally drive.
“You’re being weird and I hate it.”
“Leo rubs me the wrong way, and it isn’t just because I think he’s scum of the earth.”
“I guess I wasn’t honest either. Something happened when I saw him the other day.” My head turns to her for a moment before I turn back to the road.
“I don’t know, I might be insane but I heard him on the phone mentioning you and saying something like ‘Artem isn’t stupid enough to let that happen’.”
“You’re sure?”
“Well, I guess I don’t know the context . . . but I know what I heard. But maybe I’m overreacting because I was feeling all weird about him at first? That’s what Caesar thinks.”
I scoff and she pinches my arm.
“Don’t do that. Caesar is on my side.”
“Your brother is on everyone’s side. That’s why he isn’t good at protecting you.”
“Oh here we go again, why don’t you give it a rest? I don’t need you or anyone protecting me. I’m a big girl.”
That’s the problem. Maybe her father didn’t realize that when she grew up, she needed to be treated like it. If she was, maybe she’d stop arguing about everything and understand me better.
When we get back to the house it’s quiet, and she follows me to the den.
“Seriously, tell me whatever it is that’s making you act weird.”
“It’s about your mother.”
Her expression drops as she walks closer.
“What do you mean, Artem?”
“I didn’t know that you had no idea what really happened until the night I dropped you off at the hotel,” I say first.
“Artem stop giving me the pre-talk and just fucking say it, you’re scaring me.”
“Roman is sure your mother didn’t die in a car crash.”